буква

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 paper proposes to read in the graffito on the attic black-glazed kylix founded in Kertch at 2017 – yod, beth, and shin: 12 sh(iglu), i.e. a bank receipt the bearer of which was supposed to get this money from the Phoenician trapezites in Panticapaeum. Also, the author analyzes the archaeological, and literary data reflecting the business relations between Phoenicia and the North Shore of the Black Sea from the beginning of VIIth century BC.