Berezan Island

Coordinates: 46°36′N 31°24.6′E / 46.600°N 31.4100°E / 46.600; 31.4100
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Berezan
Native name:
Березань
Berezan Island as seen from a distance.
Berezan is located in Mykolaiv Oblast
Berezan
Berezan
Geography
LocationBlack Sea
Coordinates46°36′N 31°24.6′E / 46.600°N 31.4100°E / 46.600; 31.4100
Total islands1
Area0.24 km2 (0.093 sq mi)
Length0.9 km (0.56 mi)
Width0.4 km (0.25 mi)
Administration
RegionMykolaiv Oblast
DistrictMykolaiv Raion
Administered byOlvia Preserve
Demographics
Populationuninhabited (2001)
Additional information
Map

Berezan (

"Olvia". The island is uninhabited. In the summer, archaeological expeditions of the IA NASU and the State Hermitage Museum work here. The archaeological site is regularly destroyed as a result of unauthorized excavations.[1]

History

Berezan was home to one of the earliest

Olbia became the dominant colony in the region.[3] In the 5th century BC, Herodotus visited it to gather information about the northern course of the eponymous river. The colony thrived on wheat trade with the Scythian
hinterland.

In the Middle Ages, the island was of high military importance because it commanded the mouth of the Dnieper. During the period of

trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. It was there that Varangians
first came into contact with the Greeks.

Greek colonies in the north coast of the Black Sea(Euxine Sea), 8th to 3rd century BCE. Borysthenes is shown to be located on the Berezan island (near Olbia)

The only

Runic inscription in Southern Ukraine, the Berezan' Runestone, was found on the island in 1905, now on exhibit in the Odesa Historical Museum. The inscription seems to have been part of a gravestone over the grave of a Varangian merchant from Gotland. The text reads: "Grani made this vault in memory of Karl, his partner."[4]

The control of the estuary (known in East Slavic sources as Beloberezhye, or White Shores) was disputed between Kievan Rus and

Chersonesos fishing off shore. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of Sviatoslav I's war against Byzantium, this overking of Rus was allowed to evacuate his forces from Dorostolon
to Beloberezhye, where his troops spent the hungry winter of 971/972.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, when the entire Bug-Dniester interfluve was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, there is little information about the island, and already at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries the island was ruled by the Crimean Khanate, but was not inhabited. At the same time, the Zaporozhian Cossacks knew about the island and used it for anchorage of ships and rest during numerous sea voyages.[5]

Zaporozhian Cossacks revived Berezan as a fort during their campaigns against the

New Russia into the Russian Empire
.

The site of the Greek colony and its necropolis have been periodically excavated since the 19th century; even though the site has suffered from erosion (and the tombs also from looting), the digs produced rich findings (archaic ceramics, inscriptions, etc.).

In March 1906, Pyotr Schmidt was executed on Berezan.

During World War II, the island became part of the Romanian Transnistria Governorate, along with all of the raion and city of Ochakiv.

In 2013, archaeologists found an

encolpion cross on the island, dating from the late 11th - early 12th centuries, which is evidence of the existence of a settlement here, presumably designed to protect the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.[6]

In 2023, the Ukrainian government constructed an underground munitions supply depot on the island in response to the Russian invasion amid concerns of bombing by the Russian air force.

Gallery

  • Archaeological excavations of Borysthenida on the island
    Archaeological excavations of Borysthenida on the island
  • Abandoned lighthouses
    Abandoned lighthouses
  • Obelisk to commemorate Lieutenant Schmidt
    Obelisk to commemorate Lieutenant Schmidt
  • Flying over Berezan Island in a Cessna 150L
    Flying over Berezan Island in a Cessna 150L

Notes

  1. ^ "Berezan Island". ochakov.glo (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 April 2022.
  2. Eusebius states in his Chronikoi kanones that the colony was founded in 647–646 BC, by settlers from Miletus
    .
  3. ^ Treister, Michail J.; Vinogradov, Yuri G. "Archaeology on the Northern Coast of the Black Sea", American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 97, No. 3. (1993), p. 538.
  4. ^ Entry X UaFv1914;47 in Rundata 2.0
  5. ISBN 966-7588-11-4
    . Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  6. ^ "На юге страны впервые нашли древний славянский крест" [An ancient Slavic cross was first found in the south of the country]. kp.ua (in Russian). 27 November 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2022.

Further reading

  • Krÿzhitskii, Sergei D. "On the Types of Houses on the Island of Berezan", Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, Vol. 11, Issue 3/4. (2005), pp. 181–197.
  • Noonan, Thomas S.
    "The Grain Trade of the Northern Black Sea in Antiquity", American Journal of Philology, Vol. 94, No. 3. (1973), pp. 231–242.
  • Solovyov, Sergei L. Ancient Berezan: The Architecture, History and Culture of the First Greek Colony in the Northern Black Sea (Colloquia Pontica; 4). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1999 (hardcover,
    ISBN 90-04-11569-2
    ).
  • Solovyov, Sergey L. "Berezan Island: The Main Features for Archaeology", Bilkent University. The Department of Archaeology & History of Art Newsletter, No. 3. (2004), pp. 17–19.
  • Solovyov, Sergei L. "Monetary Circulation and the Political History of Archaic Borysthenes", Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, Vol. 12, Issue 1/2. (2006), pp. 63–75.

See also

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