Iranians and Greeks in South Russia - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

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GREEK CITIES OF SOUTH RUSSIA
such develops in the East, in Iranian lands, as we see from the Oxus
and Susa treasures. It returns to South Russia with the Sarmatians.
It reappears in the Orenburg steppes during the fourth century b. c,
and influences Panticapaean jewellery by the third, witness the
Taman and Kuban finds just described, and the others analysed in
the preceding chapter. The enamelled sword sheath from Buerova
Mogilain the Taman peninsula (pi. XXIV, 4), the round brooch from
the grave at Artyukhov's farm, the gold roundels, dotted with precious
stones, from Kurjips, the gold openwork mounting of a vase or
rhyton from Besleneevskaya : all these lead on to the finds of the first
century B. c, and of Roman imperial times, from Panticapaeum and
from the Russian steppes, in which the polychrome style eventually
triumphs, and incrustation prevails over the form and decoration of
the object. The result of this victory we have already seen in the
finds from Novocherkassk and from western Siberia. But the same
phenomenon may be observed at Panticapaeum.
To ascertain the true nature of Panticapaean jewellery in the
Roman period, we must make a rather closer examination of certain
very characteristic finds which have often been quoted but never
thoroughly investigated. In the first century A. D., and in the earlier
part of the second, the tombs of Panticapaeum present almost
the same picture as contemporary tombs elsewhere. I have already
observed, that the citizens of the Bosphorus, notwithstanding the
progress of Iranization, were strongly attached to their Greek nationality
; the objects which they liked to take with them into their tombs
were such as bore hardly any local stamp : those which did were
reserved for export. In the second century, however, a profound
change takes place. Iranization has borne its fruit. The tomb
furniture comes more and more to resemble that of the tombs in the
valleys of the Kuban and the Don. By the third century, one might
be in the heart of Sarmatian country. These tombs can often be
dated by imprints of coins on gold funerary crowns.
I shall first speak of three exceptionally rich tombs discovered in
1837 and 1841. The two tombs of 1841 were stone chambers surmounted
by tumuH : the third, of 1837, found in the same district
but under another tumulus, was a marble sarcophagus, not interred
in the virgin soil, but in the soil of the tumulus : the lid of the sarcophagus
was shaped like a pediment with an acroterion. To give an
idea of the wealth of the furniture, I shall briefly enumerate the objects
of which it consisted, adding references to the publications. In the
1837 tomb, the tomb of the Queen with the Golden Mask : a gravemask
of gold {Antiquites du Bosphore Cimmerien, pi. I) ; a silver