Crimean Scythian openwork bronze pendants bridge Asian gold and Roman bronze traditions

September 19, 2026UkraineTheoryShare

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Key facts

• Scythian Neapolis Necropolis, Crimea, late 2nd century BC to mid 3rd century CE: cast openwork bronze pendants interlocking into 3D spherical forms with clusters of substantial knobs at regular intervals
• Crimean openwork bronze objects measure 3–8 cm in diameter — the same size range as Roman dodecahedra
• Similar objects found at the Belbek burial ground, also in Crimea, and similar openwork bronze cage pendants occur in the Balkans from the end of the 8th century BC and are known in the Don region, the Caucasus, the Black Sea steppe, and modern Hungary
• Crimean objects classified as amulets: not found on the body but placed next to the backbone, at the head, in a bag, or beside the body, most often in women's and children's graves
• Roman dodecahedra recovered from comparable ritual contexts: grave burial goods, near sacrificial shafts at cult precincts, a temple cache at the Temple of Nodens in Wales, next to a bronze goddess statuette north of Paris, alongside a Mercury Herm at a German frontier site
• Celtic frontier territories maintained trading and cultural contact with the Pontic steppe world from roughly 450 BC onward, while the Roman heartland did not participate in this exchange network

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