GORGIPPIA
(Anape) Kuban.
A city on the
Taman peninsula mentioned by Strabo (
11.2.10). It
dates to the 6th c. B.C. The Greeks set up an emporium
on the site, which was inhabited by the Sindi (Ps.-Scymn.
Periplus 72), and named it in honor of a member of
the Spartocid dynasty. In the 3d c. A.D. it was destroyed
by the Goths but it made a brief recovery before its final
decline in the 4th c.
With an area of 20 ha, the city was almost equal
in importance to Phanagoria, whose prosperity like
Gorgippia's derived from the wheat trade. The city's most
prosperous period was the 3d c. B.C. Excavations have
revealed remains of dwellings, two wine-making establishments, a potter's kiln, a main street. Greek inscriptions prove that the city aristocracy was Hellenized to
a considerable extent: the names of the native victors
of the agones, held in honor of Hermes, are Greek, as
is shown in the list from the 3d c. B.C.
The necropolis, which dates from the 4th c. B.C.,
consists of simple tombs and a series of kurgans lining
the roads to the city. The burial chambers were roofed
with a false cupola of stone. Archaeological finds include
Attic red-figure and black-glazed ware, Bosporan ware
decorated with watercolor, and hand-thrown vessels
produced locally. Particularly noteworthy are the portrait
of an inhabitant and some funerary reliefs of local origin.
The Hermitage Museum contains material from the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. L. Mongait,
Archaeology in the
USSR, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 201; C. M. Danoff,
Pontos Euxeinos (1962) 1137-38 =
RE Suppl. IX; I. T.
Kruglikova & G. A. Tsvetaeva, “Raskopki v Anape,”
KSIA 95 (1963) 66-71; id., “Raskopki Gorgippii,”
KSIA
108 (1966) 82-88; E. Belin de Ballu,
L'Histoire des
Colonies grecques du Littoral nord de la Mer Noire
(1965) 128-29; C. A. Tsvetaeva, “Raskopki nekropolia
Gorgippii v 1964 g.,”
KSIA 109 (1967) 136-39; id.,
“Novye dannye ob antichnom sviatilishche v Gorgippii,”
VDI (1968) 1.138-48; id., “Okhrannye raskopki v Anape
v 1965 g.,”
KSIA 116 (1969) 105-10; I. B. Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments antiques
des régions de la Mer Noire,”
Eirene 7 (1968) 110-11;
A. I. Salov & T. M. Smirnova, “Novye nakhodki V
Anape,”
KSIA 130 (1972) 53-57.
M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO
