Abstract
The recent large-scale and systematic study of the Phanagorian necropolis allows us to fix some features of its space formation. The basis of the largest antique cemetery in Asian Bosporus is a well-organized system of burial mounds, which was formed during the Classical period and it developed until the Late Antique time. The location of the mounds of Phanagoria has certain pattern. The burials are located near the natural hills along the ancient roads in the outskirts of the city. Probably, the location of the burial mounds is due to the preferences of the Phanagorians, who chose the highest areas visible from the city, roads or the sea for burial of their close ones. Further development of the antique cemetery occurred mainly in the mounds of already existing tumulus and in the space around them.
The recently studied planigraphy of the eastern, western and southern necropolis of Phanagoria revealed a certain system in the construction of tombs and their location. The most striking patterns we fi nd in crypts and burials in grave’s niche. The chambers and niches of these complexes were usually oriented toward the nearest hill, be it a natural hill or a mound. Hellenistic complexes and two-chamber crypts of Late Antique time are knocked out of this rule.
The central position in the planning of the necropolis space was occupied by stone tombs, i.e. crypts. Their chronology is very wide, from the Classical Period to the Roman time. The stone crypts were predominantly the main burials and played the role of the epicenter of the “composition” of the burial mound, around which the entire space was built.
The revealed patterns make it possible to quite effectively localize the mounds that have disappeared to date and reconstruct the historical landscape of the necropolis.
Keywords
Phanagoria, necropolis, ancient landscape, crypt, Antiquity.
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