Complex of building constructions’ deformations in the Greek arheological setllement «Hospital», Kerch city, Crimea

Abstract

The settlement “Hospital” was discovered in 1989 and in 1989-90, 1992 archaeological excavations were carried out. The settlement occupied the top and slopes of a small flat hill located on the right bank of the river Dzhardzhavy. In 2017, 1815 square meters were investigated by means of excavations and on the rest of the practically destroyed monument, the archaeological observations continued. As a result, both land residential stone structures and dugouts buried in the ground were discovered. The presence of a settlement near the burial complex (Hospital Barrow) is nonsense for the Hellenic world. The Greeks never construct a settlement near the burial in antiquity. And in the whole district of Panticapaeum, there is not a single rural settlement. The solution lies in the complex of the Hospital Barrow - it is completely synchronized with the settlement. Consequently, the settlement “Hospital” is not a rural homestead, but a settlement of the builders of barrows. It is confirmed by the identified by osteologists traces of the use of horses and cattle in hard work. We have revealed a complex of the building constructions’ deformations at archaeological monument “Hospital” (the modern town of Kerch, Crimea). Together with man and cow skeletons covered by debris, the mentioned deformations give evidence of a seismic source of destructions. Judging by strong damage level of destructions and significant distance of thrown rock debris, local intensity of the seismic vibrations was I  IX according to MSK-64 scale. Judging by a degree of destructions and by the absence of deformation patterns’ systematics, the epicenter (seismic focus) of seismic vibrations was near the archaeological monument. However, the overall picture of destructions is complicated by catastrophic mud-volcanic deformations of the earth surface. According to the analysis of archaeological evidence, the age of seismic deformations of the last strong earthquake which led to the total destruction of the archaeological monument and the following abandonment of the territory is IV-III centuries BC.