A gold ring with a portrait of Nero, which could only have been a diplomatic gift or a reward for military service, was discovered in a female burial in Kerch.
A gold ring with an image of Nero, which was found in an ancient female burial in Kerch (Republic of Crimea), could have been a farewell gift from a Roman legionary. This is how the find was interpreted by Viktor Zinko from the Crimean Federal University named after V. I. Vernadsky (Simferopol), he published his thoughts in the collection “Field diary. Eastern Europe in ancient times and the Middle Ages.”
The Bosporan Kingdom is an ancient state, one of the largest and most powerful on the northern shore of the Black Sea. This kingdom existed for more than a thousand years, and during its heyday it controlled the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas, the mouth of the Don and neighboring territories. The Bosporus came under Roman influence after the death of Mithridates VI Eupator (63 BC), who had fought Rome for several decades. The winner periodically tries to put his protégés on the Bosporan throne, and representatives of the local dynasty seek approval in Rome. One of the episodes of this diplomatic game ended with the Roman-Bosporan War of 45-49 AD. It is assumed that after the defeat in this war, the Bosporus became so dependent on Rome that turning it into a province made no sense.
The ring in question was discovered on the northern slope of Mount Mithridates in 1990. At that time, rescue excavations were carried out there before the construction of a residential building and a section of the Panticapaeum necropolis was discovered – 32 ground burials, most of which were not robbed or destroyed. The ring was found in burial M-29, it was covered with limestone slabs. The buried woman, apparently, lay on a wooden platform. In addition to the already mentioned find, many beads, gold braided threads from clothing, the remains of a gold wreath, a bronze round belt buckle, a red-lacquered table amphora, and a thin nail were found in the grave. Very few bones were preserved, the floor of the buried woman can only be restored based on a set of finds. They are dated to the end of the 1st – beginning of the 2nd century AD.
The ring was found near her left hand. It is hollow, made of thin sheet gold. The insert is made of carnelian, on which an image of a man’s head in profile is carved. According to the archaeologist, the image bears the portrait features of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. There is a laurel wreath in her hair, her mouth is slightly open, her face is framed by sideburns turning into a beard. Judging by the analogies, it is Emperor Nero, and the ring itself dates back to the 60s AD.
Italian gems with portraits of the ruling dynasty, which are found in the Bosporus, are usually considered evidence of political and diplomatic contacts. But they could also be awards to particularly distinguished Roman legionnaires. In the 60s, Roman troops arrived to help Chersonesos, which was besieged by the late Scythians; perhaps at the same time, some Roman military contingent could have appeared in the Bosporus (the tombstones of legionnaires in Panticapaeum are presumably dated to this time).
After Nero’s death, his images were destroyed everywhere, which is why only a few have survived to this day. But this is most likely not a Panticapaeum case – the ring ended up in the woman’s burial at least 20-30 years after it was created. And if she was buried not at the end of the 1st, but at the beginning of the 2nd century BC, then the jewelry was kept even longer. The author of the article believes that the woman received it as a gift in her youth. It could have been a gift from a Roman legionary who was leaving the Bosporan Kingdom forever. She either kept it all her life or passed it on to her descendants.
Source: www.nkj.ru
