Moisieiev D. Medieval Building Ceramics of South-Western Crimea as an object of the Сultural Heritage

The dissertation is the first comprehensive research on the medieval building ceramics of the South-Western Crimea as a source for the study of an object of the cultural heritage. The method used for the study includes the typology that combines both technological and morphological features of products. This kind of description of building ceramics is universal and can be used for study of material of various geographical and historical habitats, connected with the ancient (Roman) technology of production of building ceramics. Medieval building ceramics of the South-Western Crimea (from this point on MBCSWC) were investigated using the technology-morphological typology, which made it a reliable indicator of chronology. Such an approach allows us to reconstruct the evolution of construction technologies for the erection of medieval roofing structures, which is an important achievement for the protection of monuments. The scientific novelty of the research is as follows: for the first time: the MBCSWC was localized and typologized within the entire South-Western Crimea for the first time; the specifics of the historical and technological development of the production centers of the MBCSWC were studied; the technology of production of building ceramics was reconstructed, including the issue of interpretation of relief marks; the chronology of the MBCSWC was developed, up to a quarter of a century for some groups; trade and technological exchange of building ceramics between Crimea and separate regions of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean were discovered. The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that it solves the main issue of the protection of the cultural heritage of the Crimea in the conditions of its massive destruction and the limited possibility of the state's influence on the real situation on the ground – the fixation of what has been preserved until now. The obtained results make it possible to make an important step in the protection of the intangible cultural heritage and preservation of ancient tiled roofs. The latter circumstance is especially important in the context of destruction committed on the roofs of the Khan's Palace. A special methodology for the study of building ceramics, developed to study the technology of tile production, makes this material a representative archaeological source. This allows a better use of archaeological data in the study of monuments. In particular this concerns the clarification of the chronology, the fixation of economic ties between the Crimea and other regions of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.According to the author, the following chronological periods can be distinguished in the production history of the MBCSWC: the emergence of the production of building ceramics in the barbarian periphery of Chersonese in the mountainous regions of the South-Western Crimea (the so-called "country of the Dori") in the V–VI centuries; the formation of a local tradition of building ceramics with the use of the "back" method in the 9th – the first half of the 10th century; the existence of the production of building ceramics in the Southwest Crimea in the context of the Black Sea and Mediterranean construction traditions in the second half of the X – first half of the XIII century; the archaization and regionalization of building ceramics of the South-Western Crimea in the second half of the XIII–XV centuries.