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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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