MEDITERRANEAN AND NORTH PONTIC GREEK IMPORTS IN THE NOMADIC BURIALS OF THE LOWER VOLGA REGION AND FOOTHILLS OF SOUTH URALS OF THE 4th — FIRST THIRD OF THE 3rd CENTURY BC

Abstract

In the Archaic period, Mediterranean and Greek North Pontic imports, rather well represented in Early Scythian burials on the Lower Don, are practically unknown in the burials of the nomads in the Lower Volga and South Urals regions.
 The analysis of archaeological sources shows that in the second half of the 4th century BC imported beads and pendants made of glass, frit and amber reach the nomads of the Lower Volga and South Urals, and a little later, at the turn of the 4th and in the first third of the 3rd century BC — in addition, Greek pottery and possibly vessels made of precious metals, alabaster and onyx. Olbian bronze «borystheni» of the late 4th—3rd centuries BC also were found into the Lower Volga region.
 If for the 5th and most part of the 4th century BC. imports that entered the South Urals were mainly represented by products of the Achaemenid circle, then after the fall of the Achaemenid state and the resulting geopolitical changes in the Lower Volga region and the South Urals imports began to be distributed from (via) the North Pontic region. It is worth noting that in the burials on the Manych river and in the Lower Volga region, finds of transport amphorae were combined with similar black-glazed echinus bowls, and the find of another such bowl in the South Urals suggests that they enjoyed particular popularity among the nomads, even if they did not penetrate Sarmatia within the same batch.
 The above discussed observations rather convincingly support the hypothesis put forward by D. B. Shelov and I. B. Brashinskii. There are grounds reason to suggest that beads and pendants, as well as amphoras, black-glazed pottery and coins could have reached the nomads of the Lower Volga and South Urals precisely via the Elizavetovskoe settlement at the mouth of the Don: probably, beads and pendants — even through the Scythian settlement, on which various industrial complexes and shops existed, allegedly destroyed in the 340s BC, whereas amphoras, black-glazed pottery and coins — already through the so-called Bosporan colony, founded on the site of a settlement in the last quarter of the 4th century BC, which existed until the mid-70s of the 3rd century BC.