Pending Issues of Archaeology and History of Crimea in the Roman Period

The paper deals with the issues faced by the researchers of Crimea history during the Roman period. These issues still remain unsolved, or at least clearly defined, approaches to solve them have not been worked out. Many large flat burial grounds have been discovered; however, there are no settlements that would be linked to them. For this reason, we do not understand the lifestyle of the population that has left behind these cemeteries. New discoveries have shown that the existing concepts on the origin of the cremation cemeteries are not consistent with the archaeological situation. The generally accepted hypothesis stating that the Alans were present in Crimea is based on a rather fragile foundation. Therefore, understanding these difficulties could become the first step to overcome them.