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The “The Bosporan Phenomenon” conference brought together historians and archaeologists studying the ancient and Byzantine periods of the history of the Crimea and the adjacent lands. This year it was dedicated to commemorate the founder of General History Department of Belgorod State University and the Kitey Archaeological Expedition – Evgeniy A. Molev, who passed away last year.

The delegation of Belgorod State University consisted of Nikolai Bolgov, Professor of General History Department, and Irina Denisova, the Director of the BelSU History Museum, Elena Litovchenko, the Head of General History Department, Marina Sergienko, the Head of Russian History and Document Science, Maria Rudneva and Lilia Zhurbenk, the department assistants, Maria Sapozhnikova, a doctoral student.

Great interest was stirred by the reports of Belgorod scientists dedicated to the history and participants of the Kitey expedition, to Evgeny Molev biography and the history and archaeology of the Bosporan city of Kitey.

In order to address the goals of the “Byzantine Tree” project and discuss topical academic issues, meetings were held with leading scholars – Vladimir Khrshanovsky, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Yury Vinogradov, the Head of the Department of History of Ancient Culture at the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Sergey Saprykin, the Head of Ancient World History Department at the Faculty of History at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the leading researcher at the Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The participants of the tour donated new scientific publications to the libraries of the Institute for the History of Material Culture and the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as to the Russian National Library of Belgorod State University. The aim of the research work was to get acquainted with the life and activity of Russian Byzantine writers and prepare biographical sketches about them.

Along with the scientific part the trip included a large excursion programme consisting of the visits to Pavlovsk, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, the State Hermitage Museum and the Russian Museum, as well as a trip to Pskov, Pechora and Izborsk.

The trip was an important link in implementation of the “Byzantine Tree: Roots of Orthodox Spirituality and Morality” project and made it possible to outline new directions of work in the future.