The Child Burial with a Glass Rhyton from the Pantikapaion Necropolis

The paper publishes an assemblage of finds from a child burial at the Pantikapaion necropolis excavated by V. V. Shkorpil in 1903. The materials from this assemblage were divided by the Imperial Archaeological Commission into two parts, one part of the collection is now held in the State Historical Museum in Moscow whereas the second part is kept in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. A unique zoomorphic rhyton blown into form that has rhomboid bosses on its body interpreted as pine cone scales was found in the burial. The white opaque glass of the vessel suggests that it was produced in Syria. The composition of the glass is consistent with this hypothesis. The find was apparently made of the so called Roman glass from the Levantine production centers; to produce an opaque white glass vessel, antimony was added to base glass according to the recipe used during the Roman period. Of special value is the fact that the rhyton was discovered in a closed assemblage that also included a ceramic oenochoe with glazed coating, a bronze enameled fibula shaped as a peacock, a bronze pendant showing a dove, a ring with bosses, a round fragment of golden foil and beads. The location of the fragment of a terracotta mask mentioned in the report has not been identified. The assemblage suggests that it dates back to the second half of the 1st century AD.