Between February and August 2020, archaeological explorations were carried out in the buffer zone of the Chersonesus Taurica world heritage site, on the territory designated for the construction of the Tauric Chersonese Historical and Archaeological Park.
The work was carried out by members of the Combined Chersonesus Archaeological Expedition made up of representatives of the State Hermitage, the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology and the Tauric Chersonese State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Preserve. The expedition was formed with the support of the Patriarchal Council on Culture and the Moya Istoriya [My History] Foundation.
The plot of land designated for the creation of the Historical and Archaeological Park adjoins the ancient city of Chersonesus Taurica on the south side and is located immediately outside the city walls. This area had never undergone systematic excavation and was explored only episodically – by Karol Kościuszko-Waluszyński (Karl Kostsiushko-Valiuzhinich) over 125 years ago, in 1890–93. From the 19th century to the present day, military facilities with no public access have been located there, and methodical archaeological excavations were impossible. At present, the Russian Ministry of Defence is gradually vacating the area to make way for the park. The Historical and Archaeological Park project is opening up unexpected prospects for the advancement of archaeological research in previously inaccessible places.
The archaeological explorations that were carried out resulted in the discovery and further study of rock-cut tombs from the Hellenistic and Roman period, manufacturing and storage facilities, new defensive walls and cisterns for storing water. A large amount of black-lacquer, red-lacquer and glazed ceramics was collected, as well as metal, glass, stone and bone artefacts. More than 600 coins were discovered, including silver and gold ones. The rare finds include the lead seals of Byzantine officials, a Slavic lunnitsa (moon symbol) earring and gold coins of the Byzantine usurper Artabasdos (743) and Emperor Constantine X Doukas (1059–1067). A unique outcome of the explorations was that it proved possible to identify the actual site of Kościuszko-Waluszyński’s first excavations in the necropolis of Chersonesus, which the majority of scholars reckoned to have been 100 metres further north. A portion of the rock-cut tombs discovered were already excavated at the end of the 19th century, with all the materials being sent to the Hermitage at that time. In the immediate future, researchers are set to carry out painstaking work with finds from the tombs that have been kept in the museum since the 1890s.
The research work carried out made it possible to establish that the territory immediately adjacent to Chersonesus was used by its inhabitants throughout the existence of the polis. When the city was in its heyday, in the Hellenistic period, this part of its outskirts contained manufacturing and storage facilities. In the first centuries AD and the early Middle Ages, it was the location of the city cemetery. The archaeologists managed to uncover family vaults cut into the rock and single in-ground burials.
In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, new interments all took place one the territory of the city itself, while the site of the former necropolis again saw the construction of dwellings and ancillary structures. Chambers hewn into the rock date from this period, as well as a variety of structures, including a stone-cut vat for grape-treading. In the lower part of the Chersonese Gully and its eastern slope that faces the city, terraces were constructed at that time and apparently used by the locals as gardens and vegetable plots. This suburb of sorts was probably protected by its own separate defensive wall, remnants of which were found at a distance of over 300 metres from the city’s previously known fortifications.
The discovery of the southern suburb of Chersonesus may initiate a new stage in the archaeological exploration of the ancient and mediaeval city, entailing the purposeful examination of the surrounding territories and a determination of the boundaries of the suburban zones on the west and east. The study of the outskirts of Chersonesus is an important component in researching the whole megalopolis, making it possible to determine more precisely the dynamics of its changing boundaries, its spatial organization and the specifics of what activities took place in its different parts.
As a result of the research carried out on the territory of the planned Tauric Chersonese Historical and Archaeological Park, a new site – “The Southern Suburb of the Ancient City of Chersonesus Taurica” – has been identified and registered with the city of Sevastopol’s Department for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage Sites.
