A Maeotian Warrior’s Burial in Southern Russia Held Gold Coins, a Sacrificed Horse and a Cup Engraved With a Pentagram

Archaeologists report a burial of an elite Maeotian warrior from the early first century BCE at Vinogradny 1, a necropolis of more than 150 graves in the Kuban region of southern Russia, near Krasnodar. Mikhail Abramzon of the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences published the study in Russian Archaeology in September 2026. This post follows the Live Science report of 14 October 2026 and does not draw on the full study.

How the burial was dated

The date rests mainly on two gold coins, Greek-style staters that show Alexander the Great. According to the report, experts determined they were minted during the later reign of Mithridates Eupator, who ruled from 135 to 63 BCE. The portraits on the coins were designed to resemble Mithridates as well. The report gives no radiocarbon date.

The warrior and his grave goods

The researchers judge the man was an elite member of the Indigenous Maeotian people because of his central grave position and the style of burial. He lay with two iron spearheads, an iron arrowhead, riding gear and a sacrificed horse. He also had a rare glass alabastron, a small vessel for oil or perfume, that was probably imported from Cyprus or the Levant. One gold coin lay beneath the jaw, which the researchers read as Charon’s obol, a payment for the ferryman of the dead. The report is inconsistent here, because a caption says the coin was placed on the tongue. The second coin came from a ritual shaft, where it was likely an offering to the gods. The researchers say the coins were probably stores of prestige wealth and “likely not money in the conventional sense.”

Animal burials and a possible human sacrifice

A neighboring assemblage held the remains of three horses, two cattle, a pig and a dog. It also held a fragment of a human pelvis that “seems to have come from a sacrificed person.” That is the only evidence for a human sacrifice, so it remains a possibility and not an established fact. The person’s role is unknown, and the report suggests it may have been to serve the warrior. The researchers offer several readings of the animals: the cattle may be a hecatomb, a mass offering to a god, the horses were for riding in the afterlife, the pig for eating there and the dog possibly to guide the warrior’s spirit. These are interpretations, not findings.

A cup against magical threats

Among the finds was a two-handled clay cup, a kantharos, engraved with a pentagram, a sun symbol. The researchers think it offered spiritual protection against magical threats.

Sources: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, updated 14 October 2026, reporting on Abramzon, M. G. (2026), “First-century BC Complexes with Gold Lysimachus Type Staters from the Maeotian Necropolis of Vinogradny 1,” Russian Archaeology.