Popova E.A.

Key words: northwestern Crimea, Classical antiquity, Chaika fortified settlement, necropolis, burial rite, Greeks, Late Scythians, Tauri.
The necropolis near the village of Zaozernoye in northwestern Crimea is located 1.5 km away from Chaika fortified settlement. The group of kurgans stands on the territory of an ancient stone quarry. It has burial structures of three types which hold so-called collective burials. The structures contain from 3 to 13 bodies, with the burials dating to different times. The earliest burials date to the end of the 4th – 3d cc. BC. The structures were used throughout the period of existence of the Greek settlement, until the third quarter of the 2nd c. BC. Afterwards they were used by the new population, the so-called Late Scythians, during the 1st c. BC – 1st c. AD. The second and third types of the crypts are connected with burial traditions of the Bosporan population. The diversity of the burial rites shows that the population at Chaika was polyethnic.