Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław(Instytut Archeologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski, 2013)
Cmentarzysko Chersonezu Taurydzkiego obejmuje znaczny obszar na zachód i południe od ruin antycznego miasta. Sięga także na przeciwległą stronę zatoki Kwarantann, której wody oblewają miasto od wschodu. Nie sposób dokładnie określić zasięgu nekropoli, gdyż dookoła rozciąga się zabudowa współczesnego Sewastopola. Wykopaliska prowadzone od końca lat 80. XIX wieku doprowadziły do odkrycia ponad 3500 grobów. znaczna część z nich była użytkowana wielokrotnie, uszkodzona przez późniejsze pochowki i wyrabowana. Wyniki badań archeologicznych, o ile były publikowane, zazwyczaj mają postać rocznych raportów, w których groby, pochowki i wyposażenie są opisane niezwykle lakonicznie. Tylko nieliczne znaleziska przedstawiano na ilustracjach lub wskazywano ich analogie (zestawienie raportów z badań)....
The Roman fort of Apsaros in Gonio (Adjara, Georgia) still holds answers to many issues connected with the Roman military presence on the Chorokhi river in ancient Colchis. In 2014, a Polish team joined the Georgian expedition to carry out excavation in two sectors directly east of the centrally located principia. The sites were chosen based on a study of the results of geophysical prospection carried out in 2012. Two phases, dated to the early and late Roman periods respectively, were recorded. The early Roman architecture was interpreted as part of the installations and structures of a large bathhouse (
balneae
), including a mosaic floor in one of the rooms. The building was destroyed at least twice, most likely in a catastrophic fire. The article discusses the stratigraphy and the dating of the early Roman
balneae
based on glass artifacts and coins....
Cavalry is not the first thing which comes to mind when one considers the activities of the Roman army. Naturally, that way of thinking is also present in works which focus their attention on the defensive capabilities of Roman frontier systems. Even though turf ramparts, watchtow-ers and camp remains are given the attention they deserve, the arrangements designed for mobile defence which required cavalry use, have received less interest, mostly due to the blurred and sketchy picture provided by the limited and fragmentary archaeological evidence.Moreover, when it comes to the activities of the Roman army, connected with the Crimean Peninsula, the surviving literary records tend to diminish the role of the cavalry. And so, accord-ing to Tacitus’s account, the Roman troops used in the Bosporan war of AD 49 were composed mostly of infantry units, and the cavalry contin-gents were provided by the allied Sarmatian Aorsi tribe. Despite the fact that the particular passage in Tacitus’ account could have been a reflection of the real situation during the Bosporan war, the surviving archaeological and epigraphic evidence suggests quite a different overall picture....
Archaeological excavations of three sections of the inner areas of the fort of Apsaros were conducted by the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological expedition of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency of Adjara in 2014. Remains of several buildings were unearthed in the Roman cultural levels. Artifacts from these layers reflect a Roman presence in the area from the second half of the 1st to the end of the 3rd century AD....
This paper examines archaeological assemblages containing military artifacts left by the Roman army on the Crimean Peninsula. The analysis allows conclusion on the tasks preformed by the Roman contingent. Dased on the archaeological and epigraphic evidence, acrivites of the temporaty Roman expeditions in the 1 st c. AD are reconstructed. Furthermore, it is argued that in the 2nd c. Roman task forces (vexillationes) served only as a political demonstation intended th show that the allies in the area were not left alone by Rome....
Despite many years of research at the site, the
Roman fort at Cape Aj-Todor near Yalta remains relatively
poorly studied. A better understanding of the
discoveries made at the site can be reached by comparing
them with the results of the excavations conducted
in another fort also located in Crimea – at Balaklava-
Kadykovka. This text is an attempt at gathering together
all the published information about the discoveries made at Cape Aj-Todor. The comparison of the research results
from both sites has enabled establishing numerous similarities
between them. Both forts functioned simultaneously,
and their architectural remains can be qualified to
identically dated phases. The final effect of the analysis
undertaken by the author is a more complete plan of the
fort at Cape Aj-Todor along with its surroundings, processed
in a new graphic formula....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław; Mamuladze, Shota; Aslanischvili, Lasha; Daszkiewicz, Małgorzata(Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 2018)
The article collects the modest information on the use (and
possible production) of ceramic building material by the Roman army in
Colchis, using it as a backdrop for presenting the exceptional richness, in
quantity as much as diversity, of finds from Gonio/Apsaros. They are made
even more exceptional by the signatures found on these products. The article
presents documented examples of stamps on bricks, roof tiles and ceramic
pipes from the fort and links them with construction project of specific Roman
army units in the Cappadocia province. The results of laboratory tests
conducted on samples of ceramic products and raw clay from Gonio,
presented in Part 2, are an important element of the presented analysis.
Based on these results, it has been possible to distinguish two reference
groups for the production of which clay from near the fort was used.
However, it has not been possible to indicate the specific deposits of such
raw material used by the Roman army....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław; Mamuladze, Shota(PRO GEORGIA JOURNAL OF KARTVELOLOGICAL STUDIES, 2019)
In 2018, the Polish-Georgian Gonio-Apsaros Expedition under the supervision of
the authors of this text continued research into the issue of the early presence of a Roman
garrison at the mouth of the Chorokhi River. Two narrow trenches were opened
along the road located north of the late Roman and Byzantine fortifications. Places
were selected in which traces of earlier fortifications were expected to be found. The
foundations of defensive walls were discovered in both survey trenches. It came as
some surprise that in both cases the remains of two lines of walls had been preserved.
The analysis of the architectural relicts and the accompanying layers enables stating
that these are the traces of two different construction phases which did not occur simultaneously.
The earlier fortifications (wall A) can most probably be linked to the fort’s
inner structures from Phase 1, among which the recently discovered granary (horreum)
can be included. The later defensive wall (wall B) was probably constructed at the
same time as the buildings classified as belonging to Phase 2. These same fortifications
most probably continued to be in use along with the buildings considered to be part
of Phase 3. Garrison bathhouse (balneum) were built in place of the above-mentioned
grain storage building during Phase 2, while the commander’s house (praetorium) was
erected during Phase 3....