Abstract
Some Crimean burials of the fi rst centuries AD contain large, compositionally similar sets of glass beads laid across the lower-leg bones of the buried people. For the most part, they represent cylindrical red and white beads, prismatic red, white and green beads, green, blue and purple 14-faceted beads, rounded-bead necklaces with inner metallic shim. The average number of beads in a set amount to several hundred. They are for the most part related to the 5th-category one-segmented bow-shaped garter-type fi bulae and to “Inkerman” series fi bulae according to Ambroz’s classifi cation. It can be concluded, on the basis of the fi bulae dating records, that such sets appeared in the foothill Crimea in the second half of the 2nd century AD, possibly closer to the end of the century, and were used throughout the fi rst half of the 3rd century AD. This conclusion is confi rmed by the conjunction of the bead sets with the Khazanov-IX type mirrors, large lunulae pendants and coins. These beads were part of the costume of women aged over 20; they were most likely used to embroider the border of dress skirts, pants or boot tops. The tradition to embroider shoes or dress skirting with bead necklaces was widespread in the Sarmatian world and the bordering regions; however, the sets similar to those being explored are almost never found outside the Crimea. An exception is the Sarmatian Alföld and Banat burials where the sets much similar in composition and in purpose were used from the 2nd to the 4th centuries. Most probably, the considered sets of beads represent a phenomenon formed among the Crimean foothills population in the second half of the 2nd century. This tradition was not widespread, but was practiced in individual groups that buried their tribesmen at certain necropoleis. The presence of such sets in short-dromos crypt that are found in the Crimean foothills, being dated to the fi rst half of the 3rd century AD, is particularly interesting – these burials are treated by the researchers as associated with the migrants from the North Caucasus. This fact refl ects the complicated processes of interaction between the aliens and the indigenous population and, possibly, points to the formation of heterogeneous marriages.
Keywords
The Foothill Crimea, Roman period, sets of beads, female costume, chronology, ethnic processes.
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