Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (4) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.4.034-044

Annotation:  New Data on the Chronology of the Initial Neolithic Gromatukha Culture, Western Amur Region Holocene Fishing in the Big Sea Region of Lake Baikal (Based on Materials from Multilayered Habitati Comparative Characteristics of Stone Tools from the Neolithic Sites on the Upper and Middle Kama On the History of Asian Bosporus in the Early Byzantine Times: Excavations at Verkhnegostagayevskoye The Jomon Megalithic Tradition in Japan: Origins, Features, and Distribution A Morphological Analysis of Malyshevo Middle Neolithic Pottery from the Lower Amur New Absolute Dates for the Trans-Uralian and Western Siberian Neolithic Anthropomorphic Bronze Masks from the Timiryazevo-1 Burial Ground A Multidisciplinary Study of Burial Mounds and a Reconstruction of the Climate of the Turan-Uyuk De Classifi cation of 9th–13th Century Arrowheads Found in Azerbaijan Chinese Lacquerware from the Pazyryk Burial Ground Chineta II, Altai A Late 16th to Early 17th Century Mongolian Ceremonial Helmet from the Moscow Kremlin Armoury Dendrochronological Methods in the Architectural and Ethnographic Study of Russian Towns in Siberia Kinship Analysis of Human Remains from the Sargat Mounds, Baraba Forest-Steppe, Western Siberia Intragroup Variation of the Facial Skeleton in 16th–19th Century Rural Russian Populations in the W   

On the History of Asian Bosporus in the Early Byzantine Times:
Excavations at Verkhnegostagaevskoye

A.A. Malyshev¹, D.O. Dryga², A.S. Klemeshov³, and T.N. Smekalova⁴

¹Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117036, Russia

²Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, Gorokhovsky per. 4, Moscow, 105064, Russia

³Moscow Region State University, Radio 10A, Moscow, 105005, Russia

⁴V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Pr. Vernadskogo 4, Simferopol, 295007, Russia

This study focuses on Verkhnegostagaevskoye—a fortress in the Krasnodar Territory, dating to the Late Antiquity and Early Byzantine era. It has a multilevel fortification system constructed with the use of Classical Greek building materials according to the tradition of adobe-and-stone architecture. The fortress, situated far away from major seashores and inland transportation arteries and studied by nondestructive topographic methods such as magnetic survey, was a strategically important refuge. The scale of construction activities indicates significant administrative resources of the rulers. The master-builders were qualified specialists with a good knowledge of local materials, the relief, and the geological structure of the area. The construction materials differed with regard to their position: shell limestone was used for the outer facades, whereas the peripheral defensive structures were made of local sandstone and limestone. Judging by parts of columns including Doric capitals with very flat echini, dating to the Late Hellenistic or Roman period, dismantled remains of public buildings were used for fortification. The production of building materials and the construction works may have been a long-term job for the Bosporans. The fortress was probably part of a political structure involved in the minting of the famous replicas of Roman denarii. These replicas marked one of the oldest routes connecting the Black Sea coast with Central Ciscaucasia via the Kuban basin.

Keywords: Northwestern Caucasus, Antiquity period, Byzantine period, fortification, nondestructive methods, survey