Roman bronze vessels from the late Sarmatian burial of the Lebedevka burial-ground in Western Kazakhstan

This paper is devoted to studying cultural monuments - bronze vessels, a jug and a basin from the barrow no. 1/1967 of the Lebedevka Late Sarmatian burial mound (Western Kazakhstan), dating back to the middle of the 3rd century AD at the latest. These items do not find exact parallels among the bronze vessels of provincial Rome. Although the shape of the jug handle with a curved leaf turned upright between two horizontally arranged swan heads has parallels on the so-called “composite jug with handles” (“gegliederten Henkelkrügen”), the cylindrical form of the jug’s neck peculiar of the glass jugs of allegedly Syrian manufacture of the second half of the 3rd-4th centuries AD is very unusual. Even more unusual is a basin with horizontally bent rim and elaborate handles with pearls on a high narrow stand-ring. The XRF analyses of the Lebedevka jug’s metal revealed that its body and handle were made of a copper-based alloy with very high admixtures of zinc (24-27 %) and inconsiderable additions of lead (up to 3 %). A similar alloy was used for manufacturing a vessel in the form of a crouching young negro from Niederbieber. Most objects of provincial Roman import reached Western Kazakhstan via the Bosporan kingdom along the Northern branch of the Silk Road. The above discussed bronze vessels from Lebedevka let suggest, that the nomads could receive some import articles that were brought along the caravan routes leading from Egypt and Syria to the East.