Bone flacon with a gold cap was found in the village of Vysochino, Rostov region, in 1978. The jewelry technique of the ancient work of art is notable for a high level of skill. The small ball-shaped vessel is carved in ivory. The flacon has a straight high neck and a few hanging hinges. Two of them were located right on the body of the bone vessel. The ancient master soldered the bronze fasteners onto small flat plates. Only one of those hinges has survived to this day.
Another pair of suspension eyes is still on the gold cap with a spherical cover. It is crowned with a collet with a blue glass insert. The upper and lower edges of the cap are decorated: the master smoldered stripes of double gold-woven rope on them. The hinges aren’t smooth — they’re made of ribbed three-part cylinders. When the bottle was to be worn around the neck, a cord was first put into the bronze clips and then into the loops on the cap. Due to the diameter difference, the cap was pressed against the neck of the flacon.
Flacons with a smooth surface and similar decor — inserts made of glass and semiprecious metals and filigree ornament in the form of braids — are items made in the workshops of the Northern Black Sea region. Apparently, small bronze bottles were used to preserve the incense, and very rarely silver and gold bottles were used.
A bone pendant bottle with a gold cap was found in a ravaged tomb of a Sarmatian woman. With it many items made of precious metals were found — 42 gold plaques, a gold earring.
A bottle with a gold cap was complemented by two stucco vessels. In the center of the grave, under the decking, archaeologists found a miniature round-bottom vessel with a high neck, and a spherical vessel with a bottom slightly shifted aside. Probably certain substances were kept in them — medical drugs or poisons. The small size of the vessels, their shape and the presence in the grave of a pendant bone bottle with a gold cap suggest that the woman not only held a high status in Sarmatian society, but also might have been a healer.
Another pair of suspension eyes is still on the gold cap with a spherical cover. It is crowned with a collet with a blue glass insert. The upper and lower edges of the cap are decorated: the master smoldered stripes of double gold-woven rope on them. The hinges aren’t smooth — they’re made of ribbed three-part cylinders. When the bottle was to be worn around the neck, a cord was first put into the bronze clips and then into the loops on the cap. Due to the diameter difference, the cap was pressed against the neck of the flacon.
Flacons with a smooth surface and similar decor — inserts made of glass and semiprecious metals and filigree ornament in the form of braids — are items made in the workshops of the Northern Black Sea region. Apparently, small bronze bottles were used to preserve the incense, and very rarely silver and gold bottles were used.
A bone pendant bottle with a gold cap was found in a ravaged tomb of a Sarmatian woman. With it many items made of precious metals were found — 42 gold plaques, a gold earring.
A bottle with a gold cap was complemented by two stucco vessels. In the center of the grave, under the decking, archaeologists found a miniature round-bottom vessel with a high neck, and a spherical vessel with a bottom slightly shifted aside. Probably certain substances were kept in them — medical drugs or poisons. The small size of the vessels, their shape and the presence in the grave of a pendant bone bottle with a gold cap suggest that the woman not only held a high status in Sarmatian society, but also might have been a healer.
