Andrey M. Oblomsky*, Irina A. Saprykina**
Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
*E-mail: oblomsky_a@rambler.ru
**E-mail: dolmen200@mail.ru 

Keywords: ornaments with champlevé enamels of Eastern European style, the forest-steppe Don region, the first half of the 3rd century, Panikovets horizon.

The article publishes the results of studies of the settlement Panikovets-1 in Zadonsky district of Lipetsk Region. In 2015–2017, a hoard of ornaments with champlevé enamels of Eastern European style and a number of similar items outside the hoard were found there. In 2017, 171 m2 were unearthed on the site. It was found to have been a working area of masters-jewelers rather than a settlement. Almost all the items of the Eastern European enamel sets are raw materials for remelting. The results of the chemical composition analysis for items of non-ferrous metal from the Panikovets-1 settlement show the dominance of a multicomponent alloy in the sample with a low content of the main added components. According to these parameters, the sample from Panikovets-1 is similar to those from the forest and forest-steppe zones. The alloy used to make items from the settlement layer differs from the alloy in the ornaments of the hoard. A notable ingot made of multicomponent alloy corresponding to the Roman weight standards was found in the settlement layer. Based on higher zinc content, an indirect conclusion can be drawn that this ingot was an object of import, and was not cast immediately at the settlement. The materials of the Panikovets-1 settlement in the Upper Don region allow the authors to suggest distinguishing a special cultural and chronological horizon of the first half of the 3rd century characterized by a combination of traditions of the early Kiev culture, including the use of champlevé enamel items, and the local population of the Sarmatian period. The first penetration of the Slavs into the Don region coincides with this period.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630007217-7