From time immemorial, people lived on the northern shores of the Black Sea. One of the oldest inhabitants of the region were the Cimmerians, the Scythians and the ancient Slavs. From the 7th century BC Greek colonists appeared. By the time of the emergence of Kievan Rus territory of the present Odessa region was inhabited by the East Slavic tribes of the Tivertz and the ulicha.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, when the Tartars were in the Northern Black Sea coast, the site of Genoese ships was in place of the present Odessa. The ancient portolans (naval maps) brought to us its name - Ginestra (so in Italian is called drok - a shrubby plant with yellow flowers, especially common in the Black Sea steppes).

As is known, by the end of the 14th - the beginning of the 15th century, the North-Western Black Sea coast passed from the dominion of the Tatars to the possession of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was to the 15th century that the first mention was made in written sources about the settlement of Kachibey, the closest predecessor of Odessa.