Painted Grave Stelai

ICA was invited by the director of the National Preserve in 1992 to undertake the study for publication of a collection of funerary monuments from the early Hellenistic necropolis of Chersonesos.   Excavated in the 1960s and 1970s by the National Preserve in the Tower of Zeno and the city wall, they number approximately 300 fragmentary stelai and architectural elements, and comprise one of the most numerous examples of the use of color in Greek art and architecture.   Initial documentation, cataloguing, and color photography, in collaboration with one of the excavators, Prof. Vitali Dunielenko, Tauric University, Simferopol, was completed by 2000.   At that time, an international team, consisting of Prof. Joseph Carter, University of Texas; Dr. Richard Posamentir of the DAI, Instanbul; Prof. Paula Perlman, University of Texas; architect Christina Lippert and colleagues; and architectural historian Dr. Alla Buyskikh, Institute of Archaeology Kyiv, was formed to carry out a detailed study of the material. The results of this study will soon be published in English in two major monographs.