New Materials for the Cultural Study of the Ancient North Pontic Cities (Tyras - Niconium -Olbia- Chersonesus)

Alekseyev V. P.

The paper presents a number of new and various monuments of ancient culture, some of them of big historical and artistic importance. Among them are marbles of Tyra: a female head representing, as we may suppose, Mia Domna (Fig. 1), a bas-relief of an armed horseman trampling a half-naked warrior on a temple staircase (Fig. 3) dated to the Roman period, and a fragment of a marble statue, the head of a young man notable for its psychological expressiveness and artistic perfection (possibly, a copy of a Greek original) (Fig. 4 a, aj-d). Among the epigraphic monuments of special interest are fragments of a stone inscription from Niconium (Fig. 6,1 a-в - the second example for this polis). An Olbian stater of Eminacos with new stamps, dated back to the 5th с. ВС (Fig. 8,1) is important for the history of Olbian numismatics. Of a certain aesthetic value is a pendant from Chersonesus, manufactured in Naucratis, made of glass paste and shaped as a ram's head, with a golden plaque attached to its back side bearing a high relief of a beardless head full face (probably, Dionysos - Fig. 9, 2). For all the monuments presented necessary technical parameters are given and the closest parallels are indicated.