"Ancient Jewelry from southern Ukraine" (see related A | B), 400 Unknown Master Jewler from the Kerch Peninsula, Crimea, Ukraine Romish-Germanish Museum, Cologne (Koln), Germany

During the 4th-5th. c. tribal Germanic Goldsmiths in the lower Danube and Ukraine regions were quite fond of precious stones they polished to make large beads for heavy necklaces combined with pearls or characteristic gold tubes or beads. Among the sites where such jewels were excavated is Kerch in Crimea, Ukraine, an ancient inhabited site since the 17th. c. B.C. Very ancient techniques, combined with classic Greek and Roman gold-working techniques, produced opulent jewels quite popular everywhere in the Roman empire.

Among the most popular stones was Almandine (often incorrectly called almandite), from the garnet Group. The name is from alabandicus, applied by Pliny the Elder to a stone popular in Alabanda, a town in Caria in Asia Minor. It may also be called "Ceylon-Ruby" or "Syrian garnet". The stone is from iron alumina producing a deep red color (purple). When cut with a convex face is then known as "carbuncle" (burning coal like or a skin boil due to a serious infection - anthrax) (anthracite is mineral or stone coal).