Cimmerian shaft

In the western part of the Kerch Peninsula, only three to four long meridional (from north to south) ramparts are known: Ak-Monaysky rampart (from Sivash to the spurs of the Crimean mountains); Asandra shaft (in the narrowest place); Cimmerian, aka Uzunlarsky-Akkosov; Chokrak shaft . In the eastern part, three Tirithak ramparts are described ^[1] . The best preserved of all of them is the Cimmerian Wall.

According to some versions, the Cimmerian rampart was built by the Cimmerians, to protect their state of Cimmeria from raids by other nomads. Cimmerians lived in Taurica at the very beginning of the Iron Age. Their units consisted of equestrian warriors, who had good command of swords and a bow, which casts doubt on their contribution to the construction of the rampart: did they need to build such a powerful defensive structure? The ancient historian Herodotus reported that the Cimmerians were supplanted by the Scythians and already in the 7th century BC. e. disappeared from the historical arena of Crimea.

According to another version, this rampart was built later by the ancient Greek colonists in ancient times (4th – 3rd centuries BC) and became the most important defensive structure of the Bosporus kingdom , which took shape as a union of Greek city-polises around 510 BC. e.

Initially, breaks were provided for in this building. These were driveways for the main roads (at least ten, wide up to 20-30 m), vital for the trade of the Greek colonists. Prior to the beginning of our era, numerous fortified towers of the same type (about 10 mx 12 m in size) were erected behind the rampart every 2.5 km from each other, and the rampart and driveways for roads in it were strengthened with stone and flanking towers. At the beginning of the II century BC e. on the Uzunlar shaft, the driveways of the main road were further strengthened. Later, a fortress settlement was built (Novo-Nikolaevsky hillfort) - the alleged town of Savromatiy . Also, the shaft and Uzunlar lake with a short Koyashsky (Elken) shaft covered the closely located (on Mount Opuk ) important border port city of Kimmerik ^[2] .

In antiquity, the width of the shaft (in some places reinforced with a stone core) at the base reached 20 m, the depth of the moat was about 5 m, the height of the shaft (from the bottom of the moat) was 7-8 m. Given the length of the structure (40-42 km), the scope of work to create The shaft was just awesome.

By the middle of the 19th century, the shaft had settled, the moat swam, the width of the shaft was 28.5 m (40 arshins), the width of the moat was 14.2 m (20 arshins).

Now for the best-preserved sections in the northern part (from the Sea of ​​Azov to the Kerch-Vladislavovka railway), the shaft dimensions are much more modest: the embankment is 28-30 m wide (up to 40 m), the embankment is 2.8-3 m high, and the ditch is up to 20 m wide at a depth of 1.5-2 m. ^[3] In addition, the shaft is partially flooded (over 500-400 meters) by the Kerch reservoir in the neighboring section and is cut by roads and communications to the south.

Val was mentioned in many historical manuscripts. By the XVIII century, the rampart was more often called Aksar-Temir-Endek - in translation from the Turkic language this means: Old - Iron - moat. The name "Iron" is associated with iron ore reserves (layers containing iron oxides were found in the embankment of the shaft). Val is mentioned in modern fiction, in particular, Vitaly Polupudnev wrote about him in the historical novel “At Pontus of Euxinus”.

The Uzunlar shaft became the prey of archaeologists in the second half of the 20th century. in connection with the construction of a branch of the North Crimean Canal. Work was carried out in the so-called Taganash basin, 30 km west of Kerch. Several transverse sections of the shaft were made and artifacts identified that determined its approximate dating ^[4] . Subsequently, both the rampart and the moat were repeatedly cut by builders and archaeologists, which allowed us to study them in more detail. In the 1980s, quite extensive excavations of the main shaft and two other shafts were carried out on a shaft site in the El Shengel Valley (west of the village of Gornostaevka), reinforcing the main shaft in a place vulnerable to the breakthrough of enemy cavalry.

Archaeological finds and a radiocarbon analysis of four found forts in 1990 indicate that they were all burned during the Bosporan Civil War sometime in the last quarter of the 1st century. BC e. But such total destruction can only be explained by the actions carried out against the Bosporians by a completely different enemy, perhaps King Pontus Polemon I , a vassal of Rome . The Romans, acting in accordance with their usual tactics in this case, simply demolished all the defenses of the state, the loyalty of which had doubts at that time. ^[five]

In 2002, S. G. Koltukhov carried out security excavations of the rampart and moat a few kilometers south of the area of ​​the village. Gornostaevka, south of the ancient settlement of Savromatiy . In the course of those works, the following were investigated: the shaft itself (segmented in cross section with a flattened peak 1.7 m high and a width at the base of about 10 m, probably fortified with crepe on the east side); presumably berm, and trapezoidal in profile, a ditch with a flat bottom, relatively sloping escarp and steep counter-escarp. Two (possibly three) construction periods were identified. In the first period, the depth of the moat was 2 m; the bottom was flat. In the last construction period, the western part of the original moat was cleared to the bottom. The new ditch (about 2.5 m deep, about 1.5 m wide at the bottom, and no less than 3.7 m at the top) almost repeated the profile of the previous design. It was possible to determine the lower time limit for creating the rampart: under the oldest rampart of the rampart, at the level of the buried natural surface, several fragments of amphorae of Heraclea of ​​Pontius and Thasos were found. Fragments of amphorae of Thasos , Heracles , and early Chersonesos were also found in the layer behind the shaft and in the filling of the moat. Therefore, the researchers suggested that the rampart in this place was built no earlier than the 4th – 3rd centuries. BC e.

The modern highway M17 (E97) from Feodosia crosses a rampart (well preserved south of the road) 2.5 km east of the turn to Marfovka, 3 km west of the village of Gornostaevka .

The highest point of the rampart is a height of 178 south of the road M17 (E97) Kerch - Feodosia . The best-preserved section between the height of 178 and Lake Martovsky (shaft up to 7 meters high).

The name Cimmerian Val also received another historical object of antiquity, located beyond the Kerch Strait on the Taman Peninsula . A shaft with a length of about 40 km can be seen on the Wikimapia map ^[6] - it stretches from the center of the Taman Bay along its bottom for about 20 km to the northeast and continues as a ground part 20 km further to the northeast to the village of Peresyp (does not end reaching the coast of the Temryuk Bay ).

Back in 1957, archaeologist V.V. Veselov suggested that it was not so much a defensive rampart as a hydraulic structure. It was a navigable canal for a wire to the port of Fanagoria (the remains of this ancient Bosporus fortress - the capital of the Bosporus kingdom, the archaeologist discovered about 700-800 meters southeast of the eastern end of this rampart) of ships in the conditions of the streaming Taman Bay and estuaries ^[7] .

• Zmiev shafts
• Perekopsky shaft
• Limes
• Panticapaeum
• Kimmerik
• Cimmeria

• http://gornostaevka.ru/publ/4-1-0-50
• http://bike-crimea.com/blog/2013/uzunlarskiy-val/
• http://www.krym4x4.com/?page=reporting/1
• http://www.krym4x4.com/?page=reporting/2

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