Archaeology and ethnicity: settlement material from the Lower Dnieper region

Bylkova, V.

Correlation of "archaeological culture" and "ethne" (or ethnic group) is one of the important problems in archaeology. Without intending to discuss such a theoretical question I'd like to show distinctions of different cultural traditions reflected in archaeological sources in our region. A peculiarity both of Classical and of Scythian archaeology is that these disciplines were defined as ethnic from the very beginning of their investigation. Later the problem defining the main features of Scythian culture was discussed and till now the scholars can't come to an agreement wither the Scythian culture was spread only in the Steppe zone or also in both the Steppe and in the Wooded steppe zones.

In this case the Lower Dnieper region, where archaeological and narrative materials attest to the fact that both Hellenic and barbarian cultural traditions are represented and developed simultaneously, may be a proper example for a comparison.

The idea of interaction between barbarian and Hellenic cultures in the territory of the north Black Sea region had already been formulated in the nineteenth century. Written sources which relate directly to our territory are very few, and the chief ones - Herodotus and Hippocrates - belong to the 5th century BC. According to narrative data it was proposed that settlements of "scyths-georgoi" and "scyths-aroterai" did exist in the Black Sea region (on the banks of Dnieper-Boristhenes) at the time of Herodotus. And there is a real conflict between the narrative and archaeological data. Of later sources, one can name the testimonia of Ptolemy, Strabo, and Dio Chrysostom, though only in an indirect way. Epigraphic sources which touch on the situation in the Olbian polis do exist, but for the Lower Dnieper region such evidence is lacking in the period of colonisation.

Archaeological study of our territory goes back about one hundred years. M.Rostovtsev noted about the early stage of studies: "What is investigated is not an entire locality, but only individual burials. No attention is paid to the remains of the settlements in which people lived, they are hardly studied at all, only the finds are published. None of this offers the possibility of firmly grounding the history and interrelations of the dominant cultural structures and verifying in the field the meagre data of Herodotus".  The appearance of information concerning archaeological monuments, and settlements brought the first attempts to an interpretation. The similarity of the pottery on some late settlements and in Olbia-city was documented by A.Chirkov and V.Goshkevich and it was noted that it diminished with distance. All the sites in a region were identified as Greek "in a flourishing condition", and the cessation of life there was connected with the destruction of Olbia. A settled existence, agriculture and trade were linked with the culture of the Hellenes. Nevertheless, at the same time the idea of finding real Scythian settlements aroused. E. Minns noted the absence of early settlements on the banks of the Dnieper (in contrast to the shores of the Southern Bug), but suggested the possibility of settlements among both the agricultural and nomadic Scyths, drawing analogies from the cultures of nomadic people who had special places for trade and "capital cities".

Archaeological work conducted shortly before the 2nd World War, and particularly after it was over, produced hypotheses which for a long time were considered unshakable. The Lower Dnieper was isolated within the north coast region of the Black Sea as the “classical” Scythian territory, where this culture developed uninterruptedly down to the first centuries AD. The more northerly group of settlements was assigned to the Scythian steppe culture on the basis of the investigations by B.N. Grakov at the fortified settlement of Kamenskoe and elsewhere, and at Nizhniy Rogachik settlement on the basis of D. Berezovets investigations.

Until recently the settlements were less intensively investigated than those of the Lower Bug and Lower Dniester region. The 1970s and 1980s were a period of extensive archaeological investigation of barrows in this area.  Excavations conducted in the settlements in the 1980s and 1990s (Kherson museum expeditions worked on 5 of them and conducted surveys) allowed us to increase the base for our investigations significantly. In the northern part of the region we are examining “barbarian” settlements (18 Scythian and 15 so called Late Scythian have a well-defined cultural layer and 8 of each group have been excavated) they existed at approximately the same time as the settlements on the north-east coast of Dnieper liman. The materials obtained have to significant degree filled out our picture of the population there in the period under review.  A specific feature of the region under review was the domination of nomads and the absence of a truly settled population apart from the Greek colonists, who had themselves come here rather late in the process of colonisation. During our work we came up against the fact that the material recovered often did not fit the parameters of the existing hypotheses. 

Comparison of data from different sites can help to define a particular area as more or less dominated by Greek or indigenous traditions. The diversity of culture in the region has been demonstrated. The Lower Dnieper region is usually defined as a distinct territory, the place of an uninterrupted development of the Scythian culture and it's transformation into Late Scythian, which is considered as the next stage in the development of Scyths in this region. As a result of changes in chronology and in the ethno-cultural attribution of settlements it is possible to give a different picture of the situation as compared to previously.     

The settlements of the Lower Dniper region may be divided  into two chronological groups: from the very beginning of the 4th century BC to the first quarter of the 3rd, and from the second half of the second century BC to the third century AD. For the first period the number of Scythian barrow graves on the Steppes is the highest and an increase of population may be assumed. This period is usually defined as Scythian, or Classical Scythian, or main Scythian. The settlements in this region are quite different and there are no grounds to assert that they arose among the Scyths under the influence of the Greek colonies. The explanation of their appearance should rather be sought in the character of the nomadic economy. A large role, especially in its semi-nomadic sub-type, was played by ancillary forms of activity, above all agriculture. All three types of stock-raising economy, in its nomadic form, are connected in some degree with agriculture. Within the framework of nomadic culture occurs the organisation of their own agricultural-craft settlements and markets.          

As for the characteristics of the settlements of the Scythian group (with an area from 1-2 to 4 hectars, and 1200 hectars of Kameskoe) we find that part of the territory of these settlements has no cultural layer, that the rest is not densely built-over, and that no trace of any system of organisation can be observed. The cultural layer is of medium thickness (from 0.4-0.5 to 1 m) with limited amount of material and structural remains. One of the settlements, Nizhniy Rogachik, excavated in the 1950s was founded as an upper stratum on the Late Bronze settlement, there were no trace of buildings there, no hearths, and no coating materials (as burnt clay). An area of more than 500 m² was excavated only on five Scythian settlements in the region under consideration.

Dugouts, ground level posts and wattle houses are characteristic of the settlements of the Scythian group. Large ground level dwellings were met in Kamenskoe, with an area of 50-80 m². In the Chernecha settlement we found a structure of 9 m² in area. Its shape is irregular, with three pits inside. Nothing was found in this structure.  The dugouts and semi-dugouts in the settlements of this group differ from corresponding structures of the southern group in size, in their greater depth, in the presence of so called "sleeping beds" cut from the subsoil with an oval shape, rammed clay hearths (or simply depressions filled with charcoal), and in the absence of stone and mud-brick in the constructions. In these settlements the most common type of pit is round or oval in plan, with vertical walls or walls that slope slightly inwards towards the bottom, the usual depth is less than 1 m, the deepest - 1,3 m. Pear-shaped pits are encountered, their size in these settlements is much smaller than in the chora and they are not so carefully made. There was minimal use of stone in the Scythian settlements, mud-brick and tiles were not used at all. An essential component of the Scythian settlement was the presence of productive structures, above all for ironwork, with use of lake and bog ores and primitive kilns, bronze casting is also attested.

In the number of finds all the settlements of the southern group absolutely surpass even the Kamenskoe settlement, which was the largest among the Scythian settlements. The structure of the material is also different. In the ceramic complex of the Scythian settlements of the 4th century BC, amphora fragments (predominantly Heraclean and Thasian) comprise 40%, fragments of wheel-made table ware (Attic black glaze and Olbian) up to 1%, and hand-made pottery of Scythian types, of no great variety, up to 60%. As an example of preservation of pottery I'll use my calculations for Pervomaevka and Chernecha. We found 1310 fragments of amphoras in Pervomaevka among them only four toes (two Sinopian and two Heraclean ones), three more were found in a destructive stratum. In the Chernecha settlement we found 1326 fragments of amphoras, only three toes. Only one stamp was found in Pervomaevka - a Sinopian one dated to the third century of the 4th century BC – none was found in Chernecha. Only one small black-glazed sherd of a cup-cylix was found in Pervomaevka. Several fragments of other wheel made (gray clay and red clay) vessels were encountered in every settlement. Hand-made pottery includes first of all decorated pots of Scythian type. Usually they have soot on their surface. There are imprints of straw and grass on the bottoms, and sometimes textiles of simple weave. Flat lids and fragments of pans were also found.   

The material from Scythian settlements offers fewer possibilities for determining a chronology. Cultural strata may be dated to the 4th century BC to first quarter of the 3rd century, isolated materials' is to be dated to the turn of the 5-4th centuries BC. The date of the foundation and cessation may be fixed by finds of amphora stamps and coins, mainly from Kamenskoe. There were not founded any material of the 3rd century BC in Pervomaevka, Chernecha, Nizhniy Rogachik et al. The latest material consists of Khersonesian stamps of groups 1 and 2A from Lysaya Gora and Kamenskoe, and of contemporary Sinopean stamps from Kamenskoe. Coins confirm these results.  According to the chronology of the Sinopean stamps, proposed by N. Fedoseev, the latest material is dated by the first decade of the 3rd century, and after N. Conovichi astynomos Hecatei I belongs to the beginning of the IVth group (279-258). There is no real conflict between the dating of the Scythian settlements and the Scythian barrow graves in the region under review, some graves are to be dated earlier than some of the settlements, but as a whole pottery from the graves also belong to the 4th century BC.

Among the finds in the Scythian settlements are large quantities of bones, and articles made from them. There are also large numbers of stone tools - different whetstones, grain grinders and balls for sling.  The presence of iron working, iron humpback knives and other items, based on lake and bog ores, is characteristic of these settlements. Clay spindle whorls are found in significant numbers and with imprints of textiles. A single fragment was found of an anthropomorphic statuette, connected with agricultural and fertility cults, which has very close analogues in the forest-steppe (after B.A.Shramko). Coins and graffiti (five) are found only in the Kamenskoe. This site had a special function as a central market. Additional evidence of this is its location on the main trade route of Scythia.

In the Scythian settlements large horned cattle comprise up to 60% of the bones and 40-50% of animals, horses 23-39%, small horned cattle up to 15%, and dogs 0.1 - 3.4% (these data are different from those at Kamenskoe and the smaller settlements according to B. Grakov) Pig-breeding was minimal: we did find bones of one pig in Pervomaevka, the same - in Chernecha, there were bones of three pigs among the material from Lysaja Gora according to N. Gavriluk and S. Kravchenko, and three bones from pigs among Gracov's material from Kamenskoe. There are few wild animals - grey hare, red deer, roe dear, steppe antelope, and one bone of otter in Lysaya Gora. If we compare with Belozerskoe, small horned cattle (more sheep than goats) make up 40-50% of the animals, large horned cattle 20-30% (and adult animals predominate), horses and pigs, and dogs in approximately the same quantity near 10%. There are few wild animals (hare, fox, red deer, wild boar, steppe antilope) but fish of various kinds are found in great quantity. We also found the bones of birds and turtles and even dolphins. Paleobotanical analyses (by G.A. Pashkevich) show a dominant role for barley and wheat. The main crops of the Scyths were millet and barley.

On the evidence presented here we may conclude that the synchronous settlements of the northern and southern groups being two different archaeological cultures, based on opposite types of economy.

The fate of the Scyths and the southern settlers evolved differently.

The constant pressure of the Scyths on the territory of the north-west Crimea is traced in the material from the settlements over the course of the third and second centuries. In the Kerch peninsula from the second quarter-middle of the 3rd century the abandonment and/or destruction of rural settlements and the active fortification of the cities is clearly documented. Later Neapolis Scythica was founded, followed by the other "late Scythian" sites in the Crimea. In the Dobrudja the presence of Scyths is observed at the end of the 4th century-first quarter of the third; the final phase of Scythia Minor in this territory is dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century-beginning of the first (after M.Coja and S.Andrukh). The archaeological and numismatic data corroborate the written sources: Dyonysios of Halikarnassos notes that "the country of the Celts ... abuts the Scythian and Thracian tribes on the side of Boreas and the river Istros" (XIV, 1). This situation is assigned to the third century BC. In recent years Scythian barrows and settlements of the second half of the 3rd and of the 2nd century have been identified in the Lower Dniester region. As far as the Lower Dnieper is concerned, there is no archaeological evidence of the presence of a Scythian or any other population from the second quarter of the 3rd century to the middle of the 2nd; in particular no nomadic burials of this time have been discovered. 

In the late period on the steppe the nomadic population was replaced, and, on what was formerly the heartland of Scythian territory, there appeared fortified settlements, founded by a "barbarian" population of a new archaeological culture. This  period was the epoch of intensive interaction between Greeks and different tribes, but there can be no doubt about the existence and development of Greek culture there, something also traced in the settlements of the eastern part of the rural territory on which the early settlements were located. On the other hand, though showing traces of Greek influence, the barbarian territories didn’t transform into Greek ones. Despite common features in economic models the differences between Olbian and hinterland barbarian populations can be traced in the main cultural characteristics, as the size of settlements, the use of space, building, fortification, structure of finds, the selection of coins, and in the assemblages of crops and domestic animals; they also differ in the time of their appearance (earlier in barbarian group) and in existence date. During their investigations in 1950s an archaeological culture of these hinterland settlements was not defined straight away. Proposal of their Late Scythian cultural characteristic was based on the existence of an earlier Scythian culture and a similarity of the handmade pots with the Scythian ones. 15 Late Scythian settlements are known, some of them were excavated.

One can't notice a similar stratigraphy in all the sites, the thickness of the cultural strata also varies (from 0,7 to 2 m)  in the settlements and in different parts of the same site. Two settlements are considered as existing in two periods, with a possible break. All the other settlements have cultural strata, dated from the 2nd-1st centuries BC to the 1st-2nd centuries AD. In material of the recent excavations, which were conducted in Lyubimovka, Annovka and Velyka Lepetikha, and in the material of older excavations we can't find material that indicates a date from the 3rd century BC and even from the first half of  2^nd for the earliest strata. Mainly, cultural debris have been formed during 1st century BC-1st and 2nd centuries AD. In the Late Scythian fortified settlements isolated fragments of 4th century amphoras are represented, and also stamps and coins of this period, but they contain no traces of debris of this period.

All Late Scythian settlements are rectangular in plan, their territory bounded by the shore of the Dnieper or its tributaries and by short, steep ravines, supplemented by two lines of fortification. The right bank is - 20-40 m high. The main area consists of 1-4 hectares, the second line of the fortification encircled an area of 10-14 hectares.  The use of stone in the construction of houses is common, one- and two-room ground-level houses are characteristic; isolated dugouts of shallow depth are encountered and also wattle and daub and pise building. The most impressive blocks of houses are discovered in Zolota Balka. Tiles were only used in extremely rare cases. The masonry was irregular, laid flat on orthostat socles. The remains of iron production are encountered. One can notice the appearance of "zolniki" (large accumulations of ashes) in the Late Scythian settlements. Their principle of planning and building is both Greek and barbarian in character. Concerning the fortification, one can now see stone walls, of a rather irregular construction. The excavations of the inner line of fortification in Annovka (after M.Abikulova and N.Gavriluk) revealed the ruins of a stone wall, a tower and a moat, cut into the rock (its depth is 2 m, width at bottom 6.5 m, its upper part 11.5 m wide). This stonewall is 2 m thick, it has three rows in structure - two faces of stone and a middle infilling of small stones. Walls and towers were founded on the earthen rampart 1.3 m of height. A wall was traced in a length of 12 m. The tower found is rectangular, 4.6 x 4.2 m, with an inner space of 1.6 x 2.3 m, it was covered by clay mixed with cut reed

The inhabitants of these settlements regularly received imports, including Olbian pottery, only a few silver denarii have been found, and one coin from Pantikapaion. The ceramic complex includes amphoras, wheel-made pottery of different type and varied hand-made pottery. Apart from the material of the 4th century, the earliest group of amphoras date from the 1st century BC- 1st century AD. The most common type of amphoras in the early strata is a wide-necked amphora, with double handles, a cigar-shaped body and a cone-shaped or acorn-shaped toe (probably, late Koan and mainly late Sinopean and late Heraclean, after S.Vnukov). The earliest Koan amphorai with acorn-shaped toes appeared in the second part of the 2nd century BC, but our amphorai belong to a later type. Only isolated finds can be dated earlier. At the settlement of Znamenskoe were found, by N. Pogrebova, a Rhodian stamp of the Vth group (134-133 by Finkielsztejn) and also Sinopean ones with a date no earlier than the second half of the 2nd-1st century BC. Several fragments of lagynoi have been found, perhaps of Phodian manufacture, and there are finds of Megarian cups as well. From the settlement of Znamenskoe was found a single fibula in a middle La-Tene structure.

For the later "barbarian" settlements a large percentage of hand-made pottery (on average up to 50% of the total complex) is characteristic. There are types of "scythian pots and lids", bowls of Zarubinetskaya culture, Sarmatian jugs and censers and copies of wheel-made shapes.   

Objects related to fishing are represented in late settlements. There are many stone items, such as grinding tools, whetstones and so on. Bone tools and astragalai are also represented.  In the Late Scythian settlements are found clay loom weights, they are rather crudely made. There are only isolated finds of graffiti and the distinctive feature is the presence of Sarmatian tamga-like marks. Hearth-stands with animal heads is a new group of finds, their provenance should probably be seen in western archaeological cultures. All the fibulae, except for one already mentioned, found in the late settlements, were of the Late La-Tene structure, from the 1st century BC. Sarmatian mirrors of Khazanov's type 6, with a date of 1st century BC-1st AD have also been found. Beads, scarabs, etc. are dated to the first centuries AD (according to E. Alekseeva). There was also found traces of iron craft, and iron artefacts, such as nails, knives, arrow heads et al. Fragments of glass vessels and one "button" are also encountered.       

The breakdown of the cereal crops for the Scyths in the preceding period caused a predomination of millet, followed by barley and oats, with wheat in last place.

Archaeological materials attest to the fact that in the Lower Dnieper region both Hellenic and barbarian cultural traditions are represented and developed simultaneously. As a comparison of the two groups shows, the barbarian tradition has no clear continuity in its development and consequently is manifested in two archaeological cultures.

Fortified settlements arose at the turn of the 1st centuries BC and AD in the zone of distribution of the earlier settlements, but also on new, more secure sites, and they existed down to the end of the 3rd century AD. In our territory the most fully investigated settlement is Zolotoi Mys, where expeditions of the Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, under the leadership of S. Buiskikh, and an expedition of the Kherson Museum lead by M. Abikulova have both carried out work. It is considered to mark the eastern boundary of the Olbian chora in the Roman period, although a settlement has been discovered to the east of it. The uniformity of the archaeological characteristics of the settlements in the Olbian territory in the Roman period, to which the late southern group belongs, has allowed investigators to propose that they had populations of more or less uniform composition. They included representatives of a different ethne, but descendants of the inhabitants of the polis of the preceding period predominated. This population continued to develop the earlier cultural traditions, supplemented by Roman provincial influence and some barbarian features. A new phenomenon, characteristic of the settlements of the chora in this stage, was the appearance of strong fortifications and their function as a frontier defence for the Olbian state.

The Dnieper/Borysthenes proved to be the only great river of the north Black Sea littoral on which no Greek city was founded. The model of coexistence of the population in this region had its own distinctive features, above all because, from the time of the Late Bronze Age, there was no settled population on the Lower Dnieper. Apparently, interrelations between the nomadic Scyths and the colonists developed differently over the centuries. The elements of similarity between them are of no significance: i.e. the use of ramparts and ditches in the fortifications, the presence of imports (given that the volume and breakdown are different), the presence in the settlements of the Olbian group of pots of Scythian types (there are observable differences, generally, in the selection of hand-made pottery), of clay spindle whorls, bronze arrowheads, iron knives and bits (in one instance), which may be evidence of the presence of Scyths among the inhabitants. To judge by the absence of purely Scythian complexes, this population lost its ethnic markers in the material culture, which may be a reflection of the process of assimilation and inter-breeding. The barbarians did not. determine the general character of the culture and numerically were not able to prevail in the Olbian rural territory.  

Year 2002