Southwestern Crimea Research Articles

Two cnidian plastic vessels of the 2nd century ad from the collection of the state historical museum: technological research

The article considers two textbook-famous Cnidian plastic vessels from the collection of the State Historical Museum in Moscow. One of them, shaped as a ram, comes from the excavations of N.I. Veselovsky in the Kuban region, the second one – a lagynos with erotic scenes on its body – was found by I.I. Gushchina at the Late Scythian burial ground Belbek IV in the Southwestern Crimea. As part of a project to do research on monuments of the classical period from the State Historical Museum collection, an X-ray tomographic study of these vessels was conducted at the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, which made it possible to clarify the technology of their manufacture.

Лепная посуда могильника Алмалык-Дере

The article describes the molded dishes of the burial ground of the 4th-7th centuries. AD Almalyk-dere, located in the South-Western Crimea. A comparative typological analysis of this group of archaeological finds, in general, demonstrates its general cultural unity with molded dishes from other Crimean burial grounds of the late Roman and early medieval times, with the presence of certain differences. Common features are manifested in the technique and technology of production of stucco products, as well as in the composition and structure of the ceramic complex, and differences are in the morphology and ornamentation of vessels. The study of Almalyk molded dishes allows us to say that the emergence of the burial ground is associated with the arrival of a group of new population in southwestern Taurica, consisting of the numerically predominant Alans, as well as Germans and, obviously, some part of the Bosporans and late Scythians.

New find of Roman military equipment of the period of the Roman–Bosporan war of 45–49 AD from the Eastern Crimea

The Artezian fortified settlement in the Azov Sea coast of Eastern Crimea perished in a strong fire at the beginning of the Roman–Bosporan war in 46/47 AD. In the homogeneous fire layer, along with numerous items of jewellery, silver, bronze and glass vessels, a heavily burned out round bronze plaque, 7.7–7.8 cm in diameter with a hole in the centre was found. The plaque is decorated along the edge with a figural frieze, depicting two pairs of animals opposing each other: ‘dog–bull’, ‘dog–wild boar’. Besides two animals are running after each other: a lion and a roe deer. The decoration of the plaque from Artezian finds parallels among plaques from the military camps along the limes of Lower and Upper Rhine and Danube. Objects similar in shape depicting animals in circular friezes are also known in Dacia and in the South-Western Crimea. The parallels to the images of the plaque and options of interpreting the function of the piece are discussed. The combination of pairs of opposing animals and animals running after each other finds parallels only on the belt plaques from Asciburgium and Magdalensberg. Thus, there are reasons to consider the disc from Artezian as an element of Roman military equipment of the first half of the 1st century AD.

Dynamics of small metazooplankton in relation with environmental factors: A 12-year study in the coastal zone of the Southwestern Crimea (the Black Sea)

Based on continuous 12-year (2010–2021) monitoring of the average summer abundance of small metazooplankton (SMZ) in the coastal zone of the Southwestern Crimea, the patterns of its interannual fluctuations were investigated. The total SMZ abundance during the study period varied from 37.8 to 176.0 thousand·m−3 in the open coastal area (on average, 104.0 ± 49.2 thousand·m−3) and from 90.3 to 556.8 thousand·m−3 at the bay mouth (on average, 264.5 ± 121.0 thousand·m−3). The crustacean fraction accounted for 85–91% of the total SMZ abundance. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed a noticeable contribution of 48 % of total temperatures and wind speed and different direction repeatability to the SMZ abundance variability. For native data, significant relationships were revealed between the abundance of individual SMZ fractions and hydrometeorological parameters: total temperatures of the warm period of the year (May–October), periodicity of the southern and southwestern, northern winds, calm conditions (events of the absence of wind), and the summer index of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) with a 1-year lag. The application of fast Fourier transform (FFT) with a Hamming filter to the original series and periodograms analysis allowed revealing typical periods of variability in SMZ abundance and hydrometeorological parameters of the environment: 2–4-year and 5–6-year ones. At these scales, a higher number of significant relationships was established with the indicated hydrometeorological parameters, inter alia winter and summer NAO indices, than during the analysis of the original series. The total contribution of hydrometeorological and climatic factors to the variation in the abundance of SMZ increased to 78–79 %. This confirms the assumption that the relationship between SMZ and environmental parameters is characterized by its own features at different scales. Analysis of long-term SMZ different fractions tendencies for Summer 2010–2021, according to the Mann-Kendall criterion, did not show significant results.

«МЫ ПОСЕЛЕНЫ МЕЖДУ ГОР…»: К ИСТОРИИ СЕЛА БАЛТА-ЧОКРАК В ЮГО-ЗАПАДНОМ КРЫМУ В КОНЦЕ XVIII – ХХ ВВ.

This article presents the history of the population of the village of Balta-Chokrak with the Southwestern Crimea, a settlement with different ethnic composition. Until the beginning of the XIX century, the village was inhabited by the Crimean Tatars, but subsequently Balta-Chokrak and its agricultural territories (cultural landscape) are bought to the treasury from the noblewoman Kalitsa Ivanovna Mazganina. After the Crimean Tatars leave the village and travel to the Ottoman Empire, a colony from Greek families who came from Anatolia is founded here. Instead of the mosque that existed in Balta-Chokrak Greek colonists build a church, and begin to actively develop agriculture. What is important, the article on the basis of archival documents and field research for the first time gave a reconstruction of the Crimean Tatar stage of the history of the village, presents the peculiarities of the structure of new immigrants, the difficulties that they had to face in a new place. The point of view established in historiography about Balta-Chokrak as a Greek-Bulgarian colony was also questioned and the features of the composition of the cultural landscape of Balta-Chokrak were revealed, the history of the construction in 1818 and subsequent rebuilding of the Panteleimon Church and the spiritual life of the colonists were detailed.

Pontil Marks on the Vessels from Frontovoe 3 Necropolis in the South-Western Crimea as a Source for Investigating Glassworkers’ Tools and Technological Traditions

Pontil Marks on the Vessels from Frontovoe 3 Necropolis in the South-Western Crimea as a Source for Investigating Glassworkers’ Tools and Technological Traditions

Christianization of the Goths and Alanians in the South-Western Crimea in the 4th—6th Centuries

Christianization of the Goths and Alanians in the South-Western Crimea in the 4th—6th Centuries

Pottery Traditions of Barbarian Population from the South-Western Crimea: Some Results of Research (Based on Hand-Made Pottery from Frontovoe 3 Necropolis)

Pottery Traditions of Barbarian Population from the South-Western Crimea: Some Results of Research (Based on Hand-Made Pottery from Frontovoe 3 Necropolis)

Gold Neck Jewelry of the 6th—7th Centuries from the South-Western Crimea

Gold Neck Jewelry of the 6th—7th Centuries from the South-Western Crimea

New finds of stratigraphically important ammonites from the Cenomanian of the South-Western Crimea

New finds of stratigraphically important ammonites from the Cenomanian of the South-Western Crimea

Reference Section of the Сampanian Stage of the Southwestern Crimea: Problems of Substage Subdivision and Global Correlation

Reference Section of the Сampanian Stage of the Southwestern Crimea: Problems of Substage Subdivision and Global Correlation

Karshi-Bair burial ground in Southwestern Crimea (results of the study and general characteristics)

In 1998–2002, field studies of the Karshi-Bair necropolis, located near the village of Verkhne-Sadovoye, were conducted. The burial structures are represented by vaults, undercut and underground graves, dug in dense soil. Many materials have been published (so far only in a preliminary plan) and entered the arsenal of historiography. A variety of inventory – red lacquer and hand-made pottery, glassware, beads, metal fibulas, buckles, mirrors, pendants, toilet set, etc. It was possible to determine these artefacts, belonging to the Alans, and to establish the chronological framework of burials within the V – beginning of the VII centuries. Its consideration makes it possible to correct the ethnopolitical situation in the Southwestern Crimea. The population that left it, during the era of the Hunnic campaigns, did not moved deep into the peninsula, but remained in the foothill part, experiencing a strong influence Chersonese – Kherson as the most important center of late Antique culture. Part of the inventory is related to the era of the First Turkic Khaganate. It is planned to publish all the materials of the excavations and discuss them in a broad context antiquities of the western part of Eurasia. As a result, the Karshi-Bair necropolis should take its original place among the sites of the Migration period.

THE FIRST RECORD OF AN AMMONITE IN THE UPPER CENOMANIAN (UPPER CRETACEOUS) OF THE CRIMEA

Cenomanian ammonoid Calycoceras (Calycoceras) naviculare (Mantell, 1822) (Acanthoceratidae, Ammonoidea) was found in the well-known section of Selbukhra Mountain in the vicinity of Nauchnyi Town of southwestern Crimea. This is the first find of the ammonoid in the upper Cenomanian deposits in the Crimea and in Russia.

Geomechanical Fracture Modeling of the Suvlu-Kaya Mountain Section, Southwestern Crimea

Geomechanical Fracture Modeling of the Suvlu-Kaya Mountain Section, Southwestern Crimea

A unique find of the ammonite Kamerunoceras (Acanthoceratidae, Ammonoidea) in the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the South-Western Crimea

The Turonian ammonite Kamerunoceras sp. ex gr. turoniense (d’Orb.) was found for the first time in the South-Western Crimea, in the section of the Aksu-Dere ravine, northward of the Kudrino Village (the Kacha River basin). This is the first discovery of representatives of this genus in Russia.

A Unique Find of the Ammonite Kamerunoceras (Acanthoceratidae, Ammonoidea) from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the South–Western Crimea

A Unique Find of the Ammonite Kamerunoceras (Acanthoceratidae, Ammonoidea) from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the South–Western Crimea

Особенности сульфидной минерализации гидротермальной системы мыса Фиолент (юго-западный Крым)

As a result of generalization of geophysical studies, petro-paleomagnetic and structural-geomorphological analyses, as well as thermodynamic modeling, some features of ore formation in the hydrothermal system of Cape Fiolent (southwestern Crimea) under island arc conditions were revealed. It has been established that the main transformations of rocks of the Middle Jurassic igneous complex of Cape Fiolent occurred under the influence of hydrothermal fluids during the introduction of felsic intrusions during 168–140 Ma. The zones contain sulfide mineralization, the main minerals of which are pyrite, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, galena, chalcopyrite and arsenic pyrite. In the central parts of the hydrothermal alteration zone, massive sulfides are strongly weathered; these zones contain many secondary sulfates. In the marginal parts of hypergenic limonite, yellow-brown goethite prevails in the oxidation zone, yellow jarosite in the center, which is probably due to the large amount of pyrite in the center of the system, which gave more sulfuric acid during oxidation. The presence of native sulfur in the section testifies to the mixing of the acidified hydrothermal solution with seawater. Complex petro-paleomagnetic and magnetometric studies have shown that contact changes and transformation of the contrasting basalt-rhyolite formation occurred along the NNW-trending faults.

Reference Section of the Campanian Stage of the Southwestern Crimea: Problems of Substage Subdivision and Global Correlation

Reference Section of the Campanian Stage of the Southwestern Crimea: Problems of Substage Subdivision and Global Correlation

Anomalous features of the geomagnetic field behavior at the end of the Cretaceous normal superchron based on the results of the study of the Turonian–Santonian in the Southwestern Crimea

In 394 samples characterizing 266 stratigraphic levels in four Turonian–Santonian sections in the Southwestern Crimea, characteristic remanent magnetization components (ChRM) formed at the stage of diagenesis is identified. The data obtained represent the record of the Paleocene geomagnetic variations of high amplitude (rms deviation S = 25.9° with a fixed cut-off angle of 45°, which is about twice as high as the model S for this latitude) in the sediments formed in ~5–6 Ma and are interpreted as anomalous behavior of the geomagnetic field in the Turonian, Coniacian, and Santonian.

Anomalous Features in the Behavior of the Geomagnetic Field at the End of the Cretaceous Normal Superchron: Insights from the Study of the Turonian–Santonian in the Southwestern Crimea

Anomalous Features in the Behavior of the Geomagnetic Field at the End of the Cretaceous Normal Superchron: Insights from the Study of the Turonian–Santonian in the Southwestern Crimea