The Scythian Gold Pectoral
The gold pectoral from the Tovsta Mohyla kurgan, fourth century BC, worked in three registers of domestic life, plants and animals in combat.
Scythian burial mounds hold some of the finest goldwork of the ancient world, made largely by Greek craftsmen for nomadic patrons who had no cities and left no written literature. The pectoral's inner register shows herders and lambs; the outer shows griffins tearing at horses. What we know of Scythian belief comes almost entirely from objects like this, read against what outsiders such as Herodotus chose to record. Read the full story in our article on Gold of the Dead: Inside the Royal Kurgans of the Scythians.
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