The first part of the article is devoted to the publication of two silver vessels – examples of Hellenistic toreutics found in a closed archaeological complex in a royal burial of the early Sarmatian period. The burial mound is located in the Lower Volga region, on the left bank of the Volga River in the Volgograd region. The main burial, located in the center, was robbed; peripheral intact burials were let into the mound within one or two years later. The bodies were in coffins in deep undercut graves surrounded by the richest grave goods, consisting of gold and silver jewelry, metal vessels and weapons. The burials can be dated to the late 2nd – early 1st centuries BC. The composition of the silver vessels was studied using X-ray diffraction and SEM-EDS methods; the isotopic composition of Pb in the silver was also analyzed. Both vessels were made of silver of 960–980 assay value; traces of different solders were recorded both in the attachment technique used for individual elements of the vessels and during repairs. The surfaces were gilded without any traces of mercury. Evidently, the gilding was performed by the diffusion of silver and gold under heating. Analysis of the Pb isotope composition showed the Lavrion origin of silver of both vessels, where active mining occurred until the 2nd–1st centuries BC. Individual vessel elements were made of silver from other deposits located in the Eastern Mediterranean region (the islands of Euboea, Sifnos), where the peak of mining occurred in the 2nd–1st centuries BC.
Olga A. Shinkar (Wed,) studied this question.