Abstract
In 2017, during excavations on the acropolis of Phanagoria, an unilateral terracotta was found in the wall of the house dated to the second half of the 6th century BC, built of mudbricks. Clearly, this is a offering, which was intentionally put in the brickwork of the house during construction. The terracotta depicts a sitting monkey with a cub on his knees, just as the goddesses, the breast-feeding child (kurotrophos), were depicted in the Greek art. As it is reliably established, cults of goddesses-kurotrophos had chthonic character and are connected with ideas of motherhood and fertility. The interrelation of such cults with the monkey remains unclear. This animal does not discern in the sources of direct relation to any of the deities, but the images of monkey are often to be cult objects during the Archaic period. A new fi nd of the construction offering, probably connected with the cult of fertility, gives grounds for speculation about the functional purpose of the open excavation construction.
Keywords
Phanagoria, Archaic period, acropolis, construction sacrifice, terracotta, monkey, kurotrophos (kourotrophos), sanctuary, fertility
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