The medieval site of Gorzuvity in the Crimea southern coast: excavations 69 years later

A. L. Yacobson was the first researcher to excavate the Gorzuvity site. He discovered ruins of a church with one nave and one apse overlaid by another church of later date. A. L. Yacobson dated the lower church to the 6th-7th centuries and the church built over it to the 9th-10th centuries. Other excavated areas have revealed remains of architectural constructions of unclear purpose as well as a cemetery with graves without grave goods. In 2017-2018 due to construction works in the Artek International Children's Camp including the area excavated by A. L. Yacobson in 1951, the Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, launched archaeological excavations. Church constructions were re-excavated, the settlement was examined and 24 burials, mostly, cist graves, were uncovered. Judging by funerary offerings, the cemetery became operational not later than the second half of the 7th - early 8th centuries; it was probably used for a long time. During additional excavations in the western part of the nave in the lower church, a sepulchral vault containing around 20 buried individuals was discovered. A glazed cup dating to the middle - third quarter of the 13th century was found near the individual buried at the top, it can serve as a marker of the latest date of the vault use. Radiocarbon analysis and stable isotope analysis were carried out to establish the chronology of the earliest burial. These studies suggest that the sepulchral vault was not used before the 11th century. The upper church was built not earlier than the second half of the 13th century and, most likely, was used until the mid-14th century as indicated by a coin of Uzbeg khan found during the cleaning of the western wall of the upper church in 1951.