Decorative amulets were found by archaeologists in the mound of the village of Vysochino, Rostov region, in 1985.

The first pendant is made in the shape of a human hand with slightly bent fingers. The palm is decorated with a pink coral insert in a golden nest. For ancient peoples, a hand-shaped amulet had both a ritual and a magical meaning. Different ethnic groups considered the raised right palm with the fingers extended forward as a sign of patronage and protection. Such a palm personified the idea of activity and domination. The Scythians and the Sarmatians also attached special importance to this symbol. Palm-shaped or hand-shaped amulets were common among them.

The second pendant is in the shape of a bow with a taut bow string and an arrow. The decoration is made of thin gold plates. The flattened ends of the bow string are decorated with pale blue enamel inserts.

Both pendants were part of a necklace adorned with six gold pendants and eleven small gold beads. The necklace also included 48 beads made of various materials: crystal, carnelian, chalcedony, amber, coral and glass. Two gold pendants in the shape of a hand and a bow were located in the center of the jewelry.

The mound, where the precious pendants were found, was built over the only burial of the late Sarmatian time. Scientists have also discovered artifacts associated with a funeral feast, in honor of the deceased: fragments of the walls of amphoras and stucco vessels as well as small bone fragments of ram’s limbs. In the central part they found a hole the robbers left. Even despite the fact that the mound had been robbed, a lot of precious antiques still remained there.

The mound construction over the only burial, the memorial rite artifacts, the gold jewelry and the amulets found there indicate a high social status of the buried woman aged 25-30 years old. The pendants and the beads that were part of the necklace were found in the area of her chest, at the level of the clavicles and under the cervical vertebrae. The scientists failed to restore the exact arrangement of the beads and the other jewelry.