POTENTIAL OF ANTIQUE AND MEDIEVAL CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE SPACE OF GEOECOSYSTEMS OF THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA AREA AND THE BLACK SEA SHELF FROM THE DANUBE TO THE BEREZAN ESTUARY

Abstract

The article examines the typification and gives a brief description of underwater archaeological sites of ancient and medieval cultural heritage, the main types of ancient shores, as well as the most significant objects studied so far in the space of the geoecosystems of the Northern Black Sea (GESNBS) and the marine geoecosystem (MGES) of the shelf from the Danube delta to the Berezan estuary and the island of Berezan. The results of research on archaeological sites located in this territory are presented. A preliminary reconstruction of the shores that existed in this part of the Northern Black Sea Coast has been made. Nowadays, these archaeological sites are partially or completely located in the areas of the Black Sea shelf and its basin subsystems of a lower level (bays, ducts, estuaries, deltas, etc.), mainly at the boundary of their aquatic (from the Latin aqua — water) (AQESUS) and geological (GEOESUS) subsystems of the MGES shelf. The main objective of this article, which the authors set while writing it, was to show the potential of antique and medieval cultural heritage, which was formed in the relevant ancient times in the space of paleogeoecosystems of the Northern Black Sea but is now preserved in the MGES space of the modern Black Sea shelf from the Danube River to the Berezan estuary. Among the main tasks of this article is a brief description of the already known archaeological, in particular underwater, sites of antique and medieval cultural heritage, some other interesting underwater archaeological artifacts, and their future imposition on the modern geological, geographical and bathymetric framework with reference to certain AQESUS and GEOESUS of MGES of the Black Sea. This is important not only for historical and archaeological reconstructions but also for solving the problems of in-depth knowledge of the causes and consequences of changes in the paleogeological and modern geoecological conditions of the Azov-Black Sea basin and GESNBS shelf, dynamics and directions of their development. Such research is also important both for the development of public culture, expansion of the historical consciousness of the population of Ukraine and for solving some economic problems in the development of communities in the Northern Black Sea region by attracting investment to the development of coastal and underwater tourism, predicting the impact of many geoecological processes inherent in this studied region on the peculiarities of the conditions of search, identification, use and preservation of the historical and archaeological potential of antique and medieval cultural heritage located in the space of GESNBS and MGES of the modern Black Sea shelf as their anthropogenic component, affecting the lives of residents of the region under consideration, from ancient times until the present.

Keywords

• shelf
• sea level
• marine geoecology
• archeology
• cultural heritage