www.ihu.edu.

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International Workshop

Black Sea in Antiquity

Thessaloniki, September 21-23, 2012
International Hellenic University

Where to find us

14th km Thessaloniki - Nea Moudania

57001 Thermi, Thessaloniki
Greece
T +30 2310 807 529, 807 527
F +30 2310 474 520
E infosoh@ihu.edu.gr
www.hum.ihu.edu.gr

The School of Humanities would like to invite you to the International Workshop on the Black Sea in Antiquity, organised at the International Hellenic University
on 21-23 September 2012.

Friday 21 September 2012

Saturday 22 September 2012

9:30-10:30 Registration

Morning session

10:30-11:00 Welcome messages

10:30

Aneta Petrova (New Bulgarian University, Sofia), State

in danger: Ideological strategies of the West Pontic poleis
facing an external threat.

Morning session
11:00

Sren Handberg (Aarhus University), Aeolian

Participation in the Colonization of the Black Sea.

10:50

11:20

Manolis Manoledakis (International Hellenic University,

Thessaloniki), The Southern Black Sea in the Homeric Iliad:
Some Geographical, Philological and Historical Remarks.

Adela Sobotkova (University of New South Wales,

Sydney), Resisting Rule in Ancient Thrace.

11:10

Discussion

11:30

Blent ztrk (Marmara University, Istanbul), The history

of Tieion/Tios (Eastern Bithynia) in the light of inscriptions.

11:50

Emine Skmen (Middle East Technical University,

Ankara), Two Defence Units in the Pontic Kingdom: rdk
and Geyras Fortresses.

12:10

Discussion

11:40

Discussion

12:00

Anca Dan (Topoi Excellence Cluster, Deutsches

Archologisches Institut, Berlin), The Black Sea
as a Scythian Arc.

12:20

Kirill Tesle (Lomonosov Moscow State University),

The Cult of the Great Gods of Samothrace in the
Black Sea Region.

12:40

Discussion

Evening session
18:30

Stefania Gallotta (Universit di Napoli lOrientale),

Notes on the history of the Scythian Kingdom of Crimea.

18:50

Valeriya Kozlovskaya (Independent scholar, USA),

The Ancient Harbour of Tanais

19:10

Discussion

19:30

Sujatha Chandrasekaran (University of Oxford /

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Identifying the Tribes
of the Eastern Black Sea Region.

19:50

Coku Kocabyk (Middle East Technical University,

Ankara), Chiliocomum: the Plain of a Thousand
Villages Examining the rural settlements in northwest
Amasya during the Hellenistic and the Roman Periods.

20:10

Discussion

Evening session
18:30

Kamila Nocon (Jagiellonian University, Krakow), New

evidence of east Greek pottery from north pontic colonies.

18:50

Alexey Belousov (Lomonosov Moscow State

University), Romans in the North Black Sea Region:
Greco-roman bilingualism in Olbia.

19:10

Discussion

19:30

Mariia Tymoshenko (Taras National Shevchenko

University, Kiev), Navigation in the Black Sea: The Case
Study of the Maritime Traffic in the Northern Black Sea
Region from Late Antiquity to Early Middle Ages (IV-VII).

19:50

Mustafa Nuri Tatbul (Middle East Technical

University, Ankara), Understanding the Function of an
11th Century Medieval Building Complex at Komana
through Spatial Analysis of Archaeological Data.

20:10

Discussion

ABSTRACTS OF THE PAPERS

Sren Handberg (Aarhus University)
Aeolian Participation in the Colonization of the Black Sea
According to ancient literary accounts, almost all of the early Greek colonies in the Black
Sea area were founded by the Ionian city of Miletus. A connection to Ionia is indeed
visible in the large amounts of imported Ionian pottery at Black Sea sites. However, a
substantial amount of local reduction fired, grey ware ceramics that are closely related
to Aeolian pottery can be recognized in ceramic assemblages of the archaic period in
the early colonies. Moreover, recent archaeometric analyses have shown that much of
what was previously believed to be Ionian pottery in the Black Sea was more likely to
have been produced in the Aeolian area. This article argues for a need to recognize a
more active involvement of the Aeolian area in the Greek colonial venture in the Black
Sea.

Manolis Manoledakis (International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki)

The Southern Black Sea in the Homeric Iliad: Some Geographical and
Historical Remarks
One of the most important questions concerning the history of the Greek colonisation
in the Black Sea area that has not yet been answered with any surety is that of the
chronology of the earliest colonies. Scholars are mainly divided into two groups: those
who believe that the colonisation began in the 8th century BC, based mostly on the written
sources, and those who speak for the 7th century, based mostly on the archaeological
finds, although a lot of regions round the Black Sea remain unexcavated. The Iliad is
one of the texts that have often been used in the debate, since it is supposed to be one
of the earliest Greek written sources. In its verses 2,851-2,857, several names of places
and peoples of the southern Black Sea are mentioned. But from when are these verses
dated and to what conclusions can they lead us? The paper examines these specific
verses in terms of the geographical and historical data they can offer, bearing in mind
the philological discussion in their regard.

Anca Dan (Topoi Excellence Cluster, Deutsches Archologisches Institut, Berlin)

The Black Sea as a Scythian Arc
The ancient history of the Black Sea can be written as the history of the invention,
utilization and transformation of a geometric figure: the Scythian arc. This is
significant from a triple perspective: its shape indicates that sometime between the
third and the first century BC the Greeks became aware of the entire circuit of the
Euxine. Also, this choice recalls the common association of the Northern extremity of
the oecumene with violence and Barbarism.
This paper will discuss the main sources for the representations of Pontus: it retraces
the history of its perceptions until Eratosthenes, the supposed inventor of the Euxine as
a geographic concept. It then analyses the success of the Scythian arc in Roman mental
maps, from Sallust to the Periplus of Arrian. Finally, it explains the metamorphosis of
this model in Late Antiquity, in Ammianus Marcellinus and the Christianized geography
and cartography.

Kirill Tesle (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

The Cult of the Great Gods of Samothrace in the Black Sea Region
The study is devoted to the cult of the Great Gods of Samothrace in the Black Sea
region in antiquity. The main aim of this study is to identify under what names these
deities were worshipped in the region and to find out whether the cult can be traced to
Samothrace directly. The first issue seems extremely important since there has been a
long debate concerning the names of the Samothracian deities, whom some scholars
refuse to identify with Kabeiroi. The second is essential for understanding the character
of the Samothracian worship as it reflects the dispute about ancient mystery cults
strong connection with a particular place.

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS | 01

Stefania Gallotta (Universit di Napoli lOrientale)

Notes on the history of Scythian Kingdom of Crimea

Sujatha Chandrasekaran (University of Oxford / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

Identifying the Tribes of the Eastern Black Sea Region

The Black Sea region, and especially the Northern coast, which has more abundant
documentation, constitutes a privileged area for the study of relations between Greeks
and natives in colonial reality, both for the presence of a different range of barbarous
people with whom the Greek colonies are in close contact (Scythians, Taurians,
Meotians, Sarmatians, etc.) and the manner of living established over time.

The tribes of the Eastern Black Sea region played a crucial role in the political and
economic affairs of the ancient kingdoms of the Bosporus and Colchis, i.e., at the
edge of the Greek oikumene. While ancient Greek and Latin sources refer to a number
of these tribes by name, descriptions of them tend to be brief and biased. In order
to understand the true nature of these peoples, and place them geographically, it is
essential to examine both linguistic and archaeological evidence. Linguistic analysis
of the tribal names and epigraphic evidence clearly attest to the distinct identities of
these tribes. Archaeological evidence, however, plainly demonstrates a shared material
culture of the Maeotians. Variations in the burial culture, together with the linguistic
distinctions, allow us to classify the ancient tribes of the region as different sub-groups
of the Maeotians, while also serving to establish their individual territories within the
Eastern Black Sea region.

In this context, the Hellenistic period is of particular interest, because during this period
the Hellenization of large areas of indigenous elites seems to have been accompanied,
however, by an evolution in relations, which are often conflictual with the Greek cities,
for a variety of reasons that are still under discussion. In this regard, the case of the
Scythians is exemplary.
In particular with my paper I will analyze the Scythian Kingdom of Crimea with its capital,
Scythian Neapolis, which represents a particularly significant example of a Hellenized
indigenous community. The Scythian Kingdom of Crimea has not yet been adequately
explored by the scholars of the Greek world. Particular attention will be devoted to
some recent inscriptions, which require a more in-depth study.

Valeriya Kozlovskaya (Independent scholar, USA)

Ancient Harbor of Tanais
Situated near the point where the Tanais River (the modern Don) flowed into Lake
Maeotis (the modern Sea of Azov), the Greek colony of Tanais was located on the
frontier of the ancient Greek world. Founded in the first quarter of the third century BC
as a small trading settlement, the city gradually became a large centre of commerce
and a major emporion. The systematic excavation of this site has been going on since
the 1950s, but the location of the ancient harbour of Tanais has still not been identified.
From 2009 onwards, geoarchaeological research has been conducted in the Lower
City of Tanais, intended to establish the location of the ancient harbour. The proposed
paper will discuss the preliminary results of this project in the context of other available
evidence and tentatively suggest the location of the ancient harbour.

Coku Kocabyk (Middle East Technical University, Ankara)

Chiliocomum: the Plain of a Thousand Villages - Examining the rural
settlements in northwest Amasya during the Hellenistic and the Roman
Periods
The appearance of Anatolia changed basically between the 2nd century B.C. and the
2nd century AD (Mitchell, 1993:241). Cities took the place of fortified refuges; settled
village population was replaced with seasonal groups; cereal agriculture spread to
areas previously devoted to pasture and stock-raising and thus supported a growing
population. The shift in the political control of the territory of Pontus from the Kingdom of
the Mithradatids to the Roman Empire must have had a significant impact on the political,
economic and administrative structure of the region. Amaseia, compared to other cities,
was the only example of an urban centre in inland Pontus and it remained one of the
largest under the Roman rulers of Pontus. The purpose of this study is to examine the
rural settlement pattern of Chiliocomum dated to Hellenistic and Roman periods. Special
emphasis is paid to the environments effect on society and to comparing Hellenistic
and Roman settlement patterns in order to examine spatial distribution of settlements
and whether there existed a relationship between socio political structure and physical
structure and strength. The published results of archaeological surveys are used to
create a settlement database for use in spatial analysis together with digitized data of
environmental variables mainly depend on Geographic Information System.
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS | 2

Aneta Petrova (New Bulgarian University, Sofia)

State in danger: Ideological strategies of the West Pontic poleis faced an
external threat
The fear of external threat is among the main motivating forces of human behaviour.
The West Pontic cities were far from the interest of the ancient authors, so we know
little even about their attitude toward the campaigns that changed the overall shape of
the ancient world. The information about both political and ideological reactions which
shaped public opinions and actions is very fragmentary. Ancestral right was among
the main reasons to have pretensions with respect to a particular territory. It can be
assumed that the West Pontic cities incorporated this in their systems of beliefs. The
case studies of Mesambria and Odessos permit the suggestion that the myth about the
founder of Mesambria and the cults of some local deities in Odessos were created as
responses to external danger that threatened the safety of the entire community. These
reactions consciously incorporate Thracian elements to claim the sovereignty of both
cities.

Adela Sobotkova (University of New South Wales, Sydney)

Resisting Rule in Ancient Thrace
This paper compares several divergent categories of evidence that illuminate the
concept of leadership and authority in ancient Thrace. Greek and Roman historians
provide us with an external view of Thracian power structures, producing contradictory
images of Thracians as, on the one hand, uncontrollable and therefore powerful warriors
and, on the other, as treacherous, scheming individuals living as savages in a poor,
undesirable land. Material evidence also provides contrasting datasets: rich mortuary
material from imposing burial mounds versus simple, impermanent villages with little
evidence for everyday wealth or craft specialization.
Evidence from the Tundzha Regional Archaeological Project (TRAP), a recent, largescale landscape archaeology project in central Thrace, further illustrates Thracian
political institutions. Combining preliminary results from this project with a broader,
comparative study of the Thracians and their neighbours, I argue that Thracian political
institutions never reached the level of a centralised state. Instead, authority remained
very personal and ever changing, producing an unstable horizontal coherence and
weak vertical integration of the society.

Blent ztrk (Marmara University, Istanbul)

The history of Tieion / Tios (Eastern Bithynia) in the light of inscriptions
The ancient city of Tios / Tieion, on one of the transit points between Eastern Bithynia
and Western Paphlagonia regions in the ancient period, is located today in the township
of Filyos in the aycuma District of Zonguldak province in the western Black Sea region
of Turkey. In ancient sources, the city is spelt in various ways, including , ,
, in Greek and Tieium, Tium, Tios in Latin. Tieion / Tios is narrated by the
ancient authors to have been founded as a Milesian colony in the Greek colonization
period. Dependent on various kingdoms during its Hellenistic period, the city fell under
Roman control in ca. 70 BC. The researchers who visited the city from the end of the
19th century onwards give an account of the inscriptions of Tieion / Tios in their works.
As a result of the archaeological excavations and the surface surveys in the territory
of the city and museum researches that were made under Prof. Dr. Smer Atasoy
between the years 2007-2012, new epigraphic materials have also been found. All of
these epigraphic materials are dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods and consist
of honorary decrees for officers, milestones, dedications to gods & goddesses, weights
and gravestones. New information was forthcoming about the political, socio-economic,
socio-cultural, and religious history of the Tieion / Tios from all these works, which will
form the inscription corpus of the city.

Emine Skmen (Middle East Technical University, Ankara)

Two Defence Units in the Pontic Kingdom: rdk and Geyras Fortresses
Defence had become increasingly important in the Anatolian Kingdoms during the
Hellenistic period. The Mithradatic Kingdom was one of several native Anatolian states
in the inner part of the Black Sea Region, and had the first state organisation in the area
with enough power to systematically control the territory.
There is an extensive number of fortresses in Pontos, scattered over the region.
This paper will focus on understanding the Mithradatids defence system through the
examination of two examples identified by surveys. rduk and Geyras fortresses were
located on an important trade route crossing through the middle of the kingdom. These
two fortresses overlooked the road that traversed the city of Komana, an important
religious centre of the Kingdom, which had a quasi-autonomous structure and owned
vast amounts of agricultural lands.
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS | 03

Kamila Nocon (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)

New evidence of East Greek pottery from North Pontic colonies
The aim of this paper is to present new evidence of Eastern Greek tableware from north
Pontic colonies. My first illustration of this approach is a re-evaluation of the evidence
of the Ionian economic activity in the North Pontic area.
My second case of study is the topic of my forthcoming PhD dissertation. Since Im still
in the process of collecting the data for this investigation, my discussion here will focus
on the research design, which was tailored to enable the compilation of a systematic
economic history of North Pontic area between c. 700 and 500 BC.

Alexey Belousov (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Romans in the North Black Sea Region: Greco-Roman bilingualism in Olbia
The report is dedicated to one of the important aspects of Roman influence in the
North Pontic Region: the influence of the Latin language as it is observed in epigraphic
documents of Olbia and some other Greek centres of the region. An Olbian dedication
to Achilles Pontarches made by a retiring priest speaks of the priests gratitude towards
Achilles for the continuance of the city: [] (IPE I 140). The
word can be found in Greek inscriptions more than 200 times. In the majority of
cases these inscriptions date from the Roman epoch and are made in honour of Roman
emperors, the Senate and the people. This paper presents a classification of the
formulas. Olbian inscription IPE I 140 is an extraordinary exception:
a deity is thanked only for Olbian continuance, without mentioning the Roman one.
Another significant specimen of this sort is the CIRB 36 inscription, where a Roman
clich is attributed to Bosporan King Teiranes and Queen Aelia.

Mariia Tymoshenko (Taras National Shevchenko University, Kiev)

Navigation in the Black Sea: The Case Study of the Maritime Traffic in
the Northern Black Sea Region from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages
(IV-VII c.).
Navigation of the Black Sea became common from the period of the Greek Colonization
and onwards. Ancient maritime routes were based on the hydrological features and
had been used according to the climatic conditions. The distribution of archaeological
materials is used as a source to determine the level of trading activity between the main
production centres which was carried out by sea. Nevertheless, the map of the important
coastal ports, well-known on the basis of the Ancient Periplus from antiquity, changed
significantly from the 4th till the 7th century, in accordance with the political situation in
the Northern Black Sea region. This paper considers the tendencies of decay of ancient
harbours and the rise of new ones on the trade routes of the Black Sea, and issues of
their location and functioning.

Mustafa Nuri Tatbul (Middle East Technical University, Ankara)

Understanding the Function of an 11th Century Medieval Building Complex
at Komana through Spatial Analysis of Archaeological Data
The Middle Byzantine period in Anatolia, especially in the 11th to 12th centuries,
witnessed political struggle between different groups. The social and economic impact of
this unstable period on the Byzantine local populations is a challenging topic for scholars.
This obscurity is also true for the ancient site of Komana, situated in the central Black
Sea region. The 11th century is represented by a building complex on a hill at Komana.
Although a large area has been excavated and architectural as well as archaeological
data have been recovered, the function and the significance of this structure are
unclear. Besides the obscurity of its function, the economic and social structure of
its inhabitants is unknown. The limitation in interpreting the function and organization
of the site solely based on archaeological features necessitates a spatial analysis of
archaeological data in relation to features and architecture. This archaeological data
consists of both macro- and micro-scale artefacts and ecofacts. A comparison of macro
and micro data will enable an investigation of the relative representation. Therefore, the
main objective of this study is to contribute to our understanding of the use of space, the
spatial distribution of archaeological material representing this use, and the economic
and social status of the inhabitants of Komana during the Middle Byzantine period.
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS | 04