Olbia, Ukraine
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Olbia (also Olvia), Ukraine is the site of Pontic Olbia, a colony founded from Miletus on the shores of the Southern Bug estuary, which lasted for a thousand years. Before 1902, the counts Musins-Pushkins forbade archaeology on their estate. Professional excavations were begun under Boris Farmakovsky in the 1920s. Today archaeologists are under pressure to excavate the site, which is being eroded by the Black Sea.
Nearby is the related site of Berezan Island.
During the 5th century BCE, as a Greek colony, Olbia created distinctive cast bronze money in the shape of leaping Black Sea dolphins.1 Unusual in shape considering the round coins common in the Greek world, this form of money is said to have originated from sacrificial tokens used in the Temple of Apollo.
M.L. West writes in his book on The Orphic Poems, that early Greek religion, especially the Orphic Mysteries, was heavily influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices. One major point of contact was the ancient city of Olbia in Scythia. 2
George Grote wrote that "ancient Olbia was known to foreigners as Borysthenes". 3