НЕКРОПОЛЬ ФАНАГОРИИ – ПЕРВЫЕ РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ РАДИОУГЛЕРОДНОГО ДАТИРОВАНИЯ
In Russian archaeology radiocarbon dating is used in very rare cases when antiquities from historical periods are studied based on coin finds and historical sources which have their own historical chronology. However, this arrangement does not always work, as some graves do not contain items that can be dated to a narrow time span while a great number of graves often have no funerary offerings at all. The State Historical Museum in Moscow houses archaeological materials from the Phanagoria necropolis excavated in 1936. Phanagoria is is the largest city of the Classical period and the early medieval period (540 BC–10th century). The collection from the necropolis excavations has preserved organic carbon-containing finds from grave 21 (the wood served to make a coffin – juniper, and sea algae). These materials were selected for AMS-dating. The following results were obtained: wood: 342–420 calAD, sea algae – 132–241 calAD. Of particular interest is the impression of the coin of the Roman Emperor Valens (364–378) found in this grave. The AMS-date of the coffin wood fully confirms the traditional archaeological dating of the finds whereas the coin offers an opportunity to narrow down the timeline of the grave to several decades (375–420). The older age of sea algae is caused by a marine reservoir effect which must be taken into account during the verification of the radiocarbon age of the consumers the food intake of which probably included algae.