Pantikapaion

45.350833333333 36.468611111111Coordinates: 45 ° 21 ′ 3 ″ N , 36 ° 28 ′ 7 ″ E

Pantikapaion

Ruins from the 6th century BC Chr.

Pantikapaion ( ancient Greek Παντικάπαιον, Latin Panticapaeum ) was an ancient city on the Crimean peninsula . It was located on the site of today's Kerch city and was the capital of the Bosporan Empire . The city was also called the Bosporus (Greek Bosporos ) (after the name Cimmerian Bosporus for the Kerch Strait ).

Foundation and heyday

Originally, the oldest building remains of Pantikapaion were dated to the 7th century BC, but this is now in doubt. Accordingly, Pantikapaion was probably in the 6th century BC. Founded as a colony by Greeks from Miletus and later was the seat of the kings of the Bosporan Empire . The city lay on the west bank of the Cimmerian Bosporus and stretched from the lower sea terrace up to the slopes of Mithridates Mountain, on the summit of which there was a fortified castle complex (Acropolis).

The city was in the middle of Scythian territory. The Scythians were primarily traded with. After the Bosporan Empire, the kings of Pontos took over the Greek cities in the Crimea until the Romans also incorporated this area.

In 63 BC BC Mithridates VI lost . , Ruler of the kingdom of Pontus and one of Rome's greatest enemies, died on the Acropolis of Pantikapaion. In reference to this ruler, the elevation on which the fortress of Pantikapaion once stood was given the name Mithridates Mountain. This renaming took place in the course of the capture of Crimea by Russia from the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.

Late antiquity

In the course of late antiquity , Pantikapaion, which was then a Roman protectorate , lost its importance. The cause was probably the increasing attacks by barbarians. The Goths have been raiding the Black Sea region since the third century. Shortly before the middle of the 4th century, coinage under King Rheskuporis VI. set. In the 1970s, the Huns ravaged the cities of the Bosporan Empire. However, the city's history did not end there. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the city, which now appears as the Bosporos in the sources, belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire . At that time, Crimean Goths settled in the area of the city of Bosporos, which is proven by finds from the 5th to 7th centuries. In 534 Justinian I commissioned Gothic auxiliaries to recapture the city that had been captured by the Huns . Since then, items of a Germanic character, such as bow brooches, have been produced locally. Around 576 Turxanthos , who had just taken over the rule of the Gök Turks , had the city conquered by the Utigur leader Angai. In the 7th century the city came under the control of the Khazars .

Excavations at the ruins began in 1830. During archaeological investigations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the necropolis was discovered and numerous well-preserved coins , steles and vases were found .

literature

Viktor F. Gajdukevič : The Bosporan Empire. 2nd edition, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971.
Vladimir P. Tolstikov: Pantikapaion. An archaeological portrait of the capital of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 39-58.

Web links

Commons : Pantikapaion - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Vladimir P. Tolstikov: Pantikapaion. An archaeological portrait of the capital of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 39-58.
↑ ^a ^b Alexander V. Podossinov: On the edge of the Greek Oikumene. History of the Bosporan Empire. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 21-38.
^ ^A ^b Heinrich Beck et al: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 27: Scissors - Secundus of Trient. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-018116-9 , p. 439 f.
↑ Walter Pohl : The Avars. A steppe people in Central Europe 567–822 AD 2nd, updated edition, CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48969-9 , p. 67, p. 80.

[Tolstikov-1] Vladimir P. Tolstikov: Pantikapaion. An archaeological portrait of the capital of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 39-58.

[Podossinov-2] Alexander V. Podossinov: On the edge of the Greek Oikumene. History of the Bosporan Empire. In: Jochen Fornasier, Burkhard Böttger (ed.): The Bosporan Empire. The northeast of the Black Sea in ancient times. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2895-8 , pp. 21-38.

[RGA-3] A ^b Heinrich Beck et al: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 27: Scissors - Secundus of Trient. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-018116-9 , p. 439 f.

[4] Walter Pohl : The Avars. A steppe people in Central Europe 567–822 AD 2nd, updated edition, CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48969-9 , p. 67, p. 80.