Wild garden

In this area, the garden was laid by Admiral Greig during his administration of the city ^[3] . The name of the garden came from wild trees that did not bear fruit. Officially, the garden was called Admiral , but the name Wild was popular, so it consolidated over time. The garden was badly damaged during the two world wars. Local residents cut it almost completely due to a lack of firewood and coal. After World War II, the wasteland remained on the garden, on which bushes grew in some places. Almost at the same time, the place where the garden was located was subject to development, but the name was fixed in the place. ^[4] .

The ancient settlement was opened by archaeologist Feodosiy Timofeevich Kaminsky on August 15, 1927 ^[5] , regular studies of the area began in 1990 . One of the first finds was a bronze cauldron.

At this place, presumably around the XII century BC. e. back there was a fortified settlement (a fragment of the defensive wall was excavated in the northern part ^[6] ), one of the few surviving from the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age.

The area of ​​the settlement is 3 hectares, 2 of which were sold by the city authorities for the development of residential buildings. ^{[6] [7]}

During the contest " Seven Wonders of Ukraine " Wild Garden was in the Top 100 ^[8] .

On the territory of the ancient settlement, archaeologists unearthed the temple premises of sun worshipers (proto- Mithraists ).

Also excavated several pits, which, apparently, had a ritual significance. They found pots with leftover food (most likely also ritual), as well as stone arrows in the shape of a person. Some of the stone artifacts were of Asia Minor origin.

In the summer of 2008, a treasure consisting of 12 axes (Celts) was found on the hillfort. In June 2009, archaeologists discovered a unique find in the site of the Wild Garden (on the corner of the Embankment and the Artillery). During the research, the stone foundation of the second bridge across the moat was fixed in the filling of the moat of the citadel of the settlement. This find is unique and finally confirms the fact that the Wild Garden was not just a settlement of artisans, farmers and pastoralists, but a regional center of the end of the second millennium BC with a complex social organization. New discoveries allow us to conclude that the Wild Garden could be a kind of "capital" of the territory from the Danube to the Dnieper and from the Black Sea coast to the north of the modern Nikolaev, Odessa and partially Kherson regions.

The Wild Garden belongs to the protopolis, proto-state, to the part of the process that ends already with the advent of the political organization of the Cimmerians and Scythians . Sabatinovites - the previous population - is still a tribal community. In the Wild Garden there are already the beginnings of statehood. That gives a new idea of ​​the ancient history of Nikolaev , and in general the south of Ukraine, and throughout southeastern Europe. An analysis of the soils obtained from the Wild Garden suggests that at that time the climatic period prevailed, which in history preceded the modern sub-Atlantic period. The climate was more humid, more disposed to animal husbandry. There were forests here. According to research, it is already possible to clearly define the boundaries of the city. The outer moat is the outer defensive line, and the inner one, which enclosed the citadel, performed both a defensive and a social function - to divide the population in the social aspect. In the citadel lived the so-called elite - priests and guards. Moreover, it was on the territory of the citadel that archaeologists found premises that can be described as repositories for valuable materials. Two meters from the bridge, a large accumulation of stones was recorded, which can already be interpreted with absolute certainty as the remains of a defensive wall and a watchtower that covered the entrance to the second bridge. Two bridges were laid across the moat that enclosed the citadel, conventionally called “south” and “north” (the first was opened in 2004). These discoveries make it possible to look much broader at what did the Wild Garden ancient settlement actually represent. According to archaeologists, such complex architectural compositions could be performed by people who not only lived as a community, but had a certain social structure and property differentiation. The construction of such structures (very ambitious for that time) required the efforts of energy, financial and human. The defense system itself indicates that it was aimed at preserving the material values ​​accumulated due to the fact that the Wild Garden occupied a key point at the intersection of trade routes. These designs are identical to those in the legendary Troy, sung by Homer , says archaeologist Kirill Gorbenko. In the social, socio-economic and even political aspects, the ancient settlement and society were highly developed for their time. You can regard it as just a model of the origin of civilization. Naturally, wealth had to be protected - both from strangers and from their own. And to make a similar design (and the investigated length of the moat is 140 m with a width of 5 m and a depth of 3 m), it was necessary to apply coercion. It was established during excavations that this structure was artificial - it was dug by hand. Which confirms the existence of an organization capable of making the bulk of the population work for themselves. ^{[7] [9] [10] [11]}

• Archaeological Site "Wild Garden"
• forum page with photos of finds