Pages: 135-139

The cemetery of Opushki is located in the central area of Crimean foothills. In 2004, a fragment of an unusual handmade vessel was discovered in a dump made by the grave diggers. In the bottom and three areas of lower walls there were perforations filled with inserted pieces of colourless glass. Ceramic vessels with glass insertions are well known in the lands populated by the Germans. Their especial concentration is in the basins of the Elba and the Oder. According to the distribution and the number of finds, Germanic origin of the tradition dating to the Roman period of making glass insertions into the bottoms and walls of ceramic vessels is doubtless. There is one Germanic grave discovered in the cemetery of Opushki. It comprises a cist, which contained almost a half of a hand-made vessel, filled with calcinated bones of a 4-to 5-year-old child.
Vessels with glass insertions were not discovered in the Crimea before. It is generally accepted that hand-made vessels were not an article of trade and, obviously, they were not attractive as trophies of war. Therefore, we have to suppose that the vessel with glass insertions was made by a bearer of Germanic tradition who appeared in the Crimea. The grave with cremation in a cist also testifies that Germans buried in the cemetery of Opushki.

Keywords: Crimea, Opushki cemetery, molding vessel, glass insertions, cremation, Germans

Information about author:

Igor Khrapunov (Simferopol, Crimea). Doctor of Historical Sciences. V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. Academician Vernadsky Ave., 2, Simferopol, 295007, Crimea
E-mail: [email protected]