PORTHMEION
Bosporus.
An ancient Greek
settlement NE of Pantikapaion along the W coast of
the Kerch Strait near the village of Zhukovka (Anon.,
Periplus Ponti Euxini, 69, 76). Founded in the late 6th
c. B.C., it was extensively rebuilt about the middle of the
3d c. B.C. on a grid pattern and was encircled with a
powerful defensive wall, possibly in response to the threat
posed to the Bosporus by the Scythian state established
in the Crimea. The life of the city ended in the first half
of the 1st c. B.C., most likely during the turbulent reign
of Mithridates Eupator.
The city, whose remains today cover an area of 0.65
ha, has been studied since 1950 but only intermittently.
Much of the original settlement was apparently destroyed
during rebuilding, but remains of dwellings from the
late archaic and Classical eras have been discovered.
During the Hellenistic period, large one-block buildings seem to have been constructed which were then subdivided into a series of separate homes with common external walls bordering on the adjoining streets. At one
point along the defensive wall, a city gate flanked by
towers was uncovered. A paved street led from the gate
into the city. Situated at the crossing from the European
to the Asiatic side of the Kerch Strait, the city had a
lively trade evidenced by numerous finds of various types
of imported Greek pottery and by coins of Pantikapaion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. V. Veselov, “Drevnie gorodishcha v
raione Siniagino (K voprosu o mestopolozhenii Parfeniia
Porfmiia),”
Arkheologiia i istoriia Bospora, I (1952)
227-37; E. G. Kastanaian, “Raskopki Porfmiia v 1953
g.,”
SovArkh (1958) 3.203-7; id., “Raboty Porfmiiskogo
otriada Bosporskoi ekspeditsii,”
Arkheologicheskie Otkrytiia 1971 g. 334-35; id., “Raskopki Porfmiia,”
Arkheologicheskie Otkrytiia 1972 g. 284-85; id., “Raskopki Porfmiia v 1968 g.,”
KSIA 130 (1972) 77-82.
T. S. NOONAN
