- PII
- S0321-03910000392-7-1
- DOI
- 10.7868/S10000392-7-1
- Publication type
- Article
- Status
- Published
- Authors
- Volume/ Edition
- Volume / Issue 3
- Pages
- 134-162
- Abstract
- The authors present a survey of recent archaeological and epigraphic finds at the site of Artesian in Eastern Crimea. The settlement existed there in the Late Hellenistic period and was destroyed by fire in the middle of the 1st century AD during the Roman- Bosporan war of 42-49 AD described by Tacitus. The excavations of the settlement and its citadel show that hostilities between the Romans and the Bosporan supporters of the rebellious king Mithridates III took place on both Asian and European sides of the Bosporus. The authors give a description of the traces of fire and destruction and ruins unearthed during the excavation of the citadel. They publish a graffito with fragments of school writing exercise, mentioning the names of schoolboys Salas and Doles. The graffito preserves a full Greek alphabet and a greeting formula and mentions Apatouros, the common Bosporan sanctuary of Aphrodite Apatoura. The pupils were obviously practicing in writing the words. At the same time the graffito contains an obscenity referring to the boy named Doles. Another object published here is a stele depicting horsemen and bearing the names of the deceased inhabitants of the settlement: Sosibios, son of Dionysios, and his sons Disakos and Padagos, who served in cavalry and were killed in a war. The analysis of the names on the graffito and the stele shows that the population of the settlement of Artesian included Greeks and Hellenised Bosporans of Thracian and Sarmato-Iranian descent. Such mixture is typical of the Bosporan katoikias about the beginning of the Christian era. The presence of the Thracian element is further confirmed by some finds having to do with the cult sphere: head of Attis in Phrygian helmet and terracotta figurines of a syncretic male deity resembling Thracian Heros. These finds, as well as personal names, enable the authors to conclude that people from Thrace or Thracian speaking areas of Asia Minor were among the population of the settlement.
- Keywords
- Artesian, Bosporus, Rome, Aspurges, Thrace, Attys, citadel, katoikia, horsemen, the Thracian Horseman, the Seated Goddess, Apatouros
- Date of publication
- 01.07.2014
- Year of publication
- 2014
- Number of purchasers
- 1
- Views
- 616
RAS History & PhilologyВестник древней истории Vestnik drevney istorii
- ISSN (Print) 0321-0391
- ISSN (Online) 3034-5251
THE SITE OF ARTESIAN IN EASTERN CRIMEA (ITS POPULATION AND CULTS)
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Higher Attestation Commission
At the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
Scientific Electronic Library