Neo-Babylonian Seal in the Context of a Sarmatian Period Barrow Field Nearby the Village of Tbilisskaya

Abstract

The article examines a Neo-Babylonian seal discovered among the grave goods of a Sarmatian burial in the barrow No. 3 nearby the village of Tbilisskaya (Kuban region). Although the burial itself dates to the late 1st – early 2nd century BC, the seal iconography and carving technique indicate its origin in the Neo-Babylonian cultural sphere of the 6th–5th centuries BC. The seal depicts a human figure in a gesture of worship before the symbols of the gods Marduk and Nabu. It is made in the "cut-and-drilled" style and bears a cuneiform inscription similar to those found on the prints from the Persepolis Administrative Archive. The author traces the seal's possible "cultural biography": its use during the Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Sarmatian periods, and suggests that in the final stage of its existence, the image on the seal may have been perceived as a ritual scene. This hypothesis is supported by the seal's context among the funeral set of the barrows nearby the village of Tbilisskaya. Three complexes of burial grounds contained iron tripods with zoomorphic tops, which the author interprets as altars associated with fire worship. Thus, the seal is viewed not as a random curiosity, but as an object that retained significant meaning over the centuries across different cultures.