The Greek colony of Chersonesos was founded in the 5th century BC on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula in the northern Black Sea region. Extensive archeological research has investigated the timing and mode of the Greek land seizure and the responses of the local Taurian tribes, focusing on a large necropolis dating to the earliest period of the colony, somewhere between the 5th and the 4th century BC. Relying on burial traditions as an indicator of the biogeographic origin of the deceased, it was hypothesized that individuals buried in flexed positions were Taurian whereas individuals buried in extended positions were Greek. Here, we test the hypothesis that individuals in flexed and extended burial positions are biologically different by directly analyzing the human skeletal remains. For this, we collected three different types of phenotypic data commonly used for biodistance analysis, namely, (1) cranial measurements, (2) dental measurements, and (3) dental nonmetric traits, recorded for 47 individuals. Using Gower distance coefficients, we combine the three data types in a single analysis and estimate biological relationships among a subset of well‐preserved individuals with documented flexed (n = 8) and extended (n = 13) burial position. The estimated distances show a large amount of overlap between the two groups, with the exception of two individuals that are more divergent. To statistically corroborate this finding, we use distance‐based permutational multivariate analyses of variance (PERMANOVA) and dispersion (PERMDISP). Both analyses reveal no statistically significant differences between the groups, neither in group centroids nor in group dispersions. Our results therefore contradict the idea that burial position was determined by ancestry of the deceased. This has implications for future archeological research at Chersonesos and other Greek colonies of the northern Black Sea region.

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В оформлении обложки использованы материалы ФО НА ИИМК РАН УДК 930.25 ББК 63.4(2) И54 УДК 930.25 ББК 63.4(2)

This article is devoted to an analysis of materials from the excavations of the Kara-Oba burial-mound led by the director of the Kerch Museum, A. E. Lyutsenko, in 1859-1861 (Figs. 1-6). During those excavations and also the continuation of the investigation of the burial-mound in the 1960s (Fig. 7), data were obtained indicating that this site had been linked to both Greek and barbarian cultures, which made it possible to date it to the end of the 2nd century BC. However, despite the intensive research that has been carried out there for many years, the question as to the function of the site still remains unresolved.

The Bosporus expedition of the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a small archaeological research in the northwestern sector of Porthmion in 2002-2003. Two exploration trenches were laid on the excavation area. Archaeological assemblages of the trenches contain information on historical chronology of the settlement.The fire-destruction layer recorded in trench 1 marks the period of destabilization of Greek-barbarian relations in the region, probably connected with the activity of nomadic tribes during the early 5 th c. BC. The foundations of the residential building identified in trench 2 refer to the 4 th c. BC. This period was associated with the relatively calm reign of the Spartokids dynasty in the Bosporus. Traces of active building dating back to the early 2 nd c. BC are associated with the period of the so-called Bosporus "cultural revival", which took place against a background of stabilization in the region after the Sarmatian invasion.Институт истории материальной культуры РАН, г. Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация Аннотация. В 2002-2003 гг. Боспорской экспедицией ИИМК РАН проводились небольшие исследования в северо-западном районе Порфмия. На исследуемой площади были заложены два разведочных шурфа. Стратиграфия последних и найденные в них материалы содержат сведения об исторической хронологии городища. Слой пожара, зафиксированный в шурфе 1, маркирует период дестабилизации греко-варварских взаимоотношений в регионе, вероятно, связанной с активизацией кочевых племен в первой половине V в. до н.э. Фундаменты жилой постройки, выявленные в шурфе 2, относятся к IV в. до н.э. На Боспоре этот период был связан со сравнительно спокойным правлением династии Спартокидов. Следы активного строительства относятся к первой половине II в., связаны с периодом так называемого «культурного возрождения» Боспора, происходившего на фоне относительной стабилизации взаимоотношений в регионе после сарматского нашествия.