ANCIENT HELLENES AT THE MOUTH OF THE BORYSTHENES (basic function and attribution of Bilozerka Settlement)

Abstract

The paper foremost examines the diverse ethno-cultural characteristics of the Bilozerka settlement. During the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, all researchers believed that it was founded by Greeks. In the second half of the twentieth century, it was mostly attributed to the Scythian group of sites of the Lower Dnipro region. Only due to the archaeological materials from its excavations in the last decades of the twenty-first century, its Greek origin has been reliably established. However, its category as a settlement was defined from different points of view. As a result, there are a variety of identifications of this site in the literature: hillfort, settlement / hillfort, town, rural settlement, and the most commonly used nowadays — settlement. The largest number of publications on material culture finds belongs to its researcher V. Bylkova. According to her main interpretations, the Bilozerka settlement was the most eastwardly located site of the large agricultural Khфra of Olbia. It was founded by the Olviopolitans during the period of its massive expansion in the early fourth century and lasted until the end of the first quarter of the third century BC. According to this, it is believed that, like the entire population of the Olbian Chora, the inhabitants of Bilozerka were mainly engaged in farming, cattle breeding, fishing, home crafts, and trade with Olbia.

While we do not deny the existence of such activities of the Belozerka residents, which were undoubtedly necessary for self-sufficiency in living at a great distance from the city, we propose another assumption about the characteristics of this settlement. Based on the significant difference in the main categories of material culture with the settlements of the Olbian Chora, we believe that it was not founded by their natives, but most likely by individual settlers of Borysfen (Berezan settlement) approximately during the last quarter of the fifth century BC in connection with its simultaneous collapse and population decline. Artifacts from approximately one-fifth of the excavated area allow us to determine the basic trade and exchange-money function of the settlement. This makes it possible to attribute it hypothetically as an independent Hellenic apoikia-emporium (a settlement with a trading harbor and a probable marketplace attached to it) and at the same time as a trade intermediary, mainly depending on the main objects of communication. Among them, Olbia, the Lower Dnipro settlements, the Steppe Scythians, and some ancient Mediterranean centers were the most important. However, further archaeological research on the settlement and necropolis is needed to resolve all the questions more accurately.