Gradiometer surveys in Southwest Russia: Archaic Greeks and the Bosporan Empire on the Cimmerian Bosporus (Taman)

Non-FAU Project


Acronym: Taman

Start date : 01.01.2017

End date : 31.12.2023

Website: https://www.uf.phil.fau.de/abteilungen/juengere-urgeschichte/projekte-der-juengeren-urgeschichte/gradiometerprospektion-in-suedw


Project details

Short description

Archaic Greeks and the Bosporan Empire on the Cimmerian Bosphorus.

Since 2017, the Institute of Prehistory and Protohistory has been cooperating with the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) under a cooperation agreement as part of the project "Ancient Settlement History of the Taman' Peninsula" (project leader: Dr. Udo Schlotzhauer).

The main focus of this project is a landscape archaeological investigation of the settlement of this peninsula since the archaic period of Greece (ca. 800-500 BC). At that time, the region between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov consisted of numerous islands (the so-called "Cimmerian Bosporus"), on which Greek settlers founded new port cities as colonies of their mother cities from the early 6th century BC onwards. This was followed by intensive contact with the "steppe peoples" of the Eastern European plains and, from the 5th century BC, the formation of a separate kingdom, the Bosporan Empire, which survived (ultimately as a vassal of Rome) at least until the 4th century AD. Most of the former Greek port cities were abandoned when sediments from the Kuban River turned large areas of the sea into alluvium and cut the cities off from the sea. Many of these cities have not been repopulated since, which has led to some exceptionally good preservation conditions of the ancient settlements.

https://www.uf.phil.fau.de/abteilungen/juengere-urgeschichte/projekte-der-juengeren-urgeschichte/gradiometerprospektion-in-suedwestrussland/

Scientific Abstract

Archaic Greeks and the Bosporan Empire on the Cimmerian Bosphorus.

Since 2017, the Institute of Prehistory and Protohistory has been cooperating with the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) under a cooperation agreement as part of the project "Ancient Settlement History of the Taman' Peninsula" (project leader: Dr. Udo Schlotzhauer).

The main focus of this project is a landscape archaeological investigation of the settlement of this peninsula since the archaic period of Greece (ca. 800-500 BC). At that time, the region between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov consisted of numerous islands (the so-called "Cimmerian Bosporus"), on which Greek settlers founded new port cities as colonies of their mother cities from the early 6th century BC onwards. This was followed by intensive contact with the "steppe peoples" of the Eastern European plains and, from the 5th century BC, the formation of a separate kingdom, the Bosporan Empire, which survived (ultimately as a vassal of Rome) at least until the 4th century AD. Most of the former Greek port cities were abandoned when sediments from the Kuban River turned large areas of the sea into alluvium and cut the cities off from the sea. Many of these cities have not been repopulated since, which has led to some exceptionally good preservation conditions of the ancient settlements.

https://www.uf.phil.fau.de/abteilungen/juengere-urgeschichte/projekte-der-juengeren-urgeschichte/gradiometerprospektion-in-suedwestrussland/

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