THE PIT FROM THE LATE ARCHAIC PERIOD IN THE ⟪UPPER CITY⟫ OF PHANAGORIA (MATERIALS FOR DATING THE EARLIEST BUILDING ACTIVITY)

In 2021-2022 remains of two houses with city-plots around them that fitted into the street network were excavated in the << Upper City >> of Phanagoria. The walls of these houses were constructed of mudbricks. Some sections of the blockwork rested right on the sandy subsoil, while other sections were built on a thin pre-subsoil layer formed of gray clay/sand. Several household pits overlaid by walls and floors of the early dwellings are related to this layer. The paper examines the finds from the infill of one of the pit (No. 902) as the most illustrative chronologically. The dating of these materials determines terminus post quem (540-535/30 BC) for development of this urban district based on a regular city plan. This is consistent with the earlier suggested statement that construction work with the use ofmudbricks in Phanagoria began just after this colony was founded.