2200-Year-Old Bronze Ring with Egyptian Queen's Image Found in Russian City

Archaeologists have discovered a bronze ornament dating back to the Ptolemaic era, bearing the image of Queen Arsinoe III, in a pit adjacent to an old house in the Russian city of Anapa on the Black Sea coast.

This bronze ring, found in central Anapa, was buried underground for over two millennia. Alongside it, artifacts from the Hellenistic period, including amphora fragments, were also uncovered. The find sheds light on the commercial and cultural ties between the northern Black Sea region and Alexandria. A study detailing this discovery was published in the journal "Problems of History, Jurisprudence, and Culture."

Details of the Ring's Discovery

The ring came to light during excavations at an archaeological site known as the "Voskresenskoye-6 Property Complex," located approximately 500 meters from Anapa railway station. In 2024, a team from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted digs over a 246-square-meter area, revealing remnants of an ancient settlement dating to the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.

Within a pit attached to a house, archaeologists identified a large bronze ring with an oval bezel among shards of amphorae originating from the islands of Chios, Heraclea Pontica, and the Colchis region of the Caucasus. The bezel displayed a clear profile engraving of a woman's head, which experts identified as Queen Arsinoe III of Egypt, who reigned between 220 and 204 BCE.

Significance of the Archaeological Find

Similar discoveries have been recorded in the Kuban area, formerly part of the ancient Bosporan Kingdom. Only six comparable rings of this type are known, nearly all originating from the vicinity of the ancient city of Gorgippia (modern Anapa) or from burial sites of the Meotians tribe in western Kuban. These Ptolemaic-style rings were widespread in the northern Black Sea region during the latter half of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.

The ring found in the pit adjacent to the house holds particular importance because the image of Arsinoe III was engraved during her lifetime, making it a contemporary portrait. Additionally, the dating of the entire assemblage at the site—including amphorae, jugs, and decorated cups—matches precisely with the era of the Egyptian queen, a rarity in archaeological contexts.