Ancient Gold And Silver Jewelry Belonging To Nobles Was Unearthed From Medieval Crypts In Crimea
Ancient gold and silver jewelry has been unearthed from within crypts at an early medieval burial ground in Crimea.
The burial ground is called the Almalyk-dere necropolis, and it is located on the Mangup plateau, which is about 10 miles east of the city of Sevastopol.
The new discoveries indicate that the graves likely belonged to elite members of a society that stretched across southwestern Crimea between the late 4th century and the 6th century.
For a long time, researchers had a hunch that the necropolis was not just any ordinary burial place. The jewelry seems to confirm their suspicions that only the wealthy or noble were laid to rest at the site.
At the Mangup plateau, excavations first took place in the 19th century. The area has been investigated by archaeologists since the 20th century.
Over the decades, both archaeologists and looters alike have found many treasures at the site. Still, there is more left to be discovered.
“As usual, this burial ground brought surprises,” said Valery Naumenko, an archaeologist at V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University.
“Despite the severe robbery of these complexes, there are things that are of independent scientific interest.”
Naumenko and colleagues are excavating the site alongside archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences. There is evidence that the Mangup region was home to different settlements as early as 5,000 years ago.
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According to written records from the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, the Mangup region at the time was part of the Christian principality of Gothia.
That was established in southwestern Crimea in 488 C.E. when Theodoric the Great led the Ostrogoths into Italy.
The people who didn’t want to follow him during his invasion of Italy stayed behind and became the Crimean Goths.
In the past, much of the area had been explored already, so this time, the researchers worked on sites that had not been touched by archaeologists before. They ended up uncovering burial complexes from the beginning of the necropolis’s formation and from a later time.
The Almalyk-dere necropolis is the area’s largest early medieval burial ground. During their excavations, the team came across two underground crypts that were built between the 4th and 6th centuries C.E. Inside the crypts, there were medieval artifacts, including gold and silver jewelry.
The jewelry appeared to have been worn by women. The stash contained brooches, gold earrings, belts, shoe buckles, and gold foil jewelry that would have been sewn on the collars of clothing.
The earrings are inlaid with red gems that could be garnets or carnelians. They were probably imported from another country.
One of the crypts held a “pyxis,” a decorated container made from an animal horn that was used to store powdered cosmetics like blush.
Overall, these elaborate items indicate that the crypts were meant for wealthy women who may have even been nobles.
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