История и археология античного Причерноморья

This article presents a classification of the “royal” coins of the Bosporan Kingdom of the 2^nd century BCE. The obtained numismatic data, combined with an analysis of epigraphic sources, allow for a more precise reconstruction of the rulers’ degrees of kinship and the order of succession, resulting in a proposed dynastic hystory (chronologically covering the period from the late 3^rd century BCE to the end of the reign of Paerisades V).

The article is devoted to the analysis of Roman foreign-policy amicitia in the Bosporan Kingdom in the 1^st century BC. The author shows that amicitia in the Roman understanding represented not so much personal as socio-political and diplomatic ties based on mutual benefit, obligations, and moral categories such as fides, benevolentia, and gratia.

In 2024, at the Hermonassa site, within a 2.5 square meter area of the Roman horizon, objects from a Hellenistic period home sanctuary (terracotta, a cup-shaped altar, and a black-glazed kantharos) were discovered. These objects were moved during the construction of the cisterns of the 2^nd-century AD winery. The article analyzes these finds and suggests reasons for their placement in later layers.

The article presents a detailed analysis of a burial complex excavated in 1994 by E.A. Katushin together with French colleagues. The mound contained a cremation burial in which the ashes were placed in an urn – an amphora-pithos – accompanied by a rich assemblage of ancient ceramics: a red-figure pelike featuring a unique scene, a Cypriot-origin table amphora, net-decorated aryballoid lekythoi, a Knidian transport amphora, and a wheel-thrown cooking pot.

There are two Athenian red-figured cups-skyphoi from the pre-revolutionary excavations in the collection of the Hermitage Museum. The first one has traces of burning, it was found in 1882 by Nikodim P. Kondakov during excavations of the fire spot near one of the burials on the ridges of the Mithridates Mountain (ground necropolis of ancient Pantikapaion); the cup was assembled from many fragments by Kondakov personally.

The article discusses the materials of Complex No. 8 from Settlement 3 near the stanitsa of Taman. The main part of the complex consists of fragmented and archaeologically intact red-clay simple pottery. The complex also includes a rare amphora of Kos and a herm depicting the Bearded God. The article provides analogies and dates for the ceramic materials.

The State Hermitage Museum possesses specimens of two Athenian red-figured reversible shapes (lekanis lid and plate). Due to rarity, pieces should be dated basing on the style of paintings. These were produced by at least four or five different pottery workshops active between the late 5^th and the early 4^th century BC including those of the Meidias Painter and the Meleagres Painter defined by J.D. Beaz­ley as well as that one related to the Pierides Painter described by I. McPhee and D. Trendall.

A fortuitous find in 1978 on the 2^nd Mitridatskaya Street in Kerch is a verse epitaph of an unknown (his name has not survived) defender of the walls of Panticapaeum against Scythian aggression in the first quarter of the V^th century BC. The text reads κεῖμαι/ἐν τῶι δὲ χ/ωρίωι Ἀΐδα' εἰν ..., which can be translated as “in this fortress I lie, staying in Hades’ confines”. The inscription points simultaneously to the location of the physical remains and the immortal soul of the deceased.

The topic of the article is the story of the appearance and spread of ancient ceramics in the Northern Black Sea region in the 7^th century BC. Monuments where ceramics were found only in the 7^th century are chosen for discussion. These are settlements (hillforts) and burials. The collection of antique tableware found in total on these monuments consists of the main dining room and container ceramics (amphorae). Analysis of the collection shows that the dating of painted ceramics is 20–30 years ahead of the dating of early amphoric containers.