Black Sea, mentally pronouncing this phrase, we represent a long-awaited vacation on the coast of one of the resort towns or villages of the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory, and now the Crimea. But on the maps of only the 19th century, one can see that the Black Sea shores of the Caucasus were inaccessible and finally became part of the Russian Empire only in the second half of the 19th century.
If you look at the modern map of the coast, you can see that only the Tsemesskaya and Gelendzhik bays cut deep enough into the coast and are well protected from storms. The rest of the bays are open to all storms and winds, and even port defenses do not always save ships from the danger of high waves. All these factors are well known to mariners.
Fragment from the map of Graciosa Benincasa in 1480. Genoese trading posts on the coast of the Caucasus World Cup.
Therefore, I was greatly impressed by the medieval maps of the Black Sea coast, compiled by Genoese and Venetian cartographers in the 13-15 centuries. The names absolutely do not correspond to the modern ones, only knowing the history of the development of the coast can you tie up modern villages, which I will do. Here's what Wikipedia gives and my observations:
The territory of the present Krasnodar Territory:
• Matrega - Matrega (Tmutarakan) (now the village of Taman)
• Kopa - Copa (Kopyl, now the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban)
Promotional video:
• Mapa - Mapa (Anapa)
• Bata - Bata (Novorossiysk)
• Mavrolako - Mavrolaco (Gelendzhik)
• Suzako - Suzacho (Tuapse)
• Albazichia - Albazichia (Lazarevskoe)
• Cavo di Cuba - C. de Cuba (Sochi)
• Casto - Casto (Host)
• Liash - Layso (Adler)
• Abkhazia - Abcasia (Tsandripsh)
• Kakari - Chacari (Gagra)
• Santa Sophia - Santa Sophia (Alahadzy)
• Little Dog - Pesonqa (Pitsunda)
• Cavo di Buxo - Cavo di Buxo (Gudauta)
• Nikopsia - Niocoxia (New Athos)
• Sebastopolis (Sukhum)
• Lo Vati (Batumi)
Genoese trading posts of the Caucasus coast and modern names.
But most of all I was struck by the coastline, teeming with vast bays, deep bays. Perhaps the ancient cartographers deliberately exaggerated the relief of the coastline, because at that time cartography was at a low level. But let's look at the later maps of French, Dutch cartographers.
Mercator's map “ Tavrica Chersonesus, Przecopca et Gazara dicitur ” 1595 g.
Since the 1260s, the Genoese Union began active trading activities in the Crimea and other territories of the Golden Horde. On the general map of Mercator, the Kuban River is also called "Copa", and the adjacent territory is marked as "Asiae". The designation "Tartariae" is located much further north. Let's consider a fragment of the Mercator map in more detail.
Fragment from the map of Mercator Tavrica Chersonesus, Przecopca et Gazara dicitur 1595
As you can see, the coastline differs from the previous map, it is presented more elongated and in more detail. The names are almost the same, and you can also see extensive bays, deep bays, promontories protruding into the sea. You can consider a few more cards from that era.
Fragment from the map Tartares Circasses.
Fragment from map 1702. Vkrania quæ et terra Cosaccorvm cum vicinis Walachiæ, Moldaviæ
As you can see from the maps, after all, the coastline at the end of the 16th century was almost the same as it was drawn by ancient cartographers. And now a logical question arises, but where..? All these bays, bays, capes? … And there, at the bottom. And at what depth? How is this possible? Let's try to figure it out. To do this, you need to compare depth maps and relief maps on the surface.
alignment of the depth map with a fragment of the map of the Genoese trading posts.
When comparing, you can see the similarity of the coastline on the old Genoese map (Suzako area) and the underwater cape in the form of a “ boot ” and bays from the east and west of this cape (Nebug-Tuapse region).
Fragment from the Black Sea depth map of Nebug-Tuapse.
This similarity is shown in even more detail on the depth map. As you can see, the depth of the "boot" cape is 97-306 m. Nda … It's too deep …
Coast of Nebug - Tuapse Google map.
These ridges-capes are clearly visible on Google maps - planet Earth. The distance from the coast to the beginning of the underwater cape is 7 km. Yeah … too far …
In the article the flooded ancient cities of the Black Sea region and a hypothetical country 8-10 thousand years ago, a map with flooded cities was presented, you can see it by the link. But we are interested in our site.
Flooded cities of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.
Just in the place that I said, the city is drawn (possibly Suzako). And a little to the southwest (on the capes) there are a number of cities, and this is not my map. But the article does not say anything about these circles, but it says this: "Paleontological research. In 1998, the American marine geologists V. Ryan and W. Pitman published the results of their underwater paleontological research in the book" The Flood ". They were carried out jointly with Russian scientists in the shelf zone of the northern coast of the Black Sea and were the predecessors of other, even more voluminous studies, also by the American paleontologist B. Bollard.
In the summer of 1999, on a special submarine equipped with an ultrasonic locator, he discovered layers of bog sediments lying under marine sedimentary rocks. They went to a depth of 500 m from the sea surface and contained the remains of sapropel bogs with traces of ancient vegetation and shells of bog snails. In the hands of scientists, convincing evidence has emerged that here, in the northern part of the present Black Sea, once there was no sea at all. Instead, there were swampy shores of a not very deep freshwater lake.
With the help of radiocarbon studies of the remains of freshwater and marine mollusks, it was possible to accurately establish the time when a natural disaster occurred here, as a result of which the lake disappeared. This happened 7.5-9 thousand years ago. The global warming that continued in the post-glacial period led to an intense melting of the planet's glaciers. The level of the World Ocean was continuously rising, gradually flooding many coastal areas and turning estuaries into bays, and lakes into seas. This is how the Dardanian flood is usually described. I must say that this map is very interesting and can tell a lot, but it is of low resolution, so the details are not it turns out to consider.
And when was the flood described above? The approximate year can be determined, again, using ancient maps. Let's try to find the last coastline map we have explored. It turned out that it was rather difficult to do this, since until 1796 the image on the maps of the Russian Empire did not change. Indeed, it was only under Catherine II that the Kuban (1792) became part of the country, but the Black Sea coast remained under the influence of the Ottoman Empire until 1829. Nevertheless, the chain was traced on European maps. So the map of 1726, I called it to myself "the card for the death of Peter 1". Let's see the title:
Fragment Map of Russia on the death of Peter the Great.
"The map is new, for the entire empire of Great Russia, in the state where Peter the Great found death, in the review of all the news, in the immortal memory of this Great Monarch." Map of Russia, presumably compiled by captured Swedish officers in Siberian captivity in 1709 - 1722. Published by Joachim and Joshua Ottensov, Amsterdam, 1726 - 1728. Copper engraving. As you can see, on this map, the coastline is drawn as on the Genoese maps, and in the Crimea and adjacent areas, "Petite Tartarie" (Little Tartaria) is still listed.
I reviewed many maps of Europe, Russia on all maps, the coastline has not changed. And only on the map "Mediterrane 1785" the World Cup coast looks different, but not the same as on modern maps. This means that the flood of the 18th century took place before 1785. Of course, the cards could spank with the old relief for a long time. It is necessary to clarify the year using other factors.
Fragment from Mediterrane_1785 map of the World Cup coast.
Some conclusions can be drawn:
There were Genoese colonies on the Black Sea coast in the 13-16 centuries.
For some reason, they ended up at a depth of 90-300 m. At a distance of 7-9 km from the modern coastline.
We know nothing about this.
Read the continuation here.
Author: Elena Topsida