Cultural identity of the adepts of the mountain sanctuary Eklizi-burun (South Crimea) accordingly to the analysis of votives — metal jewellery

Abstract

Metal jewellery objects discovered at the barbarian mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-burun (Crimea) are dated from the 1 st to the 3 rd centuries aD. Most of these items belong to the female costume known from barbarian funerary contexts of Central Crimea, which differ by their localization, as well as by the peculiarities of the burial rites. an analysis of the cultural niches in which the jewellery items from Eklizi-burun were produced and used suggests that its adherents belonged to the societies inhabiting the Southern macro-slope of the Main ridge of the Crimean mountains and practiced a cremation of the dead. apparently, these people got in the greco-Roman narrative tradition and local epigraphic documents of Roman times the names of "Tauri", "Scythian-Tauri", "Tauro-Scythians" (?). Presumably, they appeared in the Mountain Crimea in the 2 nd or 1 st centuries bC (migrating from the areas of La Tène-like archaeological cultures?) and maintained their cultural identity until the early 5 th century aD.