Painted decoration in the Stasovsky Crypt, Cimmerian Bosporus, Kerch, (1928). '1st half of 2nd Century. A.D...Kertsch, South Russia'. The crypts on the northern slope of Mt Mithridates in Kerch, Crimea, were discovered in 1872 by the Russian art critic and scholar V. V. Stasov. The Cimmerian Bosporus (the ancient name for the Strait of Kerch) is one of the most important centres of Greek colonisation on the Northern coast of the Black Sea. The paintings in the Stasovsky Crypt, which dates from the early 2nd century AD, are a combination of two styles: inlay (the earlier one) and floral, (the later one). Plate from "An Encyclopaedia of Colour Decoration from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the XIXth Century" with explanatory text by Helmuth Bossert. [Ernst Wasmuth Ltd., Berlin, 1928]