...The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and slaves, and this commerce supported a class whose showy wealth over the centuries is still being dug out, often illegally, from numerous burial barrows or kurgans. The once thriving cities of the Bosporus have left extensive architectural and sculptural remains, while the kurgans continue to yield spectacular Greco-Sarmatian objects, the best examples of which are now preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. These include gold work, vases imported from Athens, coarse terracottas, textile fragments and specimens of carpentry and marquetry. Read full entry

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