Medieval Kavalari Village on the Kerch Peninsula

Abstract

The article attempts to localize the medieval village of Kavalari on the Crimean coastline of the Kerch Strait. Kavalari village occupied an area of approximately 350Ч200 m between the contemporary Zavetnoye and Naberezhnaya settlements. The location of this settlement was determined on the basis of cartographic sources of compass maps – portolan charts. As a result of archaeological studies conducted by the Caffa expedition in 2010, the stratigraphic situation was established and the period of existence of Kavalari village was determined as the second half of 13th – late 15th centuries. Kavalari settlement was included in the rural area of Vosporo and a portion of the Genoese territory in the Northern Black Sea region – Genoese Khazaria.

Keywords

• archaeology
• historical geography
• medieval Crimea
• Kerch peninsula
• Naberezhnoye village
• Genoese Khazaria
• Caffa
• Vosporo
• Kavalari
• glazed ceramics