Archaeologists received an invaluable gift during the construction of the Crimean bridge. On the site from the side of Kerch, they discovered an entire ancient village. According to scientists, the settlement dates back to the end of the fifth century BC.
While explorers delve into the mysteries ancient world, builders adjust the project. The railway approach will be moved to preserve the unique estate. It will not affect the delivery time in any way.
Literally across the road from modern residential development - the outskirts of the ancient world. The manor of the end of the 5th century BC - the time when the Bosporus kings dominated this territory and worshiped the ancient Greek gods.
The estate was, as it were, separated from the outside world. The windows of all the buildings - there were 40 of them - looked out only at the inner paved courtyards. Judging by the area - about five thousand square meters, aristocrats lived here. This is evidenced by the found fragments of roof tiles, luxurious for that time, and whole placers of coins with relief chasing. Next to the tables on which grapes were crushed, scientists found Aegean amphoras and well-preserved ceramics - black-lacquered goblets for wine, brought, presumably, from Attica.
“Before us is a black-glazed saucer, almost intact, the rim is slightly chipped. Imported tableware. At the bottom of this saucer there is a scratched name or wish,” says Alexander Bonin, specialist of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
It was here, on the approach to the Crimean bridge, that the project was supposed to pass a new railway, a section 18 kilometers long. On the antique monument stumbled upon by archaeologists conducting research before construction. Now the track will be moved - the rails will bypass the estate. The deadline, the developers assure, will not be affected. Trains on the Crimean bridge will be allowed on time - in December next year. And here scientists will continue excavations - you need to get to the bottom layer to find out who was the first owner.
“I don’t know any analogies either in Ukraine or in Russia. On the territory of the entire Black Sea region, no one dug anything like this in rural areas. This is the first time we have had a manor of such area, such complexity of planning and such preservation. Without the construction of the railway, we would never have received such opportunities to work on such an area, at such a pace, with such a number of people,” said Alexander Maslennikov, head of the field research department at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A great rarity, scientists say, is that the artifacts have been preserved in almost the same condition in which they were left by the owners. Archaeologists especially note the skill of architects.
“The estate is located on a slope. Naturally, during the rains there was a powerful drain, and the inhabitants of this estate built a rather complex and extensive drainage system. We have not encountered such a system yet,” said Sergey Vnukov, a leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
But various antiquities during the construction of the Crimean bridge are found regularly - in two years, more than one hundred thousand valuable exhibits have already been transferred to museums.
The more buildings, the more finds. In recent years, major infrastructure projects have been implemented in Crimea - new roads are being built, power plants are being built, airports are being reconstructed. Archaeological excavations, which are carried out before construction begins, radically change the understanding of scientists about the history of the peninsula. found out what the researchers found in 2017.
Legacy of the Golden Horde
Scientists made most of the finds in preparation for the construction of the Tavrida highway. The highway will connect the Crimean bridge, Kerch, Simferopol and Sevastopol - that is, it will become the main transport artery of the peninsula. In the meantime, archaeologists are seizing the moment and studying what the earth has been hiding for centuries. However, in the Bakhchisarai region, it shocked even experienced specialists. Here, in early December, the expedition members found a burial in which there were at least 70 decapitated human skeletons. Previously, they date back to the X-XIII centuries and belong to the times of the Golden Horde, when the peninsula survived the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars.
“During the excavations on the barrow, an unexpected find was made. Two ditches were found, which are literally clogged with bones. The remains of more than 70 people, all without skulls, with traces of cuts. The corpses were randomly dumped. These are victims of mass execution,” explained the head of the Crimean new construction archaeological expedition, a leading researcher at the Department of Classical Archeology of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists did not find the skulls of the victims. Archaeologists suggest that the heads of the captives were impaled on stakes and put on public display or stacked in pyramids, as was customary among some nationalities. “XII-XIV century - times were harsh, but this is only an assumption,” Vnukov said. It will be possible to more accurately date the burial ground after analyzing two arrowheads found in the ditches.
Frame: Kryminform / YouTube
Another high-profile - and not so terrifying - opening took place in the center of Simferopol in November. On Vorovsky Street, a group of archaeologists are the remains of ancient engineering communications. Scientists are sure that these are traces of a medieval palace complex kalga-sultan - the second person in the Crimean Khanate.
Scientists have found, in particular, coins, fragments of ceramic dishes and glass from the period of the Crimean Khanate. The head of the excavations, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Crimea, Emil Seidaliev, explained that the palace was discovered thanks to historical sources: “The place was identified quite a long time ago and is known to us from various historical sources. For example, the writing of Peter Simon Pallas. Initially, several pits were planned, which can localize the cultural layer.” Scientists said that in one area a ceramic water pipe was preserved, which probably dates back to the period of the existence of the palace and could lead to a fountain or a kitchen.
According to Vadim Maiko, director of the Crimean Archeology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the difficulty lies in the fact that no information about appearance there is no structure: “Neither engravings nor other images of this palace have come down to us, although scientists managed to localize its location at the beginning of the 20th century.” The deputy from the Crimea promised that this object will be included in the register of monuments cultural heritage.
Ancient Russian bridge
In October, scientists from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the oldest engineering structure in the Crimea. It turned out to be a small stone bridge, which was found in the Belogorsk region, near the village of Nekrasovo (former Melek). An arched single-span bridge was built across the Ashil stream (the left tributary of the Bulganak River), which flowed in this place, but by the end of the 19th century it had completely dried up. The structures are made of hewn natural stone. The length of the structure is about 30 meters, the width is about 8 meters, the width of the arch is no more than 2 meters. On the sides of the bridge there was a parapet (a fence made of large hewn stone blocks), which later collapsed.
Crypt of Macedon
In the vicinity of Kerch in April of this year, archaeologists found an ancient Greek crypt built during the time of Alexander the Great. “This mound was erected in the second half of the 4th century BC, when the Bosporan kingdom flourished on the Kerch Peninsula, because the Northern Black Sea region was the main granary of the entire Greek world,” explained Irina Rukavishnikova, head of the excavations, researcher at the Department of Scythian-Sarmatian archeology of the Institute of Archeology.
She added that the discovered burial reaches ten meters in length. “Most likely, a noble person was buried here. In ancient times, the crypt was covered with a mound, in which, in turn, six more burials from different eras were let in,” Rukavishnikova said. It is reported that on the steps leading to the entrance to the chamber of the crypt (dromos), a child's burial dating back to the 1st century AD was found. When buried, a crushed figurative vessel, a glass bottle, bronze bells and paste beads, fragments of a bone box - pixides were found. An urn with the ashes of a cremated person was found next to this burial.
Directly in the crypt were found bronze and iron nails, fragments of black-gloss ceremonial dishes. In the filling layer of the crypt, related to the stage of reuse-subburial, there are fragments of a South Pontic pseudo-Cossian amphora dating back to the second half of the 1st century BC, fragments of red-lacquer utensils, a single-horned lamp, a red-clay urn, two faience pendants in the form of a scarab and a demon.
Kubrick and the steamer
However, not only monuments of distant antiquity were discovered. In November, on the Malakhov Hill in Sevastopol, road builders accidentally found the crew quarters of battery number 111 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alexei Matyukhin, who held the defense of the slopes of the Sevastopol Bay during the Great Patriotic War. Four quarters, two large cellars, as well as three positions of anti-aircraft DShK (mounted heavy machine gun) and two 45-mm guns in pillboxes were found in the vicinity. Rescuers promised to participate in excavations at the fortification in order to ensure safety.
In April, off the coast of Crimea, the steamer Boy Federsen (former Kharkiv) sunk during the Great Patriotic War, which, presumably, was exporting valuables from the peninsula occupied by the German army. The ship was found by the Russian underwater research expedition between Sevastopol and Cape Tarkhankut. In August 1943, Boy Federsen was on a convoy from the Crimea, was attacked by Soviet naval aviation, damaged by torpedoes and bombs, and sank.
In just a year, 80 archaeological discoveries were made in the vicinity of the future Tavrida highway alone. Experts say that Crimea is the golden age of archaeological research. “This is due to the large projects that are currently being implemented. Once upon a time, something similar happened during the construction of the North Crimean Canal (in 1961-1971), although now the scale is larger, associated with huge infrastructure projects,” emphasizes Vyacheslav Zarubin, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of the Crimean Government for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. According to him, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation issued 124 permits (open sheets) for archaeological excavations on the peninsula. “That's a lot. In the period up to 2014, there were from 20 to 40 open sheets. There are a lot of discoveries, museum funds are actively replenished. The finds are stored in the Crimea, replenishing our Crimean collections, no one takes them anywhere,” the representative of the Crimean government assured. Probably, new high-profile discoveries will take place in the near future, but even now we can say that the Crimea has become the archaeological capital of Russia.
The railway approach to the Crimean bridge will be redesigned after the ancient settlement of Manitra was discovered at the construction site in the vicinity of Kerch.
Railway will pass south of the planned route, work on the new project may take about 6 months. This was reported by the information center "Crimean bridge".
"To preserve the unique historical monument builders of the approach to the Crimean bridge will adjust the route of the railway line at one of the sections in the vicinity of Kerch. The road will bypass and will not affect the buildings of a rich antique estate, discovered during archaeological research preceding the construction of the route.
A complex of 40 rooms and 9 courtyards dating from the end of the 5th - the beginning of the 3rd century BC. e., could belong to the family of a Bosporan aristocrat or a representative of the dynasty of kings of the Bosporus. The transfer of the approach site will allow scientists to conserve this settlement, study it and save it for posterity,” the information center said in a statement.
The press service of the construction emphasized that the transfer of the section of the route will not affect the deadline for the completion of the 18-km approach: it will work, as planned, in December 2019.
As RBC writes, the railway tracks can be moved 700-900 m to the south, where "archaeologists do not expect new finds."
“We know and respect history. We understand in which region we work. Therefore, the issue of preserving cultural heritage has been and remains a priority,” said Leonid Ryzhenkin, Deputy Director for Infrastructure Projects at Stroygazmontazh.
Unique find
The found estate occupies an area of more than 5 thousand square meters. m and is characterized by continuous buildings, typical for ancient rural complexes.
Approximately 80% of the found settlement has now been discovered. The upper layers have been discovered almost over the entire area, but the lowest horizon has not yet been excavated everywhere.
“To understand who the first owner of this estate was, you need to open the earliest level. But it is obvious that he was a representative of the aristocratic elite of the Bosporus kingdom, ”says the expedition leader, Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Vnukov.
"Analogues country estate there is no such area, complexity and such good preservation not only on the territory of the Crimea, but throughout the entire Black Sea region.
The uniqueness of this settlement is in a very high level of construction. The monument is located on the Kerch Peninsula, in the western part of the Bosporan kingdom. This is a distant outskirts of the Hellenic world, but here we see the experience of ancient urban planning at its best.
The one who built this estate had not just great, but very great material opportunities. Presumably, this is not even a representative of the social property elite, but rather a member of the ruling royal dynasty or the king of the Bosporus himself, ”Alexander Maslennikov, doctor of historical sciences, head of the field research department at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, agrees with his colleague.
Archaeological excavations and finds captured by Kerch photographers in late XIX- early XX centuries.
An excavation in the southwest of the ancient settlement of Pantikapeum. Date of survey: 1899 - 1910.
The building complex discovered by the excavations of the director of the Kerch Museum Karl Evgenievich Dumberg in 1899. The picture shows three open rooms and a door - the remains of the building's basement.
Kerch antiquities, discovered in 1896 and 1897 in the exhibition at the Imperial Archaeological Commission, organized in the spring of 1898. Date of shooting: 1896 - 1899.
Terracotta, found in 1896 on Mount Mithridates, during the excavations of Panticapaeum. Date of shooting: 1896 - 1899. 
The picture shows four terracottas, two of which are the masks of Satyr, the protome of Demeter and a statuette of a seated girl with a goose and a bunch of grapes. The terracottas were sent to Petersburg.
Pottery: pixida, one-handled jug, lekythos and skyphos. Date of shooting: 1898 - 1899. 
Discovered on February 24, 1898 in tomb 2, IV Department of the excavation of Artemis on Mount Mithridates.
Multi-colored plaster found in 1896 on Mount Mithridates. Date of shooting: 1896 - 1899. 
Fragment of a tombstone made of soft limestone, 4th century BC. BC Date taken: 1873. 
The tombstone of the sons of Dzopira was found in a mound on the north side of Mount Mithridates in 1873. On the plate there is an inscription in 4 lines. In addition, the snapshot performs the function of an inventory card - it contains short description, passport data.
Painted Bosporan crypt with two sarcophagi on low supports made of soft limestone. Date of shooting: October 2, 1902 - December 31, 1905. 
The crypt was opened by Vladislav Vyacheslavovich Shkorpil on October 2, 1902 behind the railway, to the left of the Katerless bridge. On the walls of the crypt, in some places, the remains of fresco painting in the form of quadrangles and circles, painted in dark brown and green colors, have been preserved. The entrance to the crypt was closed from the inside with a limestone slab. The slab was covered with white plaster, in the middle was an image of the head of the Gorgon Medusa with wings on her head and snakes under her chin.
Gravestone in situ. Date taken: 1911. 
The moment of discovery of the tombstone in the wall of a high stone "booth" on Predtechenskaya Square and at the Fish Bazaar, 1911. The slab was inserted into the wall of a building under construction in the 40s of the 19th century. The white marble headstone, broken into two parts, had a height of 4.2 meters. At the top, it was decorated with two relief acroteria and a pediment. In the triangle there is a bust of a figure with raised arms, under the pediment there are two reliefs: in the upper one there are two male figures standing side by side; and in the bottom - a rider on a horse, with a spear in his right hand.
Gravestone. Shooting date: 1911–1915. 
Found in the central part of Kerch under the pavement of Predtechenskaya Square in 1911. Three figures are depicted on the slab: in the center is the bearded god Sabazius with a mirror (?), a wriggling snake rises from the heel of the god, a female figure on the right, Hermes on the left. The photographs show two images of the relief with the image of Sabazi – before and after restoration.
Tombstone made of marble of the 4th century. n. Date taken: 1900s–1910s. 
Tombstone with 21 line inscription. Almost the entire front side of the tombstone is occupied by an inscription carved using thin rulers. Translation of the inscription: “Vow to the Most High, Merciful God. Aurelius Valery Sog, son of Olympus, head of Theodosius, known to Augustus, honored by Diocletian and Maximian, also named Olympian in the province, who traveled a lot, was absent for 16 years and was in many sorrows, having vowed to build a prayer house from the foundation in 603. For more than forty years, the slab served as the threshold of a house in the courtyard of the Kerch townswoman P. Krasheninnikova.
Clay wagon (children's toy). Shooting date: June 6, 1903 - December 31, 1905. 
A wagon on four wheels made of dark red clay, inside of which there was a set of mutton astragalus (21 copies). The toy was found by Vladislav Vyacheslavovich Shkorpil on June 6, 1903 in a ruined children's tomb in Glinische, not far from the local prison and the city slaughterhouse. It is likely that the wagon and the astragalus, as the child's favorite toys, were placed in the coffin by his relatives. The toy is kept in the funds of the Russian State Hermitage Museum and exhibited at an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Bosporus.
Marble lion in the excavation of the Lion's Mound. Date of survey: 1894 - 1900. 
The excavation was opened in 1894 by the director of the Kerch Museum Karl Evgenievich Dumberg in the garden of Lieutenant Colonel Voloshkevich. The garden is located at the bottom of the northern slope of Mount Mithridates. The statue occupies a central place in the modern exposition on the history of the Bosporan kingdom in the Russian State Hermitage.
Excavations of the Zelensky barrow on Taman Peninsula, held under the direction of the director of the Kerch Museum Vladislav Shkorpil in 1912. Date of shooting: 1912. 
Two pithoi with lids in the pit of the excavation site in 1898. Date of survey: 1898. 
On the right is a digger.
Photos are clickable, with geographic coordinates and binding to the Yandex map, 06.2017.
1. Video interview of the head of the excavations, Irina Rukavishnikova, for the Kerch-net channel. The sound is very bad due to the strong wind, so you need to listen
2. View of the mound "Cement Slobidka-1" from the south. A crypt between gazelles and a bulldozer. It can be seen that the Tavrida highway passes right through the mound, the photographer is standing on the future road
4. And here is the actual upper part of the crypt 
5. The vaulted crypt was repeatedly robbed and destroyed, besides it was reused 
6. The upper part of the crypt was destroyed by the fortifications of the Great Patriotic War, horse bones were also found here. Many mounds were used for military purposes, as observation points and firing points. 
7. The crypt of the late 4th - early 3rd century BC, belonged to the Bosporan nobility. But like many, it was reused. In the photo, the archaeologists have reached the level of the secondary burial, before the owner of the crypt still digs and digs. Pieces of a South Pontic pseudo-Kos amphora of the second half of the 1st century BC were found here. BC, fragments of red-glazed ceramics, single-horned lamp, red-clay urn, two faience pendants in the form of a scarab and a demon 
8. Human bones and fragments of ceramics 
9. Away from home microdistrict Nizhny Solnechny 
10. View from the mound towards the Crimean bridge 
11. Industrial zone of bridge construction 
14. View of the dromos (entrance corridor) and stones covering the entrance to the crypt 
15. Six more burials from different eras were found around the crypt, two of them were cremation burials 
16. On the stairs of the dromos, a children's burial of the Roman period of the 1st century AD was found. Next to the remains is a crushed vessel, a glass bottle, bronze bells and beads. There was also a pixida (a round jewelry box) and a funeral urn with ashes. 
19. View from the crypt along the future highway "Tavrida" in the direction of the excavations of the Bronze Age settlement Hospital-2, the burial mound and the settlement Hospital-1, about which there will be separate articles 
20. After the end of the excavations, it was decided to move the crypt to the territory of the Kerch fortress and museumify it. Further on the photo is the crypt in the process of transfer. Several rows of blocks have already been moved. The marking of the crypt is clearly visible for subsequent collection at a new location 
21. The crypt is completely cleaned and the floor slabs are clearly visible. You can compare with photo 18, the crypt is one block below 
22. View of the entrance to the crypt and dromos 
30. Marking for assembly. Later, when the crypt had already been transported to the fortress but had not yet been assembled, a funny incident happened with the markings. Heavy rains with hail passed in Kerch and the markings began to be smeared, archaeologists had to urgently take measures to protect and restore it 
