Gender Markers of the Roman-period Burials in the Cemetery of Opushki

This paper makes an attempt to identify the markers of various gender groups among those buried in the cemetery of Opushki, which is located in the central part of the Crimean foothill area. A total of 266 burials (167 child, 59 female, and 40 male graves) dating from the first to fourth century AD have been analysed. All these monuments belong to the Late Scythian and the Neizats archaeological cultures. The analysis undertaken indicates that neither grave construction, nor funeral rite had gender specificity. In this perspective, the composition of grave goods was more expressive. The exclusively female and child accessories were mirrors, spindle whorls, and bells; moreover, graves of children usually received only fragments of mirrors, though women's burials got complete artefacts. Scythian arrowheads, faience amulets, and pendants made of coins and mollusc shells were predominantly children's attributes. The finds of weapons, horse harness, and iron rod-shaped artefacts and flints, probably used to make fire, were associated with male graves only. The buckles were also concentrated mostly in male graves. Although the brooches, ornaments, vessels, knives, and whetstones appeared in the burials of all sex-and-age groups, gender specificity might be observed in minor details, i. e. quantity, frequency of occurrence, ways of usage, and so on. It is especially pronounced with the ornaments, mainly in case of the beads.