Abstract
The symbolic role of prestigious weapons, horse tack, and “military” costume as the owner’s social level marker is well known. Moreover, the artefacts of “ceremonial” military dress and horse tack form reliable markers of cultural ties and military-political orientation of the ruling elites in ancient societies. Prestigious weapons were made by order or took as spoils of war. Furthermore, “ceremonial” weapons and horse tack were diplomatic gifts and appeared in symbolic investiture of barbarian “kings.” This article addresses the finds originating from Cimmerian Bosporos and dated from the Great Migration, or the Hunnic (last third of the fourth to the second third of the fifth century) and Post-Hunnic Periods (second third of the fifth to the second third of the sixth century): swords, scramasaxes, helmets, shields, horse tack, and “military” costume parts. They meet with parallels both in the Empire and the Barbaricum. Simultaneously, the attire in question misses important artefacts like T-shaped brooches of the Roman administrators of higher ranks and barbarian “royal” gold bracelets with widened ends. Generally, in the case of Cimmerian Bosporos, military aristocratic culture from the Great Migration Period featured two traditions associated with the great powers of antiquity, the Romano-Byzantine and Iranian ones, with the first predominant among the number of finds. The Eastern Roman Empire’s sphere of military and political influence in the Ponto-Caucasian steppes extended very far, as long as the area controlled by the Sabiroi Huns inhabiting the North-Eastern Caucasus. However, political and, accordingly, military influence of Sassanian Iran in Caucasus is attested by written sources, where it is also confirmed by striking finds of prestigious weapons. This way, Cimmerian Bosporos appeared at the crossroads of these two military traditions of the great powers of antiquity.
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