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Rings for Grain: An Interpretation for the Abundant Finds of the So-called “Ptolemaic Finger Rings” of the 3rd Century B.C. in the North Black Sea Areaстатья
- Автор: Ladynin I.A.
- Сборник: Die Schätze der Erde. Natürliche Ressourcen in der antiken Welt. Stuttgarter Kolloquium zur Historischen Geographie des Altertums 10, 2008. Hrsg. E. Olshausen, V. Sauer
- Серия: Geographica Historica
- Том: 10
- Год издания: 2011
- Место издания: Stuttgart
- Первая страница: 245
- Последняя страница: 260
- Аннотация: The article deals with the so-called ‘Ptolemaic finger rings’ (bronze objects bearing the images of Ptolemaic kings or queens) found in the archaeological complexes of the North Black Sea region since the start of its archaeological exploration. The artifacts taken into account in the article are now preserved mostly in the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, the State Historical museum, Moscow, the State Hermitage, St.Petersburg; these artifacts were studied after their publications by O. Neverov (1974, 1976) and M. Treister (1982, 1985). These publications were not exhaustive and the author is aware of the fact that a number of the new finds has been added since then to these collections; nevertheless, the material of this article gives an adequate idea of these artifacts’ distribution in the North Black Sea region. One ‘Ptolemaic finger ring’ comes from Olbya, two from Chersonesos, the rest, more than 20 objects, come from various places of the Bosporan kingdom. Similar finds outside the North Black Sea region are singular. All these objects have authentic Egyptian origin and, after the images they bear, must date to the reigns of Ptolemy II to IV (though the complexes where they were found are normally of the later time). The earlier students of these artifacts considered them to be prestigious gifts marking a benevolence of the Ptolemaic court to the persons they were granted to; hence Yu. Litvinenko (1991) suggested they were brought home by the mercenary soldiers hired by the Ptolemies from the region. This opinion is hardly tenable: for all, which is known of the pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic mercenaries they were disconnected from their city-states since the start of their service and, normally, had neither opportunity, nor, in a number of cases, desire to return home. This is even truer, when comparing an honorable retreat of such a mercenary in rich and safe Egypt to his alleged to Hellenic states of the North Black Sea, unsafe as they were in the mid-3rd century B.C. The idea of Yu. Vinogradov (1999) about Bosporus’ (which is the provenance of most our artifacts) direct political and even military involvement in the balance of powers, of which Ptolemaic Egypt was a part, does not seem quite realistic either. The only plausible ‘crossing’ of Ptolemaic and Bosporan interests seems to be, as suggested long ago, the bread trade. Accepting the arguments of M. Rostovtsev (1928-1929) and M. Trofimova (1961) that there could be no competition in the export of bread, as it was always deficit in the huge Hellenic city-states, we suggest to weight a possibility of Egypt’s using Bosporan supplies for its allies (Athens, Delos, a number of bases throughout the Aegean) whenever the Egyptian supplies were insufficient of unavailable (due to Egypt’s military or even inner, as suggested by the evidence of the Canopus Decree about poor crops and hunger, situation). Bosporan bread trade being a state cause, the finger rings were probably granted to the officials responsible for it, who helped the Ptolemies to use the resources of Bospor for their interest. The decline of Bosporan chora by mid-3rd century B.C. does not deflate this theory, as it was not necessarily assessed by its contemporaries as a no-return process, while Bosporan lavish bread export of an earlier period was notorious.
- Добавил в систему: Ладынин Иван Андреевич