ILURATUM
Bosporus.
Fortified agricultural
settlement 17 km SW of Kerch, dating from the 1st to
the 3d c. A.D. It is mentioned by Ptolemy (3.6).
Spread out over a 2-ha area, the city has a rectangular
plan. It was surrounded by sturdy walls—very well
preserved—more than 6 m thick and 2.5 m high, and
fortified with six towers. A necropolis SE of the site has
been excavated.
The residential area, which is fairly well preserved,
consists of houses rectangular in plan, each having a
small inner courtyard with rooms arranged around it.
The houses are contiguous and are supported by the
fortress walls. The stairways go from the courtyard to the
first story, or directly onto the ramparts. Iluratum is an
example of a fortress desigued to protect agricultural
settlers against nomads.
The finds—local hand-thrown wares with an incised
design, terracotta figurines—are typical of Scytho-Sarmatian civilization, free of any Greek influence.
Among the most noteworthy is a figurine of a goddess
with outstretched arms, one arm in the shape of a tree
trunk. The goddess had a nimbus around her head. The
Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. F. Gaidukevich, “Ilurat. Itogi arkheologicheskikh issledovanii 1948-1953 gg.,”
Bosporskie
goroda, II [Materialy i issledovaniia PO arkheologii SSSR,
No. 85] (1958) 9-148; A. L. Mongait,
Archaeology in
the USSR, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 198-99; I. B.
Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments
antiques des régions de la Mer Noire,”
Eirene 7 (1968)
99-100; I. G. Shurgaia, “Raskopki v iugo-zapadnoi chasti
Ilurata v 1966 i 1968 gg.,”
KSIA 124 (1970) 61-68;
M. M. Kublanov, “Issledovanie nekropolia Ilurata,”
KSIA 128 (1971) 78-85; id., “Raskopki nekropolia
Ilurata v 1969 g.,”
KSIA 130 (1972) 83-88.
M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO
