Домжальский К., Журавлев Д.В.

Ключевые слова: Херсонес, христианская символика, крест, Late Roman Pontic Burnished Ware (LRPB), сграффито, ранневизантийская керамика.

The paper describes decorated fragments of two dishes found in Chersonesos during regular excavations directed by K.K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich in 1899. The finds represent the recently identified group of fine ceramics called Late Roman Pontic Burnished Ware. They are characterized by very refined, pale pinkish — light brownish clay containing some very fine flakes of mica and single lumps of lime of various sizes. The inside surface is carefully burnished producing a slight lustre and contains elaborated decoration executed by delicate incising in dried clay after burnishing and before firing (sgraffito-like technique). In both cases the decorative composition contains a centrally placed big jewelled cross, flanked by palm-branches of similar size. The central composition is surrounded by two concentric grooved lines accompanied by a long spiral scratched on their outside. The outer surface of the examined dishes was finished with less care, it has some turning marks and dull appearance. Because of the excellent quality, for many decades the Late Roman Pontic Burnished vessels were described in publications as red slip pottery. The vast majority of finds come from Chersonesos, but they are also known from several sites in the area of Bosporos Kimmerikos (the Kerch Strait). The archaeological contexts of these discoveries indicate that the ware in question emerged on the Black Sea regional fineware market in the second quarter of the 6th century AD and remained an object of trade exchange at least until the end of that century. The production centre of these vessels remains unknown but the close similarity in fabric to the previously (4th – 5th c. AD) popular fineware group called Pontic Red Slip Ware hypothetically indicates its location in the southern Black Sea coastal areas or their hinterland. The decorative composition of the dishes found in Chersonesos, derived, despite the difference in applied technique, from the most successfully traded across the Late Roman empire the African Red Slip Ware plates form 104, stamped in Style E(II), according to J.W. Hayes. This influence, as well as the context of a single parallel find of a decorated Late Roman Pontic Burnished Ware dish from the Dzhurg Oba necropolis in Bosporos Kimmerikos, suggest the approximate dating of the described vessels to the reign of Justinian the Great.