DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2020.1.31366

Abstract: The article examines the problems in developing approaches for the description and stylistic interpretation of antique masonry, as well as the issues in their stylistic dating. The task of dating construction remains belonging to the 7th century B.C.E. to the turn of the era, has attracted the scholarly attention of the scientific community since the 1940s and has been considered by both foreign and Russian researchers. The article's research object is the construction remains of Greek civil and military architecture in the Mediterranean and the Northern Black Sea regions - territories considered to have been the center and periphery of the Greek Oikumena. The study applied the comparative-typological method, the synchronization of objects in time and space, and dating by analogy. Both in Russian and foreign studies a significant amount of data has been collected for the analysis and construction of appropriate conclusions regarding the distribution and popularity of certain masonry in particular periods of time. However, due to the presence of many factors affecting the ancient construction and stone-carving craft, a number of exceptions due to local natural, economic, raw material, and administrative factors can be distinguished in the observed patterns. Thus, the whole picture of the formation of the construction and stone-carving craft (with the allocation of the corresponding types of masonry in a certain historical period) can be reconstructed only with a comprehensive examination of all of them. As the most interesting objects in this regard, the article cites a number of architectural remains belonging to the monuments of the distant chora of Tauric Chersonesos dating to the second half of the 4th century B.C.E.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.6.31358

Abstract: The subject of this article is the excavation results from the ancient settlement "Chaika", located in the vicinity of Yevpatoriya (North-Western Crimea). In 2019, the expedition of the History Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University continued its work at the Chaika settlement and the ancient quarry.Late Scythian rooms were examined at the site. Upon the removal of the wall remnants of the rooms, archaeologists uncovered finds dating the preserved layers of this part of the Late Scythian settlement. These are fragments of red-varnished ceramics, “megara” bowls from the end of 2nd - first half of the 1st century B.C.E. Amphorae fragments of Knidos, Sinope and Rhodes date to the same period. Under the Late Scythian building remains archaeologists found the ruins of a Greek complex. In 2019, excavators unearthed two rooms adjacent to the courtyard, which was studied in 2018. The authors applied field research techniques on the Chaika settlement which is traditionally used in excavating ancient settlements. A comparative typological method was also used on the identified objects. Studies in 2019 demonstrated that the new Greek complex underwent two construction periods that date back to the second half of the 4th - 3rd centuries B.C.E.The ancient quarry is located 1.5 km northwest of the Chaika settlement. Excavators cleared areas with traces of a selection of quadras. Two burials have been discovered: a stone chest with a "collective" burial and an amphora burial of a baby. The bones of six individuals were found in the chest. The skeleton of the last buried has been preserved, while the rest of the bones were moved to the wall and laid in disarray. The burial dates to the 4th - 3rd centuries B.C.E. The second burial is in an amphora. The amphora belongs to the Chersonesus center and dates to the end of the 4th - 3rd century B.C.E.