Kamenka Gorodishche

Kamenka Gorodishche 

the site of a fortified settlement of the end of the fifth century to the third century b. c. It has an area of about 12 sq km and is situated near the city of Kamenka-Dneprovskaia and the village of Bol’shaia Znamenka in Zaporozh’e Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. It was excavated by D. Ia. Serdiukov in 1899–1900 and B. N. Grakov in 1938–41 and 1944–50.

On the side facing the steppe the settlement was protected by an earthen bank and a ditch and on the north and west, by precipices above the Dnieper River, the Konka River, and the Belozerska Liman. In the southwest corner there was an acropolis, where the Scythian nobility lived. The population was primarily engaged in the production of bronze and iron implements, weaving, pottery-making, farming, and stock raising. The artisans lived in pit houses and dwellings of logs set in the ground; the nobility lived in stone houses. The settlement was a large artisan and trade center and had close ties with the Greek colonies north of the Black Sea and with the local population of Scythia. At the end of the third century b. c. the settlement was abandoned (with the exception of the acropolis, which continued to be inhabited until the third century A. D.).

REFERENCE

Grakov, B. N. “Kamenskoe gorodishche na Dnepre.” In Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, no. 36. Moscow, 1954.

A. I. MELIUKOVA