The south-west of the crimea with its grandiose landscape, a ‘hinterland’ of early byzantine chersonesus taurica, contains not just the ruins of mediaeval churches but also some early christian remains, especially the important basilicas of the so-called cave cities of mangup and eski kermen. Consideration of these early churches is – like the history of the south-western crimea overall – determined by the changing history of archaeological science in the 20th century.
This paper presents the churches in their historical context and deals with the implications of soviet and national socialist ideologies for research on, and interpretation of, the early mediaeval history of mountainous crimea.
Advertisement
