Filippov barrow is synchronous with such well-known
burial grounds as Solokha, Chertomlyk, Tolstaya Mogila, Issyk and others. As for
Filippovka, cultural and ethnic aspect is more important here than chronological
aspect. For a long time there has been a stereotype for the memorials of early
nomads of the Volga-Ural region - if separate burial complex and the memorial as
a whole are dated by the V-th or the border of the V-th and IV-th centuries B.C.
then it without fail belongs to Savromatian culture. Filippov burial ground was
also referred to Savromatian culture due to bronze navershies with the pictures
of a camel's head (a griffin's head) which were found there. However, the
excavations of Filippov barrows have shown us that both burial ceremony and
ceramic material testify to early Sarmatian (Prokhorov) culture. This statement
does not except the probability that some things or burial complexes will be
dated by the border of the V-th and the IV-th centuries B.C. or even by the V-th
century B.C. It will only mean that the beginning of Prokhorov culture in South
Urals must not be referred to the IV-th century B.C., but to the V-th century
B.C. Accordingly, Filippov burial ground as other burial grounds of South Urals'
steppes must not be investigated within the limits of Savromatian culture or as
the next (second) stage of the single Savromatian-Sarmatian culture, but as
independent original culture of nomads, which is connected not only with
Savromatian culture, but also with the tribes of Sakian and Massagetic origin.
Community of materials of South Urals', West-Siberian and Middle Asian memorials
of Scythian time, which was noticed by many investigators, testifies not only to
cultural relations or episodic ethnic invasions from the part of south and
south-east tribes, but to straight genetic relation of South Urals' nomads with
Sako-Massagetic world.
