Abstract

Abstract. Cast rings, made of bronze and precious metals, with images on shields and inserts (cameos and intaglios) are found on urban and rural necropolises in many regions of the ancient world. Products of this type are known among finds of predominantly Hellenistic and Roman periods (scholars date them respectively to the 3rd–2nd centuries BCE and the 1st–4th centuries CE), but they also occur in earlier layers. All the items characterized in this article come from the excavations of ancient Lower Don sites. Despite the objects in question were concentrated in a certain area, they were not separated into the items of Greek and barbarian cultures. Tanais (3rd century BCE – 5th century CE) and Elizavetovskoe settlement (6th–3rd centuries BCЕ) were contact sites of the settled and nomadic population, and this determined the features of the local culture. Trade and political links with the Northern Black Sea settlements explain the existence of analogies and allows us to clarify the semantics of images. The main objective of the study was to analyze the symbolic meanings of apotropaic animals’ images on rings. The study of ancient finger rings, their comparison with the products of other settlements allows us to trace common features in the iconography of mythological characters. The “unification” of images is not accidental, since all of them had to go back to a single original image. The relevance of the topic is due to the lack of generalizing analysis of the Lower Don rings and, in particular, protective functions of their images. The author revealed that according to the beliefs of the local population, apotropaic animals, especially very popular lions and griffins, could protect the deceased in the afterlife and his burial from plunder. Part of the material is published for the first time. All finds are also for the first time considered in the context of the semantics of apotropaic animals’ images. The study shows that the finger rings functioned as apotropes and have similar iconography with different objects of the ancient material culture.