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The archaeological data
obtained during excavations in recent decades allow to fix
a new approach to the study of the original layout of the Greek apoikiai of the
Northern Black Sea region in the Archaic
period. In the process of their urbanization
a number of common features can be discerned. At its initial stages, many of
these settlements were built up according to a
single plan; urban development was regulated. This regulation resulted to the
emergence of city grid having a general orientation with some variations
caused by the topography or the shape of the coastline. However, in no case
these “pre-Hippodamian” grids were strictly
orthogonal. The number of houses constituting the insula as well as the internal
area of insulae
greatly varied. Apparently, the egalitarian principles (isonomia) were not strictly
followed when founding new city
and during the plots’ division by the first generation of settlers. The axial
element of Olbia’s planning grid was the wide Main Street.
Residential blocks shapes as well as the location of three temenoi and agora corresponded with its direction
and turns. However, such an urban planning principle has
not been identified in any of the other archaic urban centers of the
region, including the neighboring Berezan settlement.
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