THE KNIVES FROM BYZANTINE CHERSON: TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
The article is devoted to the publication of iron knives, recovered during the excavations of Byzantine Cherson. The objects are divided into 5 groups on the outward signs: the shape of a blade and the relative position of a blade and a shaft. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to a conclusion that knives of groups I and III have been widespread at Cherson. Knives of these forms were used in Chersonese-Cherson not only throughout the Middle and the Late Byzantine period, but in the first centuries AD and the early Middle Ages. These forms were typical for various monuments of the Eastern Europe and Balkan region. A small group of knives of so-called Slavic type (group II) is dated back to the 9th-11th centuries and only individual objects have been revealed in the Late Byzantine layers of a city. Single finds are knives of a typological group of “northern” origin (group IV) and knives, typical for the Saltov culture (group V).