Crypts with Stepped Ceilings of the Necropolis near the Village Zaozernoye in the Northwestern Crimea: Design Features, Origins of Tradition, Semantics

Necropolis near the village Zaozernoye is located 1.5 km northwest of the Chaika settlement, in the vicinity of Evpatoria. Four stone crypts with stepped ceilings were discovered. The first group in two barrows — 30 and 16. The rectangular chambers were covered with blocks in the form of false vaults, with entrances and dromoi. The second group, in kurgans 25 and 11: crypts with ledge ceilings, without entrances and dromoi. Their dating is determined by the common date of the ancient part of the necropolis — the second half of the 4th—3rd centuries BC. Analogies to them are found in the Bosporus. But such crypts are also found in other regions of the Crimea. The main feature that unites them is not only the material realization, but the semantic meaning of the ledge structures. The stepped shape is a symbol of the ladder connecting the lower and the upper worlds. The problem of the origins of the tradition of arranging such crypts has been a subject of discussion for a long time. At present, its appearance in the Bosporus is associated with the Thracian tradition. The presence of such structures in the necropolis near the village. Zaozernoe seems to be the most correct to associate with the tradition of the Bosporus.