The ancient settlement of Bolshoe Storozhevoe on the Middle Don dates back to the Scythian period. In 2009, during the research conducted by the Don Archaeological Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences, materials from the V-IV centuries BC were found on it, and household and religious complexes were studied. The article deals with objects of ritual practice from this monument: votive ceramics, miniature vessels, zoomorphic clay plastic, as well as an altar in the form of a cylindrical platform-pavement. The considered cult objects and structures find numerous analogs in the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe and are part of the same cult and mythological tradition formed in this territory. Key words: Scythians, ancient settlements, forest-steppe Podonye, cults, altar, cult ceramics, small clay plastic. Introduction The Bolshoe Storozhevoe ancient settlement is located on a promontory of the right root bank of the Don River near the village of Storozhevoe in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh Region. The total area of the monument is 7 thousand m2 (Fig. 1, 1). Based on the materials of this ancient settlement, which is one of the largest on the territory of the Middle Don, the cult practice of its inhabitants is considered in the context of religious and mythological representations of the population of the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe. Cult practice is inextricably linked with the religious worldview, economic activity of a person and a certain type of social relations. The monument has been known since the late 1950s. The first field research on it was conducted by the Voronezh forest-steppe Scythian expedition under the leadership of P. D. Liberov. In the course of the work, the fortifications of the ancient settlement were studied, which consisted of three ramparts and two ditches [Liberov, 1962, p.36; Puzikova, 1981, p. 45-46]. It turned out that the defensive structures of the ancient settlement were built in two stages, the earliest of which dates back to t ... Read more