Japallah – the Cemetery of the Natives of the Hellenistic Period in the Crimea

The article deals with archaeological, anthropological and archaeozoological material of the one of foothill cemetery in Crimea. One of the most interesting historical periods is the Late Scythian and the development of the Crimean Scythia. This is the subject of research on materials from the Prehistoric Expedition of the Institute of Archeology of Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Republic (Kyiv) 1956-1957 by А.M. Leskov. This comprises the excavations of the Japallah burial mound in the north of the Crimean Mountains, the materials of which have not yet been completely analyzed. The presence of traditional Taurian handmade pottery of East Crimean types in Scythian burial mounds of the steppe of the 4th century BCE suggests the existence of a Scythian tribe, in direct contact with the inhabitants of the central and eastern foothills of the Crimea. Such contact would lead to a new ethnic group that, in the space of a few centuries, formed the first barbaric state in the Crimea – the Crimean Scythia, thus continuing the general process of the formation of early Hellenistic monarchies in the area of the Pontus Euxinus.