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Abstract

In terms of the number of weapons, the Ust-Alma necropolis stands out the Late Scythian sites of the Crimea. The article examines burials with bows and arrows, their typology, chronology, statistics, as well as the place of this weapon in the local death custom. The main role of a such weapon in the funeral rite was its functional purpose. Analysis of the burial complexes shows that a signifi cant role belonged to bows and arrows, after swords and daggers, in the funeral ritual of the Ust-Alma necropolis. Since the mid-1st century AD, a number of such weapons in the burial complexes of the Ust-Alma necropolis has increased. At this time, Chersoneses and the most part of the Crimea (including the late state of the Scythians) came under the control of the Bosporan kingdom. Crimean Scythia participated in the Roman-Bosporan War of AD 45-49. In the second century AD, the operations of the Bosporan army took place in Crimean Scythia. These events infl uenced to the local death custom. In the fi rst centuries AD, the traditions of funeral rite, characteristic for the Sarmatians of the steppe regions of the Northern Black Sea and the Volga region, appeared in the Ust-Alma necropolis. Besides, there were changes in the ethnic and social structure of the Late Scythian society: along with the civil elite, a military one was also formed. This is refl ected in the richness of the grave goods in the burials of warriors. One can fi nd similarities between the funeral rites of the Ust-Alma necropolis and the Sarmatians in the Volga region, the Don, the Kuban, the Caucasus and the Bosporus.

Keywords

Late Scythian culture, Crimea, Ust-Alma Necropolis, Sarmatians, bows and arrows.

Gennady V. Medvedev

Institute of Archaeology of the Crimea RAS, Simferopol, Russia

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