UKRAINE
Surveys and Excavations at Suvorovo near Ismaël, SW Ukraine
Greek Settlement on the Tarkhanhut Peninsula.

More information coming soon.

Suvorovo near Ismaël on the Danube (settlements and burials from the Copper Age to the Kholkhose; the so-called "Trajan" wall; Turkish and Russian fortresses and military camps of c1800; ship of c1600AD; comparative studies) /Crimea (Greek settlements on the Tarkhanhut peninsula; Migration Period cemetery at Chatyr Dag; some comparative studies)

On the Crimea, the investigations have been concentrated on a Migration Period 5th century AD cemetery (and village settlement) at Chatyr Dag (east of fabled Yalta on the rich hilly "Mediterranean" south coast), and on ancient Greek settlements of the Tarkhanhout peninsula in the northwest. Chatyr Dag is seemingly a settlement of Roman auxiliaries even with weapons and jewellery of Baltic extraction.

The Greek Tarkhanhout settlement in the steppe region is stringed out along the coast but also the interior has been used for fields. The degree of preservation is superb, usually much better than in the Mediterranean ; even single farmstead have been characterized in great detail. Furthermore, the greater historical picture can be outlined is graphic detail. The area was chosen for its greater accessibility than the famous Sevastopol region in the southwest.

In Bessarabia or Budjak ("The Corner" in Turkish) - the part of south western Ukraine between Odessa and the Danube - the ambitions have been to trace the material culture history of one municipality, Suvorovo, "from the Copper Age to the Kolkhose", mapping being possible after the fall of the USSR . The ancient settlements were on the lakes and rivers (leading to the Danube ) while the dry interior was filled with the ancient kurgans of travelling nomads like stars in the sky. Budjak is a highly interesting region between the Mediterranean cultures, the Steppe societies and the cultures of Central Europe : a meeting point of three worlds.

Suvorovo is cut by the massive several hundred kilometre long so-called "Trajan's Wall" (which however may turn out to be from the greater Bulgarian period, indeed being the northern boundary of the realm). Mediterranean influence is witnessed in Greek import in nomadic graves and a massive Roman imports from across the Danube , only 30 kilometres to the south.

Highly interesting finds of Turkish fortress sites and a Russian marching fort (four cannon and 100 pit-houses in ten lines) from around 1800 AD have given superb insights into military life in the field at the time of Napoleon. The fort sits on the road between Odessa and Ismaël on the Danube (besieged and taken by Russia in 1790, in fact General Suvorov). Each pit-house (with an oven in the corner) probably held about ten men. Crosses, coins and bottles for alcohol leave no doubt about the origin of the soldiers, in spite of nomad female attire and Turkish pipes. Rectangular earthen walls crowned with timbers or fortification baskets and moats surrounded the camp which was situated in the fork between two smaller rivers.