Ukrainian soldiers excavated a set of ancient Greek urns while digging a trench near Odesa.
Servicemen in the territorial defence discovered the two amphorae, ceramic containers used across the ancient world for holding liquids, which they said dated back 2,500 years.
In a statement on Facebook, the division said that it had found the urns during fortification work outside the Black Sea port city and posted pictures of troops with shovels holding the two jugs, which were almost perfectly intact.
👍#Ukrainian servicemen digging trenches near #Odesa struck what turned out to be ancient amphorae — a kind of clay urns commonly used by the Greeks. The artifacts reportedly date back to 4-5 centuries B.C.E. They were passed on to the Odesa Archaeological Museum pic.twitter.com/gJP208FJfs
— U24 (@u24_news) May 12, 2022
Long before the Tsarist establishment of Odesa, an ancient Greek settlement existed at its location. In 1794, the city was founded by a decree of the Russian empress Catherine the Great.
From 1819 to 1858, Odesa was a free port—a Porto-Franco. During the Soviet period, it was the most important trading port in the Soviet Union and a Soviet naval base.
Read More Why do so many cities in Ukraine and Crimea have Greek sounding names?
