74 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



sherds of amphorae. The niche also contained a clay lamp. Apparently 

 this niche was connected with some sort of ritual. 



A small stone terapan (bench for pressing grapes) was found on a 

 dais in the courtyard. Many finds connected with viticulture from 

 previous excavations seem to indicate its important role in the eco- 

 nomic life of the Bosphorus during the late Hellenistic and Roman 

 periods when the importation of wines from abroad became curtailed. 

 A second large winery of the second century B. C, discovered in 

 1939, had been partially buried by a railroad embankment. Nonethe- 

 less, the large pressing platform was uncovered, together with a 

 gutter leading to a cistern. Both the platform and the cistern were 

 faced with a white cement differing in composition from the Roman 

 cement of that period. On the basis of this and the earlier discoveries, 

 it is now possible to reconstruct the evolution of viticultural technique 

 in Tiritaka from the second century B. C. to the third century A. D. 



The 1939 excavations indicated that Tiritaka was sacked during 

 the fourth century A. D. This destruction occurred as a result of 

 one of the mass tribal migrations in the northern Black Sea area, 

 which led to the final dissolution of the Bosphorean State. But 

 Tiritaka did not disappear altogether at that time, as the finds from 

 the excavations include many objects of the Early Medieval period. 

 Thus, in the western part of the site a quantity of pottery of that period 

 had been found, including a pythos stamped with the name of the 

 potter and the incised sign of a cross of the type attributed to the 

 fifth or sixth century A. D. The fisheries continued during this period, 

 although most of the Roman cisterns had become disused. The main 

 occupation of the local population seems to have been agriculture. 

 Tiritaka was abandoned during the seventh or eighth century. 



Many sherds of archaic pottery were found, including a fragment 

 of a painted pot. Particularly abundant were the finds from a late 

 Roman house, and also a quantity of objects from the Bosphorean 

 house of the third or fourth century A. D. 



A stoppered amphora, attributed to the fourth or fifth century A. D., 

 found near one of the fish-salting complexes, contained nearly 3.5 

 kilograms of crude oil. The amphora was of the elongated cylindrical 

 type with a conical bottom. The neck had been closed by a bunch of 

 straw which, when permeated with the solidified crude oil, formed a 

 completely hermetical seal. The liquid was analyzed by R. R. 

 lAnovskii of the Leningrad Chemico-Technical Institute. The liquid 

 which was characterized by lAnovskii as "crude oil or a product of 

 crude oil" contained several wisps of straw. According to the classical 

 authors crude oil was used for lighting and also as medicine. 



