On the Question of Dating Cremation Sites in the Tauric Chersonesos Southern Suburbs

The work aims to identify the earliest special type burial monuments in the Tauric Chersonesos southern suburb. These are cremation sites for burning bodies of the deceased buried in the city necropolis. Urns with ashes are repeatedly found in Chersonesos, but the places of direct cremations remained virtually unknown until recently. In 2021–2023 the Antique New Construction Expedition of the Institute of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences arranged field works and engaged a number of other organizations. These field works allow to study more than 340 such areas. The site near the main city gates reveals a number of complexes distinguished by a significant variety of inventory that includes whole sets of golden jewelry, brooches, coins, beadings, etc. The finds are tentatively dated to the second half of the 1st – 2nd centuries AD. Among these finds, a group of earlier cremation sites stands out noticeably as they are narrow sub-rectangular in terms of shape and have bottoms significantly recessed into the ground. An additional element is a blower arranged in a separate pit, connected to the platform by an underground channel. The study closely examines finds from four No. 6 and 264 (ca. 3rd – early 2nd century BC), No. 276 and 314 (the of the AD – first half of the 1st century AD). This gives a general idea of the cremation rite in Chersonesos during the Hellenistic period. It is important to emphasize that cremation sites of a similar design with equally early finds are known in many areas of the Chersonesos southern suburbs. However, so far it seems premature to attribute all similar structures exclusively to the Hellenistic period until the collected data is fully processed.