Paleogeographic and historical aspects of the ancient polis functioning on the example of the study of the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis
Authors: Kushnir Anatolii , Viktoriia Kotenko Viktoriia Kotenko 
Published: November 2022

Olbia is one of the largest poleis, which was founded in the Northern Black Sea region at the delta of the Southern Bug River as a result of political, social and geographical processes in the middle of the 6th century BCE. According to the relief, this is the territory of the Black Sea Lowland, and polis and the surrounding territories are located on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary, which caused a certain lowering of the territory and its dismemberment. According to B. P. Alisov's climatic zoning of Ukraine, the climate of this territory belongs to the region of the coast of the seas, which in turn is part of the southern Atlantic-continental climatic region, and the main factor influencing the climate of this territory is the breeze circulation.

The study of the settlement of specific territories (residential quarters, public places, necropoleis, communication routes, etc.) is one of the urgent issues in the paleogeographical and historical factors in the researches of urban structure in ancient times. All of these elements of the urbanization process contain various information about the life activities of the ancient society. This allows us to look at the source base of interdisciplinary studies in a new way. There is proposed to expand the traditional views on the study of archaeological objects of the ancient polis as a socio-political phenomenon in the ancient history of mankind in this paper.

In particular, the indirect results of human activities, namely redeposited soils, were investigated. They contain conserved information that was preserved at the time of disruption of natural layers in a specific period of time. Among the archaeological sites of Olbia, which are used for such research, the necropolis occupies a priority place. After all, it was here that the disturbed soil remained in place and was used mainly for filling the burial structure. In addition, ancient necropoleis were traditionally arranged outside the city, which makes this area more interesting to study, because it has undergone minimal anthropogenic influence.

The paper presents the results of paleosoil studies of the "Orient" section of the Olbian necropolis, namely two profiles within its area. A stratigraphic dissection of the section into genetic horizons was carried out and the boundary of the buried soil material of ancient times was established. A complex paleopedological method was used in this study, which included macro- and micromorphological analysis of sediments, as well as their granulometric characteristics.

At the same time, the historiographic component of the study of this ancient Greek polis is presented, as well as some paleoclimatic conditions of its existence. From an archaeological point of view, the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis is characterized by diversity and a wide chronological range of burial objects (from the middle of the 6th century BCE to the beginning of the 3rd century CE). It was used during almost the ancient period of Olbia's existence (ancient Greek and Roman periods) for funerary and memorial purposes and practically does not contain traces of anthropogenic and agricultural influence. In this paper, the soil (as source base) and soil deposits were investigated in order to determine the paleogeographic features of the territory, in particular, during the Roman period of the necropolis' functioning (1st century BCE – 1st century CE). It is worth noting that at this time the most intensive use of this area for burial and memorial purposes was recorded, and the discovered archaeological objects date back to the 1st century BCE \ 1st century CE – 2nd century \ beginning of the 3rd century CE.

According to the macro- and micromorphological characteristics of the soil in the cross-section, it is defined as southern chernozem, formed on the loess. This is also confirmed by micromorphological data. The mechanical composition of the soil illustrates that the profile at the beginning of the Holocene had a pedomorphological character of formation. In the future, the alluvial factor had a significant influence. During the functioning of the ancient polis and after its decline, the aeolian factor prevailed, which is consistent with the physical and geographical location of the territory.

The natural conditions of the second half of the sub-Atlantic chronointerval, in which the ancient polis of Olbia was formed, were one of the main factors, which influenced to the urbanization processes. The formation of the necropolis is a component of it. At the beginning of the development of this territory in ancient times, the climate was cooler and wetter, compared to the metropolis. At the turn of the era, gradual aridization took place, there is a decrease in previous afforestation, a decrease in the role of mesophilic rocks and xerophytization of the steppes. At this time soil formation takes place within the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis. The obtained data were compared with the results of other studies (Matviishyna Zh. M., Parkhomenko O.G. (2017), Shilyk K.K. (1975), Ievlev M.M. (2014), Odrin O.V. (2014)). Thus, we state that general and specific paleogeographic studies of this archaeological site are relevant today, and the results in some cases are controversial.

Analysis of the relief showed that the territory of the necropolis is slightly elevated at the modern stage and was probably elevated above the surrounding territories in ancient times as well. According to the results of macro- and micromorphological analysis, the soil in this area is similar in type to southern chernozems, which are suitable for agriculture. Considering the proximity to the estuary and the relief, we assume that the weak humus layer that was formed on this soil quickly disappeared due to the action of strong wind. This soil was sandblasted, which is confirmed by the data of granulometric analysis. Thus, this may be evidence that this site was not chosen for the necropolis by chance, because the soils a few hundred meters to the north (the territory of the Olbia chora) had similar agronomic properties, but were subjected to less wind erosion.

Keywords: paleopedology, antiquity, Olbia, necropolis.