New Funerary Lead Urns with Inscriptions from the Necropolis of Tauric Chersonesos

Abstract

In 2023, the exploration of the necropolis on the premises of the Southern Suburb of Tauric Chersonesos revealed a monumental construction of an exedra combining memorial building and family tomb functions. Finds from the two slabbed graves and two stone sarcophagi at the base of the exedra confirm that, in Chersonesos, burials carried out in the first to the second centuries AD in accordance with the rites of both inhumation and cremation could coexist within a single burial complex. In one of the sarcophagi, four lead urns with graffiti [Ἀν]τισθένου, Διοσκουρίδου, Νάνωνος Ἀντισθένου и [Ν]εικ(- -) were found. It was the first time that several “signed” lead urns were discovered in situ in the same family tomb. In Chersonesos, such finds are rare. Up to now, only six such urns are known (excavations of K. K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich and R. G. Loeper). 

One of the names – Ἀντισθένης – has not hitherto been attested in Chersonesos. In contrast, the names Διοσκουρίδης and Νάνων are well known from the Chersonese decrees dated to the first half of the second century AD. They belonged to the representatives of noble Chersonesos families ruling the city. Generally, the analysis of palaeography, onomastics, and accompanying inventory allows us to date the urns with the graffiti from burial 4 to between the end of the first century and the middle of the second centuries AD.

The article provides a catalogue of all ten currently known lead urns with inscriptions from the Chersonesos necropolis.