Hieratic Complex Taraktash in the Eastern Crimea

The hieratic complex Taraktash is located on the slopes of a mountain ridge with the same name, 3 km north to Sudak on the South-Eastern shore of the Crimea. The dig conducted in 1995 and in 2002—2008 on the slopes of Taraktash Mountain uncovered three shrines. Several complexes of adobe buildings were revealed and studied in the vicinity, resting on stone foundations (Taraktash-1 settlement) on the western and southern slopes of the Taraktash. The hieratic structure Taraktash-I is dated within 50s — turn of 4th—5th centuries AD; the hieratic structure Taraktash-II is dated within 150s — 250s AD, with some individual finds from the 4th century AD; the hieratic structure Taraktash-III is dated within a short interval in the 2nd century AD. In 2020, the author analyzed the ceramic finds from the digs of 2002—2008 and, based on chronologies of some types of amphorae and red-lacquered vessels, provided more precise dates for emergence and disappearance of the hieratic structures in Sudak valley during the Roman Time and the Great Migrations.