Cups of Pythes and Deinon from Berezan island site and their archeological context

Abstract

In the course of excavations in 2016 in the north-eastern part of the Berezan settlement, sector “O-Western”, graffiti on two Ionian cups were found. One of them belongs to the “rosette bowl” type of the 2nd quarter of the 6th century BCE; the incompletely preserved inscription contains a dedication to Hermes, and the name of the owner, Deinon. The storage pit in which this vessel was discovered is dated to the 2nd quarter — mid. 6th century BCE on the basis of stratigraphy and pottery finds. The second graffito is inscribed on a large Ionian kylix with a bent rim (“Knickrandschale”). This long inscription bears the name of the owner, Pythes the son of Pericles. Despite the chronological proximity, these vessels belong to different periods of the Berezan settlement. The Deinon’s bowl is synchronous with the dugouts of the early settlement on Berezan, being one of the evidences that Greek population predominated. The Pytheas’ kylix seems to reveal the name of the owner of a large multi-chamber stone-and mudbrick house, built in the beginning of the 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE.

Keywords

• berezan
• borysthenes
• north black sea region
• greek archaic pottery
• graffiti