Glass beads – monochrome pyramidal, flat rhomboid and biconical – types 88–96, 112–115 and 171 of E.M. Alekseyeva. In search of chronoindicators for microchronology of kurgans and burials of the Black Sea Scythia of the 5th – 4th centuries BC

Abstract

Using Greek ceramics and arrowheads from the Scythian kurgans of the Northern Black Sea region the article proposes chronology of glass monochrome beads – biconical, pyramidal and flat rhomboid, identified in types 88–96, 112–115 and 171 (Fig.1) in the typology of E.M. Alekseyeva (1978). A relatively narrow period of their use has been established, between the last quarter of the 5th and the beginning of the second half of 5th – first quarter of 4th cent. BC, making it possible to reliably date the Scythian burials to this time within a narrow chronological period, even in the absence of other chronoindicators.

Keywords

• glass beads
• scythia
• kurgans
• amphorae
• amphora stamps
• bronze arrow heads
• greek black-glazed and red-figure ceramics