Bilsk ramparts

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Remains of the ramparts

The ramparts of Bilsk ( Ukrainian Більське городище Bilske horodyschtsche ) in the Ukrainian Oblast Poltava belong to a Scythian fortifications with an interior area of approx. 5000  hectares . The walls are a total of 34 km long.

location

The ramparts are located on the border between steppe and forest steppe , above the Worskla river . Today's Bilsk municipality lies within the ramparts.

Research history

VA Gorodtsov carried out excavations here as early as 1906. He assigned the remains to the Scythians. Large-scale excavations took place between 1994 and 2005 under Boris A. Schramko , Irina Borissowna Schramko , Renate Rolle and Sergei Wladimirowitsch Machortych. In 2002, extensive geophysical surveys were carried out. In 2015 more burial mounds were excavated.

Settlement history

The complex was built in the first half of the 7th century BC. Founded in the 4th century BC, another phase of expansion took place. The last finds date from the 3rd century BC. A western and an eastern fortification were later connected by further ramparts. The west fortress has an area of ​​85 hectares, the east fortress is 95 hectares, with 8 m high ramparts, which are 24 m wide at the base, and a ditch in front. The Kuzemin height fortification (15 ha) is a further expansion phase of the 4th century in the northeast of the facility.

The ramparts were laid out as post slotted walls and are broken through by several gates. The first plant burned down, as extensive fire layers show. New ramparts were built in the 6th century. The wooden wall was now apparently plastered white on the outside. Inside the facility there were houses, workshops and large open spaces, and storage pits, pottery ovens and smelting ovens were also found.

economy

The diet was based on agriculture and animal husbandry. Among the plant remains were wheat, barley and millet. Greek imports prove contacts to the south.

graveyards

Sword from the necropolis

Cemeteries A and B were located within the ramparts, and human bones have also come down to us from the Tsarina settlement. Outside the ramparts in the west lie the Pereschehepino and Marchenki burial mound fields (Makhortykh / Rolle 2006); another in Osnjagi. The Pereschehepino grave mound field, 0.6 km north-west of the wall, includes around 130 Kurgane . It can be divided into three chronological groups and was occupied from the first half of the 5th to the first half of the 4th century.

context

Similar systems were built in the forest steppe from the middle of the 7th to the 6th century BC They are between 100 and more than 4000 hectares in size. They are similar to the royal seats of Central Europe from the Hallstatt period , but are generally only sparsely built on inside.

interpretation

Schramko wants Bel'sk with that of Herodotus mentioned city Gelonus equate

literature

  • Renate Rolle, V. Murzin, Boris A. Schramko: The fortification wall system of Bel'sk (Ukraine). In: Hamburg contributions to archeology. Volume 18, 1996, pp. 57-84.
  • Р. Ролле, В. Херц, С. Махортых, В. Белозор: Исследования совместной Украинско-Немецкой археологической экспедиции in 2002 году . Кiev 2003.
  • Боpиc А. Шрамко 1987, Бельское городище скифской эпохи (город Гелон). Киев, Наукова думка.

Web links

Commons : Bilsk ramparts  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henning Zöllner, Burkart Ullrich, Renate Rolle, Sergey Makhortykh, Michai Orlyuk: Results of Geophysical Prospection in the Scythian Settlement of Belsk (Bol'šoe Belskoe Gorodišče). In: Axel Posluschny, K. Lambers, I. Herzog (Ed.): Layers of Perception: Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archeology (CAA). Berlin, April 2–6, 2007. Colloquia on Prehistory 10. Habelt, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-7749-3556-3 .
  2. ↑ Сергей Владимирович Махортых, археологічні дослідження більського городища 2015. Kiev, центр пам'яткознавства нан україни, 3-25.
  3. ↑ Alicia R. Ventresca Miller: Mobility and diet in the Iron Age Pontic forest steppe: a multi-isotopic study of urban populations at Bel'sk. In: Archaeometry. Volume 61, number 6, 2019, p. 1403.
  4. ↑ Alicia R. Ventresca Miller: Mobility and diet in the Iron Age Pontic forest steppe: a multi-isotopic study of urban populations at Bel'sk. In: Archaeometry. Volume 61, number 6, 2019, p. 1403.
  5. ↑ Alicia R. Ventresca Miller: Mobility and diet in the Iron Age Pontic forest steppe: a multi-isotopic study of urban populations at Bel'sk. In: Archaeometry. Volume 61, Number 6, 2019, pp. 1399-1416.
  6. ↑ Сергей Владимирович Махортых: Хронология Перещепинского курганного могильника близ Бельска. In: Stratum Plus. Volume 3, 2012, pp. 1-16.
  7. ↑ Мapина Н. Дараган: Городища-гиганты скифской эпохи в Украинской Лесостепи (особенности расположения ифифртицициф. Вводные замечания. Археологиа и Геоинформатика 8. Иинститут Археологий, Moscow 2017, pp. 2–99.
  8. ↑ Боpиc А. Шрамко: Бельское городище скифской эпохи (город Гелон). Наукова думка, Киев 1987.

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 30 ″  N , 34 ° 38 ′ 30 ″  E