The railway approach to the Crimean Bridge will be redesigned after the ancient settlement of Manitra was discovered at the construction site in the vicinity of Kerch.
The railway will pass south of the planned route; work on the new project may take about 6 months. This was reported by the Crimean Bridge information center.
“To preserve the unique historical monument, the builders of the approach to the Crimean Bridge will adjust the route of the railway line on one of the sections in the vicinity of Kerch. The road will bypass and will not affect the buildings of a rich ancient estate, discovered during archaeological research prior to the construction of the route.
A complex of 40 rooms and 9 courtyards, dating from the end of the 5th - beginning of the 3rd century BC. e., could belong to the family of a Bosporan aristocrat or a representative of the dynasty of kings of Bosporus. The transfer of the approach site will allow scientists to conserve this settlement, study it and preserve it for posterity,” the information center said in a statement.
The construction press service emphasized that the transfer of the route section will not affect the completion date of the 18-km approach: it will start operating as planned in December 2019.
As RBC writes, the railway tracks can be moved 700–900 m to the south, where “archaeologists do not expect new finds.”
“We know and respect history. We understand what region we work in. Therefore, the question of preserving cultural heritage was and remains a priority,” emphasized Leonid Ryzhenkin, Deputy Director for Infrastructure Projects at Stroygazmontazh.
Unique find
The found estate occupies an area of more than 5 thousand square meters. m and is characterized by continuous buildings, characteristic of ancient rural complexes.
Now approximately 80% of the found settlement has been revealed. The upper layers have been discovered almost throughout the entire area, but the lowest horizon has not yet been excavated everywhere.
“To understand who the first owner of this estate was, you need to open the earliest level. But it is obvious that this was a representative of the aristocratic elite of the Bosporan kingdom,” says the head of the expedition, Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Vnukov.
“There are no analogues of a rural estate of such size, complexity and such good preservation not only in the Crimea, but throughout the entire Black Sea region.
The uniqueness of this settlement is very high level construction business. The monument is located on the Kerch Peninsula, in the western part of the Bosporus Kingdom. This is the distant outskirts of the Hellenic world, but here we see the experience of ancient urban planning at its best.
The one who built this estate had not just great, but very great material opportunities. Presumably, this is not even a representative of the social property elite, but rather a member of the ruling royal dynasty or even the king of the Bosporus himself,” Alexander Maslennikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, head of the field research department of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, agrees with his colleague.
Archaeologists received an invaluable gift during the construction of the Crimean Bridge. An entire ancient village was discovered on the site on the Kerch side. According to scientists, the settlement dates back to the end of the fifth century BC.
As researchers delve into the mysteries ancient world, builders are adjusting the project. The railway approach will be moved to preserve the unique estate. This will not affect the delivery deadline in any way.
Literally across the street from modern residential buildings is the outskirts of the ancient world. The estate of the late 5th century BC - the time when the Bosporan kings dominated this territory and worshiped the ancient Greek gods.
The estate was, as it were, separated from the outside world. The windows of all buildings - there were 40 of them - looked out only onto the internal paved courtyards. Judging by the area - about five thousand square meters, aristocrats lived here. This is evidenced by the found fragments of luxurious tiles for that time, and whole scatterings of coins with relief minting. Next to the tables on which grapes were crushed, scientists found Aegean amphorae and well-preserved ceramics - wine cups coated with black varnish, presumably brought from Attica.
“In front of us is a black-glazed saucer, almost whole, the rim is slightly chipped. Imported tableware. At the bottom of this saucer is a scratched name or wish,” says Alexander Bonin, a specialist at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
It was here, on the approach to the Crimean Bridge, that according to the project a new railway was supposed to pass, a section 18 kilometers long. Archaeologists who were conducting research before construction stumbled upon the ancient monument. Now the route will be moved - the rails will bypass the estate. The developers assure that this will not affect the completion date. Trains on the Crimean Bridge will be launched on time - in December next year. And here scientists will continue excavations - they need to get to the lower layer to find out who was the first owner.
“I don’t know any analogies either in Ukraine or in Russia. In the entire Black Sea region, no one has dug anything like this in rural areas. This is the first time we have had an estate of such size, such complexity of layout and such preservation. There would be no construction railway“We would never have had such opportunities to carry out work on such an area, at such a pace, with so many people,” said Alexander Maslennikov, head of the field research department at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A great rarity, scientists say, is that the artifacts have been preserved in almost the same condition in which their owners left them. Archaeologists especially note the skill of the architects.
“The estate is located on a slope. Naturally, during the rains there was a powerful drainage system, and the residents of this estate built a rather complex and extensive drainage system. We have not encountered such a system before,” said Sergei Vnukov, leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
But various antiquities are found regularly during the construction of the Crimean Bridge - in two years, more than one hundred thousand valuable exhibits have already been transferred to museums.
In May - June 2017, the Crimean new-building archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (head of the expedition - Doctor of Historical Sciences S.Yu. Vnukov) carried out excavations of the Hospital mound in the city of Kerch (Fig. 1, 2). The research was carried out as part of a project to preserve historical heritage monuments falling within the construction zone. The excavations of the mound were led by a researcher at the Institute of Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ph.D. I.V. Rukavishnikova, reports the press service of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Hospital Kurgan is located in the south-eastern part of Kerch in the Solnechny microdistrict, east of the Heroes of Stalingrad highway. It is named after the former military hospital located nearby. Hospital is the largest in the chain of mounds on the central rock ridge of Yuz-Oba (One Hundred Hills - Tatar) in Kerch. The height of its earth embankment (Fig. 1) was more than 7 m, the diameter was 70 m, and the total area of the monument was approx. 13,700 sq. m. The central stratigraphic profile of the mound showed the complex structure of its mound and several periods of its formation. The mound was built in several stages, which are associated with various burial structures of the mound. In addition, in all stratigraphic sections, traces of numerous predatory diggings and trenches that damaged the mound embankment were recorded. Read: Research has shown that the earliest are two burials in stone boxes (Fig. 4, right) with slab ceilings, located side by side on the same level along the north-south line. One of the boxes contained a single intact burial, the other was completely robbed in antiquity, apparently twice. In an intact burial (Fig. 5), a poorly preserved human skeleton was discovered in a wooden sarcophagus (Fig. 8), decorated with plaster ornamental overlays. The deceased was accompanied by numerous objects related to sports. These are more than 10 alabasters - special vessels for oil, which was used during training and competitions, a strigel - a sickle-shaped scraper, used to cleanse the athlete’s body of oil, sweat and dirt, as well as for massage after competitions. 150 astragalus dice were also found there. Particularly noteworthy is the painted red-figure wine jug - pelik (Fig. 9), the so-called Kerch style. Judging by these finds, in the 2nd half of the 4th century. BC. a young male athlete was buried here. The first, relatively small mound was built over these two early burials. On it, to the south and north of the burials, 2 stone altars-eskharas were installed (Fig. 7). Not far from them, fireplaces and pits with the remains of funeral feasts, performed in memory of the dead, were also discovered. Numerous fragments of painted red-figure vessels of the 4th century were found in them. BC. and other ceramics. Among them are fragments of a red-figure crater (a vessel for mixing wine and water) with images of maenads and satyrs. Read: After some time, apparently at the end of the 4th century. before. AD, a grandiose stone tomb was added to the early mound (Fig. 4), placed on the ancient surface. It was covered with an additional embankment. The tomb is an ancient crypt with a long corridor-dromos, which led to a rectangular burial chamber measuring 5.20 x 4.80 m with a stepped ceiling. The length of the dromos is about 20 m; it expands towards the entrance. The entrance to the dromos apparently faced the surface of the new mound and was designed as a stepped portal. It is laid with torn stones (Fig. 3). The inner walls of the chamber and the dromos corridor were covered with thin smoothed plaster. The later, higher mound mound, which covered the crypt, was erected in several stages as the construction of the structure progressed. This made it easier to lay the top rows of masonry walls and floors. Each level of the mound was separated from the one above it by a layer of stone chips formed during the laying of the next row of masonry of the tomb. In some places, the base of the new embankment was reinforced with a special roller made of limestone chips. Numerous fragments of containers and table vessels from the 4th–3rd centuries were found in the mound. BC. Apparently, another funeral altar-eschara, discovered in the western field of the late embankment, belongs to this crypt. Later, the crypt was repeatedly robbed, and it was also dismantled for stone. As a result, it was very badly destroyed. Nevertheless, certain architectural details of the rich decoration of the tomb have been preserved: a fragment of a frieze decorated with ovals, a pilaster capital, an architectural plaster decoration covered with blue paint. The filling also contained fragments of ceramics dating back to the 4th century. BC. and the Middle Ages. In the western part of the mound, two later burials in the linings, dating back to the turn of the era, were also discovered. For some time, the destroyed crypt stood open. One of these periods includes the most interesting schematic drawings (Fig. 6), applied to the plaster with ocher and soot, apparently in the 3rd–5th centuries. AD Battle scenes, ships, solar symbols, etc. are depicted. The style of the images is reminiscent of those in the Sabazid crypt in Kerch. Restorers from the State Hermitage and the Kerch Museum-Reserve took part in the conservation work. Read: The remains of a temporary dwelling with a hearth, built in an already destroyed dromos, date back to the Middle Ages. The small settlement “Hospital” located nearby is associated with the mound. There is reason to believe that the builders of this mound lived there. Thus, the Hospital mound is a complex multi-temporal burial complex, the main burials in which were made in the 2nd half of the 4th century. BC. The destroyed crypt discovered in it was apparently not inferior to the best examples of Hellenistic Bosporan funerary architecture and contained the burial of a representative of the top of the local society. Also of great interest are the later drawings on the walls of the crypt. Excavations of mounds of this size have not been carried out in Crimea for more than 120 years. For the first time they were carried out comprehensively, at the modern scientific level. In addition to archaeologists, anthropologists, paleozoologists, palynologists, restorers and others took part in the work. They received important information about the funeral rite of representatives of the Bosporan nobility, the funeral structures of Bosporus and the technology of their construction, about the material culture of the Bosporan kingdom in the Hellenistic era, in Roman and medieval times.
The territory of modern Kerch has been inhabited by people since ancient times - information about the first settlements here has been lost for centuries. It has been proven that at the top of Mount Mithridates and at its foot in the 7th century BC. a city of Hellenic colonists arose with a defensive wall, stone houses, a port, trades and crafts, and subsequently with a highly developed culture, mansions of the nobility, state and public institutions, a mint, temples and all other attributes of the policies of that era. It is believed that since the emergence of Panticapaeum, life here has never been interrupted, although eras, peoples and civilizations have changed. Kerch is therefore recognized in the scientific world as the most ancient city in Russia.
However, in the area modern city people lived before - it is enough to mention the so-called Cimmerians (the conventional name for the pre-Scythian peoples Northern Black Sea region), traces of whose vital activity have been preserved by the Crimean land. Just remember the well-known anthropomorphic sculptures - “stone women”, dating back to a millennium BC. Therefore, traces of ancient settlements and burials are hidden in the ground everywhere in Kerch.
The Nizhny Solnechny region is no exception, in the vicinity of which a lot of traces of ancient people have been preserved. During the construction of auto approaches from the Tavrida highway to the bridge, some sections of these historical monuments will inevitably be lost, and therefore archaeologists should extract all possible artifacts and document the finds. You can find out more about the configuration of the route and the area where it will take place in our.
In August 2016, the “Crimean Regional Center for Archaeological Research” carried out an examination and identified those places of future construction where it is necessary to conduct preliminary archaeological surveys, identifying 13 cultural heritage sites that need to be bypassed, conservation measures taken, or explored in as much detail as possible before the construction of the road begins.
In this relatively small area on both sides of the Heroes of Stalingrad Highway there are a number of archaeological sites. On the western side there is the “Hospital” settlement, the “Lesnoy I” and “Lesnoy II” mounds, the Tiritaksky rampart with a length of more than 20 kilometers. On the east, near the dacha cooperative “Zaliv”, there is the “Hospital” mound, the “Hospital II” settlement and a group of 4 “Nizhny Solnechny I” mounds with burials of the Bosporo-Scythian and Panticapaean nobility of the 4th-3rd centuries BC, and The “Nizhny Solnechny II” mound turned out to be right on the territory of the household plots. Even closer to the bridge is a group of 8 mounds “Cement Slobodka I”.
Also, near the future highway “Tavrida”, 3 kilometers from the village of Oktyabrskoye, there is a group of 4 mounds, the surface of which is plowed, and a little to the east there is a group of two mounds “Dzharzhdava Western”. In the same area, but to the south of the future road junction, there is the “Balochny Zapadny” mound, and closer to Kerch there is the “Balochny” mound.
The settlement “Hospital” (the name comes from the nearby tuberculosis dispensary) is located on the banks of the Dzharzhava River, which, undoubtedly, was fuller in ancient times, which attracted residents. Its area is estimated at 13,350 square meters. m, of which the territory of permanent land allocation for road construction accounts for 8,890 sq. m. This does not mean that historical monument throughout this entire area will be lost, but access to it will, of course, be terminated. Today, thanks to funding, scientists will be able to conduct the largest excavations in recent decades.
Extensive archaeological research of this area over an area of 3 thousand square meters. m was carried out just before the division of the country, in 1989-1991, under the leadership of Kerch specialists Viktor Nikolaevich Zinko and Nikolai Fedorovich Fedoseyev, and a small area was additionally explored in 1993. The discoveries made during the excavations made it possible to date the settlement to the end of the 5th - first quarter of the 3rd century BC. Four rectangular semi-dugouts for residential and utility purposes, equipped with a system of sewage drains and receiving pits, were discovered; the remains of a manor with a courtyard, traces of a fire, garbage pits and household items, including fragments of red-figure pottery, amphora containers, ceramic stamps, Panticapaean coins and sling stones. Residents were engaged in fishing and livestock farming.
The “Hospital” mound is also noteworthy, which is seen every day by thousands of people passing near the tuberculosis dispensary: due to its position near the road, it is clearly visible. With a diameter of 70 meters, the height of the burial reaches 7 m. The total area of the security zone is set at 13.7 thousand square meters. m. The mound of the mound bears traces of digging, but some researchers believe that this burial may still remain unplundered, at least in modern history no one opened it. If these expectations are true and archaeologists decide to excavate the mound, then interesting finds await us. Most of these burial structures have been plundered both in ancient times and in very recent times. However, for now only a study of the 4 thousand square meters adjacent to the mound is planned. m adjacent to the future highway.
Behind the private plots towards the bridge on an area of 20.7 thousand square meters. m is located the Bronze Age settlement “Hospital II”, dating back to approximately the 2nd millennium BC. and discovered in 1983. The task of archaeologists today is to study the historical space on an area of 8,280 square meters. m. The work is carried out by the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with the East Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve.
During the expedition, which involves over 40 people, ordinary workers and specialists, thousands of fragments of molded Bronze Age ceramics, household items made of stone and bone, and agricultural tools have already been identified. There are also objects from ancient times.
Perhaps, already in the summer, the Kerch Museum will demonstrate the most remarkable of these finds in the framework dedicated to the Crimean Bridge. There are plans to make it permanent and place it on the territory of the Kerch fortress, where many magnificent casemated rooms have been preserved. This will contribute to the preservation and development of the fortress itself as an object of Russian cultural heritage. Moreover, on the territory of the fortress, by the time the bridge is launched, it is planned to build a gigantic monument to “Reconciliation” for the centenary of the beginning of the revolution and civil war, as well as extensive observation deck with the construction of a road, that is, visiting museum exhibitions and the fortress itself will be interesting and convenient.
In general, the scope of archaeological work in Crimea is much wider due to active infrastructure construction. Thus, today, about 50 archaeological heritage sites are planned for study along the route of the future Tavrida highway, and completely new monuments may be discovered during construction: contractors are required to inform scientists about all discovered historical objects, immediately stopping work on these sites.
Last year, when laying a gas pipeline through a ditch near the Cimmerian Wall, a discovery was made in the Northern Black Sea region of excellent preservation with the remains of adjacent defensive fortifications. And the volume of ceramic fragments from the marine sections of the supports of the Crimean Bridge is absolutely stunning - in 2015 alone, 1200 square meters were excavated in the area of Cape Ak-Burun. m of the bottom and more than 20 thousand finds were recovered. Work continued last year, and its scale is increasing. In 2017, marine archaeologists are going to take hundreds of thousands of ancient debris from Poseidon along the bridge construction route. The most remarkable examples of ancient culture found recently are the Kerch Museum.
August is the traditional time to sum up the work of archaeological expeditions. In recent years, special attention has been focused on excavations in Crimea. Large-scale infrastructure projects are being implemented on the peninsula. The construction of new roads, the construction of power plants, and the reconstruction of airports are always preceded by archaeological research. The scientists themselves diligently avoid loud statements, but it is already clear that this year will be one of the most “fruitful”. The portal site found out what riddles ancient Crimea specialists managed to find out.
Cetotherium on land
Taurus, Cimmerians, Goths, Greeks, Romans, Huns - many peoples left their mark on the history of Crimea. However, one of the largest finds dates back to an era when man had not yet appeared on Earth. On the Kerch Peninsula, researchers discovered the spinal column and ribs of an ancient whale that had lain in geological layers for about 10 million years. The fossils were found at a depth of only 1 m. According to scientists, the skeleton belongs to a cetotherium, a marine mammal that could reach a length of 30 m.
The found individual grew to 5 m. It lived in the Sarmatian Sea, which also occupied the territory of the modern Kerch Peninsula. Over time, where there was a sea, land formed. There was a rise in geological layers, and the skeleton of the whale ended up on a hill, although previously it lay on the bottom.
According to the leading methodologist of the Zoological Museum of the Tauride Academy of KFU. IN AND. Vernadsky Dmitry Startsev, the main value is that an articulated skeleton was discovered. “The cranial bones have not been preserved, but the spinal column is fully represented - from the thoracic region to the caudal region. All fragments belong to one copy. The structure of the bone tissue is clearly visible,” he noted. Startsev added that the find will make it possible to obtain useful information about the structure of an ancient organism.
Scythian gold
In the vicinity of Sevastopol, scientists had another success. An ancient necropolis with Scythian burials of the 2nd–4th centuries AD was discovered here. Burial grounds in Crimea have been robbed for many centuries during wars and invasions; recently this has been done by “black archaeologists,” so the intactness of the burial amazed scientists.
Thousands of artifacts were discovered in the burials. Many earrings, necklaces, bracelets, glass vessels, buckles, and ceramics were found in early burials. In the later ones there are a lot of weapons, including swords, polearms, and fragments of shields. Archaeologists retrieved an ax from one of the graves.
Searchers found vessels near the skulls. Some of them contain remains of funeral food. Fragments of a heavily corroded dagger and the remains of a belt set in the form of a bronze buckle with a curved tongue were also discovered. Among the finds, a gold thread (bead thread) and a teardrop-shaped pendant with a red insert and beaded edging stand out. Noteworthy is the ring with a carved carnelian signet insert.
“We have rich grave goods. On the chest of one of the remains there is a large arched fibula (clothing fastener), on the left hand there is a bronze bracelet, in the area of the right hand we see a crushed, but superbly made glass vessel,” said Alexey Sviridov, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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The location of all objects found in the grave is carefully recorded, the information is recorded on a special plan, described, and then photographed from different angles. The exhibits will replenish the museum collections.
Khazar massacre
A more terrible discovery awaited scientists on the Kerch Peninsula. At the excavations of the Kyz-Aul necropolis, a mass burial of people from the times of the Khazar Kaganate was discovered. The remains were literally piled up. Some of them were lying in unnatural positions. For example, one of the buried seemed to be pressing his hands to his head. The searchers who cleared his skeleton had the impression that the unfortunate man was simply buried alive and that he was trying to cover his face before dying. In total, more than 10 such skeletons were found in a small excavation area.
Development Director of the Archeology Foundation Oleg Markov noted that the skulls are badly damaged and it is impossible to understand whether they had some kind of intravital injuries or not - anthropologists will deal with this. Perhaps they were victims of a massacre or epidemic. For now, it is only clear that the death occurred at once and the bodies were not treated on ceremony.
“They just lumped them into one pile. At the same time, they did not place any accompanying grave goods at all. Excavations at the Kyz-Aul necropolis continue, and scientists still hope to solve this terrible problem,” Markov emphasized.
"Flounder" at the bottom
However, not only monuments of distant antiquity are of interest. The location of the pre-revolutionary submarine "Kambala" has been established off the coast of Sevastopol. She sank during exercises of the Black Sea squadron on May 29, 1909. After practicing a night attack at the entrance to South Bay In Sevastopol, the submarine collided with the battleship Rostislav. As a result of the disaster, it broke into two parts and sank at a depth of more than 60 m. Three officers and 17 sailors were killed.
“A joint expedition of the Russian Geographical Society, the Russian Sevastopol State University and the Nakhimov Higher Naval School localized the site of the sinking of the Russian submarine Kambala. The cadets of the Nakhimov School figured out this place. And we established this place with the help of a side sonar, since it had been lost for many years,” said Viktor Lebedinsky, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies.
Before the tragedy, the boat was part of the Separate Submarine Division of the Black Sea Fleet, which consisted of five submarines: two American-built - Sudak and Salmon - and three German - Karp, Karas and Kambala.
An elderly German stood on the shore for a long time
Another marine find is a German bomber that sank off Cape Tarkhankut during the Great Patriotic War. Director for Scientific Work of the Black Sea Center for Underwater Research Viktor Vakhoneev said that the researchers learned about the splashdown of the aircraft from local residents. They claimed that in the 90s an elderly German came to the cape and stood on the shore for a long time and looked out to sea. Presumably he was the pilot of this plane.
“We made a reconnaissance expedition and at a depth of 44 m we found it in excellent preservation. All elements are visible, standard weapons, the cockpit,” said Vakhoneev. The exact type of bomber has not been established, but it is believed to be a Heinkel. There are no plans to recover the find due to its great depth; they are planning to send a new expedition to the plane to thoroughly study it.
Our era of archeology
Archaeologists say that a search boom began in Crimea after reunification with Russia. Yes, during the Soviet period, research was carried out intensively, but after the collapse of the USSR and Ukraine gained independence, problems with financing appeared. The second difficulty was the capacity of archaeologists. In 2010 in Ukraine, about 70% of representatives of this profession reached retirement age.
After 2014, large infrastructure projects began to be implemented: energy, gas, transport. It required construction and ground work, which was preceded by archaeological research. As a result, excavations are being carried out throughout the peninsula from Kerch to Sevastopol.
In Ukrainian Crimea, 20–40 open sheets (permits for excavations) were issued per year. In 2017, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation issued 136 sheets. Each expedition consists of 50 to 100 people. It is safe to say that new discoveries will occur in the near future.
