Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Pirates – history“

[First paragraph]Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger. ULRIKE KLAUSMANN, MARION MEINZERIN & GABRIEL KUHN. New York: Black Rose Books, 1997. x + 280 pp. (Paper US$ 23.99)Pirates! Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. JAN ROGOZINSKI. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. xvi + 398 pp. (Paper US$ 19.95)Sir Francis Drake: The Queens Pirate. HARRY KELSEY. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, xviii + 566 pp. (Cloth US$ 35.00)A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. CAPT. CHARLES JOHNSON (edited and with introduction by DAVID CORDINGLY). New York: Lyons Press. 1998 [Orig. 1724]. xiv + 370 pp. (Cloth US$ 29.95)The subject of piracy lends itself to giddy jokes about parrots and wooden legs, but also talk of politics, law, cultural relativism, and of course Hollywood. This selection of new books on piracy in the Caribbean and beyond touches on all these possibilities and more. They include a biography of the ever-controversial Elizabethan corsair, Francis Drake; an encyclopedia of piracy in history, literature, and film; a reissued classic eighteenth-century pirate prosopography; and an anarchist-feminist political tract inspired by history and legend. If nothing else, this pot-pourri of approaches to piracy should serve as a reminder that the field of pirate studies is not only alive and well, but gaining new ground.

This article considers the relatively new political phenomena of “pirate parties”, which arose as an answer to specific problems of information distribution and intellectual property in the modern information society. The author investigates the history and development of the “pirate movement” all over the world, including Russia. The pirates’ ideological platform and new definitions for democracy of information society are analyzed in details.

Abstract All pirates had reputations for violence and terror, but in Asia people also depicted them as bloodthirsty demons who practiced cannibalism and human sacrifices. But how deserved were those reputations? Here I examine the images, nature, and meanings of pirate violence in the South China Sea between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pirates consciously used violence and brutality to obtain money and goods, to seek vengeance against their enemies, and to instill fear in anyone who might resist them. In this article I focus on what I call the cultural construction of violence with Chinese characteristics.

This paper argues that William Shakespeare's Hamlet reveals prince Hamlet to be capable of liaising with criminals like pirates for personal gain. In the play, Hamlet fought with a gang of pirates who surprisingly turned friend from foe. Critics have long understood this fight as a dramatization of Hamlet’s transformation from a meek prince to a daring adventurer who, after his sea journey, returned with renewed courage to challenge his actual enemies. Many researches, nevertheless, have found in this episode an allusion to early modern England’s policy regarding maritime piracy and security. How that policy can seem to have directly influenced Hamlet, however, has not been discussed adequately. Records confirm that early modern English kings have a history of hiring pirates as henchmen cum pseudo soldiers. This research aspires to show a link between this historical unethical practice of English monarchy and the adoption of evil means by Hamlet, a fictional prince of Denmark. In the play, for example, though the pirates kidnapped Hamlet, Hamlet’s attitude remained uncannily patronizing towards them. He even befriended the looters and had them do him services, i.e., transporting him to his country safely from a perilous travel so that he can avenge his father. Upon further investigation, Hamlet’s pirate-incident can be shown to have made Hamlet wanting to be a Danish king after the English model. To show this, a secondary research has been conducted. The result of this research is that, contextualized in the history of early modern sea robbery, Hamlet can appear to be legitimizing piracy just like contemporaneous English monarchy did.

Over the last decade piracy has emerged as a growing field of research covering a wide range of different phenomena, from fashion counterfeits and media piracy, through to 17th century buccaneers and present-day pirates off the coast of Somalia. In many cases piracy can be a metaphor or an analytical perspective to understand conflicts and social change. This article relates this fascination with piracy as a practice and a metaphor to academia and asks what a pirate methodology of knowledge production could be: how, in other words, researchers and educators can be understood as ‘pirates’ to the corporate university. Drawing on the history of maritime piracy as well as on a discussion on contemporary pirate libraries that disrupt proprietary publishing, the article explores the possibility of a pirate methodology as a way of acting as a researcher and relating to existing norms of knowledge production. The methodology of piratical scholarship involves exploiting the grey zones and loopholes of contemporary academia. It is a tactical intervention that exploits short term opportunities that arise in the machinery of academia to the strategic end of turning a limiting structure into an enabling field of opportunities. We hope that such a concept of pirate methodologies may help us reflect on how sustainable and constructive approaches to knowledge production emerge in the context of a critique of the corporate university.

Abstract Starting in the second half of the sixteenth century, Japan, and especially Kyushu, experienced a surge in maritime exchange that was unprecedented in Japanese history. Alongside the boom in trade, there was a concurrent swell in maritime violence as pirates and privateers militarized East Asian waters. During this period, the port of Hirado on Kyushu emerged as one of the most important and consistently active pirate hubs, becoming a base for Chinese, Dutch, English, and Japanese mariners. This article explores Hirado’s long association with piracy and uses it to reflect on the changing nature of maritime violence in East Asia.

Sea piracy, or piracy, is robbery conducted in sea, or sometimes in beach. It could be said that history of piracy occurs simultaneously with history of navigation. Where there are ships transporting merchandise, appears pirates are ready to have it forcibly. It has been known since the time of the occurrence of piracy Greece ancient. Included in the era Roman republic experienced piracy by the sea robbers. Since then they plow all the ships that are currently floating in the ocean near Borneo and Sumatra. However, the best in its long history written on 16th-17th century and it called as the golden age of pirates. But, the piracy not only in the past era, in the modern era as today, the piracy still exist as the criminal case in Somalia in 1990-2011, Philipine in 2016-2017, Dhobo accident in 2019 etc. The piracy is also can be called as Hostis Humani Generis it is mean the piracy is the enemy of all humans. The piracy ruled in UNCLOS articles 101-110 and in Indonesia is ruled in Criminal Law article 439-440. This article explains the international law of sea piracy, hostage release procedure and court procedure in International Criminal Court (ICC) and international punishment for pirate.

A life of piracy offered marginal men a profession with a degree of autonomy, despite the brand of “outlaw” and the fear of prosecution. At various times throughout history, governments and crowned heads suspended much of their piracy prosecution, licensing men to work as “privateers” for the state, supplementing naval forces. This practice has a long history, but in sixteenth-century England, Elizabeth I (1558-1603) significantly altered this tradition. Recognizing her own weakness in effectively prosecuting these men and the profit they could contribute to the government, Elizabeth began incorporating pirates into the English naval corps in peacetime—not just in war. This practice increased English naval resources, income, and presence in the emerging Atlantic World, but also increased conflict with the powerful Spanish empire. By 1605, making peace with Spain, James VI/I (1603-1625) retracted Elizabeth’s privateering promotion, prompting an emigration of English seamen to the American outposts they had developed in the previous century. Now exiles, no longer beholden to the Crown, seamen reverted back to piracy. The Carolinas and Jamaica served as bases for these rover communities. In 1650, the revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell (1649-1658) once again recognized the merits of such policies. Determined to demonstrate his authority and solidify his rule, Cromwell offered citizenship and state support to Caribbean exiles in exchange for their aiding of his navy in the taking of Spanish Jamaica. Official chartering of Port Royal, Jamaica served as reward for these men’s efforts and as the culmination of a century-long cycle of piracy legislation, creating one of England’s most lucrative colonies in the middle of a traditionally Spanish Caribbean empire. Through legal and diplomatic records, correspondence, and naval and demographic records from England and Spain, this dissertation explores early modern piracy/privateering policy and its impact on the development of the Atlantic World. European disputes and imperial competition converged in these piracy debates with significant consequences for the definitions of criminality and citizenship and for the development of Atlantic empire.

This study analyzes U.S. relations with the Barbary States from 1784 to 1805. After the American Revolution, the young nation found its commerce menaced in the Mediterranean by North African pirates sponsored by the rulers of Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli. As the U.S. sought to find a solution to end piracy and the practice of paying tributes or ransom to free Americans held captive, Thomas Jefferson proposed several solutions as a diplomat, vice president, and as president when he authorized the Tripolitan War (1801-1805). Thus, this look at U.S. relations with the Barbary States focuses on Jefferson’s evolving foreign policy proposals and argues that William Eaton’s secret mission in 1805 eventually reshaped U.S. policy in the Mediterranean and brought Jefferson’s ideas for a military solution to fruition. This change in policy would soon bring about the end of piracy against U.S. merchant vessels and the nation’s involvement in tributary treaties.

This work examines Henry VIII’s contribution to the legal defining and treatment of piracy during his reign and his influence over subsequent Tudor monarchs’ own relationship with piracy and privateering. Through examination of the shift in legal language, piracy as a crime to a paid profession, and the ambiguous definition of who a pirate was it becomes clear that Henry’s reign witnessed a significant transformation in piracy which directly influenced diplomatic relations throughout Europe.

This thesis examines the legal and political environment that allowed piracy to expand during the period that many historians now refer to as the "Golden Age of Piracy" (1695-1725). Towards the end of the sixteenth century, metropolitan officials in London began to take a concerted interest in regulating trade and bringing the traditional system of reprisals under control. What they found, however, was a great deal of resistance to these new policies in the North American colonies. The level of uniformity of this resistance varied from port to port. London's legislative initiatives were rooted in what had essentially become a lawless situation both on the American main, as well as the Caribbean. While the trend in the sub-field of pirate history has been to focus on the periods before and after the First War of Spanish Succession, this thesis examines the correspondences of colonial and metropolitan administrators precisely during this period. These reveal a dissonance in how piracy and privateering were discussed during the conflict that is critical to understanding the violent outbreaks of the Golden Age. As is shown, metropolitan efforts to rationalize trade within a mercantilist economic framework were often seen as hindrances to colonial affairs. Furthermore, the lack of adequate defenses for the colonies often encouraged Governors to seek out their colonies' security through private means. Pirates and privateers were intimately tied to this rift between London's ideological expectations and the colonies' practical necessities. While romanticized to posterity, the widespread outbreak of piratical violence during the Golden Age was, in fact, endemic to a British Atlantic world that was in a state of often bloody and violent flux.

This thesis analyses the decisions that affected Anglo-American naval relations from the Gulf of Mexico to the West African coast between 1819 and 1863. It places British and American naval deployment within the context of political and economic goals. The study reveals that Britain and the United States used sea power for commerce protection, but also believed that it could be used to further long-term economic goals. However, the different ways in which Britain and the United States used sea power affected Anglo-American diplomatic and naval relations. In Britain, the government and commercial sectors were unified in their belief that sea power could be used for commerce protection and to push African factors of production into legitimate commerce. In the United States, the government only reached a consensus that sea power could be used, during peacetime, for commerce protection and promotion. When these goals of the nations conflicted, tensions increased as their interests clashed. America abhorred a strong military, but deployed naval force to fight piracy. But Britain combined slave trade suppression with economic policy and wanted American help along the West African coast. The Americans expanded their West African presence from occasional warships diverted from West Indian piracy patrols, to a full squadron, but focussed only on economic goals. These differences strained relations, but their common belief that they could use sea power for long-term commercial objectives in peacetime, provided the nations with a common mechanism through which the accumulated tensions could be mitigated. Naval forces in the equatorial Atlantic were rearranged and offending officers and ships withdrawn, to preserve Anglo-American relations. Anglo-American naval relations in the equatorial Atlantic reveal that the nations were neither friends, nor enemies, but sought to contain their disputes so they could further their individual policy objectives that would be harmed by a war.

AbstractThe chapters of this handbook presented slavery both as a global practice having existed from Old Babylonia to the present day and as an institution with globalizing effects connecting people, places, and commodities, sometimes over great distances. The contributions have shown how people have entered enslavement, been exploited as slaves, and attempted or managed to exit slavery across time and space. At any given time, people have been born into slavery and captured or kidnapped by soldiers, warriors, or pirates.

The object of this work is the comparative study of the cylindrical corner sentry boxes built with brickwork, stone corbel and ceramic dome in two buildings with the typology of a Catalan stately casa forta, built in the mid-16th century on the coast of the province of Barcelona and whose purpose was the defense of the masías against the recurring attack of pirates from the Mediterranean coast. This is an approach to these defensive elements of fortified farmhouse in Catalonia, through the comparative study of two specific cases implemented in the geography of the province of Barcelona. With the analysis of these two cases, an approach is proposed to the study, little promulgated, of these defensive sentry boxes, from the perspective of the discipline of Construction History, applying scientific methodology for the knowledge of Architectural Heritage. The analysis of this defensive element allows us to take a historical tour of the evolution of the Catalan fortified house typology, within the common matrix of the masía as a traditional Catalan rural house. The comparative case study contrasts the formal evolution, both general of the buildings and of the sentry boxes, putting together the convergent and divergent lines that the quantitative and qualitative data obtained show, proposing a series of conclusions that bring together the key points of the knowledge obtained.

Fortified churches between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries on Elba IslandAgainst the threat of Islamic, Norman and Greek pirates, starting from the eighth century, or due to conflicts with the Genoese, Catalans, Neapolitans and French, up to the English and Dutch corsairs from the sixteenth century, Elba island is organized with a respectable defensive apparatus, especially thanks to the Pisans and the Lordship of the Appiano. In addition to a system of fortresses, towers positioned on the shore of the beaches and watch towers placed on the mountain, the presence of some fortified churches from the eleventh century until the sixteenth century is very unusual: the church of San Niccolò in San Piero in Campo, the church of Sant’Ilario, the church of San Niccolò in Poggio, and of the church of Saints Martyrs Giacomo and Quirico in Rio nell’Elba. Main tasks of the research are: study of the transformations of the churches of San Niccolò in San Piero in Campo and of the church of Sant’Ilario, located on the southern slope of Monte Capanne, where was used the construction technique of the granite of the Elba; the way of communicating cultural heritage among scholars or tourists who are fascinated by such structures. Through an initial operation of instrumental survey with 3D laser scanning and drone photogrammetry it is possible to return the current 3D models of the churches. The second step goes on two main directions: on one hand identifying the conservative restoration operations for the fortified churches; on the other hand allowing the dissemination to a wider public of the history of the two fortified churches.

В предыдущем номере «Hypanis» была опубликована обобщающая статья «Полуостров Абрау в римское время», в ней рассмотрен один из периодов (1 в. до н. э. – 5 в. н. э.) в истории юго-восточной периферии Азиатского Боспора. В предлагаемой статье систематизированы данные по истории и археологии указанного региона в 8–1 вв. до н. э. В целом эти публикации позволяют воссоздать панораму, которая охватывает широкий хронологический диапазон: 8 в. до н. э. – 5 в. н. э. Возрастающее греческое влияние на развитие этнополитической ситуации в регионе нашло отражение в периодизации истории и археологии региона в эпоху раннего железа: доколонизационный, колонизационный периоды, а также этап, связанный с внутренней боспорской колонизацией. Судя по имеющимся археологическим материалам, в доколонизационный период п-ов Абрау был слабо населен, традиционный быт его обитателей был основан на примитивном комплексном хозяйстве. Демографический оптимум для населения предгорий зафиксирован в период освоения черноморского побережья Северного Кавказа греками-колонистами и активизации торгово-обменных отношений в регионе (6–5 вв. до н. э.). Одной из причин боспорской колонизации северной части п-ова Абрау в 4–2 вв. до н. э. – одного из равнинных плодородных районов Синдики – была потребность в товарном зерне. Хозяйственное освоение хоры Горгиппии сопровождалось эллинизацией аборигенного синдского населения, которая означала постепенное его подчинение и ассимиляцию. Фиксируемое запустение в южной части п-ова Абрау – ареале обитания керкетов и торетов – можно объяснить стремлением боспорян обезопасить навигацию и другую хозяйственную деятельность от пиратов. По-видимому, эту задачу успешно решили поселившиеся в восточной части Анапско-Натухаевской долины мигранты из равнинных районов Закубанья. In the last issue of HYPANIS, a generalising article, “The Abrau Peninsula in Roman Times”, was published. It discusses one of the periods (first century BC – fifth century AD) in the history of the Southeastern periphery of the Asian Bosporos. The present article systematises the historical and archaeological data of this region in the Early Iron Age (8th–1st centuries BC). Therefore, combined, these publications allow us to recreate a panorama that covers a wide chronological range, from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD. The growing Western influence on the ethnopolitical development in the region is reflected in the historical and archaeological periodization of the region in the Early Iron Age: the pre-colonial period, the emporial period and the period associated with intra-Bosporan colonisation. Based on the available archaeological data, the Abrau Peninsula was sparsely populated during the pre-colonization period, and the local communities led a traditional, fragmented way of life. During the sixth–fifth centuries BC the region became the demographic optimum for the population of the foothills of the Black Sea coast of the North Caucasus, which is explained by it being equally distant from the Greek and Graeco-Scythian political centres of Sindica and the opportunity to receive dividends from the emporial development of the region. The intra-Bosporan colonisation of the Northern part of the Abrau Peninsula (4th–2nd centuries BC) was aimed at the realisation of the agrarian opportunities of the region, accompanied by the Hellenization of the native Sindoi population, which, as it seems, also suggested its gradual subjugation and assimilation. The desolation observed in the Southern part of the Abrau Peninsula, populated by the Kerketai and Toretai, can be explained by the Bosporan urge to protect nautical and other economic activities from pirates. Apparently, this problem was successfully solved by migrants from the plain regions of the Trans-Kuban region, who settled in the Eastern part of the Anansko-Natukhaevskaya Valley.

Geometries of the gaze in the Calabrian landscapeHaving lost their function of sighting as an instrument of strategic control, inclusion and protection from presumed pirate invasions, the coastal towers of Calabria Ultra, represented in the Diary of Wonders of the end of the sixteenth century, called Codice Romano Carratelli, will act as the key and device of the gaze that links the land to the expanse of water. A vast geometric, precise and linear system that will connect, through the gaze, the “terracqueo landscape”, unstable and multiform, continuously changing. The ninety-nine watercolour maps of the Codice are an immense heritage of clues, traces, geometries and measurements on which to think in order to bring to the surface of the earth, military tactics that have become latent in history as a palimpsest. The use of ancient and modern techniques of survey and graphic representation, want to accompany the contemporary traveler to turn his gaze towards new strategies of “reception”, rather than aversion of a silent landscape, where merge and mix. The “stratigraphies of the gaze” are sections perpendicular to the “horizontal plane” of a “living” landscape from which routes, artefacts, signs, traces, fragments of history can be distilled for a widespread cultural regeneration of the territory. The experimental character of this research, recounted in these pages, lies in the application of an innovative strategy of communication and information, based on the creation of cultural routes structured in museums, widespread or located on the coastal landscape of Calabria.

Крайняя малочисленность связанных с христианством находок и их неравномерное распределение во времени создает значительные трудности при восстановлении истории Фанагорийской христианской общины. Восполнить лакуны до некоторой степени помогают имеющиеся сведения об истории христианства в других центрах Северо-Восточного Причерноморья, неотъемлемой частью которого являлась Фанагория. Несомненно, новая религия проникает в Фанагорию, как и в другие центры Боспорского царства, в последней четверти 3 в. из Малой Азии, откуда готы, возвращаясь из своих пиратских набегов, привозили пленных христиан. Именно к периоду после морских походов варваров относятся первые зафиксированные на Боспоре признаки христианства: различные вещи с христианскими символами, христианские участки на некрополе в Керчи. Незначительное количество раннехристианских памятников говорит о том, что в этот период распространение религии в регионе происходило, главным образом, благодаря деятельности миссионеров, и число приверженцев христианства было невелико. С включением Боспора в сферу влияния Византийской империи церковь и государство предпринимают совместные усилия по христианизации региона: скорее всего, именно в это время по обе стороны Керченского пролива строятся церкви, в Фанагории учреждается епископская кафедра и строится христианский храм, внутреннему убранству которого, скорее всего, принадлежали два мраморных резервуара для воды, сигмовидный стол и рельеф с изображением Орфея, найденные при раскопках на «Нижнем городе». Форма и материал, из которого изготовлен один из найденных резервуаров, позво ляет интерпретировать его как крещальную купель. Причем небольшая глубина найден ной емкости не означает, что в ней крестили только детей, поскольку в большинстве случаев крещение совершалось без полного погружения: стоявшего в купели крещаемого просто обливали водой. Однако уже с 4 в. при крещении начали использовать стоячую воду, а наполнять купель предписывалось вручную. Поэтому объяснить назначение двух отверстий в фанагорийском резервуаре в случае его использования в качестве купели трудно. Лучше объясняет наличие двух отверстий другой возможный вариант использования резервуара: в качестве реликвария, в котором хранились мощи, их частицы или какие-то другие реликвии. Через верхнее отверстие в реликварий на хранящиеся в нем мощи наливали масло, которое выливалось через отверстие в нижней части. Что касается чаши с ручками-выступами вдоль края, то подобные емкости, как правило, определяют либо как купели для крещения детей, либо, чаще, как чаши для освященной воды, которую в раннехристианское время использовали для ритуального омовения рук перед входом в храм. Известные автору точные аналогии фанагорийскому сосуду происходят исключительно с территории провинций Мезия Секунда и Фракия. Не исключено, что именно оттуда фанагорийская емкость была привезена войсками, присланными на Боспор Юстинианом для подавления восстания против ставленника Византии Грода. Мраморный сигмовидной стол с арочной каймой также мог входить в состав инвентаря христианского храма. В церковном обиходе использование таких столов было вторичным, взятым из светской жизни и идет от раннехристианской традиции совместных поминальных трапез, совершавшихся над могилами мучеников. Позже их использовали в храмах в качестве престолов и столов для приношений, а также в трапезных монастырей. Несмотря на то, что сигмовидные столы, в частности столы с арочной каймой, использовали как в светском, так и христианском обиходе, их находки вне контекста обычно связывают с христианскими храмами. Однако в подобных случаях нельзя исключать возможность их использования и в качестве обычного обеденного стола. Наконец, с христианством может быть связана мраморная плитка с изображением Орфея, образ которого перешел в христианскую иконографию из языческого искусства. Незначительные размеры и сильная потертость фанагорийского фрагмента, к сожалению, не позволяют уверенно определить религиозный статус изображения, который, как правило устанавливают по составу «слушателей» и контексту. Строго говоря, из перечисленных находок только одну, мраморную чашу с вырезанным крестом, можно отнести к предметам интерьера христианского храмового комплекса безусловно. Сигмовидный стол могли использовать и в христианском культе, и по его прямому назначению – в качестве обеденного стола. Образ Орфея одинаково использовался как язычниками, так и христианами. Разным целям мог служить и мраморный резервуар. Но среди аргументов за и против их использования в христианском культе, все же превалируют первые. Кроме того, обнаружение всех предметов на довольно небольшом участке «Нижнего города» позволяет надеяться на то, что в ходе будущих раскопок здесь будет открыт христианский храм, и таким образом подтвердится предложенная интерпретация найденных предметов. Храм, к которому, возможно, относились перечисленные находки, по-видимому, был разрушен в середине 6 в. Тогда же, скорее всего, прекратила существование и Фанагорийская епархия. Какие-либо сведения о фанагорийских христианах более позднего времени полностью отсутствуют, но, судя по информации о христианских общинах, имевшихся в других центрах региона, а также в городах Хазарского каганата, были они и в Фанагории, которая в этот период, скорее всего, входила в состав Зихийской епархии. У нас нет сви детельств о притеснениях христиан в городах Хазарского каганата. Наоборот, согласно сведениям, содержащимся в письменных источниках, жизнь христиан там протекала до вольно спокойно. О благосклонном отношении хазарской элиты к христианству говорят и браки с византийским императорским домом, в частности брак Юстиниана II и сестры кагана Феодоры, после заключения которого он «уехал в Фанагорию и жил там с Феодорой» (Theoph. Chron. 704–705; пер. И.С. Чичурова). 2 Что же касается археологических свидетельств, то число связанных с христианством находок 8–10 вв. чрезвычайно мало, и их невозможно связать непосредственно с христианским населением Фанагории. Extremely low amounts of finds related to Christianity and their uneven distribution over time presents difficulties in reconstructing the history of the Phanagorian Christian community. The information on the history of Christianity in other centres of the North-Eastern Black Sea, a region where Phanagoria played a crucial part, can help fill the blanks to a certain extent. Without any doubt, the new religion arrived to Phanagoria, as well as to the other centres of the Bosporan kingdom, in the last quarter of the third century AD from Asia Minor, when the Goths brought Christians as captives from their pirate raids. The first recorded signs of Christianity in the Bosporos belong to the period after the sea campaigns of the “barbarians”. These include personal possessions with Christian symbols and Christian burial plots in the necropolis in Kerch. A small number of early Christian monuments points to the fact that during this period the spread of Christianity in the region heavily relied on the activities of missionaries, while the number of christians was still small. Later, after the inclusion of the Bosporos in the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, the church and the state were making joint efforts to Christianize the region: most likely, it was at this time that Christian churches were built on both sides of the Kerch Strait, an episcopal chair was established in Phanagoria and a Christian church was built, decorated with two marble water tanks, a sigmoid table and a relief depicting Orpheus. All this was found during the excavations in the “Lower City” trench. 2 Чичуров 1980, 62. Христианство в Фанагории. Археологические свидетельства 71 The shape and material from which one of the found tanks is made allows for its interpreta tion as a baptistery. The small depth of the found container does not necessarily mean that only children were baptised in it, since in most cases baptism was performed without complete immersion. The baptised stood in the font and water was poured over him. However, from the fourth century AD stagnant water was used for baptism, and the font had to be filled manually. It is, therefore, difficult to explain the purpose of the two holes in the Phanagorean reservoir if it was used as a font. Their presence is better explained by another possible use of the tank – as a reliquary. Oil was poured into the reliquary through the upper opening to cover the relics stored in it, and then came out through the opening in the lower part. Regarding the bowls with protruding handles along the edge, such vessels are considered to serve either as fonts for child baptism, or, more often, as bowls for consecrated water, which, during the early Christian times, were used to wash hands before entering the temple. Their exact analogies, known to the author, come exclusively from the provinces of Moesia Secunda and Thrace. It is possible that it was from there that the Phanagorian container was brought by the troops, which were sent to the Bosporos by Justinian to suppress the uprising against the Byzantine ruler named Grod. A marble sigmoid table with an arched border could also be part of the inventory of a Christian church. In church life, the use of such tables was secondary. It comes from secular life, from the early Christian tradition of communal meals served on the graves of martyrs. Later they were used in temples and monasteries as thrones and tables for offerings. Despite the fact that sigmoid tables, particularly those with an arched border, were used both in secular and Christian everyday life, they are usually associated with Christian churches when found out of context. However, one cannot exclude the possibility of them being used as a regular dining table. Finally, a marble tile with the image of Orpheus, which came to the Christian iconography from pagan art, can also be associated with Christianity. Unfortunately, due to its insignificant size and severe damage, this fragment does not allow us to determine the religious status of the image with any degree of certainty. Usually such assumptions can be made based on the amount of depicted listeners and the find’s context. Strictly speaking, only one of the listed finds, a marble bowl with a carved cross, can be attributed to the items from the interior of the Christian temple. The sigmoid table could be used both in the Christian cult and for its original purpose, as a dining table. The image of Orpheus was used by both pagans and Christians. A marble tank could possibly also serve different purposes. However, between the arguments “for” and “against” its use in a Christian context, the former prevail. In addition, the discovery of all the objects together in a rather small area of the “Lower City” excavation site allows us to hope that, during future excavations, a Christian church will be discovered here, confirming our interpretations. The temple to which the finds may have belonged was apparently destroyed in the middle of the sixth century AD. At the same time, most likely, the Phanagorian diocese also ceased to exist. There is no information on Phanagorian Christians during later periods, but, judging by the information about the Christian communities that existed in other centres of the region, as well as in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate, Christians were present in Phanagoria, which, during this period was likely a part of the Zikhia diocese. So far, we have no evidence of the oppression of Christians in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate. On the contrary, according to the information from written sources, the life of Christians there was a rather calm one. The favourable attitude of the Khazar elite towards Christianity is also evidenced by marriages with the Byzantine imperial family. Of particular interest is the marriage of Justinian II and the sister of the Khagan, Theodora, after which he “left for Phanagoria and lived there with Theodora”. As for archaeological evidence, the number of finds associated with Christianity from the 8th to 10th centuries AD is extremely low, and it is impossible to connect them directly with the Christian population of Phanagoria.