Part of a 2000-year-old doll was found in the ruins of the ancient city of Acre in Crimea.

Earlier in 2024, scientists examined part of a residential area from the Roman period. All the buildings were burned at once in the third quarter of the 3rd century AD, probably when the Goths attacked the Bosporan kingdom located in the eastern Crimea.

Separate fragments of a ceramic figurine, an arm and a leg were found, and we now believe that these may be parts of a puppet — a doll that was suspended on a system of threads, and when a person pulled them, it moved. Both items date from the Roman period, that is, the first centuries AD, — TASS quotes Arina Starikova.

In addition, among the interesting finds of 2024 is a drawing of an animal scratched on a shard of a ceramic vessel.

We cannot identify what kind of animal is depicted — perhaps it is someone from the cat family. This line here resembles a long tail, lines near the head — maybe a mustache? Unfortunately, the image is not completely preserved, – notes the agency’s interlocutor.

In a similar manner, another ceramic fragment depicts a bird. However, as a member of the expedition noted, it is impossible to determine whether the drawings were made with one hand or not. Moreover, they were found in different places, although they date back to approximately the same time period — the beginning of our era.

If we were talking about today, I would say that the drawings are more likely for children — both the animal is incomprehensible, and the bird is depicted schematically. But it is incorrect to draw such conclusions for archaeological objects: the fact is that each period had its own depiction technique and different ideas about how certain animals and objects should be depicted, — says the head of the expedition, researcher at the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Vakhoneev.

About excavations

The ruins of the ancient city of Acre are located on the eastern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, south of the city of Kerch. It is called the Crimean Atlantis: about 80% of the area is flooded by the sea, the level of which has risen greatly since the founding of the settlement in the 6th century BC. Last season, in an area that is still on land, archaeologists discovered the remains of a household that burned down in a fire in the middle of the 3rd century. This summer they expanded their research area by studying a neighboring household on an area of ​​100 square meters. m.