2000-Year-Old Treasure Found in Ancient Black Sea Fortress

The latest issue of the scientific journal Ancient Civilizations from Scynthia to Siberia witnessed the publication of a new study discussing how, while exploring an ancient Black Sea fortress in the Crimea, in Ukraine, a team of archaeologists stumbled upon a 2000-year-old treasure.

More precisely, they discovered as many as 200 coins, most of which were made of bronze, and several pieces of jewelry made of gold, silver and bronze.

The archaeologists who unearthed this treasure explain that, as far as they can tell, both the money and said pieces of jewelry were buried in this location by wealthy people who were merely trying to keep Romans from stealing them.

Live Science explains that archaeological finds made thus far suggest that this ancient fortress was part and parcel of the Bosporus Kingdom, and that Romans only attacked it because they wished to make sure the latter remained a client state of their empire.

As Professor Nikolaï Vinokurov, a specialist presently working with the Moscow State Pedagogical University, puts it, “The fortress had been besieged. Wealthy people from the settlement and the neighborhood had tried to hide there from the Romans. They had buried their hoards inside the citadel.”

Some of the coins unearthed at this archaeological site were minted by Mithridates VIII.

Because of this, archaeologists reached the conclusion that the siege of this fortress came as a result of this leader's refusing to do what his brother (i.e. Cotys) asked of him and continuing to seek independence from the Roman Empire.

Despite the fact that the ethnicity of the people inhabiting this settlement was a mixed one, specialists maintain that their culture was one of Greek origins.

“They spoke Greek language, had Greek school; the architecture and fortification were Greek as well. They were Hellenes by culture but not that pure by blood,” Nikolaï Vinokurov and his colleagues stated.