A Grave from the Hunnic Period in the Cemetery of Neizats (Central Crimea)

Abstract

This publication aims to present the results of the investigation of a new Hunnic grave from the Great Migration Period, which was discovered in the cemetery of Neizats, grave 586 in the Crimea. The grave contains an inhumation of a 21-22 years old woman in an underground burial vault. The grave goods discovered in grave 586 are generally typical of women’s graves belonging to the nomads who lived in the eastern European steppe during the Hunnic and Post-Hunnic periods. The architecture of the grave itself and the inhumation rite are typical among the populations of the sub-mountainous Crimea in the Late Roman and Great Migration Periods. On the basis of the grave goods, we have reason to date this grave to the end of the Hunnic or the beginning of the Post-Hunnic periods, i. e. the second third of the 5th century. In that period, Crimean steppes were inhabited by nomadic Huns, who left behind isolated graves.