A.G. Furasyev

Key words: early medieval Crimea, the Goths, female dress, jewelry, relative chronology.
On the basis of analysis of the morphological and structural characteristics of the two-plate fibulae that are found in the Crimea the author details the current general typological scheme for the items (Fig. 6): variant 1A – fibulae with medium-sized plates, whole; variant 1B – large fibulae with plates, composite; variant 2A – small fibulae with protrusions at the head and rhombic foot; variant 2B – large fibulae with protrusions at the head and frame on the reverse side; variant 3 – small fibulae with triangular foot. The author regards as erroneous the hypothesis that these varieties of fibulae followed a unified line of evolution from variant 1 to variant 3. Fibulae of variants 1 and 2 existed synchronously, and their origin is connected with two different prototypes from the Great Migration period. Three general tendencies in the evolution of Crimean two-plate fibulae have been identified for the first time. All the three tendencies manifested themselves in the evolution of variant 1 and variant 2 items throughout the 6th – beginning of the 7th cc. The first tendency is larger size, the more recent items are longer than the earlier ones. Second, the first tendency brought about the appearance and gradual strengthening of the reinforcing frame on the reverse side of the fibulae. Third, the quality of the metal became poorer, i.e. the silver content in the alloy went down from 97% which is the maximum content in the earlier fibulae to 50% and less in the more recent versions.