Pages: 283-297 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp214283297

The article presents the first results of a study of the composition of metal and manufacturing techniques of golden jewelry from excavations on the Roman Time Frontovoe 3 cemetery. The authors offer summarized data about the content of gold and the main manufacturing methods for part of the jewelry from the collection. Presence of jewelry, most likely inherited and found in later burials, is a distinctive feature of the studied sample. Gold composition was analyzed by non-destructive research methods such as XRF, SEM-EDX. It was established that the content of gold decreased gradually, from 910 in the 1st century AD to 800—840 in the 3rd century AD. The lowest content was recorded for elements of funeral wreaths — they were specially made for the ceremony. The remaining decorations are personal items, including those with traces of repair; jewelry was made in the traditions of the jewelry school of the Northern Black Sea region, possibly in localBosporus workshops. The decreasing content of gold in decorations from Frontovoe 3 seems to reflect the general situationwith the exploitation and depletion of the resource base of the Roman Empire. At the same time, jewelry from Frontovoe 3, when compared with synchronous data from Phanagoria, show a higher content of gold, similar to the data on gold in jewelry from Chersonesos.

Keywords: South-Western Crimea, Roman period, barbarians, golden jewelry, XRF, SEM-EDX, manufacturing techniques

Information about authors:

Irina Saprykina (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Lubov Pelgunova (Moscow, Russian Federation). A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution. Leninsky Ave., 33, Moscow, 119071, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]