Kuban Elites and Main Trends in Their Outside Network Connections From the 3rd Century BC to the mid-3rd Century AD

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the imported prestige goods and their derivatives found in the elite burial assemblages of the Kuban region during four chronological periods: 3rd – 2nd  centuries BC, 1st century BC, 1st – mid-2nd  centuries AD, and mid-2nd – mid 3rd  centuries AD. Observations about differences in place of their origin as well as the comparison of their distribution at the successive chronological periods give grounds to conclude about main trends in the political networking of the barbarian elites in the hinterland of the Bosporan kingdom. Some links to Southern Caucasia and the Parthian Empire are also evident.