2015-06-29T09:34:51Z

2015-06-29

Default License

masterThesis

en

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

2011

Greek presence in the North Western Black Sea Coast is a fact proven by literary texts, epigraphical data and extensive archaeological remains. The latter in particular are the most indicative for the presence of walls in the area and through their craftsmanship and techniques being used one can closely relate these defensive structures to the walls in Asia Minor and the Greek mainland. The area examined in this paper, lies from ancient Apollonia Pontica on the Bulgarian coast and clockwise to Kerch Peninsula.When establishing in these places, Greeks created emporeia which later on turned into powerful city states. However, in the early years of colonization no walls existed as Greeks were starting from zero and the construction of walls needed large funds. This seems to be one of the reasons for the absence of walls of the Archaic period to which lack comprehensive fieldwork must be added. This is also the reason why the Archaic period is not examined, but rather the Classical and Hellenistic until the Roman conquest. The aim of Greeks when situating the Black Sea was to permanently relocate and to become autonomous from their mother cities. In order to be so, colonizers had to create cities similar to their motherlands. More specifically, they had to build public buildings, among which walls in order to prevent themselves from the indigenous tribes lurking to chase away the strangers from their land. In many cases, locals were attacking Greek cities in order to seize the Greek wealth and produce. As a result, walls were constructed so as to protect the cities and to ensure the fact that these would remain intact from barbarian attacks. However the construction of walls in a faraway place was by no means the same with the exception of craftsmanship. Other than that, the materials being used and the morphology of the ground urged them to find new ways and to use new materials for the construction of walls. In addition, by comparing this, useful realizations are made as to the origin of colonizers; the building techniques being used and the way location or indigenous tribes may have affected the construction of walls. Charts are given in the last pages of the dissertation comparing walls and their components, so as to extract more information and to come down to useful realizations. Furthermore, a number of pictures of walls and their reconstructions as designed by scholars are added. This paper was compiled with the hope to give an insight regarding walls of the North Western Black Sea coast in the Classical and Hellenistic times, and through their correlation with the Greek walls to ensure once more the impact of Greek colonization for in terms of the walls in the Black Sea. Finally, this paper was created with the wish to lay fundamental questions concerning defense systems in the area, which will be further explored by additional work done in the near future.

Akamatis, Professor Yannis

Manakidou, As. Professor Eleni

School of Humanities, MA in Black Sea & Eastern Mediterranean Studies

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