Gems of Rare Forms from Asian Sarmatia (Prisms from the Nomadic Burials of the 1st - First Half of the 2nd Century AD in the Lower and Middle Don Basins)
The article deals with gems in the form of prisms with paired images on two sides of each, found in two burials of the 1st- early 2nd centuries AD in Sarmatian burial mounds in the Lower and Middle Don, which belong to a very rare group of works of the Hellenistic and Roman glyptics. The iconography of the images of Hermes, Odysseus or Ajax on two amethyst prisms from a burial mound on the outskirts of Voronezh, as well as a sitting dog with its head thrown back and a star in the image field, on a carnelian prism from the Kobyakovskii burial ground are analyzed in detail. The fact that of the eight prisms known to us - three come from the cemeteries of the Don basin, and two each, which are in the collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the State Hermitage, originate (Pantikapaion) or may presumably originate from the North Pontic area, is consistent both with the unusual iconography of prisms from the Don region and the style of images on prisms from a burial mound on the outskirts of Voronezh. These observations give certain grounds to associate the works of glyptics under discussion with the North Pontic (Bos- poran?) gem-cutting workshops. The proposed attribution is also confirmed by the fact that the custom of decorating jewelry with gems was especially widespread in the North Black Sea region. The above-discussed prisms were treated by their owners as ornaments and amulets, and not as a means for sealing.