Archaeologists have found the tomb of Aphrodite's priestess in an ancient Black Sea city

About 1,900 years ago, a woman died and was buried in Phanagoria, a city founded centuries ago on the coast of the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia. Her grave was located with others in the necropolis of the ancient city, and although there was nothing particularly unusual about her, she was a priestess of the cult of Aphrodite, concluded archaeologists excavating the ancient city.

Another intriguing find in the Black Sea region is the tomb of a warrior with a sword made in early medieval Iran.

The woman's grave was discovered by archaeologists Nikolai Sudarev and Mikhail Treister during the 2022 summer season of the Fanagoria archaeological expedition, which has been supported by Oleg Deripaska's Volnoe Delo Foundation since 2004, says its spokesman Ruben Bunyatyan.

Among her jewelry was a silver medallion depicting the goddess and the signs of the zodiac, minus Aquarius and Libra. Such medallions were common in the territory of the Bosporan kingdom as early as 2,300 years ago, says Maria Chashuk, a senior researcher at the Phanagoria Archaeological Expedition. No, the medallion, which is large - about 7 centimeters (2.75 inches) in diameter and 15 millimeters thick - has not been broken, so it is unclear why Aquarius and Libra are missing, she adds.

Such medallions were used in different ways: as brooches, headdress accessories and pendants, Chashuk explains. "It was found on the lower part of a woman's chest. On the other side there is a staple through which a cord could be threaded and the medallion could be worn as a pendant. It seems that this is how the medallion was worn by the woman, but this question is still being studied."

How did the researchers come to the conclusion that the ornament depicts none other than Aphrodite? Sudarev and Traister based their decision on the iconographic features of the goddess, as well as on similar images on other similar finds in the region, say Chashuk and Bunyatyan.

"The images of the zodiac signs around the goddess also indicate that this is indeed Aphrodite Urania, as they emphasize her celestial hypostasis," Chashuk adds.

"Aphrodite Urania" refers to the divine aspect of the goddess, as opposed to her earthly aspect "Aphrodite Pandemos", not to mention the legend that she was spawned by emissions from the sexual apparatus of Uranus, cut off by his son Kronos. Moving on.

The woman also wore silver earrings with pendants in the form of doves and rings with images that are so poorly preserved that they cannot be made out: possibly images of a horned tree and Eros with wings, Chashuk suggests.

Other grave goods include a red clay jug with a twisted handle, iron scissors with a bronze handle, a bronze mirror, a string of 157 beads (someone counted) and three bronze coins.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that members of the ancient Greek pantheon were worshipped in first-century Taman. Christianity came to this region only in the Middle Ages, around the ninth to tenth centuries, before that people followed Slavic pagan religions, and some obviously worshipped the Hellenic pantheon.

The medallion also indicates a belief in astrology, a pseudoscience that suggests causal relationships between the positions of celestial bodies and events on Earth. Astrology dates back at least 4,000 years, and for most of that time it has been under suspicion. Cicero, for example, wrote some 2,050 years ago that divination (by any means) would be terrific if it were not false: "It is indeed a splendid and useful thing - if only such a faculty exists," he wrote in A Defense of Divination. He added that all people believe that "signs of future events are given," which is more or less true today.

While Cicero was writing arguments for and against the merits of astrology, centuries before him, Xenophanes, born in the sixth century B.C., reportedly took a stand against trying to see into the future through omens and portents - if only because it was not proper for the gods to communicate with us lowly humans.

So, a woman died in first century Phanagoria and was buried with a medallion depicting Aphrodite and the 10 signs of the zodiac, as well as some goods for the afterlife. But maybe she was a worshipper of the goddess - why think she was a priestess?

Archaeologist Sudarev of the Russian Academy of Sciences believes that some items from the burial have a specific semantic meaning, says Chashuk. "For example, silver earrings with pendants in the form of doves could be associated with different deities, but most often doves are mentioned as a symbol of Aphrodite-Urania. The mirror and scissors often had ritual significance (as a tool for cutting hair) and could also be one of the symbols of the goddess."

The excavation also uncovered two scarab-type beads of Egyptian faience found with other beads around her neck, but distinguished by the fact that they had hieroglyphics at the bottom: one depicting a seated raptor cat, the other a cobra-uraus with a sun disk.

"Mr. Sudarev notes that the symbols on the scarabs refer to the Egyptian counterparts of Aphrodite-Urania - Wadjet [the cobra goddess] and Hathor," Chashuk summarizes. (Hathor did exist - perhaps even originated in Bronze Age Canaan).

After all, the presence of Aphrodite worship and possibly the burial of a priestess of her cult support the theory that Phanagoria was founded as a Greek colony on the Taman Peninsula, archaeologists say.

While the existence of deities and their kindly tendency to share information is questionable, and if someone made correct predictions all the time, we would surely know about it - there is no such doubt about the existence of war.

The discovery of a Sassanid sword in a burial site in Phanagoria, dating back to a period about 1,500 years ago, is more informative in practical terms. "Archaeologists believe that this weapon belongs to the Iranian group of swords because of the characteristic golden tip of its wooden hilt," Bunyatyan explains.

The discovery of a fine sword of Iranian (Sasanian) origin on the territory of the kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus confirms historical sources describing the military and political influence of the Sasanian Empire in the Caucasus region and on the Taman Peninsula, believes Alexei Voroshilov, head of the necropolis group of the Fanagoria expedition. It could have been a diplomatic gift.

Or perhaps it suggests the use of mercenaries, foreign soldiers fighting for filthy lucre, which seems to have been not unknown in classical times? It seems that even the "Greek army" fighting the "Carthaginian armies" was stuffed to the brim with mercenaries.

Unlikely, because the sword was simply too good, Voroshilov believes. "Expensive prestigious weapons were either custom-made or came as war trophies. Parade weapons and horse harness were part of diplomatic gifts," he says, "so it is unlikely that the owner of the sword was a mercenary. There is no doubt that this man was a representative of the elite of Phanagoria and was a carrier of the military-aristocratic culture of the Bosporan kingdom in the era of migration".

According to him, it is the only sword of its kind found in Phanagoria, and he adds that "this is the first major find in Phanagoria that testifies to the cultural ties between the elite of Phanagoria and the Sassanid Empire."

The warrior was buried with other fine items as well. "In the tomb itself, many rare things were found, including imported items: glass jars, wooden and metal utensils, wooden boxes with decayed fabrics. The tomb is notable for its monumentality and considerable depth (about 7 meters), as well as for its lavish burial rites. There are many reasons to assume that together with the warrior in the crypt were buried noble and wealthy citizens", - summarizes Voroshilov. The priestess appears to have received relatively little attention a few centuries earlier.