164 - DUNCAN MCPHERSON: ANTIQUITIES OF KERTCH AND RESEARCHES IN THE CIMMERIAN BOSPHORUS. LONDON, 1857

DUNCAN MCPHERSON: ANTIQUITIES OF KERTCH AND RESEARCHES IN THE CIMMERIAN BOSPHORUS. LONDON, 1857 First edition, in Folio, original publisher’s brown cloth, sanded and trimmed, edges rubbed, complete, 130p. and 28 plates, some chromolithographed, text clean and bright, some edges of pages trimmed, overall in good condition. A pioneering work on the Greek presence in the northern part of the Black Sea. Mcpherson served as a doctor with the British army in the Crimea during the Crimean war. He had observed that British military trench digging was accidentally cutting straight into ancient burial mounds. He spent a lot of his time exploring, near Kertch, the ancient Greek town of Pantikapaion (Παντικάπαιον) which was the capital of the kingdom of the Cimmerius Bosphorus. He documented local tombs, catacombs and artifacts. Although a pioneering work conducted by a non trained archaeologist the work is famous for its striking visual plates featuring hand colored lithographs, engravings of Greek vases, gold jewelry and several fragments unearthed from the region. It was the very first influential work about the Greek presence in the northern Black Sea that attract worldwide attention, richly illustrated including fine early chromolithographs.