High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Odessa Oblast, also written as Odesa Oblast is an oblast (province) of south-western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Odessa.The evidence of the earliest inhabitants in this area comes from the settlements and burial grounds of the Neolithic Gumelni a, Cucuteni-Trypillian and Usatovo cultures, as well as tumuli and hoards of the Bronze Age Proto-Indo-Europeans. In the 1st millennium B.C. the Milesian Greeks built colonies along the North Black Sea Coast, including the towns of Olbia, Tyras, Niconium, Panticapaeum, and Chersonesus. The Greeks left behind painted vessels, ceramics, sculptures, inscriptions, arts and crafts that indicate the prosperity of their ancient civilization.