A Late Republican signum from the sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo in the Crimea* M. V. Novichenkova This article is devoted to the publication of a Roman signum (a silvered bronze lunula) identified among other Roman military equipment during the excavations of a sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo at Mountain Crimea.1 It dates to the first half of the 1st century BC and adds to the group of Roman military equipment of Late Republican period. It should be noted that this is the first archaeologically at­ tested find of a lunula as a part of signum, as these previously only were known from written, numismatic and lapidary sources. During the archaeological excavations of the Barbarian sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo (fig. 1, 2)2 situated on the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains (1434 m above sea level), more than 600 items and 4,000 fragments of Roman military equipment were found.3 Archaeological excavations were held in 1981–1993 by an expedition of Yalta literary­histor­ ical museum under the direction of N. G. Novichenkova and V. I. Novichenkov. The majority of items of Roman military equipment dated back to the first half of the 1st century BC–1st century AD. It consists of objects of Roman offens­ ive and defensive weapons, cavalry equipment, military suite, objects from the military cult and insignia, as well as objects related to camp life.4 The majority dates around the reign of Augustus, when a new ritual complex of the sanctu­ ary was created and experienced its heyday.5 Almost all the Roman militaria were ritually damaged. Particularly noteworthy is find of a bronze crescent (Fig. 3) revealed during a disclosure of the surface of layer of light clay with unburned bones of sacrificial animals, which belongs to the Late Hellenistic/Republican period (sq. 10 A, 1983). It is a large bronze plate of crescent­ shaped form, triangular in cross­section, with equal bend­ ing back at the whole length of edge. The obverse surface is coated with dense white metal. In the middle part of the lunula, repeating the bend is a longitudinal groove. The ob­ ject measures 12 cm in height and 18.5 cm in width. The width of the arc in the middle part is 5 cm, and the width of the limb edges is 0.5 cm at bottom and 0.4 cm in the upper part. It is soldered by a deformed sleeve made of a rectan­ gular plate at the inverse side of the lunula. The width of the limb is 5.1 cm, and distance to the plate is 2.2 cm. The height is 2.8 cm. The sleeve is coated with white metal. Based on the object’s appearance, design features and size it has been interpreted as a part of a signum (fig. 4). As a military standard of Roman legions it had originated at the time of Roman Republic.6 The main elements of the military symbols were borrowed from the Celts.7 The signum, as one of the symbols of the military cult, is the personification of tribal traditions and religious beliefs; it played an important ideological role at ancient Rome.8 The earliest image of the Roman signum with lunulae and phalerae is found on Republican coins for instance a den­ arius of Valerius Flaccus, 82 BC (Fig. 5.1). Other coins with images of the aquila and two signa with lunulae and phalerae produced as in the late republic are the denarii of Cn. Nerius 49 BC, Julius Caesar 42–39 BC (Fig. 5.2), Gracchus 42–38 BC, Lucius Pinarius Scarpus 31 BC, and the legion denarii and aurei of M. Antonius 32–31 BC (Fig. 5.3).9 The images are also recorded in the Principate and early Empire on the coins of Augustus, Caligula, Nero, Clodius Macer, Galba, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Didius Julianus, Septimi­ us Severus, and Caracalla.10 An important role in obtaining information on the use of military standards in the Roman army are lapidary sources. A clear demonstration of military uniforms and symbols of the Roman legions of late 1st–early 2nd cen­ turies is shown at the reliefs of Trajan's Column, depicting the Roman army in two Dacian wars of AD 101–2 and AD 105–6. Legion signum with phalerae and lunulae is recor­ ded at scenes VII, X, XI, XVII, XVIII and XXI.11 Several other reliefs and more than two dozen of tombstones with signum with crescents have survived. One of the monu­ ments dates to the Late Republican–Early Empire, but most of them are of the Augustus–Claudius–Flavian age (Fig. 6), and six further gravestones belong to the 2nd–3rd centuries AD.12 Other items of military symbolism to the Roman legions have also been found: a detail of a standard of the era of Nero from a private collection, a spear­shaped pommel of a standard from the 1st–3rd centuries AD from Londinium, Sulz, Saalburg castle, castrum Lopodunum, Cambodunum and the fragments of a standard from Neiderbieber, Bonn.13 A phalera of 1st–3rd century AD is stored in the National JRMES 17 2016, 219–222 220 Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 17 2016 Fig. 1: Map of the Crimean mountain pastures with position of the sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo. Fig. 2: Plan of the sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo. After N. G. NOVICHENKOVA, 2002, ris. 2. Fig. 3: The lunula from the excavations of sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo. After NOVICHENKOVA, 1998, 52, ris. 1.1 Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 17 2016 221 Fig. 4: Roman standards on a relief from S. Marcello, Rome. After G. WEBSTER, 1969, 81, Pl. 10. Fig. 5: Roman republican coins with imagines of signa: 1. Denarius of Valerius Flaccus 82 BC; 2. Denarius of Julius Caesar 42–39 BC; 3. Aureus of M. Antonius 32–31 BC. After TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 1–16. Archaeological Museum of Sofia, and zoomorphical tops of standards from Otterschwang date to the second half of 1st century AD,14 and from Chesterholm/ Vindolanda, Za­ lau, Wiesbaden of 2nd–3rd cent AD, from Martigny and the National Museum of Madrid from 1st–3rd century.15 A special group comprises parts of the vexillum from an ala or cohort; among these are spear­shaped and cross pom­ mels from Zugmantel, Vindonissa, Hanau­Steinheim, Nova, Dura Europos from the 2nd–3rd century AD,16 a fragment of a vexillum depicting Victoria with a wreath and palm branch from Egypt dates to the 3rd century AD.17 Several items were found together with the lunula at the surface­layer from the Late Hellenistic/Republican period of the sanctuary Gurzufskoe Sedlo. These include a La Tène bronze handle scoop of type Pescate decorated by duck heads from 90–50 BC,18 fragments of a glass skithos from the second half of the 2nd century–first half 1st century BC,19 a fragmented polychrome rhyton dating to 122–69 BC,20 and catapult bolts. Furthermore, the Late Hellenistic/Republican layer of square 10L also produced the finds of bronze and sil­ ver plated parts of a Scutum shield from the first half of the 1st century BC (an umbo, spina, a longitudinal edge, cover plates Fig. 6: Tombstone of Quintus Luccius Faustus, signifer of Legio XIIII Gemina, AD 70–92 (Landesmuseum, Mainz). in the form of labris and crescent, and a handle).21 The lunula from the excavations of the sanctuary near the pass Gurzuf­ skoe Sedlo dates from the first half of the 1st century BC according to the stratigraphy and associated finds from the surface layer of Late Hellenistic/Republican time. The Roman military equipment from the first half of the 1st century BC from the excavations of sanctuary did not belong to a territory of dislocating of Roman military troops and camps. They are interpreted as war trophies of the native inhabitants of the Crimean Mountains, who used them at the sanctuary as ritual spoils. Their inflow to the sanctuary can be connected with the military actions of the Barbarian population at Mithridatic wars of 88–84, 83–81, 75–63 BC against Rome. NOTES 1 The study was conducted thanks to the kind assistance of John Griffith Memorial Scholarship, Jesus College, Oxford. 2 NOVICHENKOVA, 2002, 6–22. 3 NOVICHENKOVA, 1998, 51–66; 2012, 31–2. 4 NOVICHENKOVA, 2011b, 271–97; 2013, 311–13. 5 NOVICHENKOVA, 1998, 51–2. 222 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 17 2016 CONNOLLY, 1998, 218–19. CONNOLLY, 1998, 115. FEUGÈRE, 2002, p. 47. BISHOP & COULSTON, 2006, 68; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 1,2. TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 2–16. CICHORIUS, 1896, Traianssäule I, Taf. VII, X, XI, XVII, XVIII, XXI]. WEBSTER, 1969, p. 81, pl. X; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 82, SD 8.1; Taf. 47–122. CONNOLLY, 1998, 219, fig. 1; JUNKELMANN, 1991, 102, Taf. 30c; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 140, AR 1.1–1.6; Taf. 141, AR 2, AR 3–8. TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 144, Zw 5; Taf. 147, NZ 4.1. FEUGÈRE, 2002, p. 48, fig. 32; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 145, Zw 9; Taf. 146, NZ 4.3, 4.6, 4.8, 4.9. FEUGÈRE, 2002, p. 48; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 142, AR 9–11, Taf. 143, AR 17.1, 19. FEUGÈRE, 2002, p. 48, fig. 33; TÖPFER, 2011, Taf. 142, AR 15. NOVICHENKOVA, 2002, 101, Fig. 63–12. NOVICHENKOVA­LUKICHEVA, 2013, 314. NOVICHENKOVA, 2002, 101, Fig. 63–8; NOVICHENKOVA­ LUKICHEVA, 2009, 322; WEINBERG, 1992, 57, № 48 NOVICHENKOVA, 2002, Fig. 63–11; 2011, 78–9. BIBLIOGRAPHY BISHOP, M. C. & COULSTON, J. C. 2006: Roman Milit­ ary Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, Oxford CICHORIUS, C. 1896: Die Reliefs der Traianssäule. Erster Tafelband: ‘Die Reliefs des Ersten Dakischen Krieges’, Tafeln 1–57, Berlin CONNOLLY, P. 1998: Greece and Rome at War, London FEUGÈRE, M. 2002: Weapons of the Romans, Paris JUNKELMANN, M. 1991: Die Legionen des Augustus, Mainz NOVICHENKOVA, М. V. 2011a: ‘Fragmenti ovalnih rims­ kih schitov Scutum is raskopok svyatilisha y perevala Gurzufskoe Sedlo’, Tezisi III Mejdunarodnoj naychno­ practicheskoj konferencii «Istoriko­kulturnoe nasledie Prichernomor’ya: izuchenie I ispolzovanie v obrazovanii i turizme. Yalta, 78–9 NOVICHENKOVA, M. V. 2011b: ‘Rimskaya kolchyga Lor­ ica Hamata I v. do n.e. – I v. n.e. iz ritualnogo kompleksa svatyilicsha Gurzufskoe Sedlo’, Bosporskie isssledovan­ iya. Vyp. XXV, 271–97 NOVICHENKOVA, M. V. 2012: ‘The Roman military equipment of the age of Augustus from the Sanctuary Gurzuf Saddle’, Romans at the Black Sea During the Time of Augustus: The Evidence of Literary, Archaeolo­ gical and Numismatic Sources, Tulcea, 31–2 NOVICHENKOVA, M. 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