Ancient land division of the Taman-Olbia type in the Lower Dnieper region

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Abstract

Based on public data from the Google Earth, the article shows that the largest ancient land-division system in the Northern Black Sea region in antiquity was in the Lower Dnieper area. The land division observed there is very close in its external features to the land division which has long been known in the Olbia region. In general, it can be attributed to the non-linear land division of the Taman-Olbian type. The article substantiates the assumption that land division in the Lower Dnieper region was associated with farming which was carried out by the inhabitants of the Scythian settlements of the fourth – the first third of the third century BC. Together with the region of Olbia the Lower Dnieper area formed a dual centre of the same type of land division with a significant agricultural potential. Another such dual centre of a land-division type but on a smaller scale was the Bosporus together with the region of Middle Kuban.

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About the authors

Gennady P. Garbuzov

Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: g_garbuz@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6382-8882

кандидат исторических наук, старший научный сотрудник Лаборатории археологии

Russian Federation, Rostov-on-Don

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Supplementary files

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2. Fig. 1. The Northern Black Sea region under consideration

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3. Fig. 2. Land surveying area in the Lower Dnieper region with designated points at which Google Earth images show fragments of land survey (areas with probable continuous land survey are highlighted with shading)

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4. Fig. 3. Blocks 1–3 of continuous surveying in the Belozersk estuary in the Lower Dnieper region and the corresponding contours with traces of surveying. A. [47.442271/34.457833; 04.04.2004GEMT+14.05.2007GEMT+15.04.2018GEMT]; b. [47.413750/34.386730; 04.04.2004GEMT+18.02.2007GEMT]; V. [47.323939/34.478260; 05/14/2007GEMT]

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5. Fig. 4. Drawing of land surveys in continuous land survey blocks in the Belozersk estuary with indication of features on photographs of mounds.

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6. Fig. 5. Comparison of boundary systems in the Olbia region and in the Lower Dnieper region. 1. Olvia [46.700942/31.830711; 09.24.2003GEMT]; 2. Lower Dnieper [47.460208/34.707470; 02/11/2019GEMT]; 3. Olvia [46.645018/31.582076; 01/05/2019GECA]; 4. Lower Dnieper [47.413100/34.391855; 04.04.2004GEMT+02.18.2007GEMT]

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7. Fig. 6. Examples of boundary systems with wide strips and large sections from the Lower Dnieper region. 1. [47.005017/33.876416; 09.21.2017GEMT+05.14.2018GEMT]; 2. [46.982584/33.750820; 04.25.2010GEMT]

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8. Fig. 7. Sample of striped land surveying from the Lower Dnieper region [47.638603/34.508396; 14/05/2018GEMT]

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9. Fig. 8. Examples of completely irregular land surveying. 1. Lower Dnieper [47.597291/34.881647; 08/04/2009GEMT]; 2. Middle Kuban [45.374557/40.289116; 16/08/2013GEMT]

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10. Fig. 9. Land surveying according to a radial-concentric scheme from the Lower Dnieper region [46.862585/33.373943; 06.18.2012GEMT]

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11. Fig. 10. Comb survey in the area of Olbia (1, 2) and a similar structure from the Lower Dnieper region (3). 1. Olvia [46.758669/31.840420; 06.13.2003GEMT]; 2. Olvia [46.652435/31.877075; 06.13.2003GEMT]; 3. Lower Dnieper [46.977224/33.587452; 04.25.2010GEMT]

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12. Fig. 11. Scythian (1) and Late Scythian (2) settlements and ancient settlements of the Lower Dnieper region, according to: Bylkova 2000, fig. 1; 2007a, fig. 2; 2007b, 91 (location of elite Scythian mounds according to Polin, Alekseev 2018, fig. 311)

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13. Fig. 12. Settlement system of the 4th century. BC e. (after: Gavrilyuk, Olenkovs’kyj 1992, Fig. 1)

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14. Fig. 13. Soil quality in points (soil with the maximum average long-term grain yield is taken as 100 points), according to: Kharchenko 1978, 124. Dotted lines indicate the level of average annual precipitation (according to: Babichenko, Guk 1967, Fig. 45)

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15. Fig. 14. Land survey near the settlement of Lysaya Gora [47.441989/35.240179; 04.23.2010GEMT]

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16. Fig. 15. The ratio of Greek and barbarian land surveying areas in two regions of the Northern Black Sea region

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