«Археология и Крымская война. Эпизоды»: материалы подводных исследований и опыт создания выставки в Государственном музее-заповеднике «Херсонес Таврический»

Abstract

During excavations on the territory of the Heraclean Peninsula and during underwater research in the bays of Sevastopol, archaeologists are faced with a large number of materials related to one of the most ambitious and, without exaggeration, tragic events of the mid-XIX century – the Eastern (Crimean) War, more precisely, with episodes of its Crimean campaign in 1854–1855. The territory of the State Museum-Reserve «Tauric Chersonese» was the scene of this military confrontation, which directly affected the conduct of archaeological work on the territory of Chersonesos and the fate of its researchers. The ancient ruins, or so called «ancient foundations», marked on military maps next to the positions and locations of the troops, were the scenery for this drama. The enemy ships anchored in the bays of the Heracleian Peninsula – the places of ancient harbors. By sea, following the ancient shipping routes, the supply of troops was carried out, the individual episodes of battles unfolded in the coastal waters. Underwater archaeological finds of this period, which have preserved a lot of interesting and unique information, are rather poorly represented in museum expositions. The study of the Crimean War from the point of archeology view is a very promising direction for further research. How and by whom the excavations were conducted during the war, and what the Crimean War left for researchers in the archaeological sense, are only the main topics of possible research. The study of literature and sources, archaeological finds serve as an additional confirmation of this.