A Grave with Roman Imports in the Cemetery of Opushki in the Crimea
A Grave with Roman Imports in the Cemetery of Opushki in the Crimea

Summary/Abstract: This paper publishes grave no. 226 in the cemetery of Opushki, located in the centralsub-mountainous area in the Crimean Peninsula. The interest to the said assemblage comes from the combinationof Roman and barbarian artefacts among the grave goods. The burial was accompanied with a sword withring pommel, large set of arrow-heads within remains of a quiver, belt fittings, a brooch, remnants of threadsmade of gold foil, a bronze basin of the type Eggers 70, clay hand-formed censer, and other goods. This gravebelongs to the Middle Sarmatian archaeological culture and, according to the combination of artefacts, datesto the second half of the first century AD. The complex under publication differs from Sarmatian graves in thesteppe in the lack of burial mound, its location within a large flat cemetery, and the dead body orientation withthe head to the east. These features possibly result from the sedentism of the Sarmatians in the sub-mountainousarea of the Crimea. From prestigious grave goods in this grave and numerous synchronous burials of harnessedhorses around it, there are reasons to interpret grave no. 226 as the burial of a famous person, who held anoutstanding position in the collective.

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