FINDS OF DECORATIVE ELEMENTS OF HORSE HARNESS FOR RIDING OF THE ROMAN PERIOD FROM THE VICINITY OF RYKHTYCHI VILLAGE NEAR DROHOBYCH

Yaroslav  ONYSHCHUK; Roman  SERKIZ

doi:10.24919/2519-058X.31.306352

Authors

Yaroslav ONYSHCHUK PhD hab. (Archaeology), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Archeology and History of Ancient Civilizations, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4079-5202
Roman SERKIZ MS, Laboratory Chief Manager of the Solid State Physics Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2977-4213

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.31.306352

Keywords:

Archeology of Ukraine, Roman times, migrations, Marcomannic wars, beliefs, votive offering, spectral analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study and introduce into scientific circulation a complex of finds of decorative elements of horse harness from the outskirts of the village of Rykhtychi near Drohobych in the context of cultural and historical processes that took place in the territory of Eastern Prykarpattia and Western Volyn during the Roman period. Their participants were a multi-ethnic barbarian population that came to these lands from the Middle Danube during or after the end of the Marcomannic Wars (last quarter of the 2nd century AD) and disappeared in the phase of migration of the Gothic tribes to the Northern Black Sea region (the 3rd century AD). The methodology of the research is based on various principles of scientific study: historicism, objectivity, systematicity, which determined the application of both general scientific (analytical, statistical, historical retrospective and perspective, synthesis and analysis) and special (comparative typological, stratigraphic, cartographic, material science analysis and etc.) methods. This enabled a versatile and critical approach to the study of the problems of emergence, nature and significance of the complex of finds from the vicinity of Rykhtychi and ensured the reliability of the obtained results and conclusions. The scientific novelty of the research work consists in the study and introduction into scientific circulation of a set of decorative elements of horse harness for riding from the outskirts of the village of Rykhtychi, unique in the lands of Ukraine, and determining its place among similar complexes in the territory of Central Europe. The Conclusions. It was determined that the find of decorative elements of horse harness for riding from the vicinity of Rykhtychi reflects the complex events of the last quarter of the 2d century AD, related to the Marcomannic Wars in the Middle Danube. Based on a number of analogies from the territory of Central and Northern Europe, it was determined that the complex can be a votive offering to the gods for success in solving certain cases, a positive result in achieving the set goal, etc. In barbarian societies, they were made in water environments (rivers, lakes, swamps), on the tops or gentle slopes of hills, in crevices of rocks. The find from the vicinity of Rykhtychi may mark one of the migration routes of a certain group of people from the Middle Danube region through the Carpathians to Western Pobuzhzhia.

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