(According to the materials of ritual burials in the Azov Sea littoral, the Crimea)

N.I. Vinokurov (Moscow)

Beginning from the remote past man supposed the world around him depended on some divine powers. To ensure the proper functioning of the universe they must be coaxed in some way. The whole nature, earth, waters, celestial luminaries, earthen plants and animals, and the people themselves depended directly on pleasing the gods with various gifts and proper feeding with sacrifices. Otherwise furious deities could have taken vengeance depriving the people of longevity, health and vitality; welfare and abundant grounds; good luck in war, hunting and fishing; fertility of fields and vineyards, domestic animals and poultry; and, finally, progeny and the sequel of lineage.

The sacrifices offered to the deities could be both bloodless (the first crops and fruit, baked bread, oil, honey, fermented milk products, incenses, beverages) and bloody that presupposed killing human beings or animals. Blood and violence were mysteriously present in the early ideas of the primitive pagan beliefs. The kind of the offering and the ritual performed were determined by the custom, the time, and the reason sacrifice was necessary for, and were observed in accordance with the oral or written religious regulations. In traditional religious practice it was limited to the attributes specially consecrated to the ceremony. In any case, offerings were aimed at temporal pleasing the deity, the hero, or the ancestor that was thought to be sated with its aroma. Man occupied the medial position during the sacrifice between the nether world – the kingdom of chtonic deities, and the upper one inhabited by the celestial gods, and served as a mediator. The more sacrifices were performed, the closer the ancient people felt to be to the deity. Such phenomena as mortal blow of sacrificial sword or axe – the key point of killing the offering, blood poured down and perceived as the vital essence of the offering, as well as the subsequent stages of the drama related to the offering dismemberment (or tearing to pieces), burning, and consuming constituted the fundamental elements of the idea of “sacred”. The described ceremonies were far from being limited to the piety, singing praises and incantations, and leading dances.

Monolithic and composite typed wineries for grape processing have been used throughout the whole history of Bospor wine production. In total, 120 wine production facilities were discovered in Bospor, among them 80 being satisfactory and well preserved.

The monolithic wineries are represented by three types of monolithic press units. The first type /M-I/ comprises portable press units, the second one /M-II/ includes arbitrarily portable press units, and the third type /M-III/ incorporates stationary ones.

Evidently, the portable wineries spread all over the territory of Bospor, the arbitrarily portable and stationary wineries were more often met in regions rich in stones. Despite a conspicuous roughness and primitiveness of forms, the monolithic press units were easy to manufacture and effective in operation. If compared with the wineries of composite subclass, they did not require highly qualified and experienced construction workers and, while being solid and durable, could be caved quickly.

The present study is devoted to viticulture and wine-production - the main components of economic activities undertaken by residents of Olbia, Chersonesus and Bosphorus in the 6th c. BC to the 6th c. AD, to the most important aspects of these activities in the agrarian history of antique centres in the Northern Black Sea and Mediterranean regions, as well as to economic, social and religious issues connected with this kind of production..