Kimmerikon

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Kimmerikon and other Ancient Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea.

Kimmerikón (Greek Κιμμερικών, Latin: Cimmericum) was an ancient Greek town in Crimea, on the southern shore of the Kerch peninsula, at the western slope of Mount Opuk, roughly 50 kilometers south-west of modern Kerch. The town was founded by the Milesian colonists in the 5th century BC and flourished at the beginning of the Christian era. Its name may refer to an earlier Cimmerian settlement on the site. Kimmerikon was an important stronghold defending the Bosporan Kingdom from the Scythians. Its walls ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 meters in thickness. In the mid-3rd century AD Kimmerikon was sacked by the Goths, but some measure of urban settlement persisted until the end of the Roman era. The site was excavated by Soviet archaeologists in 1927, 1947-49, and 1950-51.

[edit] References

• The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (eds. Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister).

North Pontic Greek colonies
Tyras • Olbia • Borysthenes • Eupatoria • Chersonesos • Charax • Theodosia Kimmerikon • Nymphaion • Tyritake • Panticapaeum • Myrmekion Kepoi • Phanagoria • Hermonassa • Gorgippia • Pitiunt • Dioscurias • Tanais