Once More on the Dating of the “Royal” Five Brothers’ Burial Mound No. 8

Abstract

Burial-mound No. 8 in the necropolis of the Elizavetovskoye fortified settlement. The dates assigned to 14 amphorae found in the dromos are constantly argued over by scholars. When traditional methods of chronology are used, it emerges that some of the amphorae should be assigned to the 350s BC, and others to the 330s–320s BC. Recently N.F. Fedoseev attempted to explain this difference in dating of various stamps by stating that the two burials had been laid out in the burial-mound at different times and that, as a result, the amphorae had also been placed in the dromos at different times. Analysis of the assemblage of amphorae against a background of new sources has made it possible to assume with confidence that both burials in the burial-chamber of the Five Brothers’ Burial-mound No. 8 had been of the same date and that this spectacular monument should be dated to the second half of the 350s BC or to the 350/340s BC.