© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/092907709X12474657004728 Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 15 (2009) 95-135 brill.nl/acss Silver Phialai from the Prokhorovka Burial-mound No. 1 Mikhail Yu. Treister* Abstract he completed analysis of the shape and decoration of silver phialai from Burial-mound 1 near the village of Prokhorovka in the southern foothills of the Urals makes it possible to assume that they could have been manufactured in different workshops and at different times: Phiale No. 2 possibly as early as the second half of the 5 th century BC and Phiale No. 1 probably in the second half of the 4 th century BC: the latter is thought to have been manufactured in a workshop in Alexandria. he inscriptions on the phialai were evidently executed before the phialai fell into the hands of the Sarmatians and began to be used as phalerae. he formula for the inscription regarding weight and observations regarding the genesis of early Sarmatian phalerae provide grounds for assuming that the phalerae found their way into the burial no later than the end of the 3 rd century BC. Keywords Prokhorovka, phialai, phalerae, Hamadan, Asia Minor, Oxus Treasure, Mariinskaya, Uspens- kaya, Coppa Tarentina, Achaemenid, belted garlands, Western Cave Treasure, Isakovka, Akhal- gori, weight standards, Sarmatians, Dachoi, Massagetae 1. Historiography A short report by P.K. Kokovtsev devoted to an analysis of inscriptions on the phialai was published in a monograph by M.I. Rostovtsev. 1 Meanwhile, Ros- tovtsev himself did not undertake any study of the phialai as such, confining himself to references to the opinion of Kokovtsev giving dates for the phialai provided in his various articles, ranging from the 4 th century to the 2 nd or 1 st century BC. 2 H. Luschey was the first to analyse the phialai from Prokhorovka in his monograph “devoted to ancient phialai and dated phiale No. 2 to the * Weißenburgstr. 59, D-53175 Bonn, Germany, Email mikhailtreister@yahoo.de 1 Kokovtsev 1918, 82-83. 2 Rostovtzeff 1922, 124; cf. Rostowzew 1931, 434. ACSS 15,1-2_f4_95-136.indd 95 ACSS 15,1-2_f4_95-136.indd 95 9/10/2009 8:51:33 PM 9/10/2009 8:51:33 PM