34 I. Monuments and Sites Tauric Chersonesos is being Destroyed by the Occupying Russian Authorities

Abstract

Since 2014, some of the sites of cultural heritage of Ukraine has been under Russian occupation. The occupier caused the greatest damage to the only WHS site in Crimea - the ancient city of the Tauric Chersonesos and its chora. The site has been under the protection of UNESCO1 since 2013, located in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea

Full text

34 I. Monuments and Sites
Tauric Chersonesos is being Destroyed by the
Occupying Russian Authorities
Evelina Kravchenko
Since 2014, some of the sites of cultural heritage of Ukraine
has been under Russian occupation. The occupier caused the
greatest damage to the only WHS site in Crimea - the ancient
city of the Tauric Chersonesos and its chora. The site has been
under the protection of UNESCO1 since 2013, located in the city
of Sevastopol in Crimea (Fig.1–2).
1 http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1411
Tauric Chersonesos was one of the latest ancient Greek colo-
nies, founded in the 5th (according to one version at the end of
the 6
th
) centuries BC on the northern coast of Pontus, and the
only Dorian colony. The foundation of Chersonesos around the
middle of the 1
st
millennium BC connected with a number of
different factors, the main one being the active trade contacts
of the Greeks with the barbarian world of the north of Pontus
(Fig.3). The building remains of the city and fortification of the
Chersonesos-Kherson and its chora (agricultural area) have a
unique preservation both for the Northern Black Sea region and
for ancient sites in general.
The polis and the chora were designed and built according to
a single clearly observed plan, which corresponds to the ur-
ban planning concept of Hippodamus of Miletus. In addition,
Chersonesos-Kherson throughout its existence was associated
with the pervasion of transcultural cult customs and religions.
It is connected with evidence of the existence of the cult of the
Parthenos or the Virgin, the spread of early Christian ideology
even before its official recognition in Rome, the pervasion of
Orthodox Christianity (Byzantine observance) after the accept-
ance and baptism of Kyivan Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavovych
in the process of the acceptance of Rus` and its dynasties into
the circle of Byzantine area states.
One of the most important finds in Chersonesos for the world
cultural heritage was the Civic Oath of the Chersonesites(IO-
Fig. 1: The Heraclean Peninsula in the South-Western Crimea with the city of the
Tauric Chersonesos and its Chora
Map: Martin Lenk, with Chora by Stephen Tompson (Annual Report, Chersonesos and Metaponto,
2000, p.33)
Fig. 2: Plan of the Chersonesos museum from the Annual Report Chersonesos and
Metaponto, 2000, p.10. Plan: Carl Holiday and Alma Maldonado
Fig. 3: The Black Sea region with forest-steppe barbarian hillforts, ancient Greek
colonies (2) and Late Scythians hillforts (3) Map: Evelina Kravchenko

I. Monuments and Sites 35
SPE, I2, 400-402). This document was created in the 3rd century
BC during very hard events. The beginning of the 3
rd
century
BC was marked for Chersonesos by appreciable deprivation of
territories in the north and east. Therefore, the appearance of
this document could be a rethinking of the status of a citizen
by the Chersoneites, increased responsibility for their state. On
the other hand, this emphasizes the importance of democratic
institutions in Chersonesos, makes it not only unique in terms
of the architectural decision of the city, but also a wonderful ex-
ample of ancient democracy, unique in the quality of the public
organization of the polis. In fact, all this became the basis for
granting Tauric Chersonesos the status of a World Heritage Site
(Fig. 4).
In the first few years after the occupation, violations by the oc-
cupying power of the use of the WHS related to measures of
management – the construction of large observation platforms
Further measures of the so-called beautification already af-
fected the Volodymyr's Cathedral, which was handed over to
the Russian Orthodox Church by the occupation authorities. It
was a complex of works on the arrangement of communica-
tions and the territory around St. Volodymyr's Cathedral, which
led to the loss of a part
of the exhibition area
(Fig. 6), a violation of
integral archaeological
complexes by digging
trenches. In the future,
this will lead to the de-
struction of preserved
drawings on the walls
of a small cistern cov-
ered with a special soil
mixture (fig.9), which is
located near the St. Vo-
lodymyr Cathedral. This
“beautification” con-
tinues until now, and
in the future it is pre-
dicted that it will be im-
plemented uncontrolled
on the entire territory
of the ancient city of
Chersonesos.
Directly on the remains
of the only preserved
Roman citadel in the
Northern Black Sea re-
gion, an open-air thea-
tre was set up to hold an
opera and ballet festival
(Fig. 7). Constructions of
the stage, decorations,
light and sound equipment, audience rows weighing dozens of
tons lay on the stone remains of the oldest part of Chersone-
sos, covering all the "pre-Christian" building rests of the city.
The most barbaric crime that could be invented at an archaeo-
logical site is its demolition and construction, which happened
that distorted the authentic appearance of the site, the laying
of pedestrian paths with wooden flooring, which were in no
way compatible with the traditions of road covering in Cher-
sonesos, where stone or sea pebbles have always been used,
the construction of a new entrance group near the tower of
Zenonos, etc. (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5: The new entrance group near the tower of Zenonos. Photo: Google Maps, 2021
Fig. 4: General Plan of the City of the Tauric Chersonesos (yellow) and buffer zone (pink) by Tymur Bobrovskyi and Larissa Sedikova
(Історико-культурні заповідники, 2014). Map: UNESCO / Martin Lenk

36 I. Monuments and Sites
as a result of the construction of
the New Chersonese Archaeologi-
cal Park (Fig. 8). Construction took
place on the site of the ancient
suburb of Chersonesos which was
discovered and explored in 2010–
2013, in the southern part of the
site. As a result, more than 80,000
square meters of WHS were de-
stroyed. The construction works
destroyed the cultural layer, which
in some places reached more than
10 meters, the remains of an an-
cient temple, the city necropolis
with unique burial and memorial
structures, layers of ash and lit-
ter, the remains of suburban com-
plexes of the WHS together with
ceramic workshops (ceramicos).
The area of these complexes is part of the Tauric Chersonesos
site. It was a territory of a Russian military base before 2014,
and just part of this territory is the area of the National Preserve
of the Tauric Chersonesos excavated in 2010-2013. In the map
of the UNESCO WHS this territory is in the buffer zone (see
Fig. 4).
All these works were sanctioned by Russian archaeologists
who supposedly conducted research there in an expedition of
the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. The expedition was headed by Sergey
Solovyov. Specialists of the State Hermitage, the Institute of Ar-
chaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian univer-
sities, and the National Preserve of the Tauric Chersonesos are
involved in this. In addition to the fact that the general appear-
ance of the site was disturbed, which led to the distortion of
the ancient landscape, tens of thousands of finds excavated by
soil works from destroyed suburban complexes were removed
from Crimea, other tens of thousands ended up in the mod-
ern landfills of Sevastopol, where they were taken by dump
trucks from the construction zone. Some of them were picked
up from these dumps by local people both for personal storage
and for sale on the black market. Thus, soon we will be able to
see things from Chersonesos on online auctions.
The executor of these works and the general contractor is the
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the management
and financing of the works is carried out by the "My History"
fund of the Patriarchal Council for Culture of the Russian Or-
Fig. 8: Map of Sevastopol (2024) with Na-
tional Preserve of the Tauric Chersonesos (be-
tween the Pisochna and Karantynna bays)
and the area of the so-colled Archaeological
Park of the New Chersonesos in the buffer
zone. Map: Google / Martin Lenk
Fig. 6: The City of Tauric Chersonesos with the area of the St. Volodymyr cathedral
(left center, behind the wall). Photo: Chris Williams, 2001
Fig. 7: The open-air theatre in the remains of the Roman citadel.
Photo: From the author’s collection, 2023

I. Monuments and Sites 37
thodox Church with the direct participation of Simferopol and
Crimea Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov). The museum-pre-
serve (the Russian administration of the WHS) itself, as a new
structure created on the site of Tauric Chersonesos, headed
by the former director of the St. Petersburg Waterworks Elena
Morozova, does not interfere with the construction work and is
going to soon move all its departments to the buildings of the
New Chersonesos Archaeological Park.
In January 2024, the occupation authorities and the Russian Or-
thodox Church announced the so-called renewal of the mon-
astery in the buildings of the National Preserve of the Tauric
Chersonesos (Fig. 9).2
This means that the National Preserve of the Tauric Chersone-
sos will be evicted from all its buildings to newly built ones on
the destroyed part of the site.
Actually, the authentic museum was turned into a monastery
3
,
the most valuable things were exported to the Russian Federa-
tion
4
, the evidence and building remains of the ancient demo-
cratic polis were closed for exhibition, they are under the open
air theatre
5
. Instead, a fake was created - the so-called New
Chersonesos, which will shine with gold and new paint, with
smooth green lawns, fountains, Chinese bridges and a tem-
2 The St. Volodymyr monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church was created
on the area of the Tauric Chersonesos site in the middle of the XIX century
and functioned till 1924, when it was closed by the Communist power of
the RSFSR. The buildings of the monastery were handed to the museum of
Chersonesos. The St. Vologymyr cathedral was destroyed in World War II
and reconstructed by the Kyiv community in its own fundaments at the be-
ginning of the 2000s. The monastery was not built until 2024.
3 https://zaxid.net/hersones_nerizdvyana_istoriya_n1577581?fbclid=IwZXh-
0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3k2J-n5XhNMPGS81F_JrbswpM0S0r0vd2oi94S9MO-
5s9eVws2OR3ZZct4_aem_AasDtY8c5HUf9gzPGf7h8c7jqkiWH45vVOd-
qsv-1Orgm1vQNerDHc-R3OVcMeCJkPPLVOqae5iTlsBnQHb-S62FV
4 http://vgosau.kiev.ua/novyny/arkheolohichna-spadshy-
na-na-okupovanykh-terytotiyakh/1351-vyvezennia-arkh-tsinnostei-kher-
sones?fbclid=IwAR3WiiTLQ7VDEkknQ6bzt7jUt5XF6wIw92CSM59Gl-
9JrYVSLzaFeAMwJHvA
5 https://zaxid.net/yak_rosiyani_znishhuyut_hersones_tavriyskiy_n1568258
ple with a dome that will open like in James Bond movies (Fig.
10–12).
How does this correlate with Russian legislation? The fact is
that after the occupation, the authorities of the Russian Feder-
ation refused to recognize the Ukrainian documentation for the
WHS and accepted by UNESCO for registration. Instead, new
documentation was created for the site of Tauric Chersone-
sos, and a number of examinations were conducted to approve
such works on the site. Acts of conducting “expert” work were
signed by a number of archaeologists known outside Crimea -
Yuriy Zaitsev, Igor Khrapunov, and the archaeological research
that became the basis for these acts was carried out by Ludmila
Kovalevska and Emil` Seydaliev.
Fig. 9: Consecration of the St. Volodymyr male monastery of the Russian Orthodox
Church on the territory of the National Preserve of the Tauric Chersonesos.
Photo: From the author’s collection, January 2024
Fig.s 10–12: Buildings and streets of the archaeological park of the New Chersone-
sos. Photos from the author’s collection, 2022-2024

38 I. Monuments and Sites
Thus, not only the laws of Ukraine on the protection and man-
agement of archaeological and cultural heritage were violated,
but also international documents, in particular the manage-
ment plan of the site, the requirements of UNESCO regarding
the coordination of all landscape transformations around the
site and work on the site and buffer zone.
What about the restoration? Russia has not changed its ap-
proach to the restoration of cultural heritage objects since the
time of the USSR. They consisted not so much in preserving the
object in its historical authentic form, but in giving the object
an attractive appearance. Thus, the Soviet restoration allowed
the complete reconstruction of the cultural heritage object. As
it happened with Gostynnyi Dvir in Kyiv, after which the build
-
ing took on a different appearance and almost completely lost
its authenticity, which eventually led to its current state of ruin.
Modern world requirements for restoration are based on meas-
ures to preserve the site and minimize any changes to it. Rus-
sian requirements for this process remained at the level of the
80s of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
In Chersonesos, after the destruction of the suburb during the
construction of the New Chersonese Archaeological Park, the
occupiers decided to restore some of the unique archaeological
sites, which miraculously did not die under the bucket of the
excavator, in a new place. In particular, we are talking about
the ancient suburb sanctuary – the heroon – and the temple
on antus (Fig. 13–14). And as Sergey Solovyov, the direct leader
of these so-called archaeological researches, noted in a recent
interview with Russian propagandists, the Russians rebuilt these
objects even better than the Greeks. Actually, this statement
contains all the tragedy of the situation and of Russian culture
as a whole: Russians for some reason are sure that everything
done before or without them is bad.
Despite the fact that during the construction of the archaeo-
logical park of New Chersonesos, millions of archaeological ob-
jects were obtained that required laboratory processing and res-
toration, not a single new restoration workshop was created in
Crimea by the occupation authorities. Most of the objects were
sent to Moscow and St. Petersburg for restoration, their status
is unknown. The rest was restored and conserved in Crimean
workshops, the best of which were built and equipped in the
National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos until 2014, in particular,
the Packard Laboratory, which was created at the expense of
the Packard Humanitarian Foundation (USA) within the scope
of an international project of the Institute of Classical Archaeol-
ogy of the University of Texas, headed by Prof. J. Carter.
All these violations, which led to catastrophic consequences for
the World Heritage site, became possible due to non-compli-
ance with the international legislation ratified by the Russian
Federation on the protection of cultural property, in particu-
lar during armed conflict (the 1954 Hague Convention onthe
Protection ofCultural Property during Armed Conflict, the 1970
Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Il-
licit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Prop-
erty, etc.), the archaism of the conceptual foundations of the
Russian legislation itself, as well as the exceptionally high level
of corruption in the Russian Federation, when no laws affect
the personal whims of the top leadership of the state and its
entourage.
The recent situation around the Tauric Chersonesos WHS, with
military bases located near the site,6 is dangerous and assumes
to recommend the inscription of this site to the List in Dan-
ger, so as ask question about modernization the procedures of
UNESCO monitoring mission and changes the system of mon-
itoring according hi-tech decisions. The activities of the Rus-
sian Federation in the Tauric Chersonesos devaluated the pro-
tection of cultural heritage and has put this state party outside
this process.
6 https://zaxid.net/na_teritoriyi_hersonesa_tavriyskogo_okupanti_buduyut_vi-
yskoviy_navchalniy_tsentr_n1571700?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1bI-
clFh2m6I9ZK76kf5nj-1zOnaO93AAAev7eejmMsmMPsHZZprbpG444_aem_
AasTC6xFYg3VUWaQvIl3pgN96o61VeD6hd30-PEPmtp5LUvGe8O2crUtM-
KPsMd9E-p-k4pWYDps-vUEmVtT126X9 )
Fig.s 13 and 14: The Russan archaeological team near the excavation of heroon and
temple of antus and deconstruction of these objects in a new square of so-called ar-
chaeological park of the New Chersonesos. Photos: From the author’s collection, 2022-2024