Sarmatian Burial Discovered in Older Burial Mound in Ukraine

KHERSON, UKRAINE—A Sarmatian grave dated to between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. was unearthed in a Bronze Age burial mound in Ukraine near the Sea of Azov, according to a report in La Brújula Verde. After hundreds of years of plowing, the mound, which was built by the Yamnaya culture, stood just four feet tall and had spread to about 130 feet wide. Yurii Boltryk and Olena Fialko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine report that the Sarmatian man had been buried in the Yamnaya mound some 2,000 years after its original construction. The man's body rested on bedding thought to have been made of tree bark with his head pointed to the northwest, a practice linked to the nomadic Roxolani tribe. A leg of lamb and a lamb shoulder blade had been placed across his legs, while an iron dagger measuring about 18 inches long was found at his side. A clay jug with a single handle and a tall neck was also recovered from the burial. Similar vessels have been found at other Sarmatian sites, the researchers explained. To read about the remains of a Sarmatian man found far from home in Cambridgeshire, England, go to "Ancient DNA Revolution: A Stranger in a Strange Land."