Lightning of the Roman-Period Crypt From Phanagoria

the article considers a unique complex of eight ceramic lamps of the Roman period for the Bosporan Kingdom, discovered in situ in the underground crypt of the Phanagoria necropolis. The open archaeological situation in which the lamps were discovered is of particular interest for studying the lighting system of the Bosporan crypts. There are two separate chronological horizons of use for tomb 296/2019. The construction and early horizon of the crypt’s use fit into the period of the second half of the I – beginning/first half of the II century A.D. The late horizon of the tomb’s history is associated with the late Roman period in the range of the second half of the II – beginning of the III century A.D. The chronology of the lamp complex fits seamlessly into the history of the tomb. Oil lamps of local production were used mainly in the funeral ceremony. Of the eight lamps, seven are made in the Black Sea region and only one lamp is of Asian origin. Six lamps were created on the territory of the Asian Bosporus, two of them are connected with the workshops of the Phanagoria. The oil lamps were compactly located in the southern corner of the chamber. When burials were performed, they were sequentially placed side by side on the horizontal surface of a wooden table or casket. The recorded tradition, in which participants of the funeral ceremony entered the tomb and left burning lamps in the same place to the left of the entrance to the chamber, remained relevant throughout the history of the crypt from the second half of the 1st to the first half of the 3rd century AD. The analysis of the images of fire sources in the paintings of the Bosporan crypts confirms the non-accidental nature of the localization of the pedestal for the lamps on the left hand of the entrance to the tomb. It is in this location that the painting of the Panticapaeum tomb in 1841 depicts burning lamps. The presented archaeological evidence, supported by pictorial sources, reflects the funerary traditions of the population of the Bosporan state in the Roman era. Probably, during funeral ceremonies in the crypts, it was customary to install burning lamps (or part of them) to the left of the entrance to the funerary space of the tomb.