Gold Settings with Inlays from Kosika

Abstract

The article dwells on the finds in the burial of the Sarmatian skeptuchos of the 1st century BC near Kosika on the Lower Volga of the gold settings, decorated using the cloisonné technique and with inlays of emeralds and glass of different colors. Three of them with inlays in the cloisonné technique, which find parallels among jewelry from the Artyukhov Burial-mound and Asia Minor, are probably dating back to the 2nd century BC, and could originally decorate various objects. 18 other settings are characterized by the absence of loops on the rear or holes for stringing, which excludes their use as elements of necklaces or diadems. These settings find analogies among the finds from the tomb in the Burial-mound A in Karalar in Central Anatolia, in which the Galatian king Sinorix, the father of Deiotaros I (ca. 120–41/40 BC) and the grandfather of Deiotaros II the Younger (Philopator), died in the battle under Philippi in 42 BC, was possibly buried. Like by the settings from Karalar, a significant number of settings from Kosika are decorated with green inlays of emerald and beryl, which were widely used in jewelry of the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial periods. Along with other unique items from the burial on the Lower Volga, gold settings with inlays, most likely used in the interior decoration of the grave or in the decoration of the bone handle of the ceremonial dagger, emphasize the belonging of the burial to the highest rank of the Sarmatian elite.