Posted on 05/22/2022 3:35:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Ukrainian soldiers discovered a trove of artifacts while digging ditches in anticipation of a Russian strike in the port city Odessa, the Ukrainian military announced last week.
Members of the Ukrainian 126th Territorial Defense unearthed amphorae, or ancient containers used to store and transport liquid and dry goods, according to Heritage Daily, which first reported the news. The tall, bottle-necked shape was common in Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine pottery, however the earliest examples of the form date to the Neolithic period.
Soldiers found the amphorae while preparing Odessa, Ukraine’s third most populous city and a strategically significant seaport on the southwestern coast, for further aggression by Russia. The containers date from between the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C., when Odessa was a Roman settlement called Odessus.
Documentation of the archaeological site is currently impossible due to Russia’s military campaign to overtake the city, however images shared by the 126th Territorial Defense show its members transporting the artifacts, as well as several fragments of ceramics, to the Odessa Archaeological Museum for preservation.
Cultural heritage across Ukraine has been a casualty of Russia’s invasion, which began February 24. UNESCO has estimated at least 127 culturally important sites in the besieged country have been damaged, including 54 religious buildings, 15 monuments, and 11 museums. The Kuindzhi Art Museum and the Local History Museum in the town of Ivankiv, home to dozens of paintings by famed Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, were among those destroyed early on in the conflict. The United Nations monitoring body has called on protection for the country’s archaeological property, though Russia’s intense bombardment and the ongoing refugee crisis have impeded preservation efforts.
After several months of war, reports of deliberate attacks on Ukrainian culture have become common. On May 7, Russian shelling destroyed a museum dedicated to the 18th-century philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda, one of the country’s most beloved literary luminaries. The museum was located in the small, non-militarized village of Skovorodynivka, outside the city of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian officials said more than 2,000 artworks have been looted from museums in Mariupol, a port city hammered for weeks by Russian shelling. Russian troops reportedly stole several painting masterpieces, as well as ancient icons, the Gospel of 1811 from the Venetian printing house for the Greeks of Mariupol, and more than 200 medals from the Museum of Medallion Art Harabet.
The mayor of the city of Melitopol has reported that a prized collection of gold artifacts more than 2,300 years old was stolen from the cellar of the local history museum. The gold items originated from the Scythians, a nomadic people who founded a powerful empire centered in the Crimean Peninsula. Their empire survived from about the 7th century B.C. to the 3rd century B.C.
Leila Ibrahimova, the director of the Melitopol Museum of Local History, told the New York Times the Scythian artifacts were “priceless.”
“Each day of this war, the Russian army does something that leaves you speechless,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. “Targeted attacks on museums—this wouldn’t cross even a terrorist’s mind. But this is the army that’s waging war on us.”
LOL!
Ping
Whatever you do, do not report it.
Construction will be held up for years.
Well the u.n. should call for an end to hostilities while these artifacts are made safe.
Yup. Stop the missile attacks because of those precious artifacts. Next week, the ukrainians will find a Van Gogh in a house and beg not to be attacked..
I’m calling BS on this.
A tunnel crossing the border into Poland might be a better find…
i actually believe it.
There’s a strong ancient history of Pontic Greeks all around the black sea coast.
“There’s a strong ancient history of Pontic Greeks all around the black sea coast.”
Does that look like an excavation made by military or defense forces? Because that was the story.
Greeks and Turks and a whole host of ancient peoples populated that area; so it would not be unusual to find some artifacts.
But that photo is NOT of a dig by military troops; that pottery would have been crushed and broken up in such a dig, because troops are digging defenses, not archaeological studies.
Not much is shown in the picture, but there appears to be a trench in the upper right. Trenches are typical of military defensive works.
If you click on the link for the article, whatever you do, don’t click on the homepage.
Disgusting (so bad I wouldn’t dare put even a blurred out screenshot)
Having spent significant time in Odessa, there is a park where a portion of stone wall stretches down to the Black Sea, with an arch gate constructed by the Roman Army, to mark the extent of the Roman Empire. The Roman built wall and arch gate are similar to Hadrian’s Wall in Britannia (AD 122).
There are already many Scythian artifacts in museums in Odessa. Historically, the entire area (including of course Odessa) was Scythian and then Greek (including what we know of today as Crimea Peninsula). There have been artifacts found in the Odessa area from all over Europe, Asia, ME, and Africa. It is obvious Odessa was within various trade routes over time.
The Soldiers likely found a whole lot more than we have photo’s of.
There have been archeology digs ongoing for decades throughout the region. Some of these have strongly reinforced Kievan Rus development (which would extent from the Black Sea to the North Sea, and to the Ural Mountains). Archeologists and historians from around the world have been involved, and shown the city of Kiev itself existed before AD 482, (and of course Kiev becoming the capital of Kievan Rus). Ivan the Terrible (from Moscow) would in time crush Kievan Rus, and reduce it’s borders closer to the Ukrainian borders we see today, clear back to the 16th Century. And of course, Ukrainian borders have been shifted back and forth several times by various empires.
Pretty cool finds though -
Thanks for the warning.
Well that makes the $40 billion we just spent on Ukraine worth it!
“Not much is shown in the picture, but there appears to be a trench in the upper right. Trenches are typical of military defensive works.”
Yes, I know.
I just went on the internet and tried to pull up some more on this story. Appears legit. But I tell you, there are probably some archeologists who would like to employ those troops for excavations, instead of using grad students!
We’re they full of wine and ale when discovered by the soldiers ? Lol
Thanks nickcarraway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
