Материалы по археологии и истории античного и средневекового Крыма (Dec 2017)

Оборонительные сооружения ранневизантийского Херсона: реконструкция и развитие городской фортификации в IV—VI вв. / The Defensive structures of Early Byzantine Cherson: reconstruction and development of city fortification from the fourth to the sixth centuries

  • Vus O.V.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.24411/2219-8857-2017-00008
Journal volume & issue
no. 9
pp. 203 – 247

Abstract

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The organization of a reliable engineering defense of the Tauric Chersonesos (Cherson) from the fourth to the sixth centuries has been studied using architectural and epigraphical monuments as well as narrative sources and archeological artifacts. The author distinguishes several stages of Byzantine military construction in the city and comes to the conclusion on the permanence of this process. The paper focuses on the main causes of military-engineering activities: preparation for holding off an attack of the nomadic peoples of the Huns (in 375) and Göktürks (in 576), the realization of the imperial military construction program of Justinian I (527—565), as well as the need to restore the fortifications of Cherson after the devastating earthquakes of 480, 554, and 557. The author states that the defensive buildings erected in the late fourth century, the last quarter of the firth century, and the first third and the second half of the sixth century protected the Tauric Chersonesus (Cherson) from hostile attacks and ensured strategic interests of Byzantium in the Northern Coast of the Black Sea.

Keywords