Archaeologists found a bronze ornament dating back to the Ptolemaic era, bearing the image of Queen Arsinoe III, in a pit attached to an old house.
Archaeologists in the center of Anapa, a Russian city on the Black Sea, have unearthed a bronze ring bearing the image of the Egyptian Queen Arsinoe III. The ornament had lain buried for over two thousand years and was discovered in a pit attached to a house, where Hellenistic-era pottery was also found. This artifact sheds light on the trade and cultural ties between the northern Black Sea region and Alexandria. A study of the discovery was published in the journal "Problems of History, Jurisprudence, and Culture."
The ring was discovered during excavations at an archaeological site known as the "Voskresenskoye-6 Estate Group," located 500 meters from Anapa Railway Station. In 2024, an expedition from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences excavated an area of 246 square meters and uncovered the remains of a settlement dating back to antiquity (4th and 3rd centuries BC).
In one of the pits attached to the house, archaeologists, among fragments of amphorae from the islands of Chios, Pontic Heraclea, and the Caucasian region of Colchis, discovered a large cast bronze ring with an oval face. This face clearly bore a profile depiction of a woman's head. Experts identified this depiction as that of the Egyptian Queen Arsinoe III (reigned 220-204 BC).
Archaeologists had previously recorded similar discoveries in the Kuban region, formerly part of the ancient Bosporan Kingdom. Only six similar examples of this type are known, almost all of which came from the vicinity of the ancient city of Gorgibia (modern-day Anapa) or from the tombs of the Motyan tribe in the western Kuban region. These rings, of the Ptolemaic style as specialists call it, were widespread in the northern Black Sea region during the second half of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.
However, the ring found in the pit adjacent to the house is of particular importance because the image of Arsinoe III on it was engraved during her lifetime (i.e., it is a contemporary image). Furthermore, the dating of the collection of finds at the site, including amphorae, jugs, and decorated cups, perfectly matches the reign of the Egyptian queen, a rare occurrence in archaeology.
