ON THE LOCALIZATION OF THE LATE ANTIQUITY JEWISH NECROPOLIS NEAR CAPE PAVLOVSKY IN KERCH

The study deals with the discovery of a Late Antiquity necropolis on Cape Pavlovsky in Kerch, the Republic of Crimea. The tombstones and their fragments found in 2020 mark the territory of the ancient necropolis. The main question under discussion is whether the newly identified area of the necropolis belonged to the Jewish community of Panticapaeum or the community of the settlement (fortification) Ak-Burun II of the first centuries AD located to the west of Cape Ak-Burun. 27 Jewish tombstones were found, some of them have survived only in fragments. Twelve tombstones have preserved images of the menorah. Two stones have one of the surfaces carefully processed. Probably, an inscription and images were made on these surfaces with paint. Judging by the studies of the 19th–20th centuries, in the vicinity of cape Ak-Burun there were probably at least two Jewish necropolises: one of them located near Cape Pavlovsky and the other – at the infirmary of the Kerch fortress near Cementnaya Slobodka, where Jewish tombstones were discovered. Based on the analysis of the found tombstones and epitaphs the newly discovered area of the necropolis can be preliminarily dated to the 2nd–4th centuries AD.