Ancient Warrior Unearthed Marching to Afterlife with his Dagger Drawn, Wearing Stylish Earrings
By Anna Liesowska
A fighter from almost 3,000 year ago was ready to impale his enemies, expecting battles after death, with a 'mirror' on his eye. The extraordinary find of this Bronze Age warrior - ready for combat on his journey to the next life between 2,700 and 2,900 years ago - is intriguing archaeologists in Russia.
Unusual features are the dagger ready for use in one hand, a knife in the other, and a metallic eye patch, or badge, seen as either a mirror illuminating his route to another world, or those who gave him evil glances. Nearby he had an axe and also some arrow heads.
Not all the treasures in his grave appeared ready for battle - the warrior also had some fetching white metal spiral earrings, made possibly from tin or silver.
The dagger found in the warrior’s hand. Pictures: NGS Novosti, Channel12
The remains were found during the restoration of an historical building under Muzeinaya Street in Omsk.
The well-preserved skeleton with his arms crossed lay in the trench of a heating pipe made in the Soviet era, according to the regional government's website.
Albert Polovodov, a specialist from the regional culture ministry, said: 'In the right hand he held a dagger, the blade pointing forwards or upwards, as if he was going to use it as a stabbing weapon.
'In other hand was a knife, blade down, as he was going to cut, dissect, cut ligaments and so on. Clearly, it is imitation of combat use of these weapon.'
It was as if he 'was very carefully prepared for the road to another world, assuming that obstacles may exist in his way',
It indicated that perhaps during his life 'he had to fight - perhaps in battles for territories'.
Fighter from almost 3,000 year ago was ready to impale his enemies, expecting battles after death. Pictures: NGS Novosti, Channel12
Maxim Grachev, director of Omsk Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, said five burials had been found, but the four others were destroyed.
'The ideal state of the grave was a pleasant surprise for us,' he said.
'We found a large number of well-preserved items: weapons, jewellery, and other items made of bronze.'
The warrior hailed from the transition period from the Bronze to the Iron age.
Other burial remains are likely to lie under the buildings on this site, but are not accessible, he said.
Top image: The remains of the ancient warrior. Picture: Channel12
The article ‘Ancient Warrior Unearthed Marching to Afterlife with his Dagger Drawn, Wearing Stylish Earrings’ was originally published on The Siberian Times and has been republished with permission.
Comments
Very nice dagger, excellent condition. Though I question the 'ritual use' decision for the bronze disc on his face - maybe he did have a permanent eye injury [a soft tissue one only so it wouldn't show up on the skull, like a stroke or injury related eyelid droop, or even an illness loss of the eye like a pink eye type infection. ] and the eye patch was more practical. Though if it had been part of a headdress and not deliberately over the eye, just slipped from being a disc decorating the forehead ... that oculd explain what it is.
Why does everybody immediately jump on the whole *ritual use* of something they find at a dig, fergoshsakes they used to find drop spinning whorles in digs and call them ritual items until someone spotted a local woman walking along drop spinning ... it is almost as bad as 'alieeeeeennnnnnssssss' for anything unusual in a dig.