A survey of the excavations of the necropolis of Nymphaion (Kerch) conducted by the expedition of the State Hermitage Museum in 2018.&nbsp;Обзор раскопок в некрополе Нимфея (Керчь), проводившихся экспедицией Государственного Эрмитажа в 2018 г

Eremeeva, Anna

English

BOP Serials

1551 Silant’eva 1959 [П. Ф. Силантьева, “Некрополь Нимфея”, МИА 69], 5–107.2 Grach 1999 [Н. Л. Грач, Некрополь Нимфея]. 3 Solov’ev 2003 [С. Л. Соловьев, Археологические памятники сельской округи и некрополя Нимфея], 212; Avetikov 1997 [А. А. Аветиков, “Охранные раскопки некрополя Нимфея”, in: Археологические исследования в Крыму. 1994 год], 8–10; Sokolova 2014 [О. Ю. Соколова, “Охранные работы на некрополе Нимфея (2006–2009, 2012 гг.)”, in: Погребальная культура Боспорского царства], 136–141; Zin’ko 1997 [В. Н. Зинько, “Охранные исследования некрополя Нимфея”, in: Бахчисарайский историко–археологический сборник 1], 67–75; Smekalova–Goroncharovskij 2017 [Т. Н. Смекалова, В. А. Горончаровский, “Топография курганного некрополя Нимфея”, in: Российские археологи XIX – начала ХХ в. и курганные древности европейского Боспора], 393–406, etc.Hyperboreus 25:1 (2019) 155-160Anna EremeevaINVESTIGATIONS AT THE SITE OF THE NECROPOLIS OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF NYMPHAIONIn July of 2018, the State Hermitage archaeological expedition resumed investigations at the site of the necropolis of the ancient town of Nymphaion. This necropolis is located in northwestern, western, and southern parts of Cape Kamysh-Burun on the shore of the Kerch Strait, 17 km from the center of the city of Kerch. According to preliminary information, the total area of the flat ground necropolis is estimated to be ca 45 hectares. In addition to excavations of the pre-Soviet period,1 the necropolis was extensively studied in the 1970s,2 and afterwards the investigations were continued in the 1990s and 2000–2010s.3The main goals of the field season of 2018 were to prepare a base for future activities, in order to provide a good state of preservation of the necropolis and to stop its destruction. Thanks to the cooperation between the State Hermitage and the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Science, an aerial photographic survey of the entire area of the Nymphaion necropolis was fulfilled by means of a quadcopter. Using the method of photogrammetry, a 3D model of  the necropolis was obtained and a topographic plan (scale 1:2000) was drawn. The high effectiveness of aerial photography has made it possible to establish the current condition of the site. In the photographs obtained, pits of illicit excavations are clearly discernible (totally 405 such pits Anna Eremeeva156have been located), as well as fortifi cations of the World War II period, modern debris, roads, artifi cial hills, and other features of interest. All this information enabled us to draw a plan of the necropolis with a designation of its current condition. In addition, the boundaries of the archeological excavations of the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s have been more precisely defi ned and a general plan of the excavations at the cemetery was compiled. In the season of 2018, besides, magnetometric surveys were conducted in two areas (200 sq. m each) of the necropolis. According to Dr. T. N. Smekalova, who carried out the magnetic investigations, traces of the necropolis are detectable in the southern part of the area under study. However, this supposition can be confi rmed reliably only through archaeological excavations.In the course of the investigations of 2018, 9041 fragments of ceramic pottery and 750 pieces of ancient tiles have been found at the site. This number of fi nds seems to be ordinary for archeological sites of this type. It is of note, that there were numerous cartridges, fragments of shells and other objects left from World War II here. Pieces of ceramics belonging to trade amphorae amounted to 8608 items. Diagnostic ceramic fragments belong to various ancient centers dating from the Archaic to the Roman period. Fragments of medieval amphorae were also occasionally encountered.Among the fi nds there were fragments of black-fi gured and red-fi gured vessels, redware pottery, kitchenware and stucco. Except for amphorae, the most common ceramic material comprised red clay tableware. Finds of this type include 220 fragments. Medieval glazed ceramics of the 13th–15th centuries were represented by yellow-glazed vessels.Findings of special interest comprise 22 artifacts. There is a fragment of a red clay amphora from Lesbos dated to the 6th–5th centuries BC with a graffi  to scratched in the raw clay. Noteworthy fi nds include stamps on amphora handles and throats of the Classical, more often, Hellenistic period from Herakleia, Thasos, Sinope, and Rhodes. The fi nds also include two pieces of amphorae with red dipinti; two stoppers made from amphora fragments, and one from a fragment of a thick-walled vessel, and a grinding pestle made from an amphora handle.A fragment of a red-fi gured krater with ‘laurel branch’ decoration is very remarkable. It belongs to the types of the vessels that are contemporary to the ‘Plainer Group’,4 dating from ca. 475–375 BC.Of special note is also a fragment (lower central part) of a ceramic architectural detail – an acroterium, from Sinope (Fig. 1). Acroteria 4 Beazley 1963, 1418–1424.157Nymphaion, Necropolis   similar to this one were found during excavations at the sanctuary of Aphrodite (5th–4th centuries BC) at the city of Nymphaion.5 Terracotta architectural details are fairly common among archaeological materials from the ancient towns of the Northern Black Sea region,6 Anatolia and the Mediterranean.7Among ceramic fi nds there was also a tiny pyramidal clay loom weight. The stone items included a fragment of a large fi shing sinker with a hole and a piece of a trough (possibly, part from an altar). The two objects both are made from local limestone.The most remarkable fi nds of the season are represented by two tombstones with anthropomorphic reliefs. Monuments of this type are known among materials of the Greek and barbarian necropoleis in the Northern Black Sea region, the Mediterranean, Anatolia, and fi nds dating from the time span from the 7th century BC to the fi rst centuries AD.85 Hudyak 1962 [М. М. Худяк, Из истории Нимфея (VI–III веков до н. э.)], 26–27.6 Brashinskij 1963 [И. Б. Брашинский, “Экономические связи Синопы в IV–II вв. до н. э.”, in: Античный город], 135.7 Kästner 1994, 253–268; 422–425.8 Stoyanov 2010 [Р. В. Стоянов, “Антропоморфные надгробия в погребальной практике греков и варваров в VII – II вв. до н. э.”], 36; 37.Fig. 1. The acroterium from Sinope. 5th–4th centuries BCAnna Eremeeva158One of the tombstones (Fig. 2) was found on the surface north-west of the site. It is a broken rectangular stele made of local limestone, measuring 80.5×55×15 cm. Only the upper right part of the tombstone with a low relief is preserved. It represents the head, neck, sharp shoulder and part of the body of an anthropomorphic fi gure. The known parallels, as well as specifi c details, such as part of the neck of suggest that another anthropomorphic image was located to the left. This stele must have belonged to group 2 of the 16th type of the anthropomorphic gravestones according to the classifi cation by of N. V. Moleva9 and is dated to the 3rd century BC.The secon d monument (Fig. 3) was revealed in the grass in the area of the ‘Crypt Alley’, where the State Hermitage expedition carried out studies in the 1970s.10 It is a rectangular stele made of local limestone similar to the one mentioned above, but bears a single relief image. The size of the fragmentary tombstone is 70×16×12 cm. The preserved part of 9 Moleva 2016 [Н. В. Молева, Антропоморфные изваяния. Из собрания Керченского государственного историко-культурного заповедника. Лапидарная коллекция], 14–19.10 Grach 1999.Fig. 2. The tombstone. 3rd century BCFig. 3. The tombstone. 3rd–2nd centuries BC159Nymphaion, Necropolis   the head with the shoulder, the torso and part of a spike for fi xation of the stele in the ground are well-preserved. The stele is dated to the period of the 3rd–2nd century BC.11Anthropomorphic gravestones of this kind usually were covered with plaster and painted; unfortunately, no traces of paint on the fi nds under consideration are now preserved. Anna EremeevaThe State Hermitagea.eremeeva2014@yandex.ruBibliographyA. A. Avetikov, “Okhrannye raskopki nekropolya Nimfeya” [“Rescue Excavations of the Nymphaion Necropolis”], in: Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v Krymu. 1994 god (Simferopol’ 1997) 8–10.J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford 1963).I. B. Brashinskij, Ekonomicheskie svyazi Sinopy v IV–II vv. do n. e. [“The Economic Links of Sinope in IV–II BC”], in: Antichnyj gorod (Moscow 1963) 132–145.N. L. Grach, Nekropol’ Nimfeya [The Nymphaion Necropolis] (St Petersburg 1999).M. M. Hudyak, Iz istorii Nimpheya (VI–III vekov do n.e.) [“From the History of Nymphaion (VI–III BC)”] (Leningrad 1962).V. Kästner, Kleinasien und Griechenland Dachterrakotten nacharchaischer Zeit aus Pergamon (Proceedings of the International Conference on Greek Architectural Terracottas of the Classical and Hellenistic Periods, December 12–15, 1991), Hesperia Suppl. 27. (Princeton, NJ 1994).N. V. Moleva, Antropomorphnye izvayaniya. Iz sobraniya Kerchenskogo gosudarstvennogo istoriko-kul’turnogo zapovednika. Lapidarnaya kollekciya [“The Anthropomorphic Steles. From the Collection of the State Kerch Historical and Cultural Preserve”] V (Kerch’ 2016).P. F. Silant’eva, “Nekropol’ Nimpheya” [“The Nymphaion Necropolis”], in: MIA 69 (Moscow – Leningrad 1959) 5–107.T. N. Smekalova, V. A. Goroncharovskij, “Topographiya kurgannogo nekropolya Nimfeya” [“The Topography of the Barrow Necropolis of Nymphaion”], in: Rossijskie arkheologi 19go – nachala 20go v. i kurgannye drevnosti evro-pejskogo Bospora (St Petersburg 2017) 393–406.11 Moleva 2016, 15.Anna Eremeeva160O. Yu. Sokolova, “Okhrannye raboty na nekropole Nimfeya (2006–2009, 2012gg.)” [“Rescue Excavations of the Nymphaion Necropolis (2006–2009, 2012)”, in: Pogrebal’naya kul’tura Bosporskogo tcarstva (St Petersburg 2014) 136–141.S. L. Solov’ev, Arheologicheskie pamyatniki sel’skoj okrugi i nekropolya Nim-pheya [Archeological Sites of the Chora and the Necropolis of the Ancient Town of Nymphaion] (St Petersburg 2003).R. V. Stoyanov, “Antropomorphnye nadgrobiya v pogrebal’noj praktike grekov i varvarov v VII–II vv. do n. e.” [“The Anthropomorphic Tombstones in the Burial Customs of the Ancient Greeks and Barbarians at VII–II centuries BC”], RA 4 (2010) 36–45.V. N. Zin’ko, “Okhrannye issledovaniya nekropolya Nimpheya” [“Rescue Exca-vations of the Nymphaion Necropolis], in: Bakhchisarajskij istoriko-arkheo-logicheskij sbornik 1. (Simferopol’ 1997) 67–75.СonspectusСONSPECTUSR  MAchilles’ Inconsistency in Aristotle’s Lost Homeric Problems: a Fresh Look at Four bT-scholia of the Iliad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5C  M. L , M  S  Il ruolo di Posidonio e della dossografi a per la datazione del Περὶ κόσμου e i rapporti con l’Elogium geographiae. II . . . . . . . . . . .  27S  S Comparanda: Il Papiro di Artemidoro e i suoi apparati grafi ci  . . . . . . . . .  56ARCHAEOLOGICAD  CInvestigations on Berezan Island in 2014–2018 (Hermitage Museum Archaeological Expedition) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97N  N‘The House of Archelaos’: Archaeological Investigations of the State Hermitage Expedition in Quarter XX of the Tauric Chersonesos in 2014–2018   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  107O  SArchaeological Research of the Late Scythian Site of Frontovoye 2 in 2018   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  118A  KInvestigation of the Ancient Settlement of Kytaion in 2015–2018: Archaeological Expedition of the State Hermitage Museum  . . . . . . . . . .  126V  KInvestigations of Necropoleis of Kytaion in 2014–2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  133O  SThe Nymphaion Expedition of the State Hermitage Museum (2014–2018)   . . . Сonspectus4143A  EInvestigations at the Site of the Necropolis of the Ancient Town of Nymphaion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  155A  BInvestigations of the Myrmekion Expedition in 2014–2018 . . . . . . . . . . .  161O  SInvestigations of the Coastal Part of Ilyich-1 Settlement in 2015–2016 . .  170S  KExcavations of the Taman Detachment of the Bosporan Expedition of IHMC RAS in 2014–2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  178Y  A. VInvestigations of the Rurial Sanctuary at the Settlement of Artyushchenko-1 (Bugazskoe) on the Taman Peninsula in 2015–2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  187V  G , M  V , S  KExcavations of Gorgippia and its Necropolis in 2012 and 2016 . . . . . . . .  194Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  205

Investigations at the Site of the Necropolis of the Ancient Town of Nymphaion

https://bop.unibe.ch/Hyperboreus/article/download/12137/14961

Investigations at the Site of the Necropolis of the Ancient Town of Nymphaion

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

BOP Serials