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Chersonesos

CHERSONESOS (Limani Khersonesou) Pediada District, N Crete.

On the W side of the Bay of Mallia 26 km E of Herakleion. The ancient site derives its name from the prominent peninsula, Kastri, which shelters the harbor from the N. It served as out-port of the city of Lyttos, 15 km inland (Strab. 10.4.14); but in the 4th-3d c. issued its own coinage, an indication of autonomy. Its harbor was the best on the N coast of Crete between Herakleion and Olous, and in the Roman and first Byzantine periods it became much more important than Lyttos.

Plutarch (De mul. vir. 247D) narrates its foundation legend; the colonists arrived with a statue of Artemis. Strabo (10.4.14) mentions the temple of Britomartis, one of the chief Cretan deities, and the site of the temple is indicated by the find of an inscription to her of the late 2d c. B.C. on a small headland ca. 1 km E of Chersonesos, where a church of Hag. Nikolaos stands on the ruins of a Roman building with a mosaic; remains of another building lie nearby, submerged in shallow water. Britomartis is depicted on many coins of Chersonesos.

In a 3d c. inscription Chersonesos appears as a subordinate ally of Knossos; in 183 B.C. it was one of the Cretan cities which made an alliance with Eumenes II of Pergamum. In the 2d and 1st c. B.C. it seems again to have been more closely linked with Lyttos, being described in inscriptions as “Lyttos on the sea”; but this may indicate not subordination to Lyttos but the transfer of real power to the coastal city. Bishops of Chersonesos are mentioned in the 5th to 8th c.

The peninsula N of the harbor has traces of Minoan settlement: sherds appear in the NE cliff face at the bottom of a deep occupation deposit. The peninsula was probably the city's acropolis in the Classical period; it was surrounded with defense walls in Late Roman or Byzantine times, and a fine Christian basilica was built on top in the 5th or 6th c. On the NE side of the peninsula a row of three fish-tanks, now totally submerged, was cut into the E end of a rock shelf in the Roman period.

The remains of the Roman city cover an extensive area S and W of the peninsula. The theater, of the Roman period, is now almost completely destroyed, but was still well preserved in 1583 (as was an amphitheater), and was visible until 1897.

The most significant ancient remains are those of the Roman harbor works, showing the city's importance and prosperity as a seaport. The harbor was protected on the E and S by massive breakwaters of large boulders, along the inner side of which run concrete moles which served as quays. These alone provided 330 m of berthing space, and there was a shoreline quay at least in the SW corner of the harbor. The stumps of stone bollards survive in the surface of the E mole and SW quay. On the W shore of the harbor remains are visible of house walls of the Roman period. Just inland is a fountain-house with mosaics.

Inland near Potamies have been found stretches of the aqueduct which brought water to the site from Lasithi.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

T.A.B. Spratt, Travels and Researches in Crete I (1865) 104-7; L. Mariani, MonAnt 6 (1895) 238-43; Bürchner, “Chersonesos (4),” RE 3 (1899) 2251; S. Xanthoudides, Deltion 4 (1918) Parartima I, 30-32; S. Marinatos, Deltion 9 (1924-25) 79-84; M. Guarducci, ICr I (1935) 33-34; E. Kirsten, “Chersonesos,” RE Suppl. 7 (1940) 84-90MP; A. Orlandos, Ergon (1956) 118-23; J. Leatham & S. Hood, BSA 53-54 (1958-59) 266-73IP; Hag. Nikolaos mosaic: Marinatos ICr I, 35 no. 4.

D. J. BLACKMAN
CHERSONESOS Crimea.

A city on the W coast of the Crimea ca. 3 km W of modern Sebastopol. It is mentioned in the ancient sources (Strab. 7.4.2-7; Plin. HN 4.85; Polyb. 25.2.12; Pompon. 2.1.3; Ptol. Geog. 3.6.2 etc.). Founded in 421 B.C. by colonists from Herakleia Pontica, perhaps on the site of an earlier Greek settlement, it rapidly became the major city of SW Crimea and the chief center in this area for international trade. In the 3d c. B.C. Kerkinitis and Kalos Limen came under its control. In the 2d c. B.C. under attack from the Scythian king Palak, it was supported by Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus. Although the Scythians were conquered, Chersonesos lost its independence and became one of the cities of the Bosporan kingdom.

The city covered an area of 38 ha and its defensive system is one of the major architectural monuments of the N Black Sea region. Stone walls (3.5 km long and up to 3.8 m thick), with crenellated towers and gates, were first constructed in the 4th-3d c. and rebuilt in the Hellenistic and Roman times and later. The city was laid out according to the Miletian plan with straight streets crossing at right angles. Traces of houses from the 3d-2d c. follow the same plan as those in other cities in the region. A corridor led to an inner courtyard onto which rooms opened; each house had a well or cistern and the basins were often paved with mosaics. Other architectural remains include a mint of the 4th c. B.C., several wine-making establishments, several large pottery workshops, numerous cisterns for the salting of fish; large baths of the Roman era, Christian basilicas of the 5th-7th c.; an odeum (?); a theater of the late 3d-early 2d c. B.C., which was still in use in the 4th c. Outside the walls in the Hercules peninsula excavations have uncovered the ruins of numerous fortified farinsteads, some for grape growing and others for grain.

Among the many Greek inscriptions found are the oath of the inhabitants of the city (3d c. B.C.) and the decree of Diophanes (end of the 2d c. B.C.). A fine head of an ephebus in the manner of Skopas has been discovered; also many locally made terracottas, including a torso of a statue of Herakles. The Roman period is represented by funerary monuments, with portraits, and sarcophagi ornamented with scenes of Eros, griffins, and other figures of local legend. The Cherson Museum contains material from this site.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (1913) 498-553; K. E. Grinevich, Sto let khersonesskikh raskopok (1827-1927) : Istoricheskii ocherk (1927); G. D. Belov, Raskopki Khersonesa v 1934 g. (1936); id., Otchet o raskopkakh v Khersonese za 1935-1936 gg. (1938); “Raskopki v severnoi chasti Khersonesa v 1931-1933 gg.,” Arkheologicheskie pamiatniki Bospora i Khersonesa [Materialy i issledovaniia PO arkheologii SSSR, No. 4] (1941) 212-67; id., Khersones Tavricheskii: Istoriko-arkheologicheskii ocherk (1948); Materialy po arkheologii iugo-zapadnogo Kryma (Khersones, Mangup [Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, No. 34] (1953); S. F. Strzheletskii, “Osnovnye etapy ekonomicheskogo razvitiia i periodizatsiia istorii Khersonesa Tavricheskogo v antichnuiu epokhu,” Problemy istorii Severnogo Prichernomor'ia v antichnuiu epokhu (1959) 63-85; id., Klery Khersonesa Tavricheskogo [Khersonesskii sbornik, No. 6] (1961); A. L. Mongait, Archaeology in the USSR, tr. M. W. Thompson (1961) 185-89; C. M. Danoff, Pontos Euxeinos (1962) 1104-16 = RE Suppl. IX; E. Belin de Ballu, L'Histoire des Colonies grecques du Littoral nord de la Mer Noire (1965) 74-94; I. B. Brašinskij, “Recherches soviétiques sur les monuments antiques des régions de la Mer Noire,” Eirene 7 (1968) 96-97.

M. L. BERNHARD & Z. SZTETYŁŁO

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