Abstract
The paper deals with the materials related to the anthropogenic landscape of the Abrau Peninsula in the Antique period, i.e. the South-Eastern periphery of the Asian Bosporus, located on the North-Western branches of the Greater Caucasus. The research led to the conclusion that highly fertile soils near Gorgippia were in demand during the Hellenistic period. A dense network of agricultural settlements in the South and East of Gorgippian chora evidences this. Vault tombs under the burial ground associated with these groups suggest the existence of economic and political autonomy in the region. In the Hellenistic period, the Bosporans managed to develop areas 15–20 km away from the coast. Increasing population and intensive economic activities (tilling, overgrazing, and deforestation) in Anapa valley may have had serious environmental impacts (shallowing of rivers and drought).
In the Early Roman period, the infrastructure of the Hellenistic time detected in Anapa valley disappeared almost completely: its remains survived in the Semisam foothills, while the fertile fi elds of the closer Gorgippian chora, apparently, became the source of income for the Bosporan Treasury.
The system of fortifi ed mud brick and stone towers-estates, which covered the entire the Abrau Peninsula, testifi es not only about the expansion of the Bosporan (Gorgippian) presence, but also about changes in the administrative and economic system. Throughout the Roman period, on the one hand, this system was adapting to local natural conditions, on the other, it was being integrated in the economy of the Asian Bosporus. The data of funerary complexes show that the most populated area was the Southeastern part of the coastal zone (valley of the rivers Myskhako, Chukhabl, and Ozereika) and, of course, Gorgippia proper.
Keywords
Bosporan Kingdom, system of settlement, classic archaeology, migration, North Caucasus, agricultural estate, ecology
Beylin, D.V., Ermolin, E.L., Maslennikov, А.А., Smekalov, S.L. 2014: Аntichnye poseleniya Evropeyskogo Bospora ellinisticheskogo vremeni (katalog pamyatnikov) [Ancient settlements of European Bosporus of Hellenistic time (catalogue of monuments)]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 18, 35–42.
Garbuzov, G.P. 2009: Rayonirovanie antichnykh agrolandshaftov Tamanskogo poluostrova [Zoning of ancient agricultural landscapes of Taman Peninsula]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 13, 123–140.
Garbuzov, G.P., Zavoykin, А.А. 2012: Sel’skaya territoriya tsentrov Аziatskogo Bospora v period avtonomii (vtoraya polovinf VI–V vv. do n.e.) i v sostave derzhavy Spartokidov (IV – nachalo III v. do n.e.) [The rural area of the Asian Bosporan centers during the period of autonomy (the second half of the 6th – 5th centuries BC) and as part of the power of the Spartocids (the 4th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC)]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 16, 116‒140.
Garbuzov, G.P., Zavoykin, А.А. 2015: Sel’skaya territoriya Tamanskogo poluostrova posle Spartokidov. [The rural area of the Taman Peninsula after the Spartokids]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 19, 94–105.
Gaydukevich, V.F. 1949: Bosporskoe tsarstvo [The Bosporan Kingdom]. Moscow– Leningrad.
Gorlov Yu.V., Trebeleva G.V. 2013: Prirodno-klimaticheskie usloviya i kul’turnyy landshaft Tamanskogo poluostrova v antichnuyu epokhu [Natural and climatic conditions and cultural landscape of the Taman Peninsula in ancient times]. Moscow.
Korobov, D.S. 2017: Sistema rasseleniya alan Tsentral’nogo Predkavkaz’ya v I tys. n.e. landshaftnaya arkheologiya Kislovodskoy kotloviny [The settlement of the Alans of the Central Caucasus in the fi rst Millennium AD: Landscape archaeology of the Kislovodsk basin]. T.I. Moscow –Saint Petersburg.
Latyschev, B. 1916: Inscriptiones Antiquae orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini Graecae et Latinae. Inscriptiones Turae, Olbiae, Chersonesi Tauricae, aliorum loconim a Danubio usque ad regnum Bosporanum continens. Petropoli.
Latyshev, V.V. 1893–1906: Izvestiya drevnikh pisateley grecheskikh i latinskikh o Skifi i i Kavkaze [Information of ancient Greek and Latin writers on Scythia and the Caucasus]. Saint Petersburg.
Malyshev, А.А. 1995: K voprosu o prichernomorskoy lokal’noy gruppe meotskoy kul’tury. [On the issue of the Black Sea local group of Meotian culture]. Bosporskiy sbornik [Bosporus collection] 6, 151–157.
Malyshev, А.А. 2011: Pogrebal’nyy obrayd i planigrafi ya nekropolya v Shirokoy Balke [Death customs and planography of the necropolis in the Shirokaya Balka]. In: А.А. Malyshev (ed.), Naselenie predgoriy Severo-Zapadnogo Kavkaza v rimskuyu epokhu: po materialam nekropolya v Shirokoy Balke [The population of the foothills of the North-Western Caucasus in the Roman period: materials of the necropolis in the Shirokaya Balka]. (Nekropoli Chernomor’ya [Pontic Necropolis]. IV). Moscow, 226–241.
Onayko, N.А. 1980: Аrkhaicheskiy Torik – antichnyy gorod na severo-vostoke Ponta [Archaic Torik – ancient city in the North-East of Pontos]. Moscow.
Paromov, Ya.M. 1992: Аrkheologicheskaya karta Tamanskogo poluostrova [Archaeological map of the Taman Peninsula]. (Manuscript. Institute for Scientifi c Information in Public Sciences RАS No. 47103). Moscow.
Salov, А.I. 1986: Аrkhaicheskoe poselenie na okraine Аnapy [Archaic settlement in the outskirts of Anapa]. In: G.А. Koshelenko (red.), Problemy antichnoy kul’tury [Problems of ancient culture]. Moscow, 188–195.
Salov, А.I. 2000: Razvedka blizhney khory Gorgippii v 1978–1980 gg. [Exploration of the nearest chora of Gorgippia in 1978–1980]. In: Gorgippiyskiy sbornik [Gorgippei collection]. Аnapa, 17–25.
Shcheglov, А.N. 1978: Severo-zapadnyy Krym v antichnuyu epokhu [North-Western Crimea in the Classical time]. Leningrad.
Sizov, V.I. 1889: Vostochnoe poberezh’e Chernogo morya [East coast of the Black Sea]. (Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii Kavkaza [Materials and research on the archaeology of the Caucasus] II). Moscow.
Smekalov, S.L. 2007: Poseleniya Vostochnogo Kryma i sistemy zemel’nogo mezhevaniya. Popytka prostranstvennogo analiza [Settlements of the Eastern Crimea and land surveying system. Attempt at spatial analysis]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 11, 287–301.
Smekalova, T.N. (ed.) 2012: Nauchnoe nasledie P.N. Shul’tsa i sovremennye issledovaniya v severo-zapadnom Krymu [Scientifi c heritage of P.N. Schultz and modern research in North- Western Crimea]. (Materialy k arkheologicheskoy karte Kryma [Materials to the archaeological map of the Crimea]. VI. 2).
Smekalova, T.N., Koltukhov, S.G., Zaytsev, Yu.P. 2015: Аrkheologicheskie Аtlasy Severnogo Prichernomor’ya [Archaeological Atlases of the Northern Black Sea region]. (Materialy k arheologicheskoy karte Kryma [Materials to the archaeological map of the Crimea] XV). Saint Petersburg.
Smekalova, T.N., Kutaysov, V.А. 2017: Аrkheologicheskiy Аtlas Severo-Zapadnogo Kryma Pozdniy Bronzovyy Vek. Ranniy Zheleznyy Vek. Аntichnost’ [Archaeological Atlas Of The North-Western Crimea Late Bronze Age. Early Iron Age. Antiquity]. (Materialy k arkheologicheskoy karte Kryma [Archaeological Atlases of the Northern black sea region]. (Materials to the archaeological map of the Crimea]. XVIII). Saint Petersburg, 448.
Tetbu-de-Marini, E. 1853: Tsemesskaya bukhta na vostochnom beregu Tsernogo morya [Tsemess Bay on the East coast of the Black sea]. Zapiski Odesskogo Obshhestva istorii i drevnostey [Notes of the Odessa Society for History and Antiquities] 3, 210–213.
Trebeleva, G.V. 2005: Oborona territorii Аziatskogo Bospora v pervye veka nashey ery: istoricheskoe modelirovanie na osnove GIS-tekhnologiy. [Defense of the territory of Asian Bosporus in the fi rst centuries of our era: historical modeling based on GIS technologies]: PhD Thesis. Moscow
Veselov, V.V. 2005: Svodnaya vedomost’ rezul’tatov arkheologicheskikh razvedok na Kerchenskom i Tamanskom poluostrovakh v 1949–1964 gg. [Summary of the results of archaeological investigations on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas in 1949–1964]. (Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus]. Supplementum II). Moscow.
Zavoykin, А.А. 2002: K voprosu o statuse Feodosii i Gorgippii v derzhave Spartokidov [On the issue of the status of Theodosia and Gorgippia in the power of the Spartocids]. Drevnosti Bospora [Antiquities of the Bosporus] 5, 95–106.
Аbramov, А.P., Paromov, Â.M. 1993: Ranneantichnye poseleniya Tamanskogo poluostrova [Early antique settlements of Taman Peninsula]. Bosporskiy sbornik [Bosporus collection] 2, 25–98.
Аlekseeva, E.M. 1997: Аntichnyy gorod Gorgippiya. [Ancient city of Gorgippia]. Moscow.
Аntipina, E.E., Malyshev, А.А., Mednikova, M.B. 1999: Myskhako – forpost Bospora na yugovostoke [Myskhako as an outpost of Bosporus in the South-East]. Problemy istorii, fi lologii, kul’tury [Journal of Historical, Philological and Cultural Studies] X, 288–313.