PHANAGORIA
Taman. Bosporus.
A city on
the S coast of the Gulf of Taman colonized from Teos
ca. 540 B.C. (
Strab. 11.2.10) on a site of which the
earliest traces of habitation go back to the 2d millennium.
From 480 B.C. on, the city belonged to the monarchy
of the Archeactides but remained an independent polis,
as is proved by the titles of its archontes contained in
inscriptions.
The Greek city spread out on two terraces 37 ha in
area of which nearly half (15 ha) was destroyed by the
sea. The walls, which were of unhewn blocks, are
partially preserved. The lower quarter was the city center
and was dominated by the fortified acropolis. The city
reached the height of its prosperity in the 4th c. B.C.;
traces of paved streets, wells, water pipes, basements of
rectangular houses with tiled roofs date from this period.
Marble architectural fragments and Ionic capitals come
from a temple of Aphrodite Urania. Demeter, Kore,
Apollo, and Dionysos were worshiped in the city. The
remains of a gymnasium from the 3d c. B.C. and a heroon
with painted decoration have been found. Also to the 4th-3d c. date the Bol'shaia Blitznitza barrow and the Mt. Vasiurina kurgans (see below). In the 2d c. B.C. the city was conquered by Mithridates. Several winemaking
establishments date to the early centuries A.D. and the
remains of baths (?). In the 4th c. A.D. the city was
destroyed by the Huns but revived by the end of the
century and became an important mediaeval center.
In a kurgan necropolis on the outskirts of the city
rich archaeological finds provide evidence of contact
with the great centers of Hellenic civilization. In the 6th
c. B.C. Ionic wares were imported, followed by Attic
wares and wares from Chios and Thasos. However,
there was from the beginning considerable local production, consisting of imitations of Greek models, especially of pottery. The Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, contain material from the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. D. Blavatskii, “Raskopki v Fanagorii
v 1938-1939 gg.,”
VDI (1940) 3-4.287-300; id., “Otchet
o raskopkakh Fanagorii v 1936-1937 gg.”
Trudy Gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeia 16 (1941) 5-74;
id., “Raskopki nekropolia Fanagorii v 1938, 1939 i 1940
gg.,”
Materialy po arkheologii Severnogo Prichernomor'ia
v antichnuiu epokhu [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, No. 19] (1951) 189-226; A. P. Smirnov,
ed.,
Fanagoriia [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii
SSSR, No. 57] (1956); A. L. Mongait,
Archaeology in
the USSR, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 199-200; C. M.
Danoff,
Pontos Euxeinos (1962) 1133-35 =
RE Suppl.
IX; M. M. Kobylina, “Issledovaniia Fanagorii v 1959-1960
i 1962 gg.,”
SovArkh (1963) 4.129-38; id., “Raskopki
iugo-vostochnogo raiona Fanagorii v 1964 g.,”
KSIA
109 (1967) 124-29; E. Ballin de Ballu,
L'Histoire des
Colonies grecques du Littoral Nord de la Mer Noire
(1965) 144-48; A. K. Korovina, “Raskopki nekropolia
Fanagorii v 1964 g.,”
KSIA 109 (1967) 130-35; I. B.
Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments
antiques des régions de la Mer Noire,”
Eirene 7 (1968)
107-8.
Bol'shaia Bliznitza. On the Taman peninsula to the
SW of Phanagoria is a rich Greek barrow (15 m high
and ca. 350 m in circumference) dating to the latter half
of the 4th c. B.C. It contains five independent elements:
an empty chamber of painted masonry, perhaps looted;
a square stone tomb with corbeled roof containing a male
burial in the remains of a wooden coffin with ivory inlay;
a square tomb with corbeled roof reached by a short
dromos and containing the so-called Priestess of Demeter so named because of a head of Demeter or Kore painted on a slab in the middle of the cupola; another tomb with a female burial; a stone chamber roofed with
timber containing a female burial in a wooden coffin.
There are many rich grave gifts and traces of a great
pyre. The gifts include a gold diadem and a group of
terracottas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. H. Minns,
Scythians and Greeks
(1913) 423-29; M. Rostovtsev,
Antichnaia dekorativnaia
zhivopis' na iuge Rossii (1914) 10-29; id.,
Skiflia i Bospor
(1925) 371-74 = id.,
Skythien und der Bosporus (1931)
330-32; A. A. Peredol'skaia, “Terrakoty iz kurgana
Bol'shaia Bliznitsa i gomerovskii gimn Demetre,”
Trudy
Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha 7 (1962) 46-92; G. A.
Tsvetaeva,
Sokrovishcha prichernomorskikh kurganov
(1968) 71-78; M. I. Artamonov,
Treasures from Scythian
Tombs in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (1969) 73-79.
Mt. Vasiurina. A series of kurgans of the 4th-3d c.
along a mountain range S of Phanagoria. The most interesting one dates to the 3d c. It has a stone stairway
leading down to a rectangular passageway, the entrance
to the burial chamber (3.70 x 3.75 x 4.70 m). These
two areas are covered by an arch showing remains of
painted decoration. The wall frescos imitate encrusted
marble. On either side of the entrance to the tomb long
stone boxes contain four horse burials along with rich
grave gifts; saddlery and harnesses of gold and gilded
bronze. No objects were found in the tomb itself.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. Rostovtsev,
Antichnaia dekorativnaia
zhivopis' na iuge Rossii (1914) 30-69; id.,
Skifiia i Bospor
(1925) 373 = M. Rostowzew,
Skythien und der Bosporus
(1931) 331; G. A. Tsvetaeva,
Sokrovishcha prichernomorskikh kurganov (1968) 79-81.
M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO
