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A silver kylix from the central burial of the Solokha Barrow (excavations by Nikolai Veselovsky 1912) dated by the late 5th century BC is practically the only one of its kind in Northern Black Sea region, except several components (two handles and the ring-shaped base) of a silver kylix from Baby Barrow (excavations by Dmitry Evarnickii 1897, first time published). Solokha’s kylix finds the nearest analogs among silver kylixes of the second half of the 5th century BC widespread mainly in Thrace (by form), and among not numerous red-figured Attic vessels and numismatic findings from the Western Black Sea region (by decoration, i.e. a wheel with four spokes).
It is difficult to establish a place of its production (while for the main number of other kylixes, the Attic origin is most often suggested), and time of production can be attributed to 430—425 BC. The vessel possibly belonged to one of the family members of the Scythian king Ariapithes, may be to his younger son Oricus (Herod. IV, 80), whose name could mean ‘wolf’ < Scythian *varka, and the inscription ΛΥΚΟ (< Λύκος ‘wolf’) on the top of kylix is only Greek translation of his Scythian name.

Keywords: North Black Sea region, Scythia, Thrace, Scythian Kings and “Royal” barrows, chronology, silver kylixes, inscriptions.

Information about author:

Andrei Alekseev (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. State Hermitage Museum. Dvortsovaya Emb., 34, Saint Petersburg, 190000, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]