Everything about Berezan Island totally explained
Berezan is an island in the
Black Sea at the entrance of the
Dnieper-
Bug estuary,
Ukraine. The island measures approximately 900 metres in length by 320 metres in width. It is separated from the mainland (to which it may have been connected long ago) by about a mile and a half of shallow water.
History
Berezan was home to one of the earliest
Greek colonies (possibly known as
Borysthenes, after the Greek name of the Dnieper) in the northern Black Sea region. The island was first settled in the mid-7th century B.C. and was largely abandoned by the end of the 5th century B.C., when
Olbia became the dominant colony in the region. In the
5th century BC,
Herodotus visited it to gather information about the northern course of the eponymous river. The colony thrived on wheat trade with the
Scythian hinterland: most cereals consumed in Ancient Greece were purchased from Scythians at Olbia and Borysthenes.
In the Middle Ages, the island was of high military importance because it commanded the mouth of the Dnieper. During the period of
Kievan Rus’ there was an important station on the
trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. It was there that
the Rus first came into contact with the Greeks. The only
Runic inscription in Southern Ukraine was found on the island in
1905, now on exhibit in the Odessa Historical Museum. The inscription seems to have been part of a gravestone over the grave of a
Varangian merchant from
Gotland. The text reads: "Grani made this grave-mound after Karl, his comrade."
The control of the estuary (known in East Slavic sources as
Beloberezhye, or White Shores) was disputed between Kievan Rus and
Byzantium during the multiple
Rus'–Byzantine Wars. At last the
Rus'–Byzantine Treaty of 944 stipulated that the Rus' could use the island in the summertime, without establishing winter camps in the estuary or oppressing the citizens of
Chersonesos fishing off shore. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of
Svyatoslav I's war against Byzantium, this overking of Rus was allowed to evacuate his forces from
Dorostolon to Beloberezhye, where his troops spent the hungry winter of 971/972.
Zaporozhian Cossacks revived Berezan' as a fort during their campaigns against the
Crimean Tatars and the
Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. After the fall of neighbouring
Ochakov to the Russians, the island was incorporated with the remainder of
New Russia into the
Russian Empire.
The site of the Greek colony and its necropolis have been periodically excavated since the 19th century; even though the site has suffered from erosion (and the tombs also from looting), the digs produced rich findings (archaic ceramics, inscriptions, etc.).
Further Information
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