Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "KIPI Ancient city SKYTHIA".
A Miletian colony founded in the mid 6th c. B.C. on the Gulf of Taman
NE of Phanagoria, on the site of a Kimmerian (?) settlement (Strab. 11.2.10; Diod.
20.24; Plin. HN 6.112). At first the city, of mixed population, subsisted on farming
and trade with Asian Greeks and local tribes, paying taxes to the Bosporan kings.
The inhabitants prospered from the wheat trade between the 4th c. B.C. and the
1st c. A.D., but from the 2d c. A.D. the city was increasingly barbarized by the
Sarmatians. The Huns destroyed it in the 4th c.
The Greek city, originally 20-25 ha, covered a small hill and extended
down the slopes to the seashore. Much of the coastal part of the site is now under
water. Remains of a house of the mid 6th c. B.C. have been found and some of the
numerous graves from several necropoleis can be dated to the same period, but
other architectural remains date to the 1st c. A.D. or later. From the 1st c.
are ruins of a temple in antis dedicated to Aphrodite; the terracotta ex-votos
found nearby represent the goddess. The remains of houses from this century reflect
the high standard of living. The foundations are of stone, the walls of brick,
often imported from Sinope as were the roof tiles; there are traces of water pipes.
There are also remains of baths from the 1st c. A.D. and two wine-making establishments
(1st-3d c.).
Finds include not only Klazomenai wares, Classical and archaic Attic
bowls, terracotta figurines of local manufacture (4th c. B.C.), imported Syrian
glassware and Egyptian scarabs, but a headless marble statue 0.53 m high known
as the Aphrodite of Taman (1st half of the 2d c. A.D.) and a head of Aphrodite
from a workshop near the Pergamon school of the 2d c. B.C.
The Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
M. L. Bernhard & Z. S. Ztetyllo, 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.
Cepi Milesiorum (Kepos, Kepoi, Strab. xi. p. 494; Anon. Peripl.; Pomp.
Mela, i. 19. § 15; Diod. xx. 24; Procop. Bell. Goth. iv. 5; Cepi, Cepos, Peut.
Tab.; Ceppos, Geog. Raven.), a town of the Cimmerian Bosporus founded by the Milesians
(Scymn.; Plin. vi. 6), and situated to N. of the Asiatic coast. Dr. Clarke (Trav.
vol. ii. p. 77) identifies Sienna with this place, and the remarkable Milesian
sepulchres found there in such abundance confirm this position. Near to this spot
stood a monument raised by Comosarya, a Queen of the Bosporus, who as it appears
from the inscription which has been preserved, was wife of Parysades, and dedicated
it to the Syro-Chaldaic deities Anerges and Astara. (Koler, Mem. sur le Monument
de la Reine Comosarye. St. Petersburg, 1805.)
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