KERTCH ANTIQUITIES. 261 Kertcli. These particulars are taken from an article in Erman's " Arcliiv fur wissencliaftliclie Kunde von Russland :" Band 4, 1844,^^ in which tlie author observes, "The result of the excavations at Kertch, notwithstanding their great importance for history and antiquities, have remained almost unknown to the learned world, so little has the public interest in them been aroused, even in Russia, to the present time. How few are there who know that that kind of ancient vase, which is improperly termed Etruscan, is also dug up in Russian ground— that Greek sculptures of the highest art are dug out amongst us — that we possess splendid monuments of Cjclopcean architecture, and that, far from both capitals, on the extreme edge of the southern Steppes towards the Black Sea, there exists another Herculaneum, another subterranean Etruria, rich in treasures, often unique in their kind, and which throw light upon the darkest periods of the past." The curious publication by the Director of the Kertch Museum (Anton Ashik), to which allusion has been made, consists, for the most part, of a description of the frescoes on the walls of one of the catacombs or kurgans, opened by him in the year 1843. He states that, up to the year 1834, not one of the searchers after antiquities suspected that in Panti- kapa3um, as in Italy, there existed catacombs cut in the rocks ; the discovery of this interesting fact belongs properly to himself. These tumuli had been opened by many archae- ologists, but it had escaped their attention that under these mounds were concealed an innumerable number of funeral caves. This discovery was made in the following manner : — In the year 1834, while superintending the excavations of the kurgans, and observing closely the regular ranges of these tumuli, M. Ashik observed that at the foot of each mound, towards the north-east,^ there was a small cavity in which the earth was always moist, whence the herbage there was more green than in the other parts of the tumuli. He imme- diately ordered one of them to be opened. At the depth of 3^ feet they came to a rock, in which was a cutting of the widtli of 7 feet, the space between the two walls being filled up with rubbish : following this narrow way to about the
- See also Demidoff, Voyage dans la ^ This fact is very striking. In Britisli
RussieM(ndi(>'nak,o.i.,^.h'^b etseq. ; tumuli the deposit has frequently beeu vol. ii. p. 1, et seci. found in a similar position. VOL. VI. N N
