Byzantine crosses with inlay in the south-western Crimea

Archaeological materials played an important role for the studies of the history of Christianity in the South -Wester n Cr imea. Especially in teresting are individual artefacts of Chr istian cult, pect or al cr osses in par ticular. Cr osses in costumes of the bar barians of th e South-Western Crimea appear in t he second h alf of th e 6th cen tury. Th ey wer e mainly mass goods th at wer e br ough t fr om Byzantium an d were manufactur ed in Cherson and jeweller y worksh ops of th e coun tr y of Dori. Th is paper an alyses byzan tin e cr osses fr om 550-625 AD with inlay. It was th e earliest and th e most popular type of crosses among t he Cr imean Goth s. Th e location of beads and crosses documented in situ in gr aves provides ar guments to reconstr uct necklaces and costume wh ich compon ents th ey for med. On ly women and girls wore these cr osses in n ecklaces, accompanied with beads and varied amulets. Man y necklaces con tain ed sever al cr osses, which could be explain ed as the under stan din g of cross as an amulet. Cr osses, as oth er thin gs of personal godliness, as well as numerous objects with Christian symbols, are a bright evidence of Chr istianity spreading in Crimea. Crimean finds enlarge our notion of everyday Christian culture in the early mediaeval period, th us for min g a striking eviden ce of close economic an d cultural relation s of th e Cr imea and the Byzan tine Empire in the early Middle Ages.