Imported and locally manufactured jewellery in the Cimmerian Bosporus in the late 6th–5th centuries BCE

This article is devoted to the publication and analysis of gold, electrum and silver jewellery dating from the late 6th to the end of the 5th centuries BCE, found in the territory of the Cimmerian Bosporus. The main well-dated complexes with finds are considered. Jewellery is discussed by categories: beads and necklaces, pendants and amulets, earrings and temple pendants, torcs, bracelets, and finger rings. The fact, that the jewellery items examined here are considered primarily basing on publications of varying levels of description and quality of illustrations and are unavailable to the author for any technological research, significantly reduces the possibilities of their attribution in terms of distinguishing between imported and locally produced items. Nevertheless, having been studied in the context of all known pieces of jewellery of the late Archaic and early Classical periods from the Black Sea region, Asia Minor, the Near East and Greece, they allow us to express in a cautious form some considerations, basing primarily on the peculiarities of the geographical distribution of forms and decorative motifs. Among the supposedly imported ones, one can single out products of the workshops located in Asia Minor, primarily Lydia, Cyprus and the South-Eastern Black Sea region. There are also grounds to suggest that already in the first half, possibly in the first quarter, of the 5th century BCE, local jewelry workshops working with precious metals appeared in the Cimmerian Bosporus. Discussed are certain types of boat earrings, spiral pendants, pendants of necklaces, torcs, bracelets and finger rings which could have been manufactured in the local workshops