Valentina Mordvintseva

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at National Research University Higher School of Economics

During a survey on the territory of the Eklizi-Burun cult complex, a repeatedly densely folded fragment of a silver sheet was discovered. When unfolded during the restoration process, it turned out to be part of an art object depicting the mask of Medusa Gorgon. The size and shape of the item suggest its purpose as part of Roman military equipment...

"Der Begriff „Maioten"" ergibt sich aus der Lokalisierung verschiedener Völkerschaften an den Ufern des Asowschen Meeres (Maiotis) durch antike Autoren. Die Identifizierung der archäologischen Kultur begann in den 1930er Jahren mit der Entdeckung von Siedlungen und Nekropolen entlang des unteren und mittleren Kubanflusses; deren Untersuchung ermögl...

The article is discussing two bronze weights from Roman steelyards found on the mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (Crimea). One of its main ritual practices was the deliberate destruction of items. It is suggested that adherents of the cult complex got these two weights together with the steelyards as trophies, which were then destroyed and offere...

A good degree of archaeological study of monuments of in the Mt. Opuk area (southeast Crimea) allows us, in the very first approximation, to outline the chronology of seismic events. The revealed deformations of building structures, taken separately, and moreover, taken together, indicate their seismogenic character. In ancient building structures...

The author proposes an approach to determine self-identities, boundaries, internal political organization and foreign relations of ancient societies using materials of burials of élites in the lack of representative written sources.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of burial assemblages of ‘barbarian’ élites located on the territory of the Crimea between Chersonesos Taurica and the Bosporan kingdom dating from the 3rd century BC to the mid-3rd century AD . The main goal of the research is to define indications of self-identities of the Crimean non-urban societies repr...

Metal jewellery used as votive offerings is discovered at the “barbarian” mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (the Crimea) and dating from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD . Most of these items were probably part of female costume known from funerary contexts in the Central Crimea, which differ both regarding their location (in the Crimean Foothills...

This is the publication of a female burial in Catacomb No. 1119 of the Ust’-Al’ma necropolis situated on the south-western shore of the Crimea. In it were found items of personal jewellery (gold earrings, amphora-shaped pendants, beads of a necklace and plaques originally sewn on to garments) as well as grave goods (gold leaves from a funerary wrea...

The term “Late Scythian Culture of the Crimea” is a modern concept, similar in meaning to the term “Crimean Scythia”, in which the interpretation model, formed during the study of written and epigraphic sources, was originally laid. It seems that the phenomenon of the Late Scythian archaeological culture of the Crimea rather reflects the economic a...

Cultural change in the "barbarian" world of the North Pontic region from the 3rd century bc to the mid-3rd century ad was not a special field of interest for ancient authors. Classical narratives only contain information about certain manifestations of such processes. In Russia, interest in studying the cultural changes that took place in the stepp...

In 2015 during excavations in the Ust'-Al'ma necropolis, a grave with a side-chamber was discovered (No. 1074). The deceased was a male aged 25-35 who had suffered many injuries during his life which could be traces of blows received in battle. The burial complex dates from the mid-1st century AD and belongs to a group of 'Barbarian' elite burials...

The Northern Black Sea region, despite its distance from the centers of classical civilizations, played an integral role in the socioeconomic life of the ancient Greco-Roman world. The chapters in this book, written by experts on the region, explore topics such as the trade, religion, political culture, art and architecture, and the local non-Greek...

The article is a publication of the Grave 1 excavated in the necropolis of Luchistoe-2, which is so far the only known archaeological site in Southern Crimea with burial structures of the Early Roman period. The article includes suggestions regarding the scale and date of the necropolis, as well as the funerary rite, costume and cultural connection...

download PDF Abstract In 2015 during excavations in the Ust’-Al’ma necropolis there was discovered a niche-grave No. 1074 with a burial of male 25–35 years old having many intravital injuries which should be traces of battle strokes. The burial complex is dated to the mid-1st century AD. It belongs to a group of burials of barbarian elite accompani...

The author analyzes archaeological materials from the necropolis of the Late Scythian hillfort at Zolotaya Balka village situated in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and dating to the period from the 2nd c. BC to the early 2nd c. AD. A qualitative, quantitative and spatial analysis of features of the burial rite has been done. The groups of burials...

According to the general modern view the steppes of the northern Black Sea region, from the Danube to the Ural valleys, in the period from the third century BC to the mid-third century AD, were inhabited by Sarmatian tribes using a burial mound rite. Several consecutive waves of Sarmatian peoples came to this territory from the East, conquering the...

In 2004 a previously unknown burial-ground consisting of flat graves was discovered by grave-robbers on the northern slopes of the Central Caucasus range at a height of 800 metres above sea-level near the settlement of Mezmay in the Apsheronsk District of the Krasnodar region. In 2005 the first rescue excavations were undertaken. Among the assembla...