Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences
The agreement signed on December 4, 2019 between the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IAE PAS) and the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Ukraine (IA NANU) made it possible to undertake a three-year archaeological campaign, with the possibility of extending the work in the following years, in the ancient city of Olbia as part of the project "Olbia Archaeological Expedition" IA NANU, headed by dr hab. Alla Bujski.
The goal of the mission is to uncover a part of the ancient city in the so-called "Roman Citadel". The area covered by the Polish mission's concession includes the area of the R 23 trench located in the immediate vicinity of the older Ukrainian trenches - R 25, L and L1. This area has never been explored by archaeologists and therefore allows to follow the development of the city from its very beginning in the 6th century BC until the last inhabitants left it in the Hun period (mid-5th century AD). Thanks to the location between the previously explored areas, we hope not only to learn about the history of the area studied by us, but also, thanks to the expected synergy effect as a consequence of combining the results of previous research with our Ukrainian partners, to better recognize the area of the "Roman citadel".
The first excavation season is scheduled for the summer of 2020, but due to the coronavirus epidemic, only studies could be carried out.
The Polish-Ukrainian archaeological cooperation as part of our project not only refers to the glorious traditions of previous archaeological expeditions in this region, but also creates the opportunity to obtain extremely valuable monuments of the Greco-Roman civilization and the development of an important research center dealing with the archeology and history of the northern shores of the Black Sea in the Antiquity.
The current project is a direct continuation of the excavation work at the same site carried out under the same management by the end of 2018 by the National Museum in Warsaw. More information on the work carried out until 2018 can be found in the "Archived missions" tab or on the existing website of the museum project, which, however, has not been updated since the end of 2018.