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Abstract
The worship of the sacred animals became an important aspect of Egyptian culture in the Late Period and especially during the Ptolemaic rule. For the first time the idea of care about the sacred animals was widely used for purposes of propaganda. This article examines these propaganda messages to understand in which ways the kings showed their care about the sacred animals. It seems that the kings often visited the sacred animals, enthroned the new ones and paid for their burials and temples. That begs the question why Ptolemies used this aspect of propaganda so frequently. Reasons for it are twofold. On the one hand, in the Late Egypt and especially in the time of Persian rule over it, it became quite popular to spread the stories of sacrileges done by Persian rulers. It often involved mutilation of the sacred animals, their killing and eating. Ptolemies who did not commit such atrocities but just the other way round cared about the animals and treated them well could be favorably compared with foreign rulers of old and thus could be viewed as legitimate rulers of Egypt. On the other hand, this aspect of propaganda could be well understood by Ptolemies’ Greek subjects and by the members of the dynasty themselves. It is well known that Herodotus in his works described in detail the importance of the sacred animals for Egypt.
Keywords
Ancient Egypt, Hellenism, Ptolemies, sacred animals, Apis, Egyptian clergy.
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Abstract
The Hittite-Luwian rituals of the Puriyanni and Kuwattalla traditions (CTH 758–763) contain substitution and scapegoat rites among the rich set of their ritual practices. The substitution rites represent a subset of purification rites and may involve animals or inanimate substitutes. Their terminology displays parallels with that of the substitution rites embedded in Hittite compositions, such as royal substitution rituals (CTH 419–421) or Prayer for Princess Gaššuliyawiya (CTH 380), but there are also important differences. While the scapegoat rites show affinities with the substitution rites, these two categories can be defined separately. The systematic research into both groups of rites was conducive to arriving at several new textual interpretations of Hittite-Luwian rituals. Thus, the damaged passage from the Kuwattalla tradition mentioning “the supreme substitutes” finds a parallel in the texts of the Hittite royal substitution ritual (CTH 421), where different kinds of substitutes are sent to the gods of the Netherworld and to the gods living in the skies respectively. Feeding the nakkiu-spirits during the ritual echoes the passage from the Luwian conjuration belonging to the Tauriša tradition. The interpretation of the adjective šaknuwant(i)-, describing the sacrificial animal presented to the Storm-God, should have a positive connotation, according to its parallels with the description of the substitution ritual in the Prayer for Princess Gaššuliyawiya.
Keywords
Anatolian religion, Hittite-Luwian rituals, Puriyanni tradition, Kuwattalla tradition, substitution rites, substitute, scapegoat.
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Abstract
Note IV publishes several new graffiti of Berezan, Olbia and its chora, especially homemade amulets. Note V provides an overview of some publications on graffiti from the same centers, including recent articles by the author. Note VI is dedicated to a long-known inscription from the 3rd century BC on a lead plate, which some scholars considered slander, others, including the author, considered a private letter. Recently A.V. Belousov actively developed the first point of view. The author of these notes refutes Belousov’s arguments in detail and provides evidence that this letter is connected with the vicissitudes of a certain process. Philological note VII is dedicated to the mysterious poet of the archaic era Margites and his poem of the same name, which parodies the Homeric epic. Based on the evidence of Plato, the author rejects what has been common since the 4th century BC until Late Antiquity, the opinion about the fool Margites comes to the conclusion that Margites “the fool” is a pseudonym that parodies the common epithets of Homer “wise”, “wise poet”.
Keywords
Berezan island, Olvia Pontica and its chora, graffiti, revision, private letter, Margites.
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Abstract
The paper discuses 113 coins retrieved during the 2019–2022 archaeological excavations at the ancient site of “Settlement”, located 0.6 km west of the western outskirts of the village of Starotitarovskaya (Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory) in. The coins constitute a reliable numismatic profile of the region, and also reflect the various periods of tension in the life of the settlement. Generally, the numismatic material from “Settlement” covers the timespan from the 5th century BC to the turn of the 2nd/1st centuries BC. The greatest intensity of life, judging by the numismatic material, falls on the last third of the 4th to the mid-3rd century BC. 70 coins have come down from this time. Then the decline lasted in the second half of the 3rd to the 2nd and 1st centuries BC: no coins came from the second half of the 3rd century BC, while 40 coins are dated to 2nd century BC. Two coins date from the reign of Mithridates VI. Thus, numismatic materials clarify the phases of the functioning of the settlement at the station. Starotitarovskaya, life on which apparently ceased at the very beginning of the 1st century BC.
Keywords
Cimmerian Bosporus, Taman peninsula, “Settlement” site near Starotitarovskaya, excavation coins, currency.
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Abstract
Eighty-two coins were found during the 2018 excavations at a site located near the Church of St. John the Baptist, Kerch: 50 are Bosporan, 2 Roman, 18 Byzantine, one Italian, 2 Crimean 16th c., 4 Russian 18th‒20th cc., 4 unidentifiable. Strongly worn staters of Thothorses to Rhescuporis VI were circulated in the 6th–7th centuries together with synchronous Byzantine coins (those of Maurice, Heraclius, Justinian Ι, and Constans ΙΙ were retrieved in the excavation trench). No Byzantine coins came from the 8th–10th centuries. The second portion of Byzantine coins consists of the tenth-century issues (Constantine VII, Roman II, and Basil II). The mint of Cherson dominates. Of great interest is a rare denarius of Landulf of Conza struck in Salerno in 973. Couple akche of the 16th century Crimean khans are the latest coins in the collection. The isolated late Bosporan staters and medieval coins constitute a reliable numismatic profile for Bosporus (Kerch) — evidence of the coin circulation in the city and the region mainly from the fourth to the sixteenth century. The profile is similar to coins finds from a number of twen tiethcentury excavation areas around the Church of St. John the Baptist, and other including those of the Late Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Keywords
Bosporus (Kerch), excavation 2018, Early Byzantine period, Ottoman period, excavation coins, currency.
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Abstract
The article presents the results of studying the anthropological material from the 1st – 3rd cc. AD stone crypt excavated in Kerch in 2018. The bones were significantly damaged both in antiquity and during the removal from the burial. Based on the counting of homologous skeletal elements, the minimum number of individuals was established. Basic demographic parameters are calculated. The gender and age composition of the sample suggests that belonging to the same family was not the main criterion for burial in the crypt. The main characteristics of the group find analogies with samples from synchronous burial chamber of Phanagoria.
Keywords
Bosporan kingdom, Roman period, anthropology, gender and age structure, pathologies and anomalies on bones.
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Abstract
The article examines Late Archaic Ionian amphorae (“Protothasian”), which were found during excavations at the “Upper City” of Phanagoria in stratified contexts (houses, pits) of the second half of the 6th – the first two decades of the 5th century BC. The main goal of the work was to correlate these amphorae with the current chronological schemes proposed for this group of ceramic containers. The most significant problem here is that “Protothasian” amphorae were produced not in one, but in several Ionian centers. For now, we can only say with certainty that Teos was one of these centers (Kerschner, Mommsen 2022). Recognition of this fact disavows the hypothesis about the nature of the amphora containers of this polis at the end of the 7th – first half of the 6th century BC. (Sezgin 2017). “Protothasian” amphorae in the contexts considered are represented from the founding of Phanagoria (ca. 540 BC) until the destruction of buildings in this area of the city ca. 480 BC. In the earliest contexts (540–530/20 BC) exceptionally large (approx. 20–22 l) pythoid amphorae of the ‘first and second series’ according to the classification of S.Yu. Monakhov (2003; resp. Sezgin, 2012, Ionia β3 and Ionia β1-2). Judging by the amphorae from the storage pit (No. 32) in Patraeus (Abramov 2006), in the last quarter of the 6th century BC amphorae of the ‘second series’ coexist for some time with a new type of “Protothasian” amphorae. They had a smaller volume (approx. 10–14 l) and a diff erent body shape (conical). It was these amphorae of the ‘third series’ (according to: Monakhov 2003) until the turn of the first and second quarters of the 5th century. BC are present in the imports of Phanagoria along with amphorae, which Monakhov classifies as the ‘fourth series’ (their dating is limited to the first quarter / third of the 5th century BC).
Keywords
Phanagoria, Northern Ionia, Teos, “Protothasian” amphorae, classification, chronology, stratigraphy.
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Abstract
The article presents some observations about the methodological features of the excavations at the necropolis of Phanagoria. This is the most difficult site for excavations on the Asiatic Bosporus. The capital status of the city became the reason for the diversity of funeral traditions of its inhabitants. The ancient cemetery, full of burials, was formed over a millennium, and it is of enormous size. The best preservation of the archaeological landscape of the necropolis in the region is noted. The burial mounds are complex architectural structures. Most of the stone tombs underneath are badly destroyed. In addition to stone, mud brick was used to build tombs under the kurgans, but most tombs were cut into the ground. The most complex technique is used when excavating ground crypts. They had a complex design and enormous dimensions. Wood is rarely preserved in deep burials of Phanagoria, but modern methods of field work make it possible to reconstruct wooden structures based on the imprints of objects in the ground. The necropolis of Phanagoria is a reference site for the study of ancient cemeteries on the territory of the Taman Peninsula.
Keywords
Phanagoria, necropolis, antiquity, burials, field archaeology, research methodology, Taman Peninsula.
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Abstract
The article presents the results of a comprehensive study of a metal mirror with plot images originating from the Eastern Trans-Kuban region. A flat mirror with a trapezoidal handle belongs to type IV, according to the classification of I.I. Marchenko, and, according to external signs, dates back to the end of the 2nd–1st centuries AD. Mirrors of this type are characteristic for the material culture of the Meotians of the North-Western Caucasus. X-ray fluorescence analysis of the metal showed that the mirror was made of tin-lead bronze with a high content of tin (>18%) and a moderate content of lead (~5%). This technology reflects the Meoto-Sarmatian metallurgical traditions characteristic of the region. The images engraved on the mirror represent a composition of three scenes: the “tree of life” with ungulates standing on both sides (central scene), a duel between two horsemen (upper scene), and a wolf hunting for fallow deer (lower scene). The style of the image and the plots presented in the composition have analogies in the monuments of applied art of the Sarmatians and Meotians. The plot scenes engraved on the mirror reflect the religious, mythological or epic ideas of the ancient population of the North- Western Caucasus.
Keywords
Mirror, North-Western Caucasus, X-ray fluorescence analysis, tin-lead bronze, Meotians, Sarmatians, plot images, mythology, religion, epos.
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Abstract
The paper discusses the finds of red- and gray clay pottery and molded lamps at the Polyanka settlement. The first are few (8 whole pieces). Most of the latter (13 specimens) most likely served as incense burners. Almost all of the pottery and up to half of the stucco come from the premises and date back to the 1st century BC. All of them find numerous analogies in various ancient sites of the Bosporus and the Northern Black Sea region. Pottery and partly molded incense burner lamps, along with some other artifacts and archaeological evidence, are a kind of indicator of the residential purpose of a particular room.
Keywords
Russian Science Foundation, project No. 23-18-00088.
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Abstract
The article deals with to the problem of determining the issuing authorities of the socalled “Sindi” coinage. Many scholars consider it to be coinage of the Sindi tribe. These include S.A. Kovalenko, who suggests in his article that the reason for minting coins is the desire of the Sindi kings to make a profit from striking. At the same time, in his opinion, electrum coins of some Asia Minor mints (Cyzicus, Phocaea) were used as metal for it, from which silver was obtained. This point of view is refuted by chemical analyzes of the composition of metals in the “Sindi” coin. Moreover, it confl icts with some important facts. First of all, it should be noted that the coin was minted in Sindike, which belonged to the Greek cities that were located in this territory. The inscription of Theopropides from Nymphaeum definitely confirms this. A very important point is that among the so-called “Sindi” coins there is a type of griffin sitting in front of a grain that is directly related to Phanagoria. This fact alone refutes the opinion of the coin as belonging to the Sindi. To this it should also be added that the Sindi coinage was of a completely Greek nature. The combination of various facts indicates that in the 5th century BC on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus there was a union of the Greek poleis of Sindike. It was this union that minted coins at the time of Panticapaean aggression against them to finance military actions.
Keywords
Sindike, Sindi, coinage.
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Abstract
This is a publication of a unique bronze jug from the cache of the burial a young woman in a burial mound excavated in 1989 near the Krasny Kut Farmstead on the left bank of the Manych River, dating from the second half of the 2nd – early 3rd century AD. The jug has already been described and discussed several times in the 1990s, so in this article I shall limit myself to the main conclusions and also present new parallels and considerations. The images on both the handle and the body of the jug are associated with the Trojan cycle, a description of the events that took place during the siege of Troy, the death of Achilles and the story of the sacrifice of Polyxena by Neoptolemus at the tomb of his father. If we accept the dating of the jug in question, substantiated here, to the 2nd century AD, and even more to the period of the Marcomannic Wars, it is obvious that there was not a big gap between the time of manufacture of the jug and its deposition in the burial, although there is no need to talk about the connection between the context of the find and the symbolism of the jug – it was hidden in the the cache of the burial of a young Sarmatian woman, probably not its first owner, and the routes along which it penetrated to the nomads in the vicinity of Tanais could have been diff erent, including that via the Cimmerian Bosporus. Compared to other Roman bronze vessels from Sarmatia, the jug in question certainly stands out. It was a piece of high-quality workmanship. It is no coincidence that a jug similar in shape and decorative technique, supposedly found in the Tiber, is considered to be a gift of Emperor.
Keywords
Lower Don area, Sarmatia, Roman imports, bronze jug, scenes of the Trojan cycle, Achilles, Neoptolemos, Polyxena, iconography.
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