Ruined stone masonry with a slab carved with fish set in the baptistery recess, with cypress trees above.

NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Museums · Saint Petersburg

Baptistery of a church with fish reliefs and the reliquary bearing Justinian I's seal

The interior baptistery of the church, with the early Christian symbol of fishes. A silver reliquary bearing the seal of the Emperor Justinian I was discovered here; it is now on display in the Hermitage

Moscow · Observations · Education

Listening to young people from Miass and Tyumen, the author values the chance to study in Moscow

Listening to lads from Miass and Tyumen, I realise what a stroke of fortune it is to study in Moscow under the best professors and leading specialists. I do not always remember it. No offence to those who were not so lucky

Archaeology · Faith · Ethnography

The Maya built pyramids over caves and underground lakes as gateways to the other world

Interestingly, a stepped altar of six to eight tiers was built beside the cave, and it survived until the later period of Chersonesos. A similar deification of caves is characteristic of the Maya, who raised pyramids over caves and subterranean lakes and regarded them as a link with the other

A dark opening in a broken stone surface beside a wall of pale limestone at an excavation site.

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Faith

Natural cave found beneath 9th-century housing in Chersonesos, linked by a corridor to a sanctuary

A natural cave has been found beneath the ninth-century residential quarter at Chersonesos, reached by a corridor from a sanctuary of the fifth to fourth century BC. The ancient Chersonesites, like many peoples of antiquity, endowed caves with sacred meaning

Archaeology · Observations · Humour

Burial of a young woman whose body was covered with cherry blossoms

Discussing the burial of a girl whose body was strewn with cherry blossom. I dare say many ladies would gladly die for the sake of such beauty.

NB! · Archaeology · Mores

Behind the wall of a city reservoir, a Roman lavatory has been found, with long benches pierced with holes for the relief of nature facing one another across the room

Archaeology · Mores · Humour

Water supply and sewers of Chersonesos and the account of its capture by Prince Vladimir

As is well known, lavatories in Rome were a place for public gatherings, and people came there not merely to crap, but also to discuss the main news of the city and pick up the gossip. The lavatories were situated near the baths or the aqueduct: beneath the stone bench-

Stone ruins of an ancient quarter in open country, with a concrete information stand and plaque in the foreground.

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture

Excavation of an 11th-century quarter with a tavern, church and burnt-down estate

A signpost describes an eleventh-century quarter. A tavern, a church and a town house burnt to the ground: the excavations turned up a layer of ash knee-deep. The fire presumably started in a store of olive oil

Stone ruins with remains of masonry and a high wall of limestone blocks, with modern houses and wire poles in the background.

NB! · Archaeology

Ancient reservoir found during the digging of a gunpowder cellar in the 19th century

The first digging here began when a powder magazine was being excavated in the 19th century. That was when this was discovered. At first it was taken for a public building. In 1958 it was established that it was a reservoir

A rectangular pit with limestone block walls on the site of an ancient reservoir, with a city and bay in the distance.

NB! · Archaeology

Excavation of a rubbish fill on a reservoir site sheds light on Chersonesos in the 9th to 11th centuries

Here, until the 9th century, there was a city reservoir. Later it was filled in with rubbish. And it was precisely the excavation of this heap of refuse that shed light on the supposedly dark centuries of Chersonesos in the 9th to 11th centuries: the city, it turns out, was

Stone remains of a foundation with three graves, the middle one filled with dark soil, surrounded by rubble and sparse grass.

NB! · Archaeology · Faith

Necropolis of three graves under the foundation of an 11th-century church, one holding the remains of 120 people

You are looking at a necropolis of three graves beneath the foundations of an 11th-century church. In the middle grave, with its dark fill, the remains of 120 people were found. The neighbouring ones held a single person each. Why this should be so is a mystery

Dry golden grass on the shore, with a dark blue sea beyond it and a pale blue sky with white clouds.

NB! · Archaeology · Observations · Humour

Sandrik reports from an excavation by the sea on a find of glass beads

Gone off to an excavation, but so far I have found only glass beads and am occupied with nothing but the sea. I promise to tell you the most interesting parts and to lay my hands on something more valuable. With archaeological greetings, Sandrik

Alexandr Radayev