Berezan Island

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Image - The Berezan Island (aerial view).

Image - Excavations of the ancient Greek colony of Borysthen on the Berezan Island.

Berezan Island. Map: Black Sea at the Dnipro-Boh Estuary, 850 m in length, 200–850 m in width. This was the site of the oldest Greek (Ionian) colony in southern Ukraine (see Ancient states on the northern Black Sea coast), founded in the second half of the 7th century BC. Called Borysthen or Borysthenida, it existed until Roman times. During the period of Kyivan Rus’ there was a Slavic settlement at Berezan Island. The Zaporozhian Cossacks used it as a fortress during their campaigns against Turkish settlements.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]

Image - Ruins of the ancient Greek colony of Borysthen on the Berezan Island.

List of related links from Encyclopedia of Ukraine pointing to Berezan Island entry:

1 All-Ukrainian Archeological Committee 2 Ancient states on the northern Black Sea coast 3 Archeology 4 Black Sea 5 Boltenko, Mykhailo 6 Greeks 7 Holovaty, Antin 8 Kherson Regional Studies Museum 9 Olbia National Historic and Archeological Reserve

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