Dr Hanna Vertiienko is a historian, archaeologist and specialist in Iranian Studies and Scythology. She holds a PhD in History and is a Senior Research Fellow.
Her research focuses on the spiritual and material culture of the Iranian-speaking nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe, particularly the Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians. Her areas of expertise include Scythian iconography, toreutics and metalwork, anthropomorphic imagery, mythology and eschatology, funerary rituals, military cults, ancient weaponry and the religious traditions reflected in the Avesta.
Dr Vertiienko has studied Scythian artefacts in several Ukrainian museum collections, including the Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. As an archaeologist, she has participated in excavations at the Bilsk settlement in Forest-Steppe Scythia, as well as at the ancient Greek settlements and necropoleis of Iluraton and Kytaia in Crimea.
She is Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed open-access academic journal The Oriental Studies (Shodoznavstvo), published by the A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The journal is indexed in Scopus.
She also serves on the Editorial Board of Siverian Chronicle and on the Reviewer Board of the Journal of Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences.
Main Research Areas
- Scythology and Iranian Studies
- Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppe
- Scythian and Sarmatian art and iconography
- Ancient metalwork and toreutics
- Ancient Iranian religion and mythology
- Funerary rituals and eschatological beliefs
- Ancient weaponry and military cults
- Young Avestan texts
Selected Publications
- The Iconography of Scythian Eschatology (Kyiv, 2015).
- “Sarmatian Ceremonial Daggers in the Context of Iranian Beliefs” (2015).
- “The Value of Graffiti in the Decoration of Scythian Swords from the Northern Black Sea Region” (2016).
- “The Sakhnivka Plate: Scythian Iconography in the Imaging of Eschatological Concepts” (2021).
- “Precious Metals in the Worldview System of Ancient Iranian-Speaking Peoples according to the Avesta” (2021).
- “A ‘Rooster-Man’ on the Gold Plate from Soboleva Mohyla” (2023).
Academic Profiles and Contact
Email: hanna.vertiienko@ames.ox.ac.uk
Additional email: vertana77@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-2104-0058
Scopus Author ID: 56528410300
ResearcherID: AAG-8730-2