(2015) А.В. Лысенко, В.В. Масякин, В.И. Мордвинцева, Могила № 1 некрополя римского времени Лучистое-2 (Южный Крым). In: История и археология Крыма 2. Симферополь 2015. С. 295—333, 620—628. (original) (raw)

There are published results of study of the grave 1 excavated in the necropolis of Luchistoe-2, which is yet the only known archaeological site of the Southern Crimea with burial structures of the Early Roman period. As a result there is proposed a general idea about the size and chronological position of the necropolis, as well as about the funeral ceremony, ethnographic costume, and cultural connections of the society using the burial ground. There was established that the published grave contained a burial of a woman of a high social status (probably, a priestess), which was committed at the late 1st or early 2nd century AD. The analysis of the archaeological material in comparison with the information about location of the necropolis and the data of contemporary epigraphic documents and ancient narrative tradition, leads to the conclusion that the burial ground was located in ‘Taurica’ – the territory between the Greek polis of Chersonesos and the Bosporan kingdom. It was used by the population, which was named in written sources as Scytho-Taurians (Plin. NH. IV, 85–86; Arr. PPE. 30). Evidently, these peoples were bearers of the so-called Late Scythian archaeological culture, and were incorporated in the sphere of cultural influence of the Bosporan state. This information can be used in further reconstructions of the ethno-political situation in the Crimea in Roman times.