Abstract
The article publishes for the fi rst time a small carnelian cameo made in the form of the head of a young woman or child, found during excavations of the Tanais necropolis in 2019. From the 3rd c. BC cameos are gaining wide popularity among various segments of the population of the ancient ecumene. Such engraved stones served as inserts in rings, earrings and brooches. A significant part of the cameos are small heads of Eros-Amur and Medusa Gorgon made of carnelian or sardonyx. Similar items are found in the layers of the sites of the Northern Black Sea region, in particular the Crimea and Taman Peninsula. The authors of the article date the cameo from Tanais to the 1st/2nd centuries AD and attribute the image as a portrait of a young member of the imperial house in the image of Eros. Such small cameos could be gifts as symbols of love and aff ection, since Eros acted as the personifi cation of love. O.Ya. Neverov suggested that small stone inserts in rings in the form of a child’s head could be a means of promoting the cult of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and later the Roman emperors who inherited Hellenistic traditions. Such cameos were images of the children of Cleopatra VII, and later of the imperial heirs in the form of Horus-Eros.
Keywords
Northern Black Sea region, Tanais, Taurian Chersonesus, Panticapaeum, cameo, glyptics.
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