On bosporan chronography and bosporan archaeology. (comparative-relative chronology of fortified settlementsin the European Bosporus in the period of «mature» Hellenism)

This article is devoted to controversial questions regarding the chronographyand chronology of the Bosporan state in the Hellenistic era: in its main observations andconclusions it draws on materials from the many years of excavations work carried out bythe author in the Crimean part of the region surrounding the Sea of Azov. Over an extensivearea three rural settlements of a fortified type have been investigated: Polyanka, KrutoyBereg and Zolotoye Vostochnoye. In general the mass-scale archaeological materials datefrom the second third of the 3rd century BC to the beginning of the 1st century BC. Yetthe dates of certain categories of finds which are particularly informative and revealingas date indicators (amphora stamps, coins and pottery with relief decoration) point toa picture that is somewhat less uniform. At the same time the author examines a number ofmethods and methodological questions used to analyse these categories of archaeologicalmaterial