During a survey on the territory of the Eklizi-Burun cult complex, a repeatedly densely folded fragment of a silver sheet was discovered. When unfolded during the restoration process, it turned out to be part of an art object depicting the mask of Medusa Gorgon. The size and shape of the item suggest its purpose as part of Roman military equipment (presumably part of the umbo or a knee guard). The stylistic features of the image give grounds to attribute it to the late Roman period.

— The fact of the beginning of the mass use of brass in the production of jewelry and clothing accessories among the local population of Crimea in the first centuries A.D. is revealed. Brass objects found in the cemeteries of barbarians of Southwestern, Central, Eastern and Southern Taurica of the 2nd century B.C.–4th century A.D., make up from 20 to 60% of the total number of studied metal objects. This conclusion is made on the basis of studying a statistically significant sample of about 1000 objects. Brass entered Taurica mainly through Tauric Chersonesos and Bosporos, and practically only as Roman coins or coinage alloy, as well as items of Roman military ammunition. The obtained data on the composition of the jewelry alloy are compared with the results of the analysis of alloys of Roman, Chersomesean and Bosporan coins of the first centuries A.D. This suggested that the most likely material for the manufacture of brass jewelry of barbarians could be Roman and Bosporan coins, which did not circulate among the tribes of Taurica and were melted down as scrap along with other brass and bronze objects.

Cet article présente deux poids en bronze de balances romaines, découverts dans le sanctuaire montagneux d’Eklizi-Burun (Crimée). L’une des principales pratiques rituelles identifiées sur le site était la destruction délibérée d’objets. L’article propose de voir dans ces deux poids et leurs balances des trophées saisis par les fidèles du sanctuaire, avant d’être détruits et consacrés.

The article is devoted to the publication of a movable weight in the shape of a male bust from the Roman steelyard. It is the second find of such item in the sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (Southern part of the Mountain Crimea). The offering of objects belonging to an alien culture through their deliberate damage was one of the main ritual practices there. The discovery of two practically intact weights from the Roman balance scales at the sanctuary suggests that both weights were acquired by worshippers at the sanctuary together with the balance scales, which were then destroyed and offered as dedication. It is possible that the balance scales came from the ships which in 49 AD, during the Roman-Bosporan War, transported Romans troops along the Crimean coast from the Bosporus to the west, and were beached by a storm on the "coast of the Tauri" and there plundered by local barbarians, who then brought the trophies to the sanctuary.

The paper presents findings of X-ray fluorescence mapping of the alloy composition of suspended weight from a Roman “quick” balance in the form of a bust. The weight was found at the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary (southern part of Mountain Crimea). Its figural casing is cast of high-tin bronze with an uneven amount of tin in various parts of the sculpture. An increased content of tin (more than 35.6%) was found in the face area). The hollow core is completely or partially filled with heavier lead, its egress on the surface was recorded using XRF spot analysis. The amount of lead in the weight was adjusted to be calibrated to a particular balance. The weight from the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary conceivably bear witness to one of the early encounters of the population of the Northern Black Sea region with relatively complex devices and technologies developed in the Roman Empire.

This article is the publication of a suspended moveable weight for fast scales wrought in the shape of the bust of a Roman emperor which was found within the sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun. The cult place dates from between the Early Roman to the Late Medieval Period. The item is of good quality and well preserved. The depiction of the emperor has a combination of features which permit identification with Tiberius Claudius Nero (AD 14-37). It is an example of the Chiaramonti type distributed in the last decade of Tiberius’ rule and also reproduced after the Emperor’s death. After bringing together the available information about the artefact (date, attitudes to ‘Roman Imperial’ material culture, nature of the find’s context), the authors conclude that the fast scales, of which the weight under discussion formed a part, reached Southern Taurica during the Roman-Bosporan War (AD 45-49). The scales were probably captured by Taurians/Scytho-Taurians from Roman soldiers and then offered to the sanctuary. It is possible that they had been on one of the ships transporting Romans (soldiers of Gaius Julius Aquila stationed in the Bythinia-and-Pontus Province?) in AD 49 along the sea coast, sailing westwards from the Bosporan kingdom. These ships were cast on to the ‘Taurian beach’ by a storm and plundered by the native population (Tac. Ann. XII. 17). One of the possible locations of that event could be Plaka Cape (ancient Lampas), which is situated 17.5 kilometres directly south of the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary.

Metal jewellery used as votive offerings is discovered at the “barbarian” mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (the Crimea) and dating from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. Most of these items were probably part of female costume known from funerary contexts in the Central Crimea, which differ both regarding their location (in the Crimean Foothills and on the South-Coast), as well as the specific features of the burial rite (“cremation” vs. “inhumation”). A small part of the jewellery is characteristic only for the cemeteries in the South-Coast area containing burials with remains of cremation.An analysis of the cultural environment, in which the jewellery items deposited in the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary of the Roman period were produced and used, suggests that its worshippers came from communities living on the southern macro-slope of the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains and practised cremation of the dead. Apparently, these people appeared in the Graeco-Roman narrative tradition and local epigraphic documents of the Roman period as “Tauri”, “Scythian-Tauri”, and “Tauro-Scythians” inhabiting “Taurica”. They are presumed to have appeared in the Crimean Mountains in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC (migrating from areas with archaeological cultures influenced by the La Tène culture?) and to have maintained their cultural identity until the beginning of the 5th century AD.

Организация конференции и издание материалов проведены при финансовой поддержке Российского фонда фундаментальных исследований, проект № 19

The article is a publication of the Grave 1 excavated in the necropolis of Luchistoe-2, which is so far the only known archaeological site in Southern Crimea with burial structures of the Early Roman period. The article includes suggestions regarding the scale and date of the necropolis, as well as the funerary rite, costume and cultural connections of the society using the burial-ground. It was established that the published grave contained the burial of a woman of high social status (probably a priestess) dated from the late-1st or early-2nd century AD . Analysis of the archaeological material in conjunction with information about the location of the necropolis and data from epigraphic documents and ancient litterary tradition, leads to the conclusion that the burial-ground was located in ‘Taurica’ – the territory between the Greek polis of Chersonesos and the Bosporan kingdom. It was used by the population, which was designated in the written sources as Scytho-Taurians (Plin. NH ., IV , 85-86; Arr. PPE . 30). These peoples were bearers of the so-called Late Scythian archaeological culture and belonged to the sphere of the Bosporan state’s cultural influence. This information can be used in further reconstructions of the ethno-political situation in the Crimea in Roman times.