Maeotian Burials with Glass Skyphos of the Zubovsky Type

Abstract

In 1995, an article by I.P. Zasetskaya and I.I. Marchenko dedicated to the classification of glass kantharoi (skyphos and cups) of the Late Hellenistic and Roman times was published. This work covered vessels, which were kept in various museums around the world, but most of the vessels come from rich Sarmatian and Maeotian burials of the Kuban region. These days many archaeologists have successfully applied this classification. This work is devoted to Maeotian burials from burial grounds of hillforts no. 1 and no. 2 of Lenin and Starokorsunskiy farmsteads with glass skyphos of type IIIb, variant 2 by classification of I.P. Zasetskaya and I.I. Marchenko. The skyphos of the same type bring Maeotian assemblages closer to the Sarmatian burial from Zubovsky barrow 2. The skyphos from Vozdvizhenskaya barrow belonging to type IIIa also has the same variant features. Accepted dating of these assemblages determined the chronology of the existence of the vessel types in general. The skyphos of Vozdvizhenskaya type (IIIa, 2) appear in the second half of the 1st century BC, and of Zubovsky type (IIIb, 2) – at the turn of the era, the period of further synchronous use of both types of vessels lasts until the middle of the 1st century AD. Thus, the time of appearance of types IIIa and IIIb skyphos with handles of variant 2 can supposedly be divided by an interval of about 50 years. The chronology of existence of glass skyphos of the type IIIb, variant 2 is consistent with presence of a silver kantharos, swords with a ring top, iron arrowheads, spearhead and types of beads, gray clay pottery of local production among funerary equipment, which allows to limit dating of the considered burials to the first half of the 1st century AD.