The 2024 field season brought an important discovery for the State Hermitage’s Eastern Bosporan Archaeological Expedition during excavation of one of the most important locations from Classical Antiquity on the territory of Krasnodar Krai – the Semibratneye site. Under the leadership of Dmitry Chistov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, senior researcher in the Department of Classical Antiquity, participants succeeded in uncovering a major Hellenistic complex on the territory of the ancient settlement of Labris.
The building, erected after Labris and the whole of Sindica had been joined to the Bosporan Kingdom under the Spartocid dynasty, had some public or administrative purpose. Its exact function may be established in the course of further exploration. The archaeologists unearthed two internal courtyards, one of which had a covered peristyle gallery around it in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, and part of the numerous rooms that surrounded those courtyards. Within the peristyle courtyard there was the base of an altar or statue, while the adjoining courtyard contained an altar of even greater size.
The building was located on the territory of an ancient town that arose in the late 6th century BC on the left bank of the River Kuban (Hypanis). Thanks to the chance find of an inscription on the pedestal of a statue of Phoebus Apollo, we know that its Greek name in the 4th century BC was Labris. There are grounds for supposing that Labris may have served as the residence of the Sindi rulers, but that later, in the time of King Leucon I, this place, along with the whole of Sindica, was incorporated into the Greek Bosporan Kingdom with its capital at Pantikapaion (modern-day Kerch).
Hermitage archaeologists’ involvement with this outstanding location has a history going back almost 150 years. The site acquired its present name from the nearby Semibratnie (Seven Brothers) kurgans that in the 5th and early 4th centuries BC served as burial places for members of the high nobility or royal family of the local Sindi tribe of Scythians. The kurgans were explored in 1875–78 by Baron Vladimir Gustavovich Tiesenhausen, an archaeologist, numismatist and member of the Imperial Archaeological Commission. The outstanding finds made during investigation of the barrows – vessels, adornments, weapons and even fragments of ancient fabrics – are today in the stocks and permanent display of the Hermitage’s Department of Classical Antiquity.
In 2024, the State Hermitage, State Historical Museum and the RAS Institute for the History of Material Culture signed an agreement on scholarly collaboration when conducting a planned study of the Semibratneye site – Labris.
This season’s joint excavations were on the largest scale of any archaeological exploration of the site. The Historical Museum’s Bosporan Expedition under the leadership of Denis Zhuralvlyov opened up a new section. The Hermitage’s Eastern Bosporan Expedition in collaboration with the expedition from the Institute for the History of Material Culture (led by Vladimir Goroncharovsky) continued exploration of the 2001–09 excavation, considerably expanding its area. In the course of the work, it proved possible to establish that the previously uncovered building remnants from the Hellenistic period belong to a large complex that existed, with some reconstructions, from the 4th to the 2nd century BC.
The Semibratneye –Labris site is undoubtedly among the most important monuments from Classical Antiquity on the territory of Krasnodar Krai. The splendid state of preservation of the fortifications and other structures unearthed by the archaeologists would make it possible in the future to create a display complex on the grounds of the ancient town and a considerable tourist attraction. Sadly, at the present time almost the entire area is in use as arable land.
