The ruins of ancient structures in the Fiolent area turned out to be larger than the defensive walls of Chersonesos
The massive, multi-ton boulders that lie at the base of the antique buildings of the so-called wine-making complex in the Berman gully differ from the classic limestone blocks that the ancient Greeks used to build their cities in Crimea. Considering the fact that the remains of Neolithic settlements are known on the territory of this protected area, and several stone mounds with objects of the Kemi-Obin culture were found near the complex, it is assumed that the Greeks erected their fortifications on the site of the already existing ruins of some ancient cyclopean buildings …
Ready foundation
“The complexes are architectural remains of buildings, wineries, powerful defensive walls, underground cave structures from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. According to the results of excavations, it can be argued that life here did not stop since the 4th century. BC e. to the XIV century. n. e”- this is how the structures in the Berman gully are described on the official website of the Chersonesos reserve.
This multifunctional complex, according to the findings of archaeologists, included a defensive tower of the 4th century. BC e, several utility rooms and courtyards with wells and cisterns for storing water, wineries with preserved presses and stone presses, depressions in the rock for pithos, as well as cellars for storing wine. Archaeological materials found during excavations of this fortified complex date back to the 4th century. BC e. - XIV century. AD Archaeologists have not yet found any earlier items.
Research has shown that the site was used during the Hellenistic period, was built up during the Roman period, and in the Middle Ages, the remains of the early walls were used as the basis for a later building.
This, of course, can explain the variety of stone materials used in the construction of buildings: why bring building materials here if there is already a ready-made base? Even now, in our time, many people prefer to build houses in place of old, well-established foundations. But if we talk about the beginning of construction, then, in our opinion, its origins should be sought in a time more distant from us than Hellenism.
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Three-ton "cubes"
In order to compare the complex of buildings in the Berman gully with the classical architecture of Hellenism and the Roman era, it is enough to drive along the Crimean coast and see the remains of such ancient settlements as Kalos-Limen, Beliaus, Chersonesos, as well as the city of Panticapaeum on the Kerch Peninsula, belonging to the same era and made as a blueprint - according to the architectural norms that existed at that time.
But the fortifications in the Berman gully, namely the foundations of the buildings, consisting of dense limestone blocks, clearly stand out from the general picture in form and in the method of processing, they look completely alien in this row.
But the main thing that does not bother is the size of the building blocks. We specially measured the parameters of building materials in the defensive wall of the ancient Greek polis - Tauric Chersonesos - and were extremely surprised by the results. The largest blocks lying in the lower levels of the defensive wall, belonging to the original antique masonry, are about 1 meter 60 centimeters long, about 80 centimeters high, and about 30 centimeters thick. Meanwhile, the "cubes" of the estate in Berman's gully have dimensions: 2 meters 20 centimeters long, 1 meter 30 centimeters high and 1 meter 20 centimeters thick. That is, it is about three times more. Even if it is bold to assume that the complex on the southeastern outskirts of the Heracles Peninsula had a certain military-strategic importance, it can hardly be put on a par with such a policy,like Chersonesos. Moreover, with a tall defensive wall, on which they would hardly save money. After all, the heavier the blocks, the more reliable …
Kemi-Obintsy or Tavry?
Interestingly, the staff of the reserve confirm that traces of the presence of representatives of the most ancient cultures known to us were found in the gully itself. For example, on a hill, three hundred meters from the estate, there is a stone mound, excavated in the 80s of the last century. Moreover, it is known that he is not unique here.
Alexey Arzhanov, employee of the State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve "Tavrichesky Chersonesos":
“The mound in the Berman's gully belongs to several cultures: Kemi-Obinskaya, Kizil-Kobinskaya and Srubnaya. It contained a whole molded pot, fragments of other ceramics, 27 skeletons dating from the 3rd millennium BC to the 3rd century BC. That is, for almost three thousand years they have been buried and buried in it."
And according to the story of Crimean ethnographers, on the territory of this protected area, the remains of settlements of the Neolithic and Bronze Age are known. These monuments preceded the construction of the Chersonesites.
It is curious that the technology intersects with the technology of building cave cities. Premises were made in a solid rock, and huge, multi-ton blocks were placed on top. The blocks themselves are roughly processed limestone blocks, like the slabs of the Crimean dolmens. So it is possible that the same Greeks built their estate on the site of the Taurus settlement. By the way, the theory of rough processing of stone with Taurus, in our opinion, is not substantiated by anything, because even ideally processed limestone blocks will coarsen from centuries of erosion …
Maxim RUSINOV
Photo by D. Smirnov, D. Kostenko