New ancient Iranian names from early Phanagoria

The paper publishes two new owners' graffiti from the excavations carried out in Phanagoria in 2015. The first graffito - Ἀράτριος κύλιξ - is a kylix of Aratrius dating to the end of the first quarter of the 5th century BC. The name Aratrius appears for the first time in the anthroponymy of the ancient world. It has clear parallels with the gentilic form of the ‘Aratrii' population recorded in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a book of an unknown author written in 50-75 AD. The Aratrii population is localized in the western part of modern Pakistan. Most likely, the name Aratrius is attributed to the southeastern subgroup of the eastern Iranian languages. The Scythian language appears to refer to this group of languages as well. For that reason, it is proposed to attribute the name Aratrius to the Scythian ethnic community. The second graffito - Ἀρπάτρις - means Arpatrius. It dates to the end of the 6th - first third of the 5th centuries BC. The name Arpatrius appears for the first time in the anthroponymy of the ancient world as well. Arpatrius is believed to be a composite name of the Scythian origin and is translated as the «firekeeper».