2008 archaeologists continued studying the sites in the Northern and Southern quarters of a fortified settlement situated on the west bank of the Cossack Bay (the isthmus of Mayakovyj peninsula). They conducted excavations of courtines in the eastern and western defensive walls constructed at the isthmus.
In the southern quarter the archaeologists revealed a building dated to the Classical period and a construction comprising several walls, related to the Middle Ages. The complex of buildings of the Classical period is rectangular on a plan, consisting of two rooms. Construction of this building is attributed to the Roman period, when the radical re-construction of the initial buildings was carried out in the Southern quarter. Foundations of the walls were submerged into the layers formed by previous construction. When excavating this layer, the broken tile of the Hellenistic period was revealed. Here was also a terracotta statuette, depicting a priest and a boy. By analogy with similar finds in Olbia and Velyka Blyznytsya Barrow, the statuette is dated to the IVth century BC.
The design of the four walls has a shape of a trident with a base. The layer in which these walls were uncovered is rich with materials related to the medieval period. Apparently, this system of three walls and platforms was used for some industrial purposes and was connected to the buildings of St. Clement Monastery, which is situated in immediate proximity to it.
In the Northern quarter, in the northeast corner of the building No.35 related to the Hellenistic period, a pit of conical shape was revealed (diameter – 1.0 m). The pit was carved in bedrock and is filled with quarrystones and very loose dark-brown damp soil. There are several layers of stones, mixed with thin layers of brown soil. Within this soil the archaeologists found bones of some animals: horse, sheep, goat, dog, cat, mice, and sinks of herbal and grape snails. A fragment of an anchor stone was found among the stone wreckage. At a depth of 2.5 m small pieces of plastic yellowish clay and charcoal were uncovered within the filling of the pits. Below, up to the bottom, there is clean brown loam, rich with animal bones and shells of herbal snails. A leveled limestone rock serves as a bottom for the pit (diameter 2.8 m). Here a fragment of a tray/washtub side made of sandstone was revealed. For sure, this conical pit was dug while the room No.35 was intensively used, as justified by its location just in the corner of the room. Possibly, this pit initially functioned as a cellar, later on – as a garbage pit, and then the pit was conserved by means of covering with soil and stones.