The name of the Greek city of Gorgippia, located on the seashore in the region of the Sind people, was preserved by Strabo (Strabo, XI, II, 10, 12) - the Greek geographer of the 1st century BC BC - I century. n. e. and from the early medieval author - compiler of the geographical dictionary Stephen of Byzantium. It is present in the lapidary inscriptions, where the Gorgippian people and the governor of Gorgippia are mentioned (KBN, 1115, 1118, 1119, 1129, etc.). In the 1st century. BC e. the name of the city is minted on Gorgipian coins. The assumption that Gorgippia was located on the site of the modern city of Anapa was expressed back in the 70s of the XIX century, when coins, statues, plates with Greek inscriptions and other antique things began to be found in Anapa. The final location of the city on the territory of Anapa was helped to establish the inscriptions found there with the name of the city. Currently, the localization of Gorgippia in the place of Anapa is recognized by all scientists.
The city, apparently, got its name by the name of Gorgippus - the son of the Bosporan king Satyr. During the war with the Meotian tribes because of Sindica, King Satyr died. Only after this did Gorgippus manage to achieve peace and, apparently, finally annex Sindica to the Bosporus state. Polienus, a Greek writer of the 2nd century BCE, tells about this very colorfully. n. e. It can be assumed that Gorgippus in the IV century. BC e. was the first governors of the Bosporan king in Sindica, and his daughter, judging by one of the inscriptions, was the wife of the Bosporan king Perisad I (KBN, 1015).
The fact that Gorgippia was ruled by a person connected by kinship with the royal dynasty indicates the important role of this city in the history of the Bosporus state. Gorgippia had a beautiful harbor and was a major trading port in the Asian part of the Bosporus. It was an important craft center and the main city of Sindica, a large agricultural region inhabited by the Hellenized Meotian Sindi tribe.
Judging by the testimony of Strabo (XI, II, II), at the turn of our era, the As-Purgians lived there between Phanagoria and Gorgippia - one of the tribes whose name is associated with the name of the Bosporan king Aspurg. It is not excluded that the Aspurgians formed the personal squad of Aspurg. It is no coincidence that among the inscriptions of Gorgippia there are rescripts of this king, dating back to 15 AD. e.
Archaeological excavations of Gorgippia began in the middle of the 19th century. Initially, the attention of archaeologists was attracted by the numerous burial mounds located both on the territory of the city of Anapa and outside it. Groups of mounds stretched for many kilometers along ancient roads, fan-like diverging from … Gorgippia to the northeast, east, south and southwest. Among the burial mounds were very large, the height of which reached 18-20 m. They were built over the burial of the richest part of the population, and their excavations promised rich finds.
In 1852, AA Sibirskiy dug up a group of burial mounds, in one of which, located near Anapa, by the road towards Vityazevka, a magnificent stone crypt was discovered.
In 1876, R. S. Bayern, on behalf of the Caucasian Society of Archeology Amateurs, excavated the three highest burial mounds ("Three Sisters"). They were located 7 miles south of Anapa, at the foot of the foothills bordering the plain, which stretched towards the village of Raevskaya. R. S. Bayern found in each of these mounds a large stone crypt made of carefully hewn slabs. Perhaps, during these excavations, the marble head of Aphrodite was found, which is now in the collection of the State Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi, published by N. L. Grach.
From 1831 to 1884 excavations of burial mounds near Anapa and on its territory by. V. G. Tizengauzen was instructed by the archaeological commission.
Promotional video:
In 1881, in one of the mounds located to the east of the city, a stone tomb and a burial in a wooden coffin were found. There were many gold ornaments, plaques, a gold 'dagger, several silver objects, and the handle of a bronze ram-headed pater.
Two versts west of the Three Sisters mounds in 1881, an unusual mound surrounded by a rampart and a ditch was explored. A head of a limestone sculpture with traces of painting was found in its embankment. There were two stone tombs in the mound. In one of them, along with gold ornaments, black-glazed vessels of the 2nd century BC were found. BC e. and a bronze coin depicting the head of a satyr and a gorite. There are two leather soles of sandals more than 1 cm thick.
During excavations on the territory of Anapa, a group of small mounds that stretched to the west and south-west of Gorgippia, in 1881, tombs made of stone slabs and tiles were discovered. They contained gold beads, Egyptian pasta scarabeoids, silver vessels, many gold jewelry, a bronze mirror, black-glazed and simple clay vessels.
In 1882, north of Anapa, 10 versts north of the village of Blagoveshchenskaya and 1.5 versts from the sea on a small hill near the road to Vityazevka, a stone crypt of the 3rd century was found in one of the mounds. BC e. with a semi-cylindrical vault. In the crypt there was a magnificent wooden sarcophagus decorated with carved gilded figures of Nereids - sea nymphs sitting on the backs of sea monsters, and figures of warriors10. A necklace of 714 gold beads and 93 glass beads, a gold ring, and carved seals have been preserved. Of particular interest are the two carved seals that rotate on the wire arms. One of them - chalcedony - depicts a goddess standing on a lion in front of the Persian king, the second - carnelian - dating back to the 4th century. BC e. - carved figures of a Scythian with a bow, a man with a dog, two roosters and a dancing maenad11. Besides,the crypt contained silver and black-glazed vessels.
Several mounds with more modest burials were excavated in 1882 east of Anapa. Simple earthen tombs were found there, sometimes tiled tombs (mound 18) or made of adobe bricks (mound 8). They contained many different vessels of the 4th and 3rd centuries. before and. e. and a small amount of gold jewelry.
In the same year V. G. Tizengauzen excavated mound 22, located near the Alekseevsky farm, three miles from Anapa. In his earthen tomb, among the grave goods, there were several terracotta statues and black-glazed vessels with red-figure paintings of the late 4th - early 3rd centuries. BC e.
In 1883, the so-called Tarasov kurgans of the 3rd century were excavated on the ground of the village of Nikolaevskaya. BC BC 12 At the same time, the crypt of the Sultan Mountain was opened.
In 1894-1895, 1903 and 1908. a series of burial mounds on the territory of: Anapa and in its environs was investigated by N. I. Veselovsky. In 1894, he excavated a mound near Anapa behind a brick factory with a tomb of stone slabs, and in 11897, 2.5 miles south of Anapa, he discovered a robbed tomb consisting of a dromos and a chamber made of small limestone stones.
In 1903, northeast of Anapa, in Dzhemet, N. I. Veselovsky discovered a mound with a large number of graves covered with slabs. They were all robbed.
A central grave made of limestone slabs was discovered in a mound on Lysaya Gora. Almost in the middle of the tomb there was a square stone box, in which there was an urn with ashes, broken by robbers.
In 1904, a stone sarcophagus with gold ornaments was found in Anapa. In 1908, a robbed crypt of the 3rd century was opened 8.5 km from Anapa. BC er … It was built of large white slabs of local stone, had a semi-cylindrical vault and walls, plastered and covered with fresco paintings. The crypt was transported to Anapa to be exhibited in the city park.
Predatory excavations of the Bosporan burial mounds in the 19th century. numerous treasure hunters, contributed to the destruction of a large number of barrows, the destruction of crypts. At best, the archaeologists were left with already robbed and disturbed burials. Interest in the Anapa burial mounds falls for a long time, after N. I. Veselovsky, archaeologists do not turn to excavations of the Gorgippian necropolis. The remains of the ancient city, buried under the buildings of modern Anapa, did not arouse interest either.
The attention of archaeologists was again attracted only by the discovery in 1939 in the center of Anapa during accidental excavation of a large marble statue of a man draped in a cloak with a mane around his neck. There was also an inscription about the erection in 186 by Herodorus, the son of the governor of Gorgippia Neokles, a statue of his father. Somewhat later, employees of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin began excavations at the place where the statue was found, in Grechesky Lane. However, they failed to find a layer of ancient time there. The excavations that had just begun on the territory of the city were interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.
In 1949, an expedition led by V. D. Blavatsky conducted small excavations on the territory of Anapa. Observations of digging pits during construction work and excavation in the courtyard of the hotel, near Grechesky Lane, made it possible to outline the approximate boundaries of the ancient city, for the first time it was possible to clarify the stratigraphy of cultural layers and establish the time of the city's existence from the 5th century. BC BC 18
In 1954, during the construction of the Rodina cinema, the area of the ancient ground necropolis of Gorgippia was discovered. IV Pozdeeva, then a student at Moscow State University, was entrusted with the clearing of newly discovered antique burials. She cleared from 1954 to 1956 97 ancient graves in the area of the construction of a cinema and 33 graves in the area of Astrakhan Street, where a bakery and a bathhouse were built. Ground graves and crypts have been identified, sometimes with rich inventory. The materials found were sent to the Anapa Museum of Local Lore. However, the lack of the necessary field documentation significantly devalues the results of these works, and those that remained unpublished.
In 1959, while digging a pit in the courtyard of the old building of the Anapa City Executive Committee (between the streets of Naberezhnaya and Kubanskaya), a layer of powerful conflagration was discovered - perhaps the remains of a pottery workshop of the 2nd century. BC e. Since 1960, systematic excavations of Gorgippia began by a joint expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Anapa Museum of Local Lore. From 1960 to 1972 the expedition was led by I. T. Kruglikova. After 1972 the expedition was headed by E. M. Alekseeva. The excavations were carried out according to the latest field technique with full scientific fixation, with the opening of wide areas in the city and the necropolis. We studied massive archaeological material and the remains of industrial structures.
In connection with the construction unfolding in the 60s on the territory of Anapa, one of the tasks of the expedition was to study the sites to be built. Therefore, along with the main excavation site, where work was carried out annually, the excavations, in addition, covered various parts of modern Anapa. The city quarters of Gorgippia and its necropolis were also studied.
This made it possible to clarify the boundaries of the ancient city, to identify the specifics of its individual districts, to open the remains of industrial buildings and to determine the location of the socio-political center of the agora city.
The main attention was focused on the excavation in the courtyard of the Anapa city executive committee (excavation "Gorod"), where excavations were carried out annually since 1960 and by 1980 an area of more than 3000 m2 was explored.
A section of the main street, paved with large stone slabs, was discovered here. It stretched from east to west and was 7.5 m wide. On both sides of the street were blocks of residential buildings. Narrower transverse streets formed quarters. A system of stone gutters that went to the settling well was cleared. Discovered, the remains of pottery workshops of the 2nd century. BC e., I century. BC e. and III century. n. e.
This area of the city has been inhabited since the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC e. to the III-IV centuries. n. e. Previously, it was part of the necropolis, as evidenced by three graves of the 5th century. BC e „discovered by accident while digging a utility trench on Kubanskaya Street.
Dwelling houses of ancient times in this area were rebuilt several times. Sometimes the stonework of houses of the Hellenistic period was used in the construction of the basements of houses of the first centuries AD. e.
Some houses had two or three cellars, where amphorae and pithos with wine and other products were kept. Revealed powerful layers of fires and destruction that occurred in the II century. to p. e. and in the first half of the 3rd century. n. e.
In 1972, another excavation was laid in the neighboring western quarter, separated from the Gorod excavation by Svoboda Street, in the courtyard of the then shop of soft drinks of the Lazurny factory. The remains of two rooms of the 2nd-3rd centuries were found there. I am. e., in which there were iron tools, bronze and clay vessels. The territory of the ancient city extended further to the west, along the seashore. Excavations have shown that the western border of the city should have passed somewhere in the area of the "Blue Wave" sanatorium, and the community center of Gorgippia, on; Apparently, he was in the area of Lenin Street t of the Anapa Hotel. In the courtyard of the hotel near Grecheskiy lane, where in 1939 a marble statue of Neocles, V. D. was found, Blavatsky broke a small excavation in 1949. GO
The soil in this area was dug up by the Turks, but the layers of ancient times were not found. In 1961, 1962 and 1973. in the territory of the same yard, three more excavations were made. Parts of monumental stone buildings, fragments of marble statues and slabs with inscriptions carved on them, gutters cut in massive limestone blocks were discovered.
The entire complex of finds in the layers of ancient times in this area distinguishes it from all other sites that have been explored in the city, and allows us to assume that there was an agora here.
To the north-west of the "Hotel" excavations I, II, III, on the site of a boat dock under construction in 1960 and the building of the sea station in 1970 and 1971. excavations "Bereg" and "Beregovoy" I and II were broken. At the very coast of the sea below the meteorological station, the remains of two fish-salting cisterns were discovered, which functioned in the 1st century. BC e. There were also the remains of a house from the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e., over the ruins of which a fish and salting complex was later built.
At the excavations "Beregovaya I" and "Beregovaya II", the basements of residential buildings of the 4th century were investigated. BC e., standing on the coastal - lower terrace.
In 1969 a trench was dug along Kubanskaya and Pushkinskaya streets. AI Salov - an employee of the Anapa Museum of Local Lore, observing the excavation work, traced the section of the cultural layer of the settlement, starting from the Fortress (so-called "Russian") gates.
He discovered the first masonry of antique walls 20 meters west of the gate. Apparently, here in the last period of the history of Gorgippia was the eastern border of the city. Further to the west, along Kubanskaya Street, graves of the 5th century were discovered. BC h., covered with building remains of the 4th-3rd centuries. BC h. In the first centuries AD, there were two wineries in the area, partially cut by a trench. Remains of residential buildings and utility structures stretch along the entire Kubanskaya Street and partly along Pushkinskaya Street until its intersection with Chernomorskaya Street, but the building density in the western part is very low and most likely the western border of Gorgippia should be sought somewhere along the line of the Blue Wave sanatorium.
Archaeological observations were carried out in 1975 while digging a trench along Lenin Street. There are the remains of wineries, the foundations of a monumental building made of recyclable blocks, cellars of residential buildings, which made it possible to establish that the ancient city stretched for a rather large distance to the south.
Excavations were carried out on the south side of Kubanskaya Street. Residential quarters of ancient times were discovered in the courtyard of the House of Pioneers, where in 1962, at the Kubansky excavation site, a group of archaeologists from Kharkiv State University, headed by V. A. n. e. with a patio paved with stone slabs. In 1968-1969. at the excavation site "Kuban II" and in 1974-1977. (at the excavation site "Kubansky III") in the courtyard of a weaving factory, the remains of a residential quarter with buildings of different times were found - from the IV century. BC e. until III.c. n. e. In the same place, in 1974, a winery of the 1st century was opened. n. e.
In 1977, at the intersection of Kubanskaya and Lenin streets, a residential complex of the first centuries of our era was investigated, which consisted of a courtyard paved with slabs and several rooms adjacent to it.
The most remote area of Gorgippia was explored since 1971 in the courtyard of the N. K-Krupskaya boarding house. The cultural layer is much less saturated here. Apparently, in the last period of Gorgippia's heyday in the II - the beginning
III century. n. e. here was the southern edge of the city.
In addition to the urban area, the excavations of the Anapa expedition covered the area of the Gorgishshi necropolis. They were conducted in areas intended for new construction, mainly to the south of the territory of the settlement, in the area of an unpaved necropolis. In 1963-1964. at the corner of Astrakhanskaya and Protapov streets, on the site allocated for the construction of a house, 18 burials were excavated in ground pits (excavations "Astrakhansky" I, II, III), belonging to the period from the IV century. BC e. to II-III centuries. n. e.
In 1965, at the intersection of Protapova and Lenin streets, 5 ground graves of the 1st-2nd centuries were discovered, of which three had wooden floors. The layer of the first centuries AD, to which the burials belong, covered the layer of the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. with stone buildings associated with the sanctuary of Demeter and Cora. In the IV-III centuries. BC e. there was probably a sacred site and a dump of war objects - vessels with dedications to deities and protomes with images of the goddess Demeter, the patroness of agriculture, and her daughter Cora-Persephone, the goddess of the underworld.
In 1970, 37 ground graves and a stone crypt were investigated on Protapova Street, near the Rodina cinema. The earliest of the graves belonged to the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e., the most recent - by the II-III centuries. n. e. The crypt, made of limestone slabs, was robbed. The robbers left only a few gold jewelry, coin indications of Cotis I, beads, bronze coins and terracotta figurines of Aphrodite Anadiomene.
In 1974, 11 burials of the 1st century BC were examined on Terskaya Street. BC e. In 1975, over 20 graves of different times were discovered at the construction site of the Kolos boarding house canteen, and two crypts were uncovered on Gorky Street during the construction of a residential building. One of them, made of large stone blocks, was robbed. But its walls have retained polychrome paintings imitating the wall cladding with colored marble tiles. In the upper part of the side walls, in addition, there was a painted frieze depicting the 12 labors of Hercules, and opposite the entrance were painted figures of a man and a woman sitting in armchairs, a standing young man, trees, turtles, etc. In the crypt there were three stone sarcophagi. In the second crypt, carved into the rock, there were two sarcophagi with rich burials of two girls and a noble warrior. Many gold jewelry and other items of the 2nd - first half of the 3rd century were found here. n. h. In 1976, next to these crypts, a grave was excavated, carved into the rock and covered with a stone slab on top. In the grave, a gold ring was found with a carved gemstone inserted into it, on which the figure of Athena was carved, and next to her, apparently later, was carved a tamga, the ancestral sign of the Bosporan king.
One of the most important achievements of the Anapa expedition in recent years is the expansion of the scope of its work. Back in the 60s, simultaneously with the study of Gorgippia and its necropolis, exploration of the Anapa environs was carried out. AI Salov, a researcher at the Anapa Museum of Local Lore, began compiling an archaeological map of the Anapa region. He put on it newly discovered archaeological sites, including ancient settlements and burial grounds discovered during the plowing of fields for vineyards. During reconnaissance near Anapa, carried out in 1963 by a member of the expedition, a local historian V. V. Veselov, settlements of the Hellenistic time were discovered 2 km southeast of Anapa, between the 7th and 8th kilometers near the highway leading from Anapa to Novorossiysk, 1.5 km south of Yurovkn, 0.4 km south of Dzhemete and settlements of the first centuries of our era near the villages of Anapskaya,Gostagaevskaya Blagoveshchenskaya and others.
Since 1973, the Anapa expedition began extensive excavations in the countryside (choirs) of Gorgiipia. Rural estates of the 4th-3rd centuries were excavated. BC e. near the farms of Krasny Kurgan and Krasnaya Skala, as well as mounds and earthen burial grounds near the village of Vityazevo, the farm Krasnaya Skala, near the villages of Voskresensky and Utash.
Simultaneously with the archaeological excavations, the study of numerous archaeological finds and. written sources to restore the history of the Gorp-spy. Epigraphic monuments are very important for the study of the history of this city. To date, more than 120 inscriptions carved on stone and marble are known. In terms of the number of lapidary monuments, Gorgippia is second only to the capital of the Bosporus state, Panticapaeum. Among the inscriptions discovered in Anapa and its environs in recent decades, inscriptions about the construction of city fortifications by the Bosporan king Savromat I (KBN, 1122) and the rescripts of King Aspurgus I published by T. V. Blavatsky, as well as the proxenic decree of the beginning IV century before and. BC, which allowed A. I. Boltunova to talk about the presence among the first representatives of the Spartokid dynasty of a certain Selevka, the son of Evmel.
The Gorgippian inscriptions gave new information about the history of only Gorgipshsh, but also of the entire Bosporus kingdom, about the ethnic composition of the city's inhabitants and the peculiarities of its socio-economic development, about the administrative structure of the Bosporus state and about a number of other important aspects of the life of Gorgippia. The overwhelming majority of inscriptions belong to the first centuries of our era - “about the time of the greatest flourishing of the socio-economic life of Gorgippia.
During excavations on the territory of Anapa, imported marble statues and fragments, bronze and terracotta figurines, as well as stone sculptures and reliefs were found, which allowed N. I. Sokolsky to identify a group of local Gorgippian tombstone sculptures.
The finds of works of monumental and small sculpture show a high level of development of the artistic culture of Gorgippia, clearly demonstrate its syncretism, the influence of the culture of the Sindo-Meotian, and later Sarmatian tribes on it, which is also confirmed by materials from the excavations of the necropolis and is characteristic not only for Gorgippia, but for everything Bosporus Kingdom and is especially evident in the last centuries BC th in the first centuries AD.
I. T. Kruglikova
