Archaeologists of KFU found jewelry made of Egyptian faience in a Christian church

CrimeaPRESS reports:

Archaeologists of the Crimean Federal University discovered pieces of Egyptian faience jewelry during excavations in the cave temple of Kilse-Tubu of the XIV-XV centuries, located on the Mangup plateau in the Bakhchisaray region of Crimea.

These are probably pendants, beads, buttons, on which anthropomorphic images are visible. Their uniqueness is that it is Egyptian faience. And we usually find things made of Egyptian faience on the monuments of the era of antiquity, the Roman era. Here we are talking about a Christian complex of the XIV-XV centuries, and this is surprising. We have to figure out how things that we usually associate with ancient monuments ended up here , — quotes the press service of the university, Associate Professor of the Department of Archeology and World History of the Crimean Federal University Valery Naumenko.

In addition, archaeologists have found crosses, cruciform pendants, stripes and other decorations that were found both in burials and in the cultural layer of the church.

We found a fragment of a cross, on the front side of which you can see a relief image of a saint, above there is a loop for hanging. This is a pectoral cross, and not an ordinary person, but, most likely, a monk who stands out among the rest of the brothers. We found another cross of a different plan: it is made of a bent double iron plate. This is a cross, which was probably installed near some kind of image, for example, in a niche where the icon was located. The next two crosses are crosses that were sheathed with clothes or, more likely, salaries of sacred books. They were made of wood, covered with leather and inlaid with additional decorations, notes Valery Naumenko.

This year, experts began to excavate the territory near the temple, which showed that it was not an isolated object, but was part of the monastery complex. The main attraction of the monument are partially preserved fragments of frescoes, which are traditionally dated to the end of the 14th — beginning of the 15th century.

The Deesis scene is depicted here. In the center is an image of Jesus Christ, of which, unfortunately, only a few fragments have survived. To the left of him is the Holy Mother of God. Her halo, face, character of attire are clearly visible. She is facing Jesus Christ with outstretched hands. On the right was supposed to be the figure of St. John the Baptist, but, unfortunately, only a few fragments of it also remained. In addition, to the left of the Mother of God there is an image of a scroll with liturgical texts, but only individual letters of the Greek alphabet are read , says Valery Naumenko.

Works on the territory of the cave temple of Kilse-Tubyu are carried out within the framework of the grant of the Russian Cultural Foundation «Volunteers of the Archaeological Heritage».