Materials for the Corpus of Glyptics of Olbia Pontica (6th – 1st c. BC)
Ostroverkhov A. S.
The article presents a brief survey of pre-Roman Olbian glyptics. The objects include metallic and stone finger rings, stone and glass gems. There are a number of offprints of gems and finger rings on ceramics. Intaglios are predominant in the period. Cameos appear in the late Classical – early Hellenistic time. Stylistically the objects are divided into «Eastern Greek» and «Greco-Persian», but without a strict distinction. Gems and rings, especially in the Archaic period, were partly brought from the metropolis. In the Classical and Hellenistic periods a considerable number of metallic rings, stone and glass gems were made in North Pontic workshops, including the Olbian ones. Consumption of glyptic art objects in Olbia was of the same level as on the Bosporus, in Chersonesus Taurica and the cities of Eastern and Western Pontic area. The study of glyptics makes it possible to study the cultural and economic development of Olbia with greater precision.