The name of the city Mirmeki is translated from ancient Greek as "ant".
Instructions
Step 1
The settlement Mirmeki, like most of the Greek colonies, is located by the sea, on the coast of the ancient Bosporus of Cimmerian, modern Kerch Strait. In good weather, the Taman Peninsula is perfectly visible, which the ancient Greeks considered already another continent - Asia. Mirmeki was founded in the middle of the 6th century BC and was a fishing suburb of Panticapaeum, as a kind of "agricultural town" of this polis. The system of developing the territory of the Kerch Peninsula by removing relatively large settlements located at a short distance from each other in places convenient for defense was practiced by the Panticapaeans due to the complexity of the military-political situation in the Bosporus - the proximity of the Ciscaucasian Scythia, periodic movements across the strait of a part of the Scythian nomadic horde. It seems that it was the external danger that forced the Greeks to choose this not quite usual system of settlement.
Step 2
The economic profile of Mirmekia is winemaking, all the surroundings of the city were occupied by vineyards. Wineries were rooms with two (less often three) platforms for pressing grapes with their feet and squeezing out the juice residues from the waste obtained by means of a stone press. The juice obtained, respectively, of unequal quality, flowed into different compartments of the tanks. The capacity of the tanks reached 7-8 thousand liters.
The attraction of Mirmekia is a multi-meter ash-pan - a hill made of layers of ash and clay, which arose in the second half of the 4th century BC in the center of the city above the ruins of a sanctuary. Probably, this strange structure surprisingly combined the functions of a sanctuary and an ordinary dump. It is in this hill that archaeologists have found many coins, terracotta items and dedications to deities. Soon Mirmeki was destroyed in the turbulent events that followed the death of the famous Mithridates VI Eupator, who committed suicide in neighboring Panticapaeum. In Roman times, Mirmekiy experienced periods of brief prosperity, catastrophic destruction and long desolation. Finally, life on the monument was interrupted somewhere at the turn of the 4th century, when the remnants of the population, most likely, moved to Panticapaeum.
Step 3
The most famous find associated with this city of the Bosporan kingdom is a richly decorated marble sarcophagus found in 1834, which probably became the last refuge of one of the Bosporan kings, and is currently in the collection of the State Hermitage. Of the last notable finds, it is worth mentioning a treasure of 723 bronze coins of the 3rd century BC found in 2002, and a bronze jug with 99 electr (an alloy of gold and silver) coins with images of Greek gods of the 5th century BC, found in 2003. Both of the last exhibits entered the funds of the Kerch Historical and Archaeological Museum. Until now, only the foundations of the defensive walls, the remains of wineries and the masonry of the walls of ancient buildings, as well as fish-salting baths of the Roman period, have survived from the ancient city of Crimea Myrmekia. The ancient city of Mirmekiy is a historical landmark of the Crimea.
