The Golden Horde Burial near the Cave Church of Kilse-Tubyu in the Mangup Vicinity (Southwestern Crimea)

A cave church known as Kilse-Tubyu is located in the northern suburb of Mangup (Southwestern Crimea). In 2022 archaeological excavations were carried out on the site in front of the church entrance. These excavations made it possible to single out two periods of the site of functioning, i.e. the second half of the 9th – early 10th century and the end of the 13th–14th century. A church necropolis was partially excavated there. The deceased in excavated graves No. 1–9 were buried according to the Christian practice. Most graves did not contain any burial offerings. The only exception is grave No. 5: headdress elements such as buttons, pendants and beads (a total of 26 items) were recorded on the skull. The paper introduces these items into scientific discourse. The documented decoration elements were made of kashi (16 items) and opaque glass (9 items), the set also included one cowry shell. The paper analyzes the elements referred to this type of decoration. Using analogies to these items common in the Ulus of Jochi, it was found that at the Golden Horde sites such elements occur in children’s and women’s graves of the 13th–14th centuries. Given the stratigraphy of the site and the dating of the items, the author proposes to date grave No. 5 near Kilse-Tubyu to the 14th century. The analyzed set of the funerary goods has greatly added to our understanding of the trade contacts of the people who lived in the northern suburb of Mangup and in the fortress itself in the Golden Horde period of this region history.