Massacred Residents Unearthed at Greek Colony

News July 9, 2013

(Jens Andresen)
SHARE:
Chersonesus Excavations
(Jens Andresen)

CRIMEAN PENINSULA, UKRAINE—The ancient Greek colony at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Chersonesus was established in the sixth century B.C. to grow grain and collect other resources for the people of Greece. Vladimir Stolba of Aarhus University in Denmark says that the intact ruins of the 2,300-year-old houses are still visible. Excavations in a number of these dwellings uncovered shallow graves containing a large proportion of the rural population. The residents had been killed, perhaps in an invasion. “The picture that emerges from the excavations is a snapshot of daily activities of the ancient peasantry, of its life and dramatic death,” said Stolba.

  • Features May/June 2013

    Haunt of the Resurrection Men

    A forgotten graveyard, the dawn of modern medicine, and the hard life in 19th-century London

    Read Article
    (Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library)
  • Features May/June 2013

    The Kings of Kent

    The surprising discovery of an Anglo-Saxon feasting hall in the village of Lyminge is offering a new view of the lives of these pagan kings

    Read Article
    (Photo by William Laing, © University of Reading)
  • Letter from Turkey May/June 2013

    Anzac's Next Chapter

    Archaeologists conduct the first-ever survey of the legendary WWI battlefield at Gallipoli

    Read Article
    (Samir S. Patel)
  • Artifacts May/June 2013

    Ancient Near Eastern Figurines

    Ceramic figurines were part of a cache of objects found at an Iron Age temple uncovered at the site of Tel Motza outside Jerusalem

    Read Article
    (Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)