English
Español
Français
Italiano
Deutsch
Русский
Português
Polski
Română
Svenska
Norsk bokmål
Suomi
Türkçe
العربية
简体中文
한국어
हिन्दी
ΕλληνικάTRAVELLING OBJECT · INTERCULTURAL BIOGRAPHY
The Solokha gold comb
This gold comb, related to Greek craftsmen, was deposited in a Scythian tomb.
Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction; not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.
History and context
Black Sea Hellenic workshop: The execution is related to Greek craftsmen; the workshop is not identified with absolute certainty.
The same piece also appears in Scythian Elite of Solokha. Duplicating the card does not duplicate authorship: it allows reading manufacture, use, deposition and discovery from both routes.
Evidence and interpretation
Black Sea Hellenic workshop [probable]: The execution is related to Greek craftsmen; the workshop is not identified with absolute certainty. Scythian Elite of Solokha [documented]: The object acquired meaning within a Scythian funerary assemblage.
Catalogue facts
- Role in this museum
- design-tradition
- Location
- Bosporus/Black Sea Region
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Certainty
- probable
- In this grouping
- Comb with combat scene: a prestige object representing military equipment and action.
A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS
Objects connected through time
Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.
The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.
Gold32 dated objects
Towards 4600–4200 BCE
The Gold of Varna
Thracians
Date of the Varna funerary assemblage, not of an individual piece.
Read the record
ca. 2600–2450 BCE
Puabi headdress
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
ca. 2600–2400 BCE
The goat from PG 1237
Sumer
The function as support is not resolved.
Read the record
20th–18th centuries BCE
Before Phoenicia
Phoenicians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
death towards 1323 BCE
Tutankhamun's grave goods
Ancient Egypt
Approximate date of burial, not date of manufacture of the entire trousseau.
Read the record
14th–13th centuries BCE
Stag Vessel
Hittites
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze.
Valchitran
Thracians
The full 14th–13th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 14th and early 13th century according to NAIM; other chronologies for the assemblage are broader.
Read the record
Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE
Before the Iberias
Iberians
Date of the treasure, not of the preceding general period.
Read the record
c. 800 BCE
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate date of the funerary context.
Read the record
c. 721–664 BCE
Kushite king
Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Interval attributed to the specimen in the catalogue.
Read the record
c. 800–550 BCE
Gold at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
ca. 675–650 BCE
Regolini-Galassi tomb
Etruscans and Rome
Date of the funerary assemblage.
Read the record
6th century BCE
Condomina Earring
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Towards 510 BCE
Uni was also Astarte
Etruscans and Rome
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
5th century BCE · chronology discussed in the bibliography
Ezerovo Ring
Thracians
The attribution to the 5th century BCE is discussed.
Read the record
Second half of the 5th century – beginning of the 4th century BCE
Overlapping datesCoțofenești helmet
Thracians
The full 5th–4th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 5th and early 4th century.
Read the record
Early 4th century BCE
Overlapping datesA battle on a comb
Scythians and Saka
The fourth century BCE is used in its full extent as an outer ordering framework; the entry specifies the beginning.
Read the record
4th century BCE
Overlapping datesThe Kul-Oba vase
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
You are viewing4th century BCE
The Solokha gold comb
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
Current record
Type introduced from the late 6th century; specimen from the 4th century BCE.
Overlapping datesThe archer in gold
Achaemenid Persia
Century of the specimen; not an earlier introduction date of the type.
Read the record
4th century BCE
Overlapping datesTreasure of Jávea
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
c. 350 BCE
Overlapping datesSusa grave goods
Achaemenid Persia
Date of the funerary assemblage.
Read the record
664–30 BCE
Overlapping datesThoth in the form of a baboon
Ancient Egypt
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Second half of the 4th century BCE
Overlapping datesFaces of the Steppe
Scythians and Saka
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Second half of the 4th century BCE
Overlapping datesPoroina Mare Rhyton
Thracians
Second half of the 4th century BCE; the specific ritual is not known.
Read the record
Jewellery from the 4th–3rd centuries BCE; concealment at the end of the 3rd century BCE.
Overlapping datesTreasure of Cheste
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the later concealment.
Read the record
Jewellery: 5th–2nd centuries BCE; concealment probably around 80–73 BCE.
Overlapping datesMarina Alta Hoard
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the Sertorian concealment.
Read the record
late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE
Panagyurishte
Thracians
«Towards 300 BCE.» It is explicit orientation of the whole.
Read the record
3rd century BCE
Mairena Hoard
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE
Patera from Perotito
Iberians
The full 2nd–1st centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 2nd century and the early 1st.
Read the record
9th–11th centuries CE
Moulds for gold
Mande Worlds
Date range of the archaeometallurgical material in its documented context.
Read the record
ca. 1220–1290; found in 1933
Gold rhinoceros
Bantu-speaking worlds
Date of the object/context; 1933 is the year of discovery.
Read the record
A closer look
About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .
The comb belongs to a tomb between two
The Solokha kurgan contained two burials from different moments and social positions, a circumstance relevant for interpreting its metalwork. In a 2021 study, Sergei Kozlov compared the predators depicted on its objects with possible age and military rank categories. He proposed relating the felines from the side burial to regal authority and other images from the central burial to a youthful stage. This is a symbolic reading of the funerary assemblage, not a demonstrated identification of the combatants on the comb. The conventional historical names used by the author also do not substitute for an owner’s inscription, which is lacking.
Location and territory
REGIONAL AREA
Bosporus/Black Sea RegionCrete, Aegean and mainland Greece; the museum begins in the Minoan phase. The footprint marks the orientative centre of the scope, not a boundary nor an exact point.Where it is held
State Hermitage Museum
Item or group in the record · Documented collection
Institutional publication on the Solokha assemblage; no claim is made about current exhibition.
The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.
Cultural connections
Scythian Elite of Solokha →
The object acquired meaning within a Scythian funerary assemblage.
Documented
Sources and references
Did you enjoy this exhibit?
Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.
Loading your rating…