Dzukalai: a Medieval Settlement on the Kerch Peninsula

The author localized Dzukalai ? a medieval settlement on the Kerch Peninsula ? on the territory of modern Zolotoe village. This settlement was a Genoese hold in the Black Sea region ? the so called Genoese Gazaria, and was part of the rural environs of Vosporo ? the only large Genoese city on the Kerch Peninsula. The settlement was localized with the help of portolans, i.e. medieval sea charts. The archaeological research in 2010 established the time span of this locality as the second half of the thirteenth ? late fifteenth centuries. Some specific features of the funerary rite in Dzukalai necropolis, which were revealed during the excavations in 1970s, suggest that the settlement was founded by the Circassians who migrated here from the North Caucasus.