Location information

Patraios

PATRAIOS (Ancient city) SKYTHIA
  A settlement of the 6th c. B.C.-14th c. A.D. along the N shore of the Taman Gulf near the village of Garkushi has often been identified with Patraios (Strab. 11.2.8; Steph. Byz. s.v. Patrasus ?). Excavations have led to the discovery of a Greek agricultural settlement of the 6th-5th c. B.C. 250 m W.
  On the hill part of the site, excavations revealed the remains of a fortress (ca. early 1st c. A.D.) composed of a rampart, defensive walls, a moat, and a thick clay platform which covered the horizontal interior surface. A stone roadway of the Late Hellenistic era found under the platform indicates that the fortress was built over an earlier site. The gate of the acropolis was flanked by two rectangular pylons made of adobe bricks. The monuments and artifacts found inside the fortress date from the 1st c. A.D. to mediaeval times. The rectangular dwellings, which had adobe brick walls, were rebuilt several times but the original plan and orientation were preserved. In one area, the dwellings formed whole blocks which bordered both sides of a narrow street. Excavations suggest a comparatively dense habitation inside the fortress during the 1st-3d c. when the population also expanded onto the adjoining plain and the city developed its own wine and pottery industries. Two winemaking establishments of the 2d-3d c. were uncovered, one of which had several side areas for pressing by foot and a central area for secondary pressing with a lever press. A large circular pottery kiln of the 2d-3d c. was found in one dwelling.

T. S. Noonan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...