Exquisite gold jewelry of ancient nobility unearthed

Archaeologists have unearthed gold and silver jewellery at an early medieval cemetery near the city of Sevastopol in Crimea.

The new findings suggest that the burial site – the Almalyk-dere cemetery on the Mangup plateau, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Sevastopol – was a burial site for elite members of a society that spread across southwestern Crimea from the late fourth to the sixth centuries. There is archaeological evidence of prehistoric settlements on the Mangup plateau dating back 5,000 years.

A pair of gold earrings set with red stones, possibly garnet or agate. (Photo: Crimean Federal University).

Archaeologists first excavated parts of the Mangup plateau in the 19th century and have been systematically investigating it since the 20th century. 'This burial site has turned up many surprises ,' said Valery Naumenko, an archaeologist at the VI Vernadsky Federal University of Crimea. 'Despite the severe looting of these complexes, there are still things that have independent scientific value.'

Naumenko and his colleagues are excavating the site together with archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences. The sixth-century Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea wrote that the Mangup region was at that time part of the Christian principality of Gothia, founded in southwestern Crimea by the Goths who refused to follow Theodoric the Great in his invasion of Italy in 488.

Elaborate jewelry

The new finds come from two tombs dating from the fourth to sixth centuries, and the jewelry appears to have been worn by women. The treasures include brooches, gold earrings, belt pieces and shoe buckles, and gold leaf appliques sewn onto the collars of clothing.

"Most likely, wealthy women were buried in both crypts where these objects were found ," said Artur Nabokov, an archaeologist at the Crimean Archaeological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, adding that the earrings were probably imported, while the brooches were made in Crimea.

The earrings were particularly ornate and were made of gold with inlaid red gemstones, possibly garnets or agates; while a pair of earrings were cast in silver and covered with gold leaf and inlaid with red stones. One of the crypts also contained a decorated 'pyxis' , a container made from animal horn and used to hold cosmetic powders, such as blush.