Antique Stamps From O. V. Bodyansky Collection

According to the analysis of antique stamps from O. V. Bodyansky collection, which consists of 19 amphorae and one tile, the centers from which Greek products came to the Scythian settlements of the Lower Dnieper region were identified. Along with the directions of trade contacts with antique cities, the quantitative ratio of the stamps and the chronological framework of the arrival of amphora goods containers indicate the degree of intensity of these connections over two centuries. The earliest stamps in the collection are the Heraclean stamps, indicating the trade relations of the Scythians with Heraclea Pontica at the end of 5th — in the first decades of the 4th century BC. From the middle of the 4th century BC products (wine and olive oil) from Sinope began to be imported en masse to the Lower Dnieper region. The group of Sinope stamps is the largest and makes up more than half of the entire collection. The intensity of the activity of this Greek center peaked in the second half of the 4th, at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, the products of which also came to the northern parts of the Lower Dnieper region (Skel’ky and Balky of the Zaporizhzhia region). In the second half and end of the 4th century BC Sinopa’s competitor in the supply of wine to the Scythian settlements are Fasos and Chersonesus Taurica, the amphora goods of which are noted on the Kapulivka settlement. At a later time, trade contacts were established with Rhodes, which products have been known in the region since the second half of the 3th century BC, and continue at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Conclusions regarding the directions and intensity of trade contacts of the Scythians with Greek cities are also confirmed by previous observations of A. G. Pleshyvenko on more significant amphora material from the Lower Dnieper region. In the collection of O. V. Bodyansky also presents types of seals that are rarely found among the epigraphic materials of the region, in particular the tile seal of the astynome Protagoras with the ethnikon of Sinope and the Sinopean amphora stamps with the designation of the profession of the manufacturer Nicostratus

Amphora · Antique · Byzantine architecture · Hoard · Human settlement · Middle Ages · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Currency Recognition and Detection

• En visitant et revisitant les ateliers amphoriques de Thasos

  Yvon Garlan•Bulletin de correspondance…•2004

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