ДЖ. Б. КАВИЛЬЯ И НАЧАЛО АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ИЗУЧЕНИЯ СКАЛЬНЫХ ГРОБНИЦ ВОСТОЧНОЙ ОКРАИНЫ ГИЗЫ

The article focuses on the attribution of one gold and two copper coins discovered by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Giza. Coins come from mixed fillings of the burial shafts of the Ancient Egyptian rock-cut tombs of the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. According to the archaeological context, the coins belong to the stages of the destruction of ancient burials that took place during the Middle Ages and Modern times. One of the coins is a Mamluk fals dating back to the first half of the 14th century A.D., the other two belong to the 1830s — the Ottoman period in Egypt, and are attributed as gold a buchuk hayriye and its copper imitation. Coins are rare for the ancient necropolis and are mainly limited to specimens of the 19th–20th centuries. In general, taking into account the numerous finds of other objects — fragments of ceramic, porcelain and glass utensils, metal ware, glass and copper decorations, we can talk about the dynamic nature of human activity in the ancient Egyptian cemetery in the 2nd millennium A.D. Egyptians and European travelers used the ancient rock-cut tombs as permanent habitats or temporary sites, leaving material traces of their stay.

There is no clear evidence to suggest the presence of Christianity in Cyprus during the first three centuries AD. No Christian tombs or cemeteries were found on the island, with the exception of merely six crypto-Christian tombstones with pagan inscriptions. The use of + or symbol instead of the letter X is the only characteristic that differentiates Christian from pagan inscriptions. In the cemeteries of Tsambres and Aphendrica at Rizocarpasso and at Vasa of Kilani, lamps decorated with Christian symbols were found in rock-cut pagan tombs. From this it has been inferred that both pagan and Christian members of the same family shared the same tombs. Elaborate rock-cut tombs of an earlier age were later sanctified by Christians who either painted or carved crosses on their walls. Purely Christian cemeteries have not been found in Cyprus. From as early as the 4th century, box-shaped tombs were used by Christians for the burial of their dead, always facing east-west. In AD 403, Saint Epiphanios was buried in a similar tomb lined with marble slabs. Perhaps this burial was the first intra muros burial, since before that, burials inside the walls of the city were prohibited. However, the prohibition of burials within the walls continued at least down to the 7th or 8th century. Burials within the walls and in churches were reserved for saints or famous bishops. As a rule, saints were buried in sarcophagi of marble, stone or ceramic, which were placed either in tombs or churches. In Cyprus, relics were not deposited under the altar ; they were deposited in chapels attached to the sanctuary of the basilicas. Despite of the fact that almost all Early Christian basilicas in Cyprus have a narthex, this was very rarely intended for burial use. Two cases of built arcosolia inside churches (Ayia Paraskevi at Yeroskipou, and Ayia Athanasia at Rizocarpasso) have been dated to the 8th century. From the 7th century onwards, the immediate area around the churches was used as a Christian cemetery, as was the case with the basilica of Chryssopolitissa in Paphos, which was seized and destroyed by the Arabs in AD 653, at which time the middle aisle of the basilica, which lay outside the small 8th-century church built on its ruins, was used as a burial site. This practice appears to have been applied in several other subsequent cases.

Horvat Midras is situated in the central Judean Foothills, approximately 6 km northeast of the Roman city of Beth Guvrin–Eleutheropolis, alongside the primary Roman route to Jerusalem. At its zenith during the Roman period in the 1st century CE, the settlement spanned over 12 hectares, making it one of the largest ancient rural sites in the area. This Jewish settlement was destroyed during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE).Our excavation team uncovered a Late Antique church in the northern section of the village. Beneath the church floor, we found earlier strata that include remains of a building and underground chambers from the Late Hellenistic to Early Roman periods. These interconnected underground chambers, forming a typical hiding complex, fell out of use after the Bar Kokhba Revolt.Following a period of abandonment in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, the remnants of the earlier structures were leveled to make way for a new basilica, which featured a white mosaic floor. This construction, dating to the 4th century CE, was linked to a venerated rock-cut tomb, which we believe was the primary purpose of the architectural complex. The tomb, created within a rock-cut chamber integrated into the earlier hiding complex, also dates to the 4th century.In the subsequent architectural phase, a basilical church with marble columns, capitals, and exquisite multicolored mosaic floors was built within the former basilica, reusing some of its columns and walls. The apse was constructed above the tomb, with access provided via a room north of the apse that served as a martyrium.We identified at least two construction phases for this church, distinguished by the mosaics in their floors. The second phase, dating to the third quarter of the 6th century CE, involved extending the bema westward, sealing the passage between the north aisle and the martyrium, creating a new northern entrance to the martyrium, and constructing what appears to be a baptismal font atop the passage leading from the martyrium to the empty tomb. Numismatic evidence and the style of the mosaics and capitals support this dating. The structure remained in use during the Umayyad period until its destruction in the earthquake of 749 CE.As at other sites in the Judean Foothills, the study of the subterranean chambers carved out of the local chalk provides valuable insights into the site’s history. The survey revealed nearly 60 artificial cavities and subterranean complexes, including cisterns, quarries, columbaria, ritual immersion baths, and storerooms. Ten cavities beneath the ancient settlement contained typical hiding complexes, which, along with the artifacts found, offer important information about the settlement during the late Second Temple period and the Bar Kokhba Revolt.Additionally, dozens of rock-cut tombs were excavated from the surrounding slopes. One decorated hypogeum built of ashlars dates to the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. This hypogeum is connected by a tunnel to a smaller rock-cut tomb with three arcosolia, hewn during the Byzantine period. Red crosses and the Greek letters ΙΧ (iota and chi, representing Ιησους Χριστος, or Jesus Christ) and ΑΩ (alpha and omega, alluding to Jesus’s statement “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” [Revelation 22:13]) were found on the tomb walls.

On the basis of extensive material obtained during the work of the Russian archaeological mission, a generalization of the structural design of doors in Ancient Egyptian rock-cut tombs on the Eastern Plateau of Giza was carried out. The analysis showed that the size and structural design of the doors are directly related to the time of the chapel construction, the wealth of the tomb owner and natural or artificial features of the rocky area. Thus, the first rock-cut tombs whose owners had a high social status, which began to be built from the middle of the V dynasty on the eastern edge of the Eastern Plateau, are distinguished not only by their large size and extensive pictorial program of chapel decoration, but also by wide passages, inserted drums of better stone and well executed door fastening places. While towards the end of the Old Kingdom, when the Necropolis became compact and generally impoverished, there was a marked tendency not only to reduce the size of the passages to the chapels, but also to simplify the door arrangement and even to abandon the doors in most of the tombs. The development of gentle rocky areas and areas of poor rock quality in V–VI dynasties, leads to the appearance of steps to descend into the chapel, open courtyards and reduced dimensions of the passages to maintain their strength. Statistical analysis of the width of the passages and drums height in the chapels of the 72 currently available rock-cut tombs has demonstrated the existence of stable dimensional standards at the beginning of the development of the rock massif (c. mid V dynasty). For example, the tombs that appeared first in the tomb groups had an opening width of 10 or 12 ancient Egyptian palms (76–80 or 90–98 cm) and a drum height of 4 or 7 palms (30 or 52 cm). But towards the end of the Old Kingdom the width of the passages is reduced to about 8 palms (about 60 cm) and the height of the drums above the passages to 17 cm, and in many cases they disappear from the decoration of the entrances.

The proposed publication aims to the introduction into scientific circulation, systematization and analysis of the burials of Besinshitobe. To date, about 50 graves have been studied. The analysis of burial materials allows the author to distinguish three main types of burial complexes. The chronological identity of the graves was made on the basis of analogies to the inventory. Their dating is still preliminary. The earliest burial complex is characterized by single burials with accompanying equipment. Five buried had the traces of artificial deformation of the ring type on their skulls. In two burials, an incomplete cremation ritual was performed. The earliest burials of this complex belong to the 4th–5th centuries A.D. The second complex combines burials in large earthen vessels placed in pits. All the burials were children’s, one of which was collective. On the basis of analogies, this group can be attributed to the 7th – 8th centuries A.D. The third, medieval burial complex is characterized by single Muslim burial grounds. A common sign for him is the lack of accompanying inventory, orientation of the deceased's head to the north-west and north-north-west. The use of incomplete scorching in the burial ritual is a known case. The ceramic complex obtained from the level I of the tier of the excavations at Besinshitoba allows the author to attribute Muslim burials to the 9th –11th and 13th –15th centuries A.D.

Discovered in the 19th century, the archaeological site of Saint-Blaise has generated much scientific interest. However, as early excavations systematically ignored the upper levels, Late Antiquity elements remained poorly studied until the 1980s. Despite our recent work, the set of rock-cut tombs established between the 5th and 7th centuries has never been thoroughly studied. Although an anthropobiological investigation is needed, an initial inventory and a topographic survey done in the forest of Castillon in August 2020 allow a specific reflection on the relationship between the town and the 430 rock-cut tombs.

<p>This study presents the preliminary description and evaluation of the architectural remains (namely, the city walls surrounding the acropolis and the lower city, the theater on the western skirts of the acropolis, the three bridges spanning the Uludere stream, the rock-cut tombs located on the northwestern and northeastern peripheries of the city) identified in the ancient city of Hypaipa during the field survey in the summer of 2012. Hypaipa, on which we do not have any detailed<br /> knowledge except for a few references in ancient sources and in some traveller records, is regarded as one of the cities in the Lydian region. The city whose foundation is presumed to date back to the Lydian period (the last quarter of the 7th century B.C. to the first half of the 6th century B.C.) had a distinct status because of its Persian temple dedicated to the Persian goddess Anahita. With particular reference to this temple, Hypaipa was mentioned in a number of ancient sources along with Hierocaesareia. In addition to its temple, Hypaipa was also famous for Arakhne, one of the well known mythological figures in the antiquity.<br /> Hypaipa appears to be a rather developed settlement, particularly in the Roman period. Moreover, the rock-cut tombs that we discovered to the north of the acropolis dating back to the 6th century BC constitute the earliest findings of the 2012 field survey in Hypaipa carried out by our team, providing further evidence for the significance of the site in connection with the Lydian and Persian archaeologies.</p>

Our aim is to understand the economy and sociology of rock-cut building sites on the basis of the analysis of technical processes. The use of the concept of chaînes opératoires allows us to question current hypothesis found in the Cappadocian literature. The sites under study are located in the Cappadocian Volcanic Province (CVP) and more precisely in the area of Göreme. Buildings are caved in the ignimbrites, a kind of soft volcanic rock that comes from pyroclastic flows. They are the product of volcanic eruptions that took place during the Upper Miocene-Quaternary age. The ignimbrites are heterogeneous because they are composed by volcanic welded ash and, mostly, hard lithic blocks. Thanks to the soft characteristics of ignimbrites, tool marks are visible on the walls. It is therefore possible to reconstruct the way in which tombs and churches were made. The means of production and the rock-cutting processes can be studied with the help of use-wear archaeology. Furthermore, these analyzes underscore the incongruities in the type of tools used and the reasons that push workers to abandon a site. Then, the economy and sociology of the rock-cut monument-sites can be approached. Most of the researchers, who are working on Roman and Byzantine periods, think that churches could have been made by monks, as the monuments were not that voluminous and the ignimbrite, a soft rock easy to carve. Thanks to the technical approaches, this hypothesis can be questioned. Rock-cutting techniques are so complex that workers need to be professionals. Furthermore, technical studies can be used to perceive the evolution of techniques and explain the modifications of landscape in rural Cappadocia. Why rock-cut monuments are so numerous since the medieval period? Leo the Deacon defined the Cappadocian as Troglodyte during the 10th century, why this appellation appeared so late? Some answers can be given with the help of the anthropology of the techniques.

The multi-roomed rock-cut tombs at the Giza necropolis, which have square columns in cross-section and date from the IV–VI dynasties, often have inter-room passageways covered with masonry or wooden panels. On the example of the analysis of the rock-cut tomb of Kakherptah (G 7721), in which traces of wooden panels covering the passages were found, an attempt is made to understand the logic of the chapel's functioning, to identify the religious-symbolic load laid by ancient masters in the elements of its architecture and the possible reasons and time of appearance of such additions. According to a number of signs, the partitions were installed at the main stage of tomb construction, which raises the question of the expediency of the initial construction of a large number of columns and passages between the rooms. In sum, the analysis shows that the wooden partitions reflected the desire to have both columns in the tomb, which had a symbolic-religious function, and the need to shield the cult place with a false door from the main room of the tomb. Thus, religious ideas, symbolic content and constructive possibilities of the material used by Ancient Egyptian builders were concentrated in one architectural technique of the investigated tomb.

The ancient Egyptian rock-cut tomb of Nesemnau in the north-eastern part of the Giza Necropolis was explored by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS in 2015–2017 and 2020. Archaeological study of the three tomb shafts revealed repeated violation of the filling layers due to the numerous robberies; as a result, the original burials of the Old Kingdom were destroyed, and later pottery (827 out of 2602 ceramic samples) and artifacts entered these complexes. Pottery analysis dating from the New Kingdom to the beginning of the 20th century allows speculating on the formation of thieves’ debris in the burial shafts of this tomb. Obtained data indicates repeated human intervention into the tomb, occurring apparently in the Late Period (possibly in order to create secondary burials), in Ptolemaic and Byzantine times, in the Middle Ages and in Modern times (during the robbery). Fragments from the same vessels are present in the fillings of all the shafts in Nesemnau’s tomb; therefore, they ended in these burial complexes at the same time as a result of the one and the same group of robbers’ activities. The latest ceramic fragments belonging to the zir-jars of the 19th — early 20th centuries indicate terminus ante quem of plundering. It is probable that the increase of tourism and the beginning of large-scale archaeological excavations in Giza Necropolis at that time intensified the thieves’ activity at the ancient site.

This article provides a brief summary of archaeological fieldwork conducted by the University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project at el-Sheikh Fadl Umm Raqaba with a special focus on one particular Late Period tomb, A2 T1. Having been discovered by Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century, this rock-cut tomb is of special interest because of a lengthy Aramaic dipinto inscription with a literary text telling the tale of the Egyptian rebel Inaros who fought against the Assyrian occupation during the 7th century BCE. The tomb was fully excavated for the first time by the Austrian mission in 2016 and 2017. Significant and substantial new evidence was uncovered including large quantities of human remains and artefacts that provide insights into the ancient occupation of the tomb as well as its dating. Importantly, the Aramaic inscription and the underlying original painted decoration of the tomb were subject to intensive new study that included first-hand confirmation of the reading of the rebel’s name as ynḥrw being the Aramaic form of the Egyptian name ’ir.t-ḥr-r.r=w (Greek Ináros). Further, the inscription and decorations were recorded with the assistance of Multispectral Imaging (MSI) technology which enabled to counterbalance degeneration and modern graffiti to enhance better reading. The first results of this new archaeological work would suggest that the tomb itself probably dates somewhat later than had been previously suggested, which, nevertheless, opens up new possibilities to explain the significance and provide an interpretation for this unusual inscription as well as for the tomb, the site and the region surrounding el-Sheikh Fadl.

The article presents the results of excavations at the Biryul burial mound in the Ur Urban Archaeological Microdistrict on the territory of the Kuznetsk Depression. Excavation materials are considered as a single peculiar burial complex, requiring justification of dating and ethnocultural interpretation. The elements of the funeral rite and inventory have been described, classified and analyzed. Based on the typological classification of the finds, a comparative analysis has been carried out with materials from the funerary sites of the Kuznetsk Basin and adjacent territories. During the study, medieval sites have been identified that bear the greatest resemblance to the investigated burial complex: the mound-cemetery of Sapogovo-2 and the burial mounds of Sapogovo and Saratovka. By analogy to the inventory and the proximity of the burial sites, the Biryulya Kurgan group was dated to the 11th – 12th centuries and attributed to the Saratov archaeological culture at the third stage of its development in the Kuznetsk depression. It is noted that the investigated burial complex belongs to the elite category and has a high level of uniqueness with respect to synchronous and monocultural sites.

Chronology and geochemistry of late Holocene eolian deposits in the Brandon Sand Hills, Manitoba, Canada

The paper is devoted to the problem of interpretation of written sources of archaeological materials of the high middle ages. The data discrepancy of numerous written sources on the the Kipchaks (Kimek-Cumans) history confederation had required systematization and comparison in order to identify real information on the early stage of the Cumans (Kipchak) history. New archaeological data regarding location of the Srostky culture sites in the Southern Urals (late 8th – 9th centuries) made it possible to confirm the previously expressed opinion about their correlation with the Kipchak (Cumans) stage. The fact of the appearance of Turkic-cultural nomads of the 8th-9th centuries in the Ural-Kazakhstan steppes has repeatedly been noted in various studies. In most cases, this information is based on written sources data of the late 9th – 10th centuries. New archaeological materials were obtained in the course of archaeological excavations of the Uelgi burial complex in the South Urals. It was made possible to identify a whole layer of complexes and materials of the Srostky type. They were attributed to the late 8th, 9th and early 10th centuries due to the comparative typological and radiocarbon dating. Thus, we can state the continuous development of the Srostky culture from the early (Inskaya) to the middle stages of this culture within the Southern Urals. The main study methods were comparative analysis of written sources, methods of comparative typological and radiocarbon dating. Thus, the obtained new archaeological materials of the Uyelgi burial complex allow us to assert that the Kipchaks (Cumans) component in the Uyelgi complex appears at the earliest stage of the existence of the Srostky culture (Inskaya) and subsequently is present here as well as in other South Ural sites.

The analysis of the burial complex of mound 17 at the Kalashnikovo mound burial is presented in the paper. The burial materials are chronologically homogeneous and contain chronological indicators that correspond to chronological group 3 according to M.L. Pereskokov. These materials belong to the cultural and chronological horizon of Turaevo-Kudash and correspond to the set of TK-2 Turaevo mound burial, according to I.O. Gavritukhin. Taking into account the latest dating of the Turaevo mounds, the burials of mound 17 of the Kalashnikovo mound burial can be dated to the 4th quarter of the 4th century. The planographic and stratigraphic analysis of the settlement and burial complexes identified on the site allows us to identify the sequence of their development. In the 2d – 4th centuries AD, a settlement from the middle and late stages of the Glyadenovo culture appeared on the ledge of the root bank of the Sylva River. No later than in the 3rd quarter of the 4th century, as a result of the deterioration and humidification of the climate of the early medieval pessimum, the floodplain of the Sylva River began to flood, causing the settlement to become uninhabitable and abandoned. The population moved to the root terrace, where Kalashnikovo I-II settlements are known. In the 4th quarter of the 5th century, burial mounds started to be built on a higher site of the abandoned settlement. Mound 17 is the earliest one of the studied mounds. As the flooding zone decreased in the 5th century AD, the burial ground continued to expand towards the river. The recorded ecological processes were significant factors in the transformation of the cultures in the Kama region and the changes in patterns of adaptation of the population during the Early Middle Ages.