The Roman presence in the Northern Black Sea Region during the Republican Era: a Sociocultural Dimension Authors Roman Kuchma

The discoveries at Cape Beikush allow us to significantly expand and refine our understanding of the nature and extent of local influence on the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region. The decisive factor in the formation of the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region at the initial stage was the meeting of the colonists with a powerful ideological phenomenon – the veneration of the local tribes (relic Aryans) almost continuously, since the IV millennium BCE, AXI-the Serpent – the first Ancestor and personification of the Indo-European worldview born in the Northern Black Sea region. The earliest archaeological evidence of the Achilles worship in the Northern Black Sea region dates from the end of the VII – early VI centuries BC and is associated with a cult complex of Achilles in the Lower Buh region (‘Lower Pobuzhzhia’), combining Berezan’, Beikush and Velyka Chornomorka II. This allows us to distinguish a special and earliest stage in the development of the cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region: the end of the VII – early V centuries BCE, when the sanctuary of Achilles on Beikush ceased to exist. After that, in other places of Achilles’ worship in the Northern Black Sea region, the «Serpent» features of the cult of Achilles on Beikush were no longer repeated. In other words, the image and cult of Achilles was no longer associated with serpents. This indicates a gradual loss of syncretism of these images and cults due to the decline of local, «barbaric» influence on them after the 5th century BCE. This is also due to the fact that AXI-the «Serpent-ancestor» was for the Greek colonists, obviously, an alien deity. The subsequent transfer of the center of the veneration of Achilles to the Island of Levke seems to be the realization of the need to bring the cult important for further colonization (to completely abandon the cult of AXI-the Serpent – the «master» of the Northern Black Sea Region to the colonists, surrounded by «barbarians», was clearly unprofitable) in accordance with the already existing legends about the White Island and Homer’s Achilles, as well as with the «norms» of the Delphic oracle, which clearly did not meet the «barbarian» Beikush. The appearance in Roman times of the cult of Achilles Pontarchus – the «Lord of the Black Sea» and God cannot be explained by anything other than the great importance of the prototype of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region in previous times, from the beginning of the formation of the Indo-European community.

The research object is the domain of Hellenic religious worldview in the Northern Black Sea region during the Antiquity era. The research focuses on the revival of the Aphrodite cult in the Bosporus and Chersonese in the first centuries A.D. and the strengthening of the chthonic element in these beliefs. The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the mythological origin, the presence of various epicleses of the Greco-barbarian Aphrodite, her connection with other female deities, as well as the features of the chthonic functions originally inherent in this goddess of love and family life. The article pays particular attention to Aphrodite's involvement in funerary rites and the deity's patronage of dead souls. The main research conclusions stem from the identified multifactorial reasons for the popularity of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region in the Roman period. The most important of these are the distribution of the deity's cult among the Romans and the possibility of Aphrodite's divine protection covering a wide enough range of the local population, including sailors, as well as the peculiarities of the reaction of local Hellenes to the Roman cultural expansion. The authors' special contribution to the study of the subject is to link the radical changes in the veneration of Aphrodite in the Northern Black Sea region with the democratization of the apotheosis of the dead in the first centuries A.D. The novelty of the research lies in conducting the first comprehensive study in historiography on this topic, which has revealed one of the main reasons for the return of popularity, as well as the archaization of the Aphrodite cult in the Northern Black Sea region during the Roman period. According to the authors, it was an increased need for the deification of deceased relatives, in order to ensure the peace of their souls and achieve immortality. It was Aphrodite, the oldest and supreme Hellenic deity as Mistress of the afterworld, who could most effectively breathe divine powers into the deceased as well as ensure that he/she would be born in a new capacity.

A new locality of <i>Pylaiella littoralis</i> has been identified in the coastal marine waters off the Cape Martyan Reserve (Southern Coast of Crimea, the Black Sea). In the Northern Black Sea region, which covers the coastal area from the Danube Delta to the Northern Caucasus, this species is considered a rare element of the natural flora with decreasing populations. However, in the Mediterranean Sea, <i>P. littoralis</i>, first recorded in 1960, is categorized as an alien species. Since the Black Sea regional conservation documents emphasize the Caspian-Mediterranean range of <i>P. littoralis,</i> we analyzed original publications for a period of more than two hundred years. Together with the results of our own observations, it showed that the species does not usually form abundant growths and thickets in the Northern Black Sea region, but it is widespread enough. <i>Pylaiella littoralis</i> was first identified in the Northern Black Sea (and in the Black Sea in general) in the early 1930s in Odesa Bay as an alien species, which was later overlooked. The erroneous idea about the occurrence of <i>P. littoralis</i> in the Caspian Sea before the launch of the Volga-Don Canal (1952) arose due to an inaccuracy made in the 1950s in the succession of citations that began with a publication from 1800. We believe that this multizonal eurybiont was introduced by sea transport through the straits into the Mediterranean and Black Seas almost simultaneously - around the early 1930s. After the end of the lag-phase of invasion, a rapid expansion of the species occurred. This could have been triggered by the intensification of marine traffic, climatic changes or progressive eutrophication of waters. By the 1960s, <i>P. littoralis </i>had colonized the coastal areas of both seas, and through the canal, it penetrated into the previously isolated Caspian Sea, where it had also spread widely by the early 1970s. Thus, <i>P. littoralis</i> is also a naturalized alien species in the Northern Black Sea region as well as in the entire Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Its introduction, and rapid, widespread distribution did not result in a transformation of the native phytocenoses and biotopes of the Northern Black Sea region. However, the erroneous inclusion of <i>P. littoralis</i> in the rarity fraction of the natural flora of the region and the unreasonable conservation measures are obvious. KEY WORDS: Northern Black Sea region, macrophytobenthos, <i>Pylaiella littoralis</i>, distribution, conservation, biological invasion, alien species

The article presents the results of a study of signs on a Bronze Age slab "Sun stone" discovered at the foot of Maja e Can in Volusnica massif (Prokletije National Park, Montenegro). Studies have shown that the slab is an analemmatic sundial. The "Sun Stone" is more similar in marking to the slabs of the Srubnaya culture: all the cup marks are small and located along the ellipse line. Ellipses of bowl-shaped signs of analemmatic sundials from the Northern Black Sea region are similar in size to the reconstructed ellipse of the "Sun Stone". In addition, on one sundial from the Northern Black Sea region, the groove marks the distance that the gnomon must travel on the day of the winter solstice, similar to the groove on the Sun Stone. In the hour marking of sundial slabs from the Northern Black Sea region and Western Balkans, continuity can be traced, confirming the dating of the XV-XII centuries BC and indicating contacts of representatives of the synchronous local Glasinac culture of the Western Balkans with representatives of the Srubnaya culture of the Northern Black Sea region. Keywords: cup marks, hour markers, grooves, slab, analemmatic sundial, hour line, Bronze Age, Sun Stone.

Collections of glass vessels made with the core-formed technique from an ancient settlement on the island of Berezan are analyzed. The collection includes 8 alabastra, most of which are preserved in small fragments. Among the finds, there are items that have rare analogies in the Mediterranean or are found for the first time in the Northern Black Sea region. Type Al.2.V (515/510-495/490 BCE) is represented by only one item. In the Northern Black Sea region, a find from Berezan island is the only one so far. One fragment of alabastrum corresponds to the type Al.4.I (510-500 BCE). Two items of the type Al.9.I (480-425 BCE or 475-450 BCE) come from Borysthenes excavations. Type Al.14.I (475-450 BCE) is represented by the almost intact form. The most common in the Northern Black Sea region are alabastra decorated with a continuous zigzag pattern (type Al.16, 455/450-425/415 BCE). 3 items are found during the excavations of the settlement on Berezan island. In the collection of glassware from Berezan, there are 6 amphoriskoi, which correspond to three types. Type Am.1.I (510/505-500/495 BCE) is represented by two fragmented vessels from the necropolis excavations in 1900-1901. Almost intact amphoriskos and a fragment of the vessel’s wall from the necropolis excavations in 1900-1901 represent the type Am.2 (505-495/490 BCE). The latest amphoriskos from Berezan collection is an item of type Am.4.IV (430-420/405 BCE). One fragment of the amphoriskos does not correspond to any type, but stylistic features give the opportunity to assume the chronology of its usage within the 5th century BCE. Using glass aryballoi by the population of Borysthenes is evidenced by only one fragmented item. Stylistic features of the preserved part of the vessel may indicate two variants of the type Ar.4.I, II, dating back to the first half of the 5th century BCE. Thanks to information from the catalog of objects found on the island of Berezan by G.L. Skadovskyi in 1900-1901 and the photo album of the tables of finds, the complexes of finding for three vials were managed to find out. This allowed clarifying the dating of the complexes. Present-day excavations in Borysthenes show that the glass core-formed vessels were used not only during the burial rites but also in everyday life since a number of fragments of core-formed vessels were found in residential areas of the site. The available finds indicate that the import of glass vials to the settlement began in the late 6th century BCE, and lasted until the last quarter of the 5th century BCE.

Scientific communications of Mikhail Rostovtzeff with Bulgarian scientists were left without the attention of researchers, they are not mentioned in historiographic works and bibliographic descriptions, and in the works of Rostovtzeff himself, we can only find brief references to the works of Bulgarian colleagues. Meanwhile, M. I. Rostovtzeff's correspondence with with his Bulgarian colleagues) сurrently stored in the Library Archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences continued continuously from the 1910s to 1940s. and contains details of the research activities of the famous scientist, his views on the current problems of the history of the ancient world, in particular, Thrace and Scythia, interpretations of new archaeological finds, setting problems that will later be revealed in Rostovtzeff's publications. Based on letters addressed to Bulgarian colleagues, it is possible to present vectors of scientific search by M. I. Rostovtzeff in the 1920s and 1930s, his justification of the theory of comparing two historical ranges — the Northern Black Sea region and Thrace, which became possible thanks to assistance of Bulgarian historians and archaeologists.

The topic of the publication is devoted to the process of forming the image of the Northern Black Sea region in European society in the times of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Northern Black Sea region had its own peculiarities of mental, verbal and artistic perception. It is revealed that many works are devoted to the perception of the region by representatives of other cultures, among which L. Wolff work dedicated to the study of transformations of mentally-geographical landmarks of Western Europeans should be noted. Wolff tried to prove that numerous traveler-diplomats, writers, adventurers, merchants, and scholars have laid the foundations for the image of the region and as a «civilized» West looked at the «backward» Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region. The Age of Enlightenment was merely a statement of the millennial genesis of this figurative perception. The roots of this process date back to ancient times. The research is based on an analysis of the works of antique, medieval and early modern authors, which have a clear positioning in relation to the Northern Black Sea region. The study of the genesis of perception of the Northern Black Sea region by representatives of «civilized» cultures is the main goal of this publication. It was defined that both «antique» and «medieval» European threat and trouble came from the east, while the closest «eastern» region to the Europe was the Northern Black Sea region. Like the Scythians and Sarmatians in ancient times, and the Huns during the Great Migration of Peoples, and the destruction of the Roman Empire, the Mongol invasion, the Tatar-Nogai raids firmly established in the minds of Europeans the image of this land as a «hellish» place. It is noted that the ancient «sivilis» clearly contrasted itself with the Black Sea «barbarus» and considered it dangerous. Subsequently, after the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire, along with the civilization criterion religious was added. Now, the «sivilis», which was associated with «christianitas» (Christianity), contrasted itself with the «barbarus», which consolidated «religia pagana» (paganism).

A tale from the Neogene savanna: Paleoecology of the hipparion fauna in the northern Black Sea region during the late Miocene

This article presents archaeological research into the line of fortifications erected in the northern Black Sea region during the time of Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. A comparative analysis of the planning structure and design features of several fortresses from the late 14th–15th centuries is presented, featuring stone tower-type castles characteristic of the early stages of artillery development. The distinctive traits of each fortress, as well as their common features, are also identified.

The spread of Christianity in the Northern Black Sea Region was a continuation of the vector of cultural expansion into this region, outlined in Antiquity and opposing the region’s stable geopolitical ties in the latitudinal direction, with the steppe world of the nomads of Eurasia. The stages of this process were: the Great Greek colonization on Pontus Euxinus; the spread of Pax Romana to the territory of Crimea; the Christianization of the region and the strengthening of Byzantium in the Northern Black Sea Region through an alliance with the Khazaria and the creation of the Klimata-Cherson thema; finally, the emergence of Italian trading posts and the emergence of Genoese Gazaria. The success of the Christian mission of Byzantium would not have been possible without the oncoming movement from the north, which determined the reception of the Byzantine civilization by Rus’-Russia and predefined the geopolitical contours of the modern world. In the opposite direction there was an advance to the south of Rus’ and the formation of the path “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, sea voyages of the Rus’ princes to Constantinople, the capture of Korsun’Cherson by Vladimir the Saint and the baptism of Rus’, the inclusion of Russia in the system of the Byzantine church administration. At the new historical stage, after the fall of Byzantium, the role of the Christian Orthodox empire passed to Russia, and the processes of intercivilizational interaction in the region changed their vector. But even in the new conditions, the meridional dimension remains incomparably more important than the latitudinal dimension: a fact that determines the future geopolitical perspective.

We are talking about the research directions, namely the formation, distribution, transformation and degradation of the soil cover of the Northern Black Sea Region in the geomorphologic environment of the region. The necessity of establishing the regularity of the influence of the relief and modern geomorphologic processes on the functioning of the soil cover is substantiated, first, to the role of the relief of the earth's surface in the formation of zonal and non-zonal conditions of soil formation in the Northern Black Sea region, and secondly, in modern geomorphologic processes that significantly affect the quality and land degradation, thirdly, in the historical features of the use of land resources, rich in this respect the region of Europe, in fact - barns Fourth, to the peculiarities of using land resources in the new economic conditions, fifthly, to the modern quality of the soil cover in the conditions of a wide range of water ameliorations of the Northern Black Sea region, sixthly, to the trends in the changing natural conditions of the region as a whole, both and in the local spectrum of soil quality in conditions of land user change. The rational direction of the realization of the set goals and the features of the theoretical and methodological basis for studying the soil cover in the geomorphologic environment are indicated. Key words: ecological-geomorphologic study, soil cover, Northern Black Sea region, geomorphologic processes.

The main goal of the study is to characterize various artifacts discovered in the Northern Black Sea region and related to the cult of Mithras from the period of the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD, as well as to determine the variants of worship of this deity and establish the characteristic features of the specified belief. The relevance of the proposed problem is obvious, since there are no works that would present a comprehensive overview of the entire set of sacred objects related to the spread of the Mithras cult in the Northern Black Sea region and offer a reconstruction of the general picture of its features. The presented paper is an attempt to fill this gap in the topic of studying the problem of the spread of this belief in the territory of Ukraine. In the course of implementation of the problem, various principles of scientific research were used: objectivity, systematicity, historicism, which determined the use of both general scientific (analytical, statistical, historical retrospective and prospective, synthesis and analysis) and special (material analysis, descriptive, semantic, comparative typological, etc.) methods of study. This made it possible to take a versatile and critical approach to solving the above-mentioned issues and ensured the reliability of the obtained results and conclusions. The findings indicate that in the 1st century BC, after the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator became the ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom, the so-called “Pontic” version of Mithraism began to spread in this region. A small number of cult objects, namely fragments of marble reliefs and statues, votive altars dated to the 2nd–3rd centuries AD, indicates minor manifestations of the “Roman” version of Mithras worship among the legionaries present at that time in Tyre, Olbia, Chersonese and the fortress of Charax.

The article presents the result of a comparative analysis of the materials of the kamensko-liventsovskaya group of monuments the final of Middle Bronze Age. The discovery of Liven-tsovskaya and Karataevskaya fortresses in the lower reaches of the Don in the 1960s by S.N. Bratchenko allowed a new look at the antiquities of the final of Middle Bronze Age. The two forti-fications, situated on the right bank of the Mertvyi Donets river, are a single defensive complex. When comparing the Lower Don fortress materials with finds from the Kamenka settlement in the Eastern Crimea, S.N. Bratchenko came to the conclusion that they differ from other synchronous phenomena. As a result, the scientist distinguishes these monuments into a separate culture – the kamensko-liventsovskaya group. Similar materials were also found in the settlement and burial complexes of the North Caucasus. The discovery of new monuments of the final of Middle Bronze Age in the Northern Black Sea area and the North Caucasus made it possible to consider the ka-mensko-liventsovskaya monuments differently in the general interconnection of the post-Cathacombian cultures. On the basis of comparative and comparative method similar to the ka-mensko-liventsovskaya materials are given and as a consequence the reconstruction of possible contacts between the territories of the Lower Don – Northern Black Sea Region – Northern Cauca-sus.

The article is devoted to the gymnasiarch hierarchy institute in the ancient city-states of the Northern Black Sea Littoral. The gymnasiarch sphere of activity, peculiarities of its financial support, their duties, status, and place in the system of management of the ancient states are analyzed. The constructive features of gymnasiums, their activity, duties and status of gymnasiarchs are analyzed basing on archeological and epigraphic sources. The pedotribes, other officials and direct teachers connected with this institution are studied. The activities of gymnasiarchs are reflected in a huge number of inscriptions, most of which belong to the Hellenistic period. The gymnasiarch is in some cases connected with the organization of sports competitions and the supply of everything necessary (for example, olive oil), or with the gymnasium guardianship responsibilities. Therefore, the key question about the institution of the gymnasiarch is whether it is the position or the liturgy. There are four different points of view in the historiography of the problem. The first theory explains that the gymnasiarch was the head of gymnasiums and palaestra and carried out certain practical and pedagogical activities; the second one says that in the early times the gymnasiarch was a liturgy and later became magistracy. Researchers of the third hypothesis considered the gymnasiarch as a position associated with monetary expenditures. The fourth group of researchers suggests distinguishing between gymnasiarch as a liturgy and gymnasiarch as a position. The author offers their own vision of the evolution of the institution of the Hellenic gymnasium. Gymnasiums in the Northern Black Sea region have been known since the 5th century BC, while the gymnasiarchs are known since the 3rd century BC. During the Roman period, gymnasiums in Chersonesos and the Bosporus were probably financed from the state, and gymnasiarchs were government officials who ran the gymnasiums and were responsible for ephebos training. Gymnasiarchs were members of the Synod of Panticapaeum, Horhipiyi and Tanais. Thus, the context of the mention of gymnasium archivists in the Northern Black Sea region indicates that they were government officials, although it does not completely rule out the possibility of liturgies.

The features of the location and functioning of renewable energy sources in the Northern Black Sea region in the context of political and economic transformations are considered. The strategic importance and expediency of using alternative energy power with the use of a “green” tariff and the implementation of a new electricity market have been proved. Analyzed the main factors of development and operation of renewable energy sources, among ecology-geographical, socio-geographical, economic and geopolitical. The ecology-geographical factor makes assess first of all the natural and ecological conditions on the territory, which can be used to create new renewable energy power complexes with huge economic efficiency. For the Ukrainian Black Sea region, the prospects for the development of renewable energy power are primarily related to the use of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy. The Northern Black Sea that is part of Ukraine, which receives the largest amount of solar radiation and has a lower relief, which facilitates the movement of winds from the coast of the Black and Azov seas deeper into the territory. In the system of socio-geographical factors, the population density, the pattern of settlements, the level of infrastructure development, the availability of skilled labour forces and the availability of energy consumers will be estimated. An economic factor has allowed evaluating and analyzing the cost of electricity generation from renewable energy power. The assessment of the geopolitical factor enabled the possibility and prospects of cooperation with investors from Norway, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Taking into account advanced international experience in the study of renewable energy capacity. Improved scientific methods for the investigation of renewable energy sources from the standpoint of social geography, not just within technological, engineering and economic areas. The principles of localization of alternative energy power are highlighted, which take into account the socio-geographical features of the Northern Black Sea Region: spatial distribution, labour resource potential, production infrastructure, economic attractiveness, regional competitiveness, etc. Identified functional and sectorial types of the regions of the Northern Black Sea region, which depending on the prevailing types of generation and the volume of production of electric energy. According to the results of the research, four functional-branch types have been identified: solar power – Odesa Region, wind – Donetsk, wind and solar – Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and wind and solar + small hydropower + bioenergy – Mykolaiv Region. By 2026, we predicted changes of those types for the following: wind – Donetsk (without changes), solar + wind – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia (without changes) and Odessa regions and wind + solar + small hydropower + bioenergy – Mykolaiv Region (without changes).Reflected energy- deficient and energy-surplus areas within the Northern Black Sea region, taking into account the balance of renewable energy power and total electricity generation. Investigated the potential of using alternative energy power using three-dimensional mathematical models. Spatial analysis of the most favourable spaces and areas for the development of new capacities of renewable energy power, taking into account the above factors and determinants, has been carried out. The further development of renewable energy power was adjusted according to the United Energy Network Development Plan until 2026 and the flow of foreign direct investment from the countries of the European Union. Presented trend in the dynamics of the distribution of renewable energy power.