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Kalos Limen

Συγγραφή : Kovalenko Sergei (29/10/2007)

Για παραπομπή: Kovalenko Sergei, "Kalos Limen", 2007,
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10717>
Kalos Limen (30/10/2008 v.1) Καλός Λιμήν (28/8/2008 v.1) 
 

1. Location

Kalos Limen (Καλός Λιμήν), the ancient greek sea port colony, was located on the north-western shore of the Tarkhankut peninsula, which forms the western extremity of the Crimean peninsula. The ancient city is believed to have covered an area of approximately 4 hectares. It was an elevated area over a quite beautiful closed harbour, from which the city name obviously originated. The city is mentioned in Chersonesian inscriptions and by Roman writers, who call it “Scythian harbor”. These writers defined the distance between Kalos Limen and Cercinitis as 700 stadia (approximately 140 km).1 Nowadays this territory is occupied by the modern city of Chernomorskoe.

2. Date of foundation

Kalos Limen was founded around the middle of the 4th c. BC as a result of a conscious selection of the fertile lands of the north-western Crimea by the Chersonesian colonists. It constituted the most remote bulwark of the Chersonesian power in the region. Recent excavations demonstrated that Chersonesian Kalos Limen was built on the remnants of an earlier Greek settlement, which existed from the end of the 5th c. BC and could have been an Ionian settlement.2

3. History

The history of Kalos Limen cannot be separated from that of the Taurian Chersonesus. Along with Cercinitis and other Chersonesian possessions Kalos Limen was mentioned in the Chersonesian Oath, which reflected a possible social conflict between democrats and aristocrats at the end of the 4th c. BC.3

In the first third of the following century the city became the focal point of Scythian attacks as evidence for numerous fires and destruction layers along the eastern defensive wall testify. The increasing Scythian threat resulted in the abandonment of the city by the Greek population in the middle of the 2nd c. BC. Scythians then occupied Kalos Limen and settled in the dugouts formed amidst the ruins of Greek houses.

Later on, at the end of the century, one of the greatest battles between Greeks and Scythians took place nearby Kalos Limen. Six thousand Pontic and Chersonesian hoplites under the command of Diophantos annihilated 50.000 barbarians.4 Kalos Limen was besieged and recaptured by the Chersonesites. Scythians were pushed away from the city. However, Greeks would not stay there any longer. After a deliberate destruction of the Scythian dwellings and the stone constructions, still preserved by that time, at the turn of 2nd-1st c. B.C., the Greeks finally left Kalos Limen.

Scythians returned to the site in the first half of the 1st c. BC. The territory of the former city was occupied again with round and rectangular constructions, which were then replaced by small stone houses in the second half of the century. These houses were grouped into blocks and were divided by narrow streets. Scythians lived on the site until the first half of the 2nd c. AD when they had to abandon it possibly due to the growing Sarmatian threat.

4. Economy, architecture and material culture

Agriculture formed the basis of the city economy. The fertile land nearby Kalos Limen was divided into standard land plots with adjacent farmhouses of various layouts. The priority of their owners was the cultivation of all varieties of cereals as well as grapes. At the behest of the Chersonesian Oath grain had to be sold only to the market of Chersonesos.5 Accordingly, Chersonesos was the main supplier of the various local and imported goods for Kalos Limen.

The Chersonesian origin of the city defined both its layout and material culture. This is demonstrated by existing features typical for any Chersonesian settlement. In the last quarter of the 4th c. BC, the city was surrounded by strong fortification walls including rectangular and square towers. The city gates were attached to the eastern wall reinforced by one more tower. The city was characterized by a grid plan which involved rectangular blocks consisting of small stone houses of approximately 120-150 m2.6

As far as the necropolis is concerned, it was located 400 m further in a south-east direction. Funerary architecture involved either simple graves covered with a stone slab or mudbrick vaults.

In the last third of the 3rd c. BC, due to the increasing Scythian danger, a second wall was constructed to reinforce the city's fortification. Thus, a powerful citadel of a rectangular shape was erected in the south-western part of the city. On its corners stood multi-storeyed towers made of stone and mudbrick. The foundations of the citadel walls and towers were strengthened with special ram-resisting constructions. The size of the citadel equaled 2500 m2, approximately 1/10 of the city's territory.7

In the second half of the 2nd c. BC this citadel became the centre of the Scythian settlement which emerged from the ruins of the Greek city. Finally, in the 1st c. AD the Scythians used the citadel as a fortress and following Scythian practices, they surrounded it with a ditch.

1. IOSPE, I2, 352-353, 401; Arr., Peripl. Pont. 30.5; Pomp. Mela, 2.3; Ptol., Geogr. 3.5.2.

2. Kutajsov, V.A., Uzhentsev, V. B., “Early building layer of Kalos Limen”, in Rusyaeva, A.S., Bujskikh, S.B., Krapivina, V.V. (eds.), World of Olbia: By the 90th anniversary of Prof. L.M. Slavin (Kiev 1996) (Кутайсов, В.А., Уженцев, В.Б., «Ранний строительный горизонт Калос Лимена», в: Русяева, А.С., Буйских, С.Б., Крапивина, В.В., (ред.), Мир Ольвии: к 90-летию проф. Л.М. Славина (Киев 1996)) p. 136-139.

3. IOSPE, I2 401.

4. IOSPE, I2 352-353.

5. IOSPE, I2 401.

6. Kutaisov, V.A., “Kalos Limen”, Ancient Greek Sites in the Crimea (Kiev 2004) (Кутайсов, В.А., «Калос Лимен», Античные греческие памятники Крыма (Киев 2004)) p. 237.

7. Uzhentsev, V.B., “Fortification of the Kalos Limen citadel in the Hellenistic period”, Chersonesian Collection XIII (Sevastopol 2004) (Уженцев, В.Б., «Укрепление цитадели Калос Лимена в эллинистический период», Херсонесский сборник XIII (Севастополь 2004)) p. 250-260.

 
     
 
 
 
 
 

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