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Area Description and Historical Background

The ancient Greek colony of Chersonesos, situated on the Heraklean Peninsula in the extreme southwest corner of Crimea, Ukraine, was founded in the sixth century BC. It is located in the suburbs of modern Sevastopol, headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. Although Chersonesos' military significance has limited access to archaeological sites, no other area has been so thoroughly documented from space. Its location thus provides a unique opportunity for monitoring historical change through the analysis of satellite and airborne imagery collected over several decades.

black_sea_map

Map of the Black Sea area showing important Greek colonial sites. The study area, indicated in red, is shown in more detail in the LANDSAT TM image below.

LANDSAT TM image

The Heraklean Peninsula from a 1988 LANDSAT TM image, indicating the ancient city of Chersonesos and two excavated rural sites.


The agricultural territory, or chora, of Chersonesos is the best preserved example of an ancient Greek countryside, where many of the stone farmhouses and much of the dense grid of roads that divide the Heraklean Peninsula into some four hundred plots of 60 acres each still exist.



The Heraklean Peninsula from a 1968 CORONA satellite photograph. The ancient plot division lines are visible in the zoom view on the right.


This arrangement, which is very clearly visible in aerial photographs and high resolution satellite imagery (such as the CORONA image above), was typical of many Greek territories, but only that of Chersonesos and the colony of Metaponto in southern Italy have been investigated in a systematic way. Chersonesos, largely because of its chora--in danger of severe coastal erosion and urban encroachment--was placed on the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Monuments of World Cultural Significance in 1996 and again in 1997, for the next two years.

The Institute of Classical Archaeology has just completed its fifth field campaign in the chora in collaboration with the Archaeological and Historical Museum of Chersonesos (now designated the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos).


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Last Modified: Fri Apr 09, 1999
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