Mikhail G. Abramzon^1,2,*, Daniil A. Kostromichev^3,**, Andrey E. Tereshchenko^4,***, and Mikhail Yu. Treister^5,****

¹Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
²Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Magnitogorsk, Russia
³The State Museum-Preserve “Tauric Chersonesus”, Sevastopol, Russia
⁴The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
⁵Independent researcher, Bonn, Germany

*E-mail: abramzon-m@mail.ru
**E-mail: akfill@list.ru
***E-mail: andrtereshhen@yandex.ru
****E-mail: mikhailtreister@yahoo.de

Keywords: Tauric Chersonesus, necropolis, Roman garrison, gold mouth and eye plates, Roman military equipment, antoniniani, denarii. 

During excavations of Chersonesus in 2021, golden burial face plates with impressions of Roman coins of the 3rd century AD were found in two burials, those of a Roman soldier and a teenager. A silver fibula from the first burial allows the authors to assume confidently that the warrior was an officer (possibly a foederatus). His purse with antoniniani and Chersonesus bronze coins represents part of the military salary. This burial complex is a new evidence of a Roman garrison after the mid-3rd century AD. The uniqueness of the gold items (a mouth plate and a pair of eye plates) made in the same style from both graves, together with the details of Roman military equipment, suggests that this section of the Cher­sonesus southern necropolis was used to bury both Roman garrison soldiers and their family members.