Medvedev A.P.

Key words: Hellenistic Age, Northern Black Sea Point, Bosporus, Phanagoria, necropolis, funeral rite, grave goods, chronology.
 
The article analyzes Hellenistic graves of the Eastern necropolis of Phanagoria. The author distinguishes three chronological groups of graves dating back to the late 4th–3rd cc. BC, late 3rd–2nd cc. BC, late 2nd – late 1st cc. BC. It is possible to trace considerable changes in the culture of the Phanagorians – to the degree reflected in the funeral rite and in the content of grave goods. The earliest graves in the Eastern necropolis are dated back to the late 4th – early 3rd cc. BC. Before that this territory was occupied with residential buildings of Phanagorian suburbs. The study of the Eastern necropolis allows us to introduce clarity to the issue concerning the end of the Hellenistic Age in the cultural history of Phanagoria. Considerable changes in mass culture and rites of the Phanagorians were not noticeable since the end of the 1st c. BC. The necropolis preserves almost all the tradition’s characteristic for Hellenism. A bunch of important innovations inaugurating a start of the Roman Era in the Phanagorian history might be resulted not earlier than in the epoch of Aspurgus, 2–3 generations after the death of Mithridates.