The Crimean peninsula keeps many secrets of disappeared civilizations that inhabited these lands at different times. These mysteries of history include the mysterious Taurus boxes, which were found in many parts of the central part of the Crimean Mountains and on the southern coast of Crimea.
These stone burial grounds date back to about 6-5 centuries BC, which allows us to attribute them to the mysterious culture of the Taurus, because, according to ancient Greek sources, it was this people who lived at that time on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula.
A typical Taurus box is a rectangular pit, the walls of which are laid with hewn stone slabs dug into the ground, and the top is covered with a fifth stone slab, like a lid. Often, such stone boxes were surrounded by a stone fence. Unlike the Scythian burials, the Taurians are not characterized by barrow embankments, although stone fences were sometimes lined with small earthen embankments or a kind of fences made of stones placed on the edge. There are both individual Taurus boxes and real stone necropolises, in which dozens of stone boxes are concentrated, arranged in parallel rows.
In different places of Crimea, Taurus boxes have survived in different ways: somewhere they are completely destroyed, somewhere - only with side plates, and in some places - even with an upper plate-cover. But the proximity to the surface of the earth of these stone tombs became the reason for their rapid plundering even in ancient times. Archaeologists got only rare finds of glass beads, bracelets and arrowheads.
In one of the few surviving Taurus boxes, bronze ornaments, iron swords and knives were found, which confirms the connection between the Taurus and the Scythians. According to the surviving remains, stone boxes were used for multiple burials. Perhaps each such Taurus box served as a kind of ancestral burial vault. When the stone tomb was completely filled, it was cleared of bones, leaving only the skulls, and re-filled with new burials.
Probably, skillful stone processing played an essential role in the culture of this ancient people. Scientists have not found an answer to the riddle of the Taurus boxes: how, possessing absolutely primitive tools, the Taurus could chip off such bulky stone slabs from the rocks and how they worked so perfectly. In addition, sometimes the distance from the burial ground to the nearest stone deposit could be a kilometer or more, and the slabs used to create stone boxes weighed at least about 2 tons, were at least 2 meters long, and at least a meter wide. … How the slab was split off and how it was delivered to the burial site is another unsolved mystery in the history of the Crimean peninsula.
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Sometimes these stone tombs are called Crimean dolmens. But unlike large-scale Caucasian dolmens, they are much smaller and slightly hidden underground, while dolmens usually rise on the surface. Therefore, this name is not entirely correct in relation to Taurus boxes.
Most of the Taurus boxes were found in the Baydar Valley, and it is here that one of the largest Taurus burials in the Crimea is located, known as Tash-Koi, which means "Stone Village". Probably, the lids of these stone tombs protruding to the surface reminded local residents of the roofs of houses of a destroyed settlement.
Tash-Koi is located north of the village of Novoobrovskoye. If you walk from the settlement along the old road uphill for about a kilometer, you can go to a treeless area, where you can see a lot of stones and remnants of rocks. It is here that the Taurus boxes are located, which are hidden in the bushes and are almost invisible from the road. There are about a hundred of them here, so it is not surprising that the place was called “stone village”. Most of these stone tombs have been destroyed, but many of this "village" and the surviving stone "houses". About a dozen Tavrian boxes Tash-Koy, despite the amazing antiquity, have been preserved in excellent condition.
