EARLY MIGRATION PERIOD GLASSWARE IN CHERNYAKHIV CULTURE. NETWORKS OF DISTRIBUTION (BASED ON GLASS FINDS FROM VIITENKY AND VELYKA BUHAIVKA BURIAL GROUNDS)

The article aims to investigate the impact of the Migration Period processes on the intensity of interactions between the Romans and barbarians. Specifically, our focus is on the circulation of glassware during the Late Roman to Early Migration Period within the Chernyakhiv culture. The part of the glass goods under investigation is believed to be Roman imports, which makes them a valuable resource for studying Roman – barbarian contacts. To accomplish this, we tried to reconstruct the supply system of two Chernyakhiv sites for glass goods using a dataset of 79 glass items from Viitenky and Velyka Buhaivka burial grounds in Eastern and Central Ukraine. The conducted analysis demonstrates certain transformations in the structure of glass assemblages from both sites occurred at the beginning of the Migration Period. However, the nature of these changes suggests that the Hunnic invasion did not destroy pre-existing economic connections. Instead, the ‘turbulent epoch’ led to new Roman – barbarian contacts and a large influx of Roman imports, including glass goods, to the region of Chernyakhiv culture.