Dmitry Chistov

"The new, second volume of the Matherials of the Hermitage museum expedition on the Berezan island recently has been published. This edition covers the main results of the excavations in the north-eastern part of the site during five field seasons - from 2005 up to 2009



CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4

I. Early period (end of VII - the first half of the VI-th century BC)
Structures and layers of the VII - middle of the VI-th centuries BC.(D. Y.Chistov) 8
Finds (Y.I. Ilyina, D.Y. Chistov)
20

II-A. Archaic town on the territory of Berezan island
Structures and layers of the 3rd and the beginning of last quarter of VI-th century BC. (D.Y. Chistov) 41
Finds (Y.I. Ilyina, D.Y. Chistov) 63

II-B1. Archaic town on the territory of Berezan island: after destructions
Structures of the last quarter – the end of VI-th century BC (D.Y. Chistov) 73
Finds (Y.I. Ilyina, D.Y. Chistov) 78

II-B2 Archaic town on the territory of Berezan island at the end of the VI-th – early V-th century BC
Structures and layers of the late VI-th first quarter of the V-th century BC. (D.Y. Chistov) 81
Finds (Y.I. Ilyina, D.Y. Chistov) 95

III. Berezan settlement of the classical period
Structures and layers of the classical period (second-last quarters of V-th century BC. (D.Y. Chistov) 105
Finds from the classical layers (Y.I. Ilyina, D.Y. Chistov) 109

IV. Berezan settlement in IV-th century BC (D.Y. Chistov) 114

V. Berezan settlement in the first centuries AD (N.Y. Novoselova) 115

CONCLUSION 120

Some notes on the faunal remains from the Berezan settlement (A.K. Kasparov) 124

APPENDIX 1. Comparative table of the storage amphorae centers in the excavation matherials of the sector “O” , 2005-2009 (D.Y. Chistov) 130

APPENDIX 2. Comparative table of the hand made and wheelmade kitchenware in the structures and layers, excavated in 2005-2009. (D.Y. Chistov) 133

BIBLIOGRAPHY 135

ADDITIONS TO THE BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BEREZAN SETTLEMENT (V.Y. Zuev) 146

ABBREVIATIONS 157

PLATES 158

Credits: list of the Berezan archaeological expedition team members from 2005 up to 2009 296"

This book covers the main results of excavations on the Berezan settlement (ancient Borysthenes), done by the State Hermitage museum archaeological team in 2003-2004. It also includes full bibliography of the Berezan settlement investigations, and the chapters, dedicated to the memory of the departed ivestigators of the Berezan site - Y. V. Domansky (1928-2004) and V. V. Nazarov (1956-2004).

Importation Of Goods in Transport Amphorae to the Berezan Island Site in 6th – 5th Centuries BC (Based on excavations of the sector “O-Western” In 2004–2016).
Statistical analysis of the mass transport amphorae material coming from dated conexts and layers of the Berezan settlement of the 6th – 5th centuries BC allows to make some conclusions about the dynamics of import of goods in amphorae to the site. The structure of the amphorae imports to Berezan in the first half of the 6th century BC was characterized by the absolute predominance of Miletus, Klazomenai and Lesbos, but during the third quarter of 6th century BC significant changes in the structure of import have been detected. The share of such centers as Miletus and Klazomenai dramatically reduced. Simultaneously Lesbian import demonstrates some growth; at the same time the proportion of transport amphorae of Chios significantly increases: this trend continues later over the 5th century BC. Also an unspecified North Ionian production center (which produced s.n. «protothasian» or «samian» amphorae by I. B. Zeest) started to play a prominent role. It is likely that these changes were caused by military and political events in Ionia in the 540-ies BC. Significant changes in the structure of the amphorae imports can be traced also in the middle– second half of the 5th century BC. Chian amphorae won the leading position by this time; also it must be mentioned a very noticeable proportion of amphora containers of various Northern Agean centers. The paper also discusses the chronology of certain types of archaic ceramic containers (amphorae of Teos (?), amphoraу of unidentified South Ionian center of Pabuç Burnu type, etc.). In addition the fi rst discovery in the North Pontic region of the Etruscan late archaic storage amphora has been published

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.

URBANISATION OF ARCHAIC NYMPHAION
The transition to surface dwellings in Nymphaion in the last quarter of the 6th century BC resulted
in intensive urban development on the territory previously occupied by dugouts. Mass construction of
multi-cameral stone-and-adobe buildings was apparently preceded by the emergence of a remarkable
religious complex located on the Nymphaion plateau in the area of the cape and known as the Demeter
shrine. The topography of the early building remains excavated in the 1930s – 1980s on two large builtup
sectors (Sectors B-C and G) prompts several tentative conclusions about Nymphaion’s layout in the
late 6th – early 5th century BC. The street network may have been aligned on the NS and WE axes. The
layout, however, was never strictly orthogonal; this is especially obvious in the area at the tip of the cape,
where the steep rocky shore had a particular impact on the shape of the city quarters. Stretches of two
intersecting streets in Sector B-C were explored, one aligned in the latitudinal, the other in the longitudinal
direction; the latter street visibly bended to the south-east (its direction may have been determined by the
so-called Cabeiri shrine – a public building which it abutted from the south). Apparently the streets had
functioned from the Archaic period until the 4th century BC although multiple reconstructions of the
adjacent houses shifted their boundaries considerably. The building remains (dating from the late 6th –
early 5th century BC), which were unearthed in the neighbouring quarters they fringed, belonged to at least
three residential buildings, whose layout can be restored only partly. Late Archaic residential buildings in
Nymphaion may have measured 150–250 m2 in area on average. Residential facilities were grouped around
a paved courtyard, which in all cases known to us was located in the southern part of the building.

"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.

"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.

Chistov D. E. , Ilyina Ju. I.
New evidence on the Berezan Settlement in the Classical period.

Decades of the archaeological explorations in the North-Western part of the Berezan island resulted in the suggestion that during the Classical period, starting with the early 5th century BC, the Berezan settlement slid into decline due to a number of the external circumstances. This assumption was proved by recent excavations in the north-eastern part of the site. There, on the place of the former late Archaic civic buildings, several structures dated to the middle – second half of the 5th century BC were uncovered. Among the latter – dugouts, similar to the classical ones uncovered earlier in the north-western sections, storage pits; and also the remains of the multi-chamber house build of stone and mudbricks. Although the preservation of the structure is quite poor, two cellars and few remains of the surface mudbrick walls were uncovered. It should be noted that this building was erected right on the spot of the yard of the former civic building, probably a hestiatorion, therefore, the latter did not exist when the house was built. Finds of ceramics, including the storage amphorae and tableware and characteristic of the period, help to place the timespan of the house from the middle of 5th century BC and up to the end of the same century.

Chistov D. E. Ilyina J.I. Shcherbakova O. E. Kitchen utensils and cooking ceramics from the archaic Berezan Settlement
The article describes kitchen utensils, wheel-made forms of cooking ceramics, as well as inner construction of cooking stoves and
ovens, explored during the archaeological survey in the North-eastern part of the archaic Berezan Settlement (located on the modern
Berezan Island, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine). Authors consider the problems of construction of ovens and their functions, types and
origin, as well as the chronology of shapes of the kitchen utensils, which were used in everyday life by Greek colonists.

D.E. Chistov
BUILDING TECHNIQUES OF ARCHAIC BEREZAN
The article describes the building techniques used in construction of the house walls of the urbanized
archaic settlement on the Berezan island in the mid-6th — early 5th centuries BC. The frequent use of the
orthostatic stone plinths supporting the mud-brick walls can be considered a distinctive feature of the housebuilding
technique of the archaic settlement of Berezan. Moreover, the earliest period of formation of the
urban structure (in the second half the of the 6th century BC) is characterized by a simple construction of
the three-layered single course plinths, in which the space between the poorly fi nished orthostatic plinths
was fi lled with the mixture of clay and crushed stone. Construction of the three-layered double coursed
plinths of ashlar orthostatic masonry is encountered only in late 6th or early 5th century BC. Investigation
of building structures of the Berezan settlement also allows to make some observations regarding the use
of clay and wood as building materials. For example, rammed clay constructions made in the formwork are
often encountered, along with the mud-brick constructions without stone substructures, wood reinforcing
of mud-brick walls, and the occasional use of wattle-and-daub techniques.

During the recent excavations of the State Hermitage museum archaeological team in the north-eastern area of the archaic Greek settlement  on the Berezan’ island the new outstanding complex of the late  archaic  structures  was uncovered.  It consisted  of  two buildings, very similar by their construction and planning: both of them were approximately rectangular (11.45 × 11.3 m and 12.4 × 10.2 m), their inner spaces were divided into two rooms of unequal size. Both buildings also had an entrance from the south, from the opened gallery, supported by the wooden columns. The unusual plan of these houses, the unique character of the used building techniques for the Berezan’ settlement, and also their location inside of the bordered area, separated from the living quarters, proves their social function, probably as the hestiatorions, banquette houses. excavated complex of the social buildings, which probably was the part of the Temenos, erected in the late 6th cent. B.C., could prove the important role of the settlement, absorbed by the neighboring Olbia polis, and later, in the second quarter of the 5th  cent. B.C., abandoned  by the most of the population.

Il semble que l’établissement de Bérézan, qui portait dans l’Antiquité le nom de Borysthène, puisse être considéré comme l’un des monuments clefs de l’archéologie antique du nord de la mer Noire. Dans les couches anthropiques de l’établissement de la période archaïque étudiées jusqu’à aujourd’hui, on distingue deux phases principales : la première, qui s’étend de la fin du VIIe siècle jusqu’au milieu du VIe s. av. J.-C., est constituée exclusivement de structures d’habitation de type « cabanes semi-enterrées » ainsi que de fosses domestiques. C’est dans les années 540 av. J.-C. environ qu’apparaît à Bérézan un site urbanistique : un réseau de rues et de quartiers, avec des maisons « en surface », faites de pierre et de brique crue. Manifestement, ces changements frappants furent occasionnés par l’arrivée d’une nouvelle vague de colons, après la soumission des villes ioniennes à l’Empire perse. Un établissement de type urbain se maintint à Bérézan approximativement jusqu’à la fin du premier quart du Ve s. av. J.-C., ensuite de quoi il fut abandonné par les habitants. De nouvelles fouilles, entreprises par l’expédition de l’Ermitage dans la partie orientale de l’île, montrent que cette phase « urbanistique » peut être à son tour divisée en deux étapes délimitées par les traces d’importants incendies et de destructions qui eurent lieu au cours du dernier quart du VIe s. av. J.-C. Le tournant des VIe-Ve s. av. J.-C. marque l’étape finale de l’existence de la ville archaïque ; à cette époque apparaît un nouveau complexe d’édifices publics dans la partie orientale de l’établissement : il pourrait s’agir d’un téménos, partiellement mis au jour lors des fouilles de ces dernières années.

On August 20, 2003, in the course of excavations of the ancient settlement of
Myrmekion (Ukraine, town of Kerch) the State Hermitage expedition discovered a hoard
of electrum staters from the town of Cyzicus. The hoard had been kept in a bronze jug
hidden under masonry. It contained 99 well-preserved coins that belong to 53 types,
mostly dating from the 5th century BC (2nd and 3rd groups according to H. Fritze). One
of the types (a sitting warrior wearing a helmet with a bow placed to the right of him)
is unique. The building under which the hoard was found had been a sanctuary constructed
in the 4th century BC. However the wall where the hoard comes from was constructed
not before the 370s BC, so coins from Cyzicus cannot be dated to an earlier period. Most
probably the hoard was not a private property but part of the temple’s treasures concealed
in some unclear circumstances. The hoard, by its size, is comparable to similar
finds from Prinkipo, Clazomenae, Piraeus and Orlovka. The hoard from Myrmekion is
the only one obtained by a museum in its integrity and whose archaeological origin is
clear. The sanctuary, in which the hoard was found, is known as the “Demeter sanctuary”.
It occupied an area of more than 500 m2, in the center of which there was a premise with
a stone altar. The archaeological context proves that the hoard could have been hidden
not earlier than 375-350 BC.

The systematic excavations carried out at Mirmekiy by V. F. Gaidukevich's expedition in the 1940-es — 1960-es unearthed considerable areas of residential quarters dating to different periods. However, the street system remained largely unexposed, which did not allow determining the average size of either residential quarters or separate households. The information permitting to reconstruct with some degree of reliability the topography of the residential quarters of Mirmekiy was obtained only from excavation area “И”, situated in the eastern part of the settlement. In 1958 I. B. Brashinsky guided the works in one part of this excavation area. Here there were discovered pavements of the so-called “Southern street”, oriented along west-east axis with some deviation to the Northeast. The ceramic materials coming from the layers of this street date it to the Late Archaic and Hellenistic periods. During the field season of 1958 there were found also shorter sections of two meridionally oriented streets. This data together with the materials obtained in the northern part of excavation area “И” provide a basis for preliminary reconstructions of the lay-out of the residential quarters of the 5th—4th cc. BC.