NEW AND FORGOTTEN OLD ABOUT THE ALUSHTA BURIAL GROUND

Abstract

In the 1950 a temple was excavated on the coastal necropolis of the medieval Alushta. In one of the graves, which located inside the church, was discovered a rich burial inventory of the 14th century (the 137 things, 85 of which are golden). The valuable from the complex of things have already been introduced into scientifi c circulation, but modern researchers mistakenly interpret it as a treasure. The nearest analogies to these fi ndings are the Golden Horde gold jewelry from the Bolgar and Madzhar. It has the parallels in the decorative art of the Moldavian princedom of the 15th – 16th centuries. Usually the temple is dated to the 11th – 13th centuries. At the current stage of studying the monument are acquire special signifi cance the archival materials of the Tavro–Scythian archaeological expedition of the Crimean branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (previously unpublished) for deleting of the lacunae and the contradictions, caused by them. These are diaries, fi eld inventories, drawings, sketches, photographs, correspondence, documents. All of this allows to get an almost complete picture of the following works, about the topography of fi nds and about the things themselves, as well as the architectonics of the temple and, in particular, its building history. There is a fairly high probability that the church was built in the 14th century above the grave with the burial of a dignitary of high rank. Presumably it was a protos – the head of local government, whose post was ordinarily performed by the village elder or priest.