Berezan

URBAN PLANS OF THE ARCHAIC GREEK APOIKIAI OF THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION: “IMAGINARY” AND REAL
The archaeological data obtained during excavations in recent decades allow to fix a new approach to the study
of the original layout of the Greek apoikiai of the Northern Black Sea region in the Archaic period. In the process
of their urbanization a number of common features can be discerned. At its initial stages, many of these
settlements were built up according to a single plan; urban development was regulated. This regulation resulted to
the emergence of the city grid having a general orientation with some variations caused by the topography or the
shape of the coastline. However, in no case, these “pre-Hippodamian” grids were strictly orthogonal. The number
of houses constituting the insula as well as the internal area of insulae greatly varied. Apparently, the egalitarian
principles (isonomia) were not strictly followed when founding new city and during the plots’ division by the first
generation of settlers. The axial element of Olbia’s planning grid was the wide Main Street. Residential blocks shapes as well as the location of three temenoi and agora corresponded with its direction and turns. However,
such an urban planning principle has not been identified in any of the other archaic urban centres of the region,
including the neighbouring Berezan settlement.

In this article we analyze joint finds of the transport amphorae, belonging
to the different types and different centers of production, found in the filling of several
structures of the archaic Berezan settlement, including dugouts and storage pits. Most of
these structures are dated to the second quarter or to the beginning of the third quarter of
the 6th century BC, i.e. to the time shortly before the beginning of the phase of rapid
urbanization of Berezan settlement. Since the Berezan island site is wel l stratified, these
assemblages give an essential data for establishing relative chronologies for various types
of transport amphorae.

"Dugouts of the archaic Berezan settlement".

The earliest period of the Berezan settlement, dating
from late 7th to the beginning of the second half of the 6th
century BC, is represented exclusively by the structures,
partially or fully set into the soil — dug-outs or pit houses
of various forms (circular, oval and rectangular) and
storage pits. No above ground buildings dated earlier
than the middle of the 6th century BC have been found
yet on the investigated territory of the island (excepting
few wattle-and-daub structures, which precise dating
is hardly possible to specify). The estimated number
of dugouts dated to the late 7th — 1st half of the 6th
century, uncovered on the territory of Berezan settlement
until now is ca. 240 structures. The distribution of semidugouts
across the surveyed territory seems irregular.
They form groups or clusters, which, obviously, should
be identified as distinct households. There was no
direct continuity between the two periods of archaic
Borysthenes. The emergence of urban settlement in the
beginning of the third quarter of the 6th century BC is
clearly associated with the arrival of a new large group
of colonists. Some of the structures formally classified as
the dugouts of the early period (the so-called «colonists’
houses») could belong to the vanguard of the «second
wave» of the Berezan colonization. It is also probable that
some of them could serve as first temporary shelters, built
by the colonists of the «second wave» immediately after
their landing.

During the excavations of an Archaic period settlement on the Berezan island in the mouth of the Dnieper-Bug silted estuary in 1970 an important find was made that was not given due consideration. The expedition of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences led by V. V. Lapin discovered a double cremation burial. Two Ionian vessels (Fig. 3)
used as urns with ashes and an Attic footed cup that was used as a lid of one of these vessels suggest that the burial dates to the end of the 6th c. BC or the end of the 6th – early 5th cc. BC. Understanding the burial context is hampered by poor preservation conditions of archaic buildings debris which were mostly pulled down during construction of a group of buildings in the 4th c. BC. However, it has been found that the double burial was located at a long distance from the necropolis in the central part of the city blocks, only 18 m away from the public building, the so called house with an apse (Fig. 2). Maybe, a heroon was located there. The burials uncovered by V. V. Lapin probably belonged to one of the colonists’ leaders who had founded this urban settlement on the Berezan island several decades before, i.e. in the early third quarter of the 6th c. BC. Chronologically the double cremation burial almost coincides with the replacement of construction phases II-A and II-B according to the Berezan settlement periodization. The end of construction phases II-A was marked by fires, collapse of buildings and subsequent rebuilding traced in various parts of the site. We cannot exclude that the death of two individuals buried not far from the house with the apse was also linked to this disaster by factors not yet identified.

Dugouts, huts, houses: notes on early days of Greek urbanization of the Northern Black Sea Coastal Region

Works of Yu. A. Vinogradov with a number of researches from the one side and V. D. Kuznetsov
from the other, reflected two different approaches to the problem of the earliest period of existence of
city centres of the Northern Black Sea Coastal Region of Archaic period which preceded their mass
urbanization. According to the first approach, there had been a long adaptation period before an active development of city structures of ancient centers of the Northern Pontus begun. This adaptation
period lasted about 60–80 years. During this period these centers were rural settlements and the main
type of housing was different dug in structures like the dugouts. The opposite approach denies the
very possibility of usage of such buildings as dwellings by the Greeks. It casts doubt on the existence
of a “dugout” period in the history of colonies of the Northern Black Sea Coastal Region. The example
of the Berezan settlement where almost 240 semi-dugouts of the late 7th — the first half of the 6th century BC have been investigated thus far, proves that such period of spatial development of some centers undoubtedly took place. But still the history of the development of the Berezan settlement cannot
be mechanically transferred to any site of the same age in the region. The level of knowledge of archaic
layers and the number of discovered structures of dugout type is incomparable. Berezan and Olbia
have hundreds of dugouts and total amount of early dugouts investigated at the city-sites of Bosporus
thus far is a little more than two dozens. The assumption that there are approximately equal durations
in many centers of the pre-urban period is apparently not supported by new data.
Roundish semi-dugouts of the Northern Black Sea Coastal Region can be seen as a result of adaptation of types of dwellings by Greek settlers. These types of dwellings were extrinsical to the Greek
culture. Greeks adapted them at the early period when small number and instability of the composition of their collectives did not give confidence in the future of apoikia and excluded any possibility
of planning of city center. Long “dugout” period at Berezan was possibly the time when this location
was an industrial and commercial settlement with small and unstable population which lasted to its
“refounding” by a new group of colonists after the middle of the 6th century BC.

D. E. Chistov. "Dwelling house construction in the settlement of Berezan
of the second half of the 6th – first half of the 5th century BC".
By now, a considerable progress has been made
both in studies of urban planning and in the problem
of localization of the public centre of the archaic Berezan
settlement (Borysthenes). The street network of
Borysthenes, which presumably arose after the 540s
BC, had existed with very slight alterations for less
than a century until the second quarter of the 5th century
BC when the Berezan settlement was deserted by the
majority of its residents. Several particular stages may
be distinguished in the process of urbanization of the
Berezan settlement. The earliest of these stages is
marked by the so-called ‘houses of colonists’ presented
by rectangular one-chamber structures with the floors
sunk deep into the ground (Fig. 2–3). As it seems, the
appearance of structures of this type within the Berezan
settlement is dated to some brief stage antecedent
immediately to the beginning of the mass surface
construction of houses. It is also possible that these
dwellings belonged to the first residents of this urbanized
colony who built them immediately after their
debarkation.
The city’s houses arisen in the third quarter of the
6th century BC presented buildings with their total area
of 180–370 sq. m including four to six living and household rooms grouped around the central courtyard
(Fig. 4–6). A distinct peculiarity of the archaic houses in the Berezan settlement is in the so-called semi-basement rooms
with the floor level 0.2–1.0 m below the
ancient ground surface (Fig. 8, 1, 2). There are no
grounds to consider all of them as household storerooms
or cellars. Another important peculiarity of
dwelling houses in archaic Borysthenes is in the presence
of isolated one- or two-chamber structures. These
structures were encircled with outer fences of the house
courtyard or bearing walls of the adjoining buildings belonging
to the same homestead. However, the latter
buildings were built at some distance from the encircling
walls and not immediately close to them. These
structures included either surface or semi-basement
rooms. The majority of buildings in archaic Berezan
had a single store including the semi-basements. There
are so far no inarguable traces of the presence of a
second store in the excavated houses.
Summarizing, certain specific local peculiarities
seem to pertain to the plans, elements of the interior
and techniques of construction of buildings of the
Berezan settlement. Despite the fairly considerable
difference in the dimensions of the houses, along
with the absence of established layout types, the
houses of the Berezan settlement are distinguished
in their relatively large dimensions as compared with
the known dwelling houses of the archaic period in
other urban centres of the northern Black Sea
littoral.

Late Archaic terracottas with movable limbs made in Corinth are analyzed in the article. The series includes finds from Olbia, its chora, and Berezan kept in the scien-tific funds of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The analysis of archaeological and literature sources and of fine arts data al-lows the author to presume that such figurines could have been worn by participants of the cults in the way mentioned by Herodotus. Namely, the members of cultic prac-tices were hanging them on their neck or were attaching them to their clothes during the rituals. Such one-sided terracottas were put into tombs with these clothes. Rough-ly made lower part of these figurines could be covered with miniature clothes and used like this during the rituals. The depictions of women with high polos on their heads in Corinthian hanging figurines present the participants of agricultural cults. Found in dwellings, they were apparently used mainly in family cults.

"Chistov D. Houses of the Berezan Settlement: Some Observations on the Features of Archaic Residential Buildings"

M. Manoledakis (ed.) The Black Sea in the Light of New Archaeological Data and Theoretical Approaches. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on the Black Sea in Antiquity. Oxford, 2016. P. 7-28.

The archaic Ionian colony situated within the area of the modern Berezan island (situated in the Black Sea next to the Dneper and S. Bug rivers estuary) consisted of multi-room houses, built of limestone and mudbricks, combined into house blocks. The beginning of the large-scale building of residential houses and the emergence of the grid of insulae is dated to the 540s BC, based on the results of recent investigations. The building techniques, applied in the construction of walls in the houses of this settlement, combined the use of limestone masonry and mudbricks. During the excavations, conducted in Berezan since the early 1960s, the remains of a large number of residential houses of the second half of the 6th – early 5th century BC were found (in total - more than 30 individual households). Nevertheless, many of these buildings were not fully investigated; which prevents accurate judging of their exact size and number of edifices.
Households, uncovered on the Berezan island, grouped in city blocks, had a total area of 180-370 square meters within which they consisted of 2-6 residential and household rooms, usually situated around central courtyard. The layout, elements of interior and construction techniques used for building these houses reveals certain local features. They include the wide use of premises with a sunken floor level, and the practice of erecting small isolated buildings within the boundaries of the house. Despite considerable variation in the size of houses and the lack of sustainable planning types, houses of the Berezan settlement are distinguished by their rather large dimensions in comparison to the known residential structures of other urban centers in the North Pontic region during the Archaic period. The internal design of the houses, extensive use of portable stoves, braziers, grills and stands for heating and cooking demonstrates similarities in the use of domestic space between archaic Borysthenes and its metropolis.

D.E. Chistov. Greeks and barbarians of the Berezan settlement in the second half of the 7th - first half of the 6th century BC. // THE BOSPORAN PHENOMENON:
MIKHAIL ROSTOVTSEV 
AND THE BOSPORAN KINGDOM
(looking back from the 21st century)
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
PART 2

For the complete copy of this article please feel free to write d.chistov@gmail.com

The paper is devoted to the problems of the chronology of cast monetary signs – bronze arrowhead coins and dolphin coins.
The study was carried out on the basis of a representative sample of 648 monetary signs of both above-mentioned types, found during excavations of the north-eastern part of the Archaic settlement on Berezan island from 2004 to 2016. Finds associated with reliably dated structures and layers were distributed according to the periods and phases of the site’s stratigraphic sequence,
which covers the time from the early 6th up to the third quarter of the 5th century BC. Finds from Berezan indicate that both dolphin- and arrowhead monetary signs came into circulation not earlier than the middle of the 6th century BC. Apparently, if a
chronological interval between the beginning of arrowhead and dolphin-shaped signs production existed, it was very short, and
might be placed within the end of the second-third quarter of the 6th century BC. Arrowhead monetary signs were in circulation along with dolphin signs throughout the second half of the 6th century BC but then went out of circulation at the beginning or during the first half of the 5th century BC. The distribution of individual series of both monetary sign-types according to stratigraphic phases does not give a picture of consistent interchange of separate series over time. As previously suggested by scholars, several series of dolphin-shaped monetary signs were present in circulation simultaneously. The only exceptions
are dolphin-shaped signs of the late ‘D’ group, most of which were found in structures of the Classical period ΙΙΙ (middle-third
quarter of the 5th century BC).

Collection of terracottas from the excavations at Berezan Island stored in the Institute of Archaeology, the NAS of Ukraine is analyzed. Most of such images do not present any attributes helping in referring them to concrete cults. The coroplastics of Borysthenes, instead, shows their diversity. The paper discusses the reasons for such situation and reviews the set in the literature tradition of referring the unattributed images.

For the full version of this paper feel free to write me: d.chistov@gmail.com
Statistical data accumulated in the course of systematic excavation of Berezan island between 2004 and 2016 allows us to estimate
the dynamics of imported goods in transport amphorae from various production centres, as well as to clarify the chronology
for some types of Archaic amphora. This analysis is currently based on more than 4400 amphora toes, originating from the
fill of structures and from cultural layers dated to the 6th-5th centuries BC. If in the first half of the 6th century BC amphora
imports were dominated by centres such as Miletus, Clazomenae and Lesbos, during the third quarter of the 6th century BC
significant changes in the structure of import have been detected. The share of centres such as Miletus and Clazomenae was
dramatically reduced. Simultaneously Lesbian import demonstrates some growth; at the same time the proportion of Chain
transport amphorae significantly increases: this trend continues during the 5th century BC. Also, an unspecified North Ionian
production centre (so-called ‘proto-Thasian’ or ‘Samian’ amphorae according to I.B. Zeest) started to play a prominent role. It is
likely that these changes were caused by military events in Ionia in 540 BC. The next period of significant change in the market
can be recorded in the late 6th-early 5th century BC. Imports of goods in Clazomenian and Milesian amphorae disappeared after
the Ionian Revolt. At the same time, amphorae from Thasos and other unidentified North Greek production centres arrived in
the North Pontic market. Import of Chian wine also showed a steady growth during the Classical period.

Streets of Archaic Borysthenes. Eminak: Scientific Quarterly Journal, (1(33), 93-109.
The street layout of the archaic period of all the ancient urban centers of the Northern Black Sea region is best studied on the materials of Berezan settlement. At the same time, many settlement blocks are only partially open, and the total number of streets has not been found out. Therefore, it is offered to use conventional numbering of the opened longitudinal (latitudinal) avenues and transverse (meridional) streets, applying the letters of the Latin alphabet for settlement blocks in which bounds are reliably revealed from at least two sides. Berezan street layout, which originated around 540s BCE, has the signs of organized, simultaneous planning. But it was never strictly orthogonal.

The streets were paved with stones, limestone crumbs, and shards; in some cases, drains ran along them, which, however, were not integrated into one drainage system. Urban built-up area was generally oriented north-south, but in some areas, the planning layout had a marked shift to the southwest. Differences in the street orientation could be depended on the location of the ancient harbor or the public center of the archaic colony.

The Berezan lead letter is a document of paramount importance with regard to several epigraphic questions (first of all, the writing on lead platters) and to many historical issues too (the Greek presence, mainly Milesian, within ancient Scythia and the diffusion of writing in this area; the ionic dialect; the relationship between literacy and commerce; archaic Greek prose; Greek epistolography; the right of seizure and the regulation of syle); moreover, it is a human life story that vividly shows us the dramatic situation of Achillodoros who, harassed by Matasys, sends a heartfelt letter to two recipients, his son Protagoras and Anaxagoras.

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