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The Elizavetovka settlement located on the Don river is one of the largest settlements of the early iron period discovered in the steppe zone of the northern seaboard of the Black Sea. Its location at the junction of the three large ethnic groups (Scythians, Sauromats (Sarmats) and Meotes), the proximity of the Hellenic cities of Bosporan Kingdom, as well as the presence of convenient river and sea transport routes and rich natural resources of Don river contributed to making Elizavetovka the largest center of inner-tribal and international trade in the whole South Eastern part of Gerodot Scythia. No other settlement in the northern seaboard of the Black Sea from the Scythian period provides us with better means of understanding the process of the origin and development of barbarism, especially Hellenic-barbaric contacts.

By the middle of IV AD, Elizavetovka became a settlement with basic trade, administrative, religious and shelter functions. The functions that this settlement performed make it possible to view it as a capital of the whole Lower Don region and, partially, of the North Eastern Azov region. As a result of archaeological excavations conducted for many years by a Southern Don expedition, enormous and unique archaeological material has been obtained.

The volume describes architectural and fortification complexes and privides a detailed analysis of the material culture of the inhabitants of Elizavetovka settlement at the different stages of its development, from the time when it was founded and its first direct cultural and economic contacts with the Greeks were established, up to the time when the city was destroyed, and a large Bosporan colony was founded on its ruins.

Plates 52–53.

Plates 62–63.