Here is a link to an English language version of the famous Olbian inscription:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Xebyor4-4KwC&pg=PA218&lpg=PA218&dq=%22Protogenes%22+and+%22Olbia%22&source=bl&ots=Dc53JqAJ2r&sig=3NzMMgKOo3JL_WfzF4FbU9m4vVg&hl=en&ei=uRnGTaHgHabV0QHZicmOCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Protogenes%22%20and%20%22Olbia%22&f=false
It contains as we know a reference to a threatening alliance of Galatae and Sciri. Some believe the latter to be the first historical mention of a Germanic population.
The Decree has been dated, on palaeographic grounds, to the last decades of the 3rd c. BCE (=ca.230-200). But its contents may deal with events somewhat older. It's actually a short account of the long career of Protogenes, son of Heroson, and of the many good things he did for his city state "throughout his life". The final portion of the inscription is too damaged to be read, but even so, it is seems that the story was carved when Protogenes was no longer alive. In an article of 2007 ("The Galatians and Cabyle") written for the Studia archaeologica universitatis Serdicensis, the Bulgarian investigator J. Emilov notes that marble inscriptions could be "made several decades after the actual time of the events". We know that the recently discovered (1999) Crimean inscription of Neapolis attributed to King Skilur was carved on the base of an equestrian statue of his father
who had died some thirty years earlier.
I shall be arguing that Protogenes of Olbia lived (roughly) between ca. 330 and 250 BCE, and that the various deeds ascribed to him in the Decree should be associated with events which occurred at the turn of the 4th to the 3rd c. and in the first third of the 3rd c. BCE.
Shchukin had already hinted at this in his "The Celts in Eastern Europe" (Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14 (1995), pp. 201-227). He pointed out that the settlements of the Olbia chora mentioned in the Decree had been destroyed long before the date of the inscription, and that the archaeologically identified La Tene Celtic (mostly military) objects (swords and helmets) of this and adjacent areas were exclusively of the early 3rd c. BCE.
The contents of the Decree tend to confirm this from another perspective. It develops (in the readable segments) twelve clusters of events, political and economic, which demonstrate Protogenes' excellence as a citizen caring for the common good. The first nine clusters deal with Protogenes' activism during the reign of the Scythian King Saitaphernes (otherwise unknown). This could be the Great King, or the King of one of the three kingdoms of classical Scythia (as per Herodotus). Perhaps the former is more likely. It is hard to say over how many years this activism stretches. I would guess about fifteen or twenty. I would date all this as of ca. 305 (if Saitaphernes was the successor of the last recorded classical era Scythian King in Diodorus Siculus s.a. 309) to ca. 290/285. Olbia is his tributary, paying regular donations. No other "danger" threatens them. There are also
local sub-chiefs to placate. The ninth cluster in the Decree is followed by a disappointing lacuna.
Then we get the story of Protogenes helping out Olbia during the threatened invasion by Galatae and Sciri. We are told that there was a previous war (perhaps only against the Galatae, who thereby acquired a frightening reputation). The Olbian chora participated in it. Now the chora has disintegrated and other problems loom . The Galatae have new allies, the Sciri (Yastorfers from the Baltic?). There is no hint of an operating Scythian realm defending its tributaries against the threat. Three nearby tribal groups are mentioned, not particularly friendly, and the specifically named "Scythian" group (perhaps a portion of the Aratores who stayed behind, still located north of the Danube?) is not, apparently, a "ruling" tribe ("saii"). The whole context appears to be subsequent to the great outmigration of the
Scythian Pali (Paralatae) and associates to Central Asia. So I would date this Galato-Scirian threat as of ca. 280/275. Which fits in very well with the archaeological evidence mentioned by Shchukin.
The two last readable clusters deal exclusively with various economic issues dealt with by Protogenes as "Minister of Finance" of the Olbian state. Political stability has been reestablished. The threat from Galatae and Sciri has been successfully overcome and is no longer as pressing. Again, there is no hint of any Scythian tribute demanding structure as to Olbia. I would date this context as of the later 270's or 260's, with Protogenes in his 60's.
One last comment. When the inscription was made (ca. 230 or so) the Bastarnae might not yet have been fully in place. I grant this is but a surmise. According to my traditional theory, the Galatae+Sciri were in the process of becoming Bastarnae (and archaeology sees this time frame as that of the formation process of Zarubinia and Poeneshti-Lukashovka, with the Gubin Yastorf settlement of Bukovyna dated to ca. 275-225 BCE), but had not yet emerged as "Bastarnae", for then they might have been so designated in episode 10, instead of Gal.+ Sciri. I grant this sounds circular. But I'll let it stand for the moment until we discuss the complex ethnic and linguistic composition of the Bastarnae.