Until recently, it was believed that the ancient Greek city of Panticapaeum, located on the territory of modern Kerch, was founded in the middle of the 6th century BC. But over the past three years, archaeologists have found evidence that it began to form in the last quarter of the 7th century BC, and 60 years later it was severely destroyed during the military conflict with the Scythians.
Many historians and archaeologists were sure that the time of the founding of Panticapaeum and other colonies in the Northern Black Sea region coincides with the period when there was no external threat on these lands. It was believed that the Scythians had no interest in this area, so the Greeks sailed on ships to a free and safe territory and settled there. But the discoveries of the last three years have shown that the early history of Panticapaeum is much more complex and dramatic. Archaeologists have discovered a defensive wall in a layer dating from the last quarter of the 7th century BC. This discovery radically changes the view on the history of the settlement of the lands of the Eastern Crimea.
Pottery and oil from the 7th century BC
Panticapaeum is a monument of world importance. This city was the capital of the Bosporus kingdom. It was located on the slopes and top of Mount Mithridates, named after the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator, the worst enemy of the Romans, who fought with them incessant wars and eventually lost them. Ancient authors wrote that King Mithridates died on the top of this mountain: in order not to be captured by the Romans, he asked his bodyguard Bitoit to kill him.
Early East Greek and Proto-Corinthian pottery from the conflagration layer. Photo: / Personal archive of Vladimir Tolstikov.
The area of Panticapaeum was at least 100 hectares, but over time, half of this territory was inhabited and built up. Now about 40-50 hectares are available for excavation.
Back in the years of the USSR, the archaeologist and historian Vladimir Blavatsky, who founded the Bosporus (Panticapaeum) expedition of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute in 1945, said that Panticapaeum apparently traces its history from the end of the 7th century BC archeology. Decades later, his follower and student Vladimir Tolstikov, who has been leading the Bosporus expedition for the past 39 years, managed to find real confirmation of Blavatsky's words.
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“Every year Panticapaeum brings surprises, and they are endless,” Vladimir Tolstikov told Life. - We work in the most central part: on the top of Mount Mithridates, on the central plateau and on the western plateau. Our excavations and the excavations of my colleagues showed that around the middle of the 6th century BC. part of the settlements, including Panticapaeum, were attacked by the Scythians. In the oldest layer, which we are talking about now, there are traces of a fire. It contains hundreds of previously unknown pottery fragments that reliably date from the last quarter of the 7th to the first half of the 6th century BC. A large number of Scythian arrows were found in this layer. In addition, human bones were found in the layer of this conflagration, which is very rare in such cases. This suggests that it was a military disaster that took place.
A large fragment of the wall of an amphora with oil, which still retained its color and smell, was also found in the oldest layer. Oil of such an early time has been discovered for the first time. It turned out that the population of Panticapaeum at the end of the 7th century BC. knew very well about its properties and used it for lighting or heating rooms.
Judging by the finds made in later layers, after the attack of the Scythians, the population remained on Mount Mithridates and the city continued to exist. That is, they either repulsed the attack, or there were no battles as such, and the Scythians - excellent arrows who actively use fiery arrows - set a fire in Panticapaeum for some purpose.
Dispute about life in dugouts
The conflagration layer is one meter and forty centimeters thick. It was in it that the archaeologists of the Bosporus expedition managed to make a sensational find: they discovered the remains of ancient structures - the foundation of a defensive wall and a stone rectangular building with an area of 20 sq. m.
Photo: L! FE / Vladimir Suvorov.
- All this suggests that the first settlers who arrived from the city of Miletus (and this is known from written sources) immediately settled in ground buildings, fortified the core of the colony, surrounded it with a ring of walls, knowing full well that there was a serious military threat. This threat made itself felt about 60-70 years after the founding of Panticapaeum, - says Vladimir Tolstikov.
General view of the oldest buildings of the First period. Photo: Konstantin Khodakovsky from the personal archive of Vladimir Tolstikov.
Many historians are still convinced that initially the population of Panticapaeum and other ancient settlements did not erect solid structures, but lived in dugouts, which archaeologists were able to find regularly. About five to six years ago, historians from St. Petersburg first announced the possible existence of a fortified ground unit in the policies, but their version convinced almost no one. The latest discoveries of the Bosporus expedition confirmed their assumptions.
“In my opinion, the dugouts are evidence that the Greeks who inhabited the fortified center, gradually developing the nearby territories, built temporary dwellings that existed for one to three months,” says Vladimir Tolstikov. - Living in these dugouts, they were engaged in agriculture or some kind of fire hazardous industries outside the walls. In the event of a threat, they immediately threw it all away, took everything they needed and went under the protection of the fortified part of the settlement. This is my point of view for today. I think that gradually other historians will also tend to it, because in many ancient settlements, the original settlement points have simply not been found. Sometimes they are covered by later antique structures that cannot be demolished. Therefore, it is very difficult to discover the oldest part of the settlement.
Photo: L! FE / Vladimir Suvorov.
The first dugouts on Mount Mithridates, dating from the middle - third quarter of the 6th century BC, were also found in Panticapaeum by an expedition led by Vladimir Tolstikov. They found Greek pottery, including those with graffiti in Greek. It is interesting that Scythian ceramics were found in these same dugouts. That is, the Greek settlers at that time were in peaceful relations with the Scythians. They probably even took Scythian women as wives, because usually young men without families arrived as immigrants and started a new life. But, as recent finds show, there were periods when relations with the Scythians turned into confrontation for reasons unknown today.
An ancient temple and a lion that found its head two centuries later
One of the areas of archeology - stratigraphy - allows you to study the strata of the cultural layer. In Panticapaeum, stratigraphy showed that at some time a temple was built right above the oldest buildings, only at a height of three meters from the level where they lie. This year, archaeologists of the Bosporus expedition managed to find a part of the powerful foundation of this temple from huge unprocessed limestone deposits weighing up to a ton. The depth of the foundation is three to four meters, and the temple is tentatively dated to the second half of the 3rd century BC. - 1st century AD
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Andrew Butko.
- In the 1st century - the beginning of the 2nd century AD, apparently, it was destroyed. The presence of temples was assumed at this place. When the colony was founded, a place was always reserved where the patron gods were worshiped. In theory, on the top of Mount Mithridates there should have been such a site. And under this temple, perhaps, lies another, but more ancient temple. But this has yet to be discovered and proved, - said Vladimir Tolstikov.
One unusual story may be related to the temple whose foundations have been discovered. In 1832, the official Rafael Scassi, an Italian by birth, arrived in Kerch. He was a fairly independent person, since he was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who instructed the official to organize trade with the Circassians in the Caucasus. Being a very odious and energetic person, Scassi decided to conduct excavations in Kerch, although he was not an archaeologist. He hired a brigade of local residents and at the very top of Mount Mithridates, on the north side, laid an excavation. At a depth of about two and a half meters, he found many marble parts from some large building and a marble statue of the goddess Cybele, sitting on a throne. The goddess's left hand rests on the tympanum musical instrument, and the left hand rests on the lion. The lion's head and arm were knocked off, as was the head of the statue itself. But the sculpture was valuable, so it was taken to St. Petersburg and transferred to the Hermitage collection, where it is exhibited today.
Photo: Personal archive of Vladimir Tolstikov.
Later, historians began to argue about where Scassi laid the excavation. Some agreed with the version of the top of Mount Mithridates, while others argued that the statue was actually found elsewhere.
- In the process of excavation - and our excavation is located close to the place where Scassi was digging - we found a lion's head with a hand lying on top, - said the head of the Bosporus expedition. - I had a copy of a photograph of a statue from the Hermitage, I photographed the lion's head in the same angle as in the photograph, and connected it in Photoshop. They "sat down" one to one. So Scassi actually found this statue on top of Mithridates. And it is possible that the foundation of the temple that we found was dedicated to the goddess Cybele - a very serious supreme deity. But this must be proved.
Kerch is the oldest city in Russia
The history of Panticapaeum is very dramatic. It has many earthquakes, construction periods, then again destruction and fires. Nevertheless, this city exists to this day. Today it is called Kerch.
Mount Mithridates. View from the sea. Photo: Personal archive of Vladimir Tolstikov.
By the end of the year, Vladimir Tolstikov plans to prepare a package of documents for filing an application for the official recognition of Kerch as the oldest city in Russia. This is a rather lengthy process that can take up to a year.
But the director of the East Crimean Historical and Cultural Reserve, Tatyana Umrikhina, decided not to wait for the end of the bureaucratic procedure and formalization of official papers, and during a meeting with Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in Kerch, she suggested celebrating the 2600th anniversary of the city in 2018.
Olga Zavyalova