Academic literature on the topic 'Piracy – History'

AbstractThe 104 identified piratical incidents in Australian waters between 1790 and 1829 indicate a neglected but substantial and historically significant resistance practice, not a scattering of unrelated spontaneous bolts by ships of fools. The pirates’ ideologies, cultural baggage, techniques, and motivations are identified, interrogated, and interpreted. So are the connections between convict piracy and bushranging; how piracy affected colonial state power and private interests; and piracy's relationship to “age of revolution” ultra-radicalism elsewhere.

Maritime commerce in world commerce. Each year, vessels carry more cargo at higher costs and faster speeds. Insurance is an integral part of shipping, as it protects cargoes and crews against the perils of the sea. This article focuses on the peril of piracy, a criminal practice that has evolved significantly throughout history. Pirates today, as pirates of the past, prey upon the unprotected. Yet, modern piracy, unlike historical piracy, is essentially non-violent. The modern pirate profits from ransom, not theft. Today, piracy is a monetary risk with compu­­­table consequences: an insurable threat. Anti-piracy methods, including insurance, impose steep costs to world trade. In the past decade, pirate activity has declined while piracy insurance has grown more expensive. This phenomenon is problematic, but an industry-wide solution is a challenging construct. To handle the costly risks of piracy is to balance the distinct and competing interests of ship-owners, insurers, operators, and governments. As this Article argues, insurance can more efficiently mitigate piracy’s puzzling risk. After discussing maritime piracy and maritime insurance, this Article outlines the legal and regulatory schema for a system to mandate the speeds of vessels that transit pirate-prone waters. The proposed regulation is mechanically sound, logistically feasible, cost-effective, and enforceable. To diminish the costly risk of piracy, this Article proposes revising a treaty to afford the International Maritime Organization (IMO) jurisdiction to regulate vessel speeds on the high seas.

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.

Abstract Seafaring, and especially the use of seaborne violence, in the early modern period is strongly associated with European naval activity. In this issue and the next, this perspective is challenged through a sustained interrogation of indigenous piracy in Asian waters. A series of studies highlight the persistence, sophistication, and breathtaking scale of Asian piracy. They show how piracy was deeply ingrained in the social worlds, commercial exchanges, and political contestations across the Asian littoral. Based on these insights, it is argued that the study of piracy reveals the significance of an often-overlooked dimension of Asian maritime enterprise in the early modern period.

Abstract In the voluminous literature on historical piracy there is no convincing analysis of the actual impact of piracy on sea trade. This article attempts, in a preliminary way, such an analysis. Fragmentary data from the early modern Indian Ocean suggests that the cost of piracy was a minor imposition as compared with many other charges and dangers, some of them predictable, others not.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established to prosecute crimes that “threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world”. Maritime piracy has a long history as a threat to international security and was in fact the first international crime. Yet piracy was excluded from the Rome Statute. In the years since the drafting of the Rome Statute, piracy has increased dramatically to become more like the threat it was in the “Golden Age of Piracy”. Criminal accountability for piracy has been minimal, due to logistical and jurisdictional difficulties. This paper offers an analysis of the potential of the ICC for prosecuting pirates: why it should be considered as a potential forum for ensuring criminal accountability for piracy, how piracy fits within the ICC's jurisdiction, and whether or not piracy should be added to the Rome Statute as a stand-alone crime or under the rubric of crimes against humanity.

Piracy was considered a crime in international law, and British authorities felt its suppression justified the extension of state power into Asian waters. Only after the Opium War and the colonisation of Hong Kong, however, did Britain gain an interest and the wherewithal to act against pirates off the coast of South China. Ships of the Royal Navy, enforcing British ideas of international and maritime law in Chinese waters, together with the criminal justice system in Hong Kong, proved limited in their capacity to deal with piracy in South China in the mid-nineteenth century. Agents of British state power on the coast of China thus sought the assistance of their international counterparts, culminating in an international punitive expedition to Coulan. This article examines interstate cooperation in the effort to suppress piracy and the light this sheds on the relationship between piracy and state power. It argues that such collaboration required compromises between different understandings of piracy and the jurisdiction that different states had over it, and that interstate power was ultimately limited in its impact on the activities of pirates in South China.

This thesis examines a selection of High Court of Admiralty depositions pertaining to Ireland in the sixteenth-century. The seventeenth-century ushered in the ‘Golden Age’ of piracy as well as the plantation of southern Ireland by pirates. Prior to this, the Irish Sea was already active with ‘gentlemen of fortune’ plying their trade, acting as pawns of war, and providing goods through a black-market; thus creating the foundations for the expansion that followed. This thesis analyses the nature of piracy and its relationship with Ireland during the sixteenth century, by illustrating who may have gained from acts of seaborne depredation; and will further illuminate why the island was such a choice location for pirates to operate from and later relocate to. Following a political overview of sixteenth-century Ireland this thesis will cover three chapters, each focusing on a different level of society that benefited from piracy. Each section will analyses a set of cases, comprised of individual depositions, to understand the relationship of ‘political’ piracy, ‘official’ piracy and ‘buyer and merchant’ piracy in the context of Pre-Golden Age Ireland. The sources used in this study from the High Court of Admiralty are a resource that have remained largely untapped. The collection has yet to be edited and translated fully. The manuscripts held in the National Archives also remain un-digitized and are at risk of being lost from damage and general degradation. The present work helps to highlight the value of the Court of Admiralty records. The scans presented in the appendices and enclosed pen drive ensures the preservation of this important data as it relates to Ireland in the sixteenth century.

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20th-century and early 21st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their colonial counterparts or play the role of ‘Robin Hood’ in their societies. Firsthand accounts of pirates from the modern-day pirate community on Batam Island suggest that the contemporary Southeast Asian pirate is an operative in the increasingly corporate interest of modern-day criminal organizations.

The focus of the thesis is the diplomatic and legal implications of the capture of ships at sea in the later Middle Ages. It challenges key assumptions in much secondary literature concerning the definition of piracy, seeking to explore several major themes relating to the legal status of shipping in periods of war or diplomatic tension in this period. The thesis draws primarily on diplomatic, legal and administrative records, largely those of English royal government, but also makes use of material relating to France, Holland and Zealand, Flanders and the Hanse. The majority of studies on this subject stress the importance of developments which occurred in the fifteenth century, yet I have found it necessary to follow the development of the law of prize, diplomatic provisions for the keeping of the sea and the use of devolved sea-keeping fleets back to the start of the thirteenth century. This thesis questions the tendency of historians to attach the term ‘piracy’, with its modern legal connotations, to a variety of actions at sea in the later Middle Ages. In the absence of a clear legislative or semantic framework a close examination of the complexity of practice surrounding the judgement of prize, the provision of restitution to injured parties, and diplomatic mechanisms designed to prevent disorder at sea, enables a more rounded picture to emerge. A detailed examination of individual cases is set within the broader conceptual framework of international, commercial and maritime law. Chapter 1 provides a study of the wartime role of devolved flees by means of a case study of Henry III’s Poitou campaigns of 1242-3. It demonstrates that private commissioned ships undertook a variety of naval roles including the transport of troops, patrolling the coast and enforcing blockades. Further, it argues that it is anachronistic to criticise private shipowners for seeking profit through attacks on enemy shipping as booty was an integral incentive in all forms of medieval warfare. Chapter 2 provides a detailed examination of the application of letters of marque, one of the principal means of obtaining redress for injuries suffered at the hands of the subject of a foreign sovereign. It demonstrates that far from being a justification for ‘piracy’ letters of marque were highly regulated legal instruments applied in the context of an internationally accepted body of customs. Chapter 3 examines the concept of neutrality and the relationship between warfare and commerce through a study of Anglo-Flemish relations during the Anglo-Scottish wars between 1305 and 1323. It argues that universal standards of neutrality did not exist in this period and that decisions on prize took place within the context of an ever-changing diplomatic background. Chapter 4 focuses on the provision of restitution once judgement had been made through an examination of a complex dispute between English merchants and the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland spanning the opening decades of the fourteenth century. It emphasises the ad hoc nature of restitution with a variety of means devised to compensate the injured parties and the difficult and often inconclusive process undergone by litigants against a backdrop of competing interests, both local and national. The thesis concludes that the legal process surrounding the capture of shipping was civil rather than criminal in nature. The plaintiff’s need to obtain restitution was the driving force behind such actions rather than the state’s desire to monopolise the use of violence at sea. The reliance of the English crown on devolved shipping made such a policy fiscally impractical.

Piracy around the Malay Peninsula during the 19th century was extraordinarily prevalent and resulted in the death and loss of liberty for an untold number of people. This essay examines the connections between the piracy of this era and the political economies of the Straits Settlements and the Malay states in the region. Malays pirates often had the support of local rulers who required the goods and slaves brought back by pirates to reinforce their own political and socio-economic positions. The piratical system supported by the rulers was a component of the overall Malay economic system known as kerajaan economics, which helped maintain the status quo for Malay states. This system came under threat once Great Britain and the Netherlands worked to suppress piracy in the region and helped persuade the Malay elite to phase out state-sanctioned piracy. Some people living in Malaya took advantage of the characteristics of British and Malay political economies to engage in acts of piracy regardless of the policies of the British and Malay governments. This study of piracy enables us to understand better the experiences of people of various backgrounds living in 19th-century Malaya, along with how piracy influenced their worldviews.

This thesis examines the historical geographies of piracy from around 1680 to 1730, a period in which the relations between pirates and the state changed dramatically. More specifically, the thesis aims to employ a distinctively geographical lens in the study of aspects of piratical and anti-piratical agency, focusing on four particular spatialities. Firstly, the thesis seeks to reanimate the pirate, to study their world through movement and mobilities, both real and imagined, to show how these mattered for the way pirates were rationalised by the state, and how their actual movements differed from those encoded in the notion of the ‘roving’ pirate. Secondly, this thesis shows how questions of space, power and politics played out aboard the pirate ship, attending specifically to certain spatial practices apparent among many pirates, whereby this thesis considers critically the extent to which politics was entangled with space in the life of the pirate afloat. Thirdly, it is suggested that the ‘mercantilist discourse’ that framed piracy as an existential threat to the development of the early-modern state and the accompanying changes to the institutional architecture and everyday practices of the state were underpinned by hitherto neglected geographies of power and representation. Finally, this thesis explores the dark and disturbing geographies of punishment visited upon the bodies of captured pirates. The prison, the gallows and the gibbet are shown to have been important sites in the move towards the social exclusion of the pirate, and it argued that this process of ‘othering’ was permeated with a distinctively geographical logic. These cuts each suggest new perspectives on the story of piracy and the ‘salt-water state’ in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth century, foregrounding important patterns, practices and processes that gave distinctive shape to the lives, deaths and legacies of pirates.

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.

In a modern global historical context, scholars have often regarded piracy as an essentially European concept which was inappropriately applied by the expanding European powers to the rest of the world, mainly for the purpose of furthering colonial forms of domination in the economic, political, military, legal and cultural spheres. By contrast, this edited volume highlights the relevance of both European and non-European understandings of piracy to the development of global maritime security and freedom of navigation. It explores the significance of ‘legal posturing’ on the part of those accused of piracy, as well as the existence of non-European laws and regulations regarding piracy and related forms of maritime violence in the early modern era. The authors in this volume highlight cases from various parts of the early-modern world, thereby explaining piracy as a global phenomenon.

Contemporary views of piracy often associate it with state failure. However, this view may be traced to nineteenth-century debates about Southeast Asia, and in particular, the writings of Sir Stamford Raffles for whom it became a pretext for intervention. Prior to this, European observers and officials tended either to naturalize piracy as a part of Southeast Asian life, or to label foes as pirates. Both nineteenth-century colonial debates and earlier stereotypes disconnected from maritime settings do not provide reliable evidence of piracy. Instead, they offer evidence of colonial ideology and statecraft. This essay historicizes piracy’s association with failed states and offers another way to theorize piracy without adopting either statist or relativist points of view.

The chapter focuses on how piracy was rendered in Spanish records from the Philippine Islands from around 1570 to 1800. The author demonstrates that the label “pirate” was used to denote a wide range of hostile elements or peoples, including other Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, and indigenous Philippine groups. Several of these alleged pirates have been largely overshadowed by later, mainly nineteenth-century, accounts that focused exclusively or overwhelmingly on the maritime raiding of indigenous Muslim “Moro piracy.” The chapter thus demonstrates the complex nature of piracy and the multiplicity of actors, practices, and representations of the phenomenon during the long period under study.

The coastal fortifications of Terra d’Otranto: a panoramic view of the coastal towers in the province of LecceDuring the Modern Age we witnessed the birth, consolidation and decline of great powers that dragged numerous political and religious conflicts with them. The Mediterranean Sea, as area of contact between the most distant Empires, experienced an era of intense naval activity in the form of piracy, race wars and armed deterrence, spreading along its shores with coastal watch towers. The organization of the defensive coastal system took place in intimate relationship with the territory, strongly characterizing the coasts which for centuries have seen them as the unique anthropical presence. Their exclusively military character has, however, inhibited their reuse over time, arousing until a few decades ago the disinterest of the community and their disavowal of architectures worthy of protection. The knowledge of the historical events and the morphotypological characteristics of the Apulian system of coastal towers thus becomes the starting point for their acknowledgment as fundamental identifying characters of the territory, finalizing their study to the re-appropriation of these assets by the community as strategical vehicles for the transmission of the local history and its intrinsic values. The classification of the towers in the province of Lecce has made them the object of spatial and typological analyses produced with the help of the opensource software “Quantum GIS” and geo-referenced on the official cartographic bases.

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.