Olga Yakimenko/ Vernadsky Crimean Federal University
Archaeologists from the Vernadsky Crimean Federal University and the Institute of Crimean Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered gold and silver women’s jewelry from the 5th-6th centuries. They were found in the Almalyk-Dere burial ground, the largest early medieval necropolis in Mangup. The find has been reported by the acting dean of the history department of the Vernadsky Crimean Federal University Valery Naumenko, who explained:
“We worked on sites that had not been previously archaeologically studied, and it turned out that there were burial complexes of different periods: both from the initial stage of the necropolis’ functioning (late 4th – first half of the 5th centuries), and from a later time (in particular, there are complexes from the 6th century).
As usual, this burial ground presented surprises in terms of things. It is no coincidence that the literature has developed the belief that this is not a necropolis for the ordinary population: there are complexes left there by an elite group of residents of the Mangup area and the entire southwestern Crimea at that time. Despite the strong looting of these complexes, there are things that are of independent scientific interest.”
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Selection of jewelry recovered from Almalyk-Dere burial ground in Mangup, Crimea. (Ilya Gogunsky/KFU Press Service)
According to him, interesting archaeological complexes were discovered during the study of two ground crypts dated to the end of the 4th – first half of the 5th century and the first half of the 6th century.
Among the finds are brooches, gold earrings, belt set elements (rivets) and shoe buckles, as well as sewn-on applique decorations made of gold foil, which could decorate the collar of a dress. As experts note, these finds are signs of barbarian burials of the aristocracy.
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The damaged earring. (Ilya Gogunsky/KFU Press Service)
“Most likely, both crypts where the items were found contained the burials of wealthy women. The composition included gold jewelry: one woman had brooches and gold appliques, the other had gold earrings, also quite unique. There are quite a few earrings of this type in Crimea. Most likely, these particular earrings were imported, and the brooches were probably made in Crimea – in Chersonesos or Bosporus,” emphasized Artur Nabokov, a junior research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists noted the high degree of preservation of the found objects: only the gold earrings were crushed. One of them was completely restored.
“The earrings were made of a gold plate with inserts of precious stones – garnet or carnelian. As for the brooches, one of them was made of silver. We can see traces of repair on it in the form of two rivets at the top and bottom. The spring on the brooch was made of copper alloy, and we can assume that in its original form it was made of silver. We also found silver cast brooches that were covered with a gold plate with a small ornament at the top and inserts of red stone (also, possibly, garnet or carnelian). The stones are triangular and round in shape,” said Svetlana Tsapko, a postgraduate student at the Department of Archeology and General History of the Faculty of History of the Vernadsky Kazan Federal University.
Gold brooches from the site. (Ilya Gogunsky/KFU Press Service)
In addition, archaeologists found a pyxis, a horn-shaped object used to store blush and powder, decorated with circles and concentric lines, as well as a red-lacquered plate that had been broken in ancient times, which experts were able to almost completely restore.
As Valery Naumenko notes, in addition to the Almalyk burial ground, archaeologists also explored the 15th-century Southern Cave Monastery with a preserved fresco composition, which is located on the slope of the Mangup plateau. Here, specialists carried out work on cleaning, describing and photographing all the rock complexes, grottoes and caves that were part of the monastery, and geomorphological work. Another object was the Muslim necropolis on the Mazar-Tepe hill. A feature of the burial ground, which functioned from the 16th to the 19th century, is a large number of complex burial structures, stone fences with bashtashi, some of which have been preserved in situ.
The Mangup settlement research is one of the longest-running archaeological projects in Crimea. This year, the Mangup archaeological expedition of the Crimean Federal University held its 57th season.
The study was carried out with partial support from the mega-grant “Ethnocultural transformations in the possessions of the Eastern Roman Empire in Crimea” (grant agreement dated 06/29/2022 No. 0751520221119).
Top image: Selection of jewelry recovered from Almalyk-Dere burial ground in Mangup, Crimea. Source: Ilya Gogunsky/KFU Press Service
This article is a translated press release titled, ‘Crimean archaeologists have found women’s jewelry from the early Middle Ages’, by Vernadsky Crimean Federal University Press Department.
Source: www.ancient-origins.net