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The necropolises Frontovoe 3 and Kil-Dere 1 from the environ of Chersonesos are interesting and important for the reconstruction of the cultural and historical situation on the borders of the Roman Empire. Data on the isotopic composition of bone collagen and tooth enamel provide new opportunities to discuss the nutrition, economy, and mobility of societies. The isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen informs about the average dietary intake of an individual over the last few years of life (7—10), while the ratio of strontium isotopes in tooth enamel characterizes the habitat of the child during the formation of the crown of the teeth (in this case, from 1 to 6 years). Thus, we obtain information about local natives and migrants of the first generation, whose childhood, probably, passed outside the environ of Chersonesos. The isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in 67 samples of bone tissue and the composition of strontium in 35 samples of tooth enamel were studied. The life support system of these societies was based on the use of local terrestrial food resources. Few individuals have been found who can be named first-generation migrants. The low variability of the isotope ratios of strontium and carbon indicates a clear localization of this population group on the given territory. We also discuss the factors behind the differences in the isotopic markers of groups from Kil-Dere 1 and Frontovoye 3. These can be both environmental factors and cultural differences. The questions addressed here can be answered by studying a broader base of the compared materials.

A wide variety of archaeological sites associated with various human activity has led to the emergence of a wide range of problems solved by archaeological palynology. On the example of the palynological materials accumulated in the Laboratory of Nature Sciences of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the opportunities and features of the palynological analysis application are considered both on classical objects for Russian archaeopalynology (cultural layer, buried soils, defensive ramparts, burial mounds, etc.) and on non-traditional ones (latrines, vessels, funerary objects, ceramics, etc.). It is shown that the reconstruction of the natural environment, generally accepted for palynology, is mainly possible for the materials from long timed sites of shepherds in caves and rock shelters and cultural layers of sites, settlements, hillforts. Materials obtained from other objects (ancient and medieval arable lands, storage pits, latrines, the contents of ritual objects, vessels, and the gastrointestinal tract of the buried) give an idea of very local and short-term environmental conditions or events usually associated with economic and/or daily activities of a person, with his food, funerary rites and traditions. In this regard, the possibilities of the palynological method and the purposes will be different for each specific research. Recommendations for the sampling for palynological analysis are given for each specific case.

The article deals with a rare find of unburned human remains in the Slavic dwelling 13 in the Kurilovka 2 settlement (Sudzha district, Kursk region, Russia). Тhe construction belongs to the Sakhnovka-Volyntsevo stage of the site occupation (end of the 7th — 8th c.). Skull bones belonging to a 3—4 years old child were found in the near-bottom filling layer of the dwelling. Parts of the postcranial skeleton, like the lower jaw, are missing. The preservation of the bone tissue is good, no disturbances of the surface layer, common for remains from ground burials, were noted. Manifestations of a genetic pathology (early stenosis of the frontal bone) were revealed on the skull, indicating that the child suffered from rare deviations in physical development. The completeness of the remains, their preservation, and the peculiarities of their occurrence in cultural strata suggest that we are dealing with the deposition of an isolated child's skull without a lower jaw in the living space of a house. It was probably an important non-utilitarian object that could be associated with ideas about rebirth, preservation of life and other manifestations of fertility and vitality cults in the broadest sense of these terms. Such an interpretation corresponds to the modern understanding of the ritual objects of the Volyntsevo culture. As recent studies have shown, its sites contain mainly traces of rituals associated with ensuring prosperity and well-being, that is, of a vital nature.

Burials with horses are known among the Western Balts of the Roman period. It is believed that in this era, horses in the graves accompanied the dead soldiers and were of a symbolic character, they emphasized the high social status of the buried. The conclusions were made exclusively on the basis of archaeological material. These conclusions of archaeologists are quite legitimate, indeed, the presence of weapons in the graves, including "professional", equestrian equipment and rather expensive metal elements of horse equipment indicates that these burials belong to soldiers of a certain status. It seems appropriate to verify these conclusions with the help of anthropology and archaeozoology. Such an attempt on the example of burial 3.2017 of the Romanovo-Pugachevsky Prud cemetery is undertaken in this work. The burial belonged to a man about 30 years old and a teenager, whose gender has not been established. The radiocarbon date of the burial corresponds to the first half — middle of the 2nd century. The objects found characterize the man as a warrior. The teenager buried with him may have occupied a dependent, subordinate position in relation to this warrior. The results of studying the bone remains of a horse from this burial complex allow us to attribute them to the skeleton of a war horse of 6—8 years old. The presented multidisciplinary data can serve as a good illustration of the hypothesis that the Western Baltic burials of the Roman period could belong to the warriors-horsemen and their war horses.

Warrior burials are not often found in late ancient necropolises of the Cimmerian Bosporus. Such burials rarely survive untouched by robbers. In this context, a recently discovered well-preserved large tomb in Phanagoria is a really unique find. After examining this grand two-chamber vault, archaeologists obtained a set of interesting data, but special attention should be paid to warrior traditions adopted by people who lived in the late ancient capital of the Asian Bosporus. The importance of warrior subculture of the Migration period for the urban elite is manifested in the use of warrior fittings in children clothes. It is a known fact that a buried man who belonged to the warrior class is marked not only by the weapons found with him, but also by shoulder belts, elements of warrior accessories fastened on his body in a certain way. The passing of such subculture through generations of Phanagorian noble men is greatly illustrated by finds from the vault where archaeologists found in situ remains of noble warriors and their descendants, children of various age. The children clothes were largely imitating the clothes of equestrian warriors. This outstanding archaeological situation expressly testifies to cultivation of warrior traditions among boys since their early childhood and pronounced external manifestations, including in elements of their costume, of male children's inclusion in the warrior subculture.

The paper presents the evidence of flint knapping by people with different skill levels at the Eastern Gravettian site of Zaraysk B on the Russian Plain. The basic methodological approach used in this study is the analysis of "deviations from the technological norm". In addition, the results are verified via more traditional methods of spatial and technological analysis of the refit sets. The analysis of the totality of cores and core preforms leads to the conclusion that flint knapping was carried out by both expert craftsmen and novices, as well as intermediate-level knappers. All core preforms and most cores in the collection appear to have been the result of knapping by craftsmen with a low or intermediate level of knapping skills.

The article addresses two-horned lamellar silver lunula pendants of the late Roman Period, found in burials 13 and 94 of Frontovoye 3 burial ground in the South-West Crimea. The distribution of lunulas of similar types in the Crimea and adjacent territories, their dating and methods of wearing have been studied. In most cases, these pendants are found in burial complexes of the second half of the 3rd century in Crimea, on the territory of Northern Dagestan, in Kalmykia and in the basin of the Lower Don. At the same time, for the Crimea and the Sarmatian steppe, the data of the lunulas serve as chronological indicators for the second half of the 3rd century. One of their variants (no. 3) from Frontovoye-3 burial ground is more typical for the Crimea, rarely found outside its borders and has an earlier dating, within the first half of the 3rd century AD. Methods of wearing lunula pendant with the costume of those buried in Northern Dagestan, Kalmykia and the Lower Don differs from their use in the Crimea. In the area between the Don, the Volga and the Caucasian ridge, lunulas are usually found in necklaces, where they are combined with spiral-shaped bronze beads ending in 14 sided beads, usually carnelian. However, such necklaces are completely absent among the Crimean burials.

The paleoanthropological materials from fully studied 228 burials of Frontovoye-3 burial ground it is possible to characterize the deformed skulls frequency and their shape in burials dating back to late 1st — early 5th centuries AD. We esteem the tradition of baby's head artificial deformation as related to gender culture, which is passed on from one generation of women to the next. There were found only seven cases of deformities, which is less than 3 % of the total number of individuals studied. With the contours of the skull sagittal sutures compared, traces of slight annular deformation were found on six male skulls of mature and older age. The skull of one young woman shows traces of annular deformation with the effect of slight skull elongation. We discuss the hypothesis that the tradition of insignificant deformation of baby's head was observed by a very limited part of society. Nevertheless, this tradition has been preserved throughout the entire existence of the necropolis. The same picture can be observed in a series of paleoanthropological materials from the Roman period from the necropolises of Chersonesos, Phanagoria, and burial grounds of the Abrau Peninsula. This situation contrasts with the high frequency and significant severity of deformed skulls among the population of the Lower Don and Volga regions, Northern Ciscaucasia.

The collection of Heraclea ceramic stamps stored in Kerch in the funds of the East Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve (VKIKMZ) is the largest one in the world. It is an important source for the study of the Heraclean stamping in general and for solving many specific issues related to the dating of various archaeological layers and objects. The purpose of this publication is to present the source in a ready and convenient form for its use, eliminating the need to refer to the originals again in general. Due to the huge amount of material, it seemed appropriate to divide the Catalog into two parts. The first one is devoted to the analysis of the code (collection) of Heraclean stamps in the VKIKMZ, which includes 2809 items discovered up to 2015 inclusive and published by N.F. Fedoseev in 2016. Based on a thorough analysis of all Heraclean stamps of the Kerch collection, corrections of the mistakes made in the restoration of their legends are proposed. The editing is also confirmed by the revealed correspondences of the stamps both within the collection itself and by analogies from publications and from other museum's holdings. The attached tables contain illustrations to verify the conclusions. In the second part of the work, it is planned to publish other several hundred Heraclean stamps received by the VKIKMZ after 2015.

Signs of a toy are distinguished upon different materials: archaeological, ethnographic, of folk art and of personal experience. In the shape of the toy, there are signs of the impossibility of using it as a real prototype object: the nonconformance in the material, size, and simplification of the design. Appearance of a toy accurately points to the real prototype. Unlike sacred images, the toy focuses on the reality and pleasantness of the look, unlike decorative ones, it subordinates the decorative features to the concrete features of the prototype, although the toy is associated with the style of the time. The toy's features point at its use in the game, possibility of free movement in the game space: absence of any details tightly fastening it with other objects; presence of details contributing to movement and change of position. Concrete toys go out of use due to a change in the nature of the games, a change in the attitude of the player: growing up, propensity to admire, rejection due to taste preferences. Works of folk crafts called "toys" become interior decorations, figurines, beautiful gifts. But they preserve the idea of a game, looking at them the human mind recreates the game, and for some time homo becomes homo ludens.

Children's graves were discovered in numerous burial grounds of Roman times in the South-Western and Central Crimea. Despite the large number of excavated graves, there are no special investigations on the peculiarities of the children's funerary tradition. The paper provides a brief description of specific features identified in the spread of children's burials at Frontovoe 3 cemetery and focuses on a number of graves dating back to the 4 th century AD. All of them were made in separate niches. They have a typical set of grave goods for the chronological period under consideration. Special attention is paid to the specific location of children's burials in the cemetery. In conclusion, the author offers a review of published children's burials from synchronous sites.

The basin of the Khoper River in its middle course is the extreme southeastern area of the Late Zarubintsy and Kiev culture archaeological sites. Based on the materials of excavations in this region, sites of Shapkino-Inyasevo type were identified. Until recently, they were dated to the second half of the 2 nd — second half of the 3 rd centuries. In 2022, exploration was carried out in the valley of the Vorona River (the western tributary of the Khoper River). The objectives of the study were, firstly, to compile a general map of Early Slavic sites, and secondly, to clarify their chronology. The materials of the Early Slavic tradition come from 16 areas. Some characteristic finds demonstrated that the group of the Early Slavic sites on the Vorona River dates to the middle of the 1 st century AD — 5 th/6 th centuries AD.

In Frontovoe 3, a necropolis of the Roman period discovered in the South-Western Crimea in 2018, three bronze anthropomorphic pendants were found in children's grave 305, among other grave goods. Grave 305 is attributed to the end of the 1 st — the first half of the 2 nd century according to the totality of grave goods. Similar pendants are found in eight more graves at this site, in which adults were buried. Anthropomorphic pendants are also known from other synchronous Crimean burial grounds. The question arises to what extent such pendants are typical for children's graves of the Crimea in Roman times. Parallels from other cemeteries from different territories of the Crimea showed that pendants of this type, in contrast to the ones from Frontovoye 3 burial ground, are most characteristic of children's burials. These products are almost never found outside the Crimea, and the time of their prevalence falls approximately in the middle of the 1st century — first half of the 2 nd century.

The article summarizes the data known about home layouts in North-West Crimea during the peak of the late Scythians' settlements. The layouts of a number of houses (Kara-Tobe, South Donuzlav settlement) are introduced for the first time. These layouts are the first to be compared with each other and with the previously published layouts. Such comparison demonstrates that the number of planning schemes in late Scythians North-West Crimea was limited, besides, they changed over the time. In that way, Г-shaped house layouts that had prevailed during the previous stage (about 110 BC — middle 1 st century BC) became obsolescent before 20 BC. Kerkinitis layout system is dated within the same years. From 1 st century BC the houses of П-shaped layout emerged and after 20 BC they became prevalent. Г-shaped and П-shaped houses meet their analogies in Kerkinitis and Kalos Limen of the Greek period, they are well represented in other regions of the ancient world as well. Kerkinitis layout system is similar to 'equally-parallel principle of home layouts', typical for Scythian Neapolis and Ust-Alma settlement. This gives us the opportunity to expect that some Greek specialists or their Barbarian apprentices contributed to the exploration of the North-West Crimea. They could be similar specialists and apprentices who had earlier worked in Scythian Neapolis.

The article considers the finds of golden lunulae amulets found in the burials of the Frontovoye 3 burial ground in the South-Western Crimea (late 1 th — early 5 th centuries). They come from female burials of the 1 st — early 3 rd centuries and find parallels on the sites of the Northern Black Sea region and the steppe zone of Eastern Europe. Lunulae amulets are particularly typical for the female constume and most likely had a magical protective role in it. Such amulets were widespread in Roman times among the population of the Mediterranean, especially in its eastern part (e. g. Egypt, Syria). This testifies to the strong influence of Roman civilization, which manifested itself in all areas of the life of the "barbarians" in Taurida, including women's attire. The almost simultaneous distribution of the lunulae amulets among the barbarians of the Pontic region and on the territory of the Roman Empire indicates a significant integration between the culture of the Northern Black Sea region and the Roman Mediterranean. Of course, gold lunulae amulets are of Roman origin and reflect the Roman fashion, where they were not only decorations, but also had an apotropaic character. It was assumed that such amulets would ward off evil forces, the evil eye, diseases, and other misfortunes from their bearers. Of course, we cannot say how much local women perceived the symbolic meaning of these objects, attributed to them by the Romans. Perhaps they treated them only as beautiful decorations, copying the Roman fashion.