# Time-space Odessey



## zlax (Dec 29, 2020)

The city of Odessa is famous for its humour and the fact that it was in Odessa that the oldest complete Old Testament was discovered just about 200 years ago. But that's not the only thing this glorious city is known for.

*Falsification of antiquities*




Odessa, March 26th


> The famous Tiara of Saitaferne, which the Paris Louvre Museum was proud of, is known to be a fake.
> We say this on the grounds that in our south, the forgery of antiquities has adopted to be a kind of craft and it is engaged in a whole group of homegrown archaeologists, who have constant connections with scientists archaeologists, antique lovers and owners of museums.
> Knowing the weakness of these people, knowing how they fall for something new in the field of archaeology, industrial archeologists, who have managed to inspire a certain confidence, exploit these people in this direction, thus creating a trade with falsified antiquities.
> Originally the victims of their exploitation were our southern owners of museums and lovers of antiquities, but little by little they improved their business so much that they managed to mislead even the scientists of the Louvre Museum, to whom were sold the "ancient" Tiara of Saitaferne, works of Odessa engraver Rukhomovsky.
> ...





Moskovskie Vedomosti №90 1903 (newspaper owned by the Moscow Imperial University)

Note by bskamalov@lj:


> They were actually caught red-handed with all the details, wagon of evidences with a small bogie. The court has acquitted them! Why? Because all the "antiquities" are like that.



Source:  (no title)


*Odessa: counterfeiters*​


> Odessa News reports: the local police have managed to establish that an organised gang of counterfeiters is operating in Vinitsa, whose agents are flooding the entire Odessa county with counterfeit roubles.
> The police became aware of these artisans and a surveillance was established. The police managed to capture the counterfeiters. The search exceeded all expectations. Special machines for making coins were found. The detainees confessed that they had sold many such machines.



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Moskovskie Vedomosti №155 1903

Note by bskamalov@lj:


> In Odessa, counterfeiters have established production and sale of machines for the production of counterfeit coins and banknotes.


Source: (no title)


For some reason this is not mentioned in Russian and Ukrainian academic history, but the outskirts of Odessa were settled by Germans 200 years ago:

*1800's BERESAN DISTRICT, SOUTH RUSSIA MAP*
(now know as the UKRAINIAN states of ODESKA [the eastern tip] and MIKOLAIVS'KA [the southwestern side])






> Waterloo* B2 [Stavki, Stawky] - 1) Evangelical - 1819, a mother colony, other identification: Beresan/Landau 2) This colony was abandoned and re-founded in 1832/33, Evangelical, other info: Borodino 3) See Borodino



Source: Beresan, Cherson, South Russia Map

There are now almost no descendants of the German colonists left in the region.


According to academic history, the city of Odessa was founded just 225 years ago, on the site of the small Turkish fortress of Khadjibey. I have looked at a number of old maps showing cities in the region of modern-day Odessa:



Some maps from 300-400 years ago show a city in the place of modern Odessa: *Cecycoue/Cecycous/Cicicoyia*.
I have not been able to find any information about these toponyms on the internet. If you manage to find any information about these toponyms, i would be grateful if you could share it.

Update:

I happened to find such a reference in Apollon Skalkowski's book The First Thirty Years of Odessa, published some 180 years ago:


A toponyms Качибей and Хаджибей (both sounds like 'Khadjibey') is written as *Cacybei, Cacubius, Cacibici horodissae* in brackets.
In my opinion, it seems that the change in toponyms had been gradual and deliberate.


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