LANDSCAPE_GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND SPATIAL_TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF ANCIENT HALYCH

Abstract

The article analyzes some landscape and geographical features of the micro-region of ancient Halych (Prylukva upland), associated with its unique location on the border of the Great Eurasian Steppe, Central European old-growth forest and the Carpathians. Exactly here, in Middle Transnistria, were located the crossroads of trans-European and trans-Eurasian trade and migration routes. Some of them were connected with the trade in “galician salt”, which has long been produced in the Pokuttia-Boykivshchyna foothill, and was traditionally stored in Halych. In general, this region of Prykarpattia (Small Galician land) stood out among other lands with significant natural resources and high population density. In the article was made an attempt, summarizing the available historical and archaeological data, to develop a conceptual scheme of spatial and territorial organization of ancient Halych according to three periods of its development: pre-chronicle, chronicle and late medieval.