Excavations at Kelermessk barrows (group of rich burial sites VI century BC Giaginsky district, Adygeya. AR Krasnodar Krai, Russia) brought one of the biggest discoveries of mankind – a molten silver mirror with a diameter of 17 sm. One side of it was polished out and the other was covered with electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) leaf and decorated with embossed images.
The mirror was divided into eight equal sectors, at each of them one can see a variety of mythological characters. It was sent to the Imperial Archaeological Commission together with other findings and is now in the Gold Room of the Hermitage.
Scythian mirror is completely covered with a complex of sacred symbols.
– The first sector is decorated with two lions standing above a ram.
– A winged goddess Cybele is depicted in the second sector .
– Third sector tells us about the struggle of a lion with a bull below which there is a dog or a wolf
– The fourth sector shows two winged lions with human heads – Sphinxes.
– The fifth sector is decorated with a lion standing on a lying one.
– Six sectors are two identical pieces that hold the winged lion.
– The animal looking like a bear is shown in the seventh sector. There is a predatory bird at the head of the bear and dog at its feet.
– Eighth sector is the last one. It depicts two winged lions with human heads and below them there is a lion with the head of a predatory bird.
Images of rams, lions, bulls and twins on the Scythian circle show the connection of sacred events with zodiac constellations of Leo, Aries, Taurus and Gemini, other images are symbols of Osiris, Isis and Horus. The whole symbolism of the Scythian circle is close to common sacred signs.
