Late Scythians’ Houses in North-West Crimea in the Second Half of 1st Century BC — First Quarter of 1st Century AD

Abstract

The article summarizes the data known about home layouts in North-West Crimea during the peak of the late Scythians’ settlements. The layouts of a number of houses (Kara-Tobe, South Donuzlav settlement) are introduced for the first time. These layouts are the first to be compared with each other and with the previously published layouts. Such comparison demonstrates that the number of planning schemes in late Scythians North-West Crimea was limited, besides, they changed over the time. In that way, Г-shaped house layouts that had prevailed during the previous stage (about 110 BC — middle 1 st century BC) became obsolescent before 20 BC. Kerkinitis layout system is dated within the same years. From 1 st century BC the houses of П-shaped layout emerged and after 20 BC they became prevalent. Г-shaped and П-shaped houses meet their analogies in Kerkinitis and Kalos Limen of the Greek period, they are well represented in other regions of the ancient world as well. Kerkinitis layout system is similar to ‘equally-parallel principle of home layouts’, typical for Scythian Neapolis and Ust-Alma settlement. This gives us the opportunity to expect that some Greek specialists or their Barbarian apprentices contributed to the exploration of the North-West Crimea. They could be similar specialists and apprentices who had earlier worked in Scythian Neapolis.