The Cimmerians on the Crimean Peninsula were replaced by Scythian tribes who moved in the 7th century BC. e. from Asia and formed a new state in the steppes of the Black Sea region and part of the Crimea - Scythia, stretching from the Don to the Danube. They began a series of nomadic empires that successively replaced one another - the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians, the Goths and Huns - the Sarmatians, the Avars and the ancestors of the Bulgarians - the Huns, then the Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans appeared and disappeared. The arriving nomads seized power in the Northern Black Sea region over the local population, which for the most part remained in place, assimilating some of the victors. A feature of the Crimean peninsula was multi-ethnicity - different tribes and peoples coexisted in Crimea at the same time. From the new owners, a ruling elite was created that controlled the bulk of the population of the Northern Black Sea region and did not try to change the existing way of life in the region. It was “the power of a nomadic horde over neighboring agricultural tribes.” Herodotus wrote about the Scythians: “No enemy who attacks them can either escape from them or capture them if they do not want to be open: after all, a people who has neither cities nor fortifications, who moves their dwellings from themselves, where everyone is a horse archer, where their livelihood is obtained not from agriculture, but from cattle breeding, and their homes are built on carts - how could such a people not be invincible and impregnable.”
The origin of the Scythians is not fully understood. Perhaps the Scythians were descendants of indigenous tribes who had long lived on the Black Sea coast or were several related Indo-European nomadic tribes of the North Iranian language group, assimilated by the local population. It is also possible that the Scythians appeared in the Northern Black Sea region from Central Asia, pushed out from there by stronger nomads. The Scythians from Central Asia could have reached the Black Sea steppes in two ways: through Northern Kazakhstan, the southern Urals, the Volga region and the Don steppes, or through the Central Asian interfluve, the Amu Darya River, Iran, Transcaucasia and Asia Minor. Many researchers believe that the dominance of the Scythians in the Northern Black Sea region began after 585 BC. e., after the Scythians captured the Ciscaucasia and Azov steppes.
The Scythians were divided into four tribes. In the basin of the Bug River there lived Scythians - cattle breeders, between the Bug and the Dnieper there were Scythian farmers, to the south of them - Scythians - nomads, between the Dnieper and Don - the royal Scythians. The center of royal Scythia was the Konka River basin, where the city of Gerras was located. Crimea was also the territory of settlement of the most powerful Scythian tribe - the royal ones. This territory received the name Scythia in ancient sources. Herodotus wrote that Scythia is a square with sides that are 20 days' journey long.
Herodotus's Scythia occupied modern Bessarabia, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk regions, almost the entire Crimea, except for the lands of the Tauri - the southern coast of the peninsula, Podolia, Poltava region, part of the Chernigov lands, the territory of the Kursk and Voronezh regions, the Kuban region and the Stavropol region. The Scythians loved to roam the Black Sea steppes from the Ingulets rivers in the west to the Don in the east. Two Scythian burials of the 7th century BC were found in Crimea. e. – the Temir Mountain mound near Kerch and the mound near the village of Filatovka in the steppe Crimea. In northern Crimea in the 7th century BC. e. there was no permanent population.
The Scythian tribal association was a military democracy with a people's assembly of personally free nomads, a council of elders and tribal leaders who made human sacrifices to the god of war together with the priests. The Scythian tribal union consisted of three groups, which were led by their kings with hereditary power, one of whom was considered the main one. The Scythians had a cult of the sword, there was a supreme male god, depicted on a horse, and a female deity - the Great Goddess or Mother of the Gods. The army consisted of a complete militia of all combat-ready Scythians, whose horses had a bridle and a saddle, which immediately gave an advantage in battle. Women could also be warriors. In a Scythian mound near the village of Shelyugi, Akimovsky district, Zaporozhye region, half a kilometer from the Molochansky estuary, the burial of six Scythian women warriors was discovered. Necklaces made of gold and glass beads, bronze mirrors, combs, bone and lead whorls, iron spear and dart tips, bronze arrowheads, apparently lying in quivers, were found in the mound. The Scythian cavalry was stronger than the famous Greek and Roman cavalry. The 2nd century Roman historian Arrian wrote about the Scythian horses: “At first they are difficult to disperse, so you can treat them with complete contempt if you see how they are compared with a Thessalian, Sicilian or Peleponnesian horse, but for that they can withstand any kind of work; and then you can see how that greyhound, tall and hot horse is exhausted, and this short and mangy horse first overtakes him, then leaves him far behind.” Noble Scythian warriors were dressed in armored or scaled sleeve shirts, sometimes in bronze helmets and greaves, and were protected by small quadrangular shields with slightly rounded corners of Greek workmanship. Scythian horsemen, armed with a bronze or iron sword and dagger and having a short bow with a double curvature that hit 120 meters, were formidable opponents. Ordinary Scythians made up light cavalry, armed with darts and spears, and short akinac swords. Subsequently, the majority of the Scythian army began to consist of infantry, formed from agricultural tribes subject to the Scythians. The weapons of the Scythians were mainly of their own production, manufactured in large metallurgical centers that produced bronze and later iron weapons and equipment - the Belsky settlement in the Poltava region, the Kamensky settlement on the Dnieper.
The Scythians attacked the enemy with lava in small detachments on horseback in several places at the same time and pretended to run away, luring him into a pre-prepared trap, where the enemy warriors were surrounded and destroyed in hand-to-hand combat. Bows played the main role in the battle. Subsequently, the Scythians began to use a horse-fist strike in the middle of the enemy formation, the tactics of starvation, “scorched earth.” Detachments of mounted Scythians could quickly make long journeys, using the herds following the army as provisions. Subsequently, the Scythian army was significantly reduced and lost its combat effectiveness. The Scythian army, successfully resisting in the 6th century BC. e. colossal army of the Persian king Darius I, at the end of the 2nd century BC. e. together with its allies the Roxolani, it was completely defeated by a seven thousand-strong detachment of hoplites of the Pontic commander Diaphantus.
Since the 70s of the 7th century BC. e. Scythian troops went on campaigns in Africa, the Caucasus, Urartu, Assyria, Media, Greece, Persia, Macedonia and Rome. 7th and 6th centuries BC e. - These are continuous raids of the Scythians from Africa to the Baltic Sea.
In 680 BC. e. The Scythians, through Dagestan, invaded the territory of the Albanian tribe (modern Azerbaijan) and devastated them. Under the Scythian king Partatua in 677 BC. e. There was a battle between the united army of the Scythians, Assyrians and Scolots with the army of the Medes, the remnants of the Cimmerians and Mannaeans, led by the military leader Kashtarita, during which Kashtarita was killed and his army was defeated. In 675 BC. e. The Scythian army of Partatua raided the lands of the Skolot tribes living on the right bank of the Dnieper and along the Southern Bug, which was repelled. From this time on, on the lands of the ethnic Proto-Slavs, cities appeared - small fortified villages, clan dwellings. After this, the Scythian army with Partatua and his son Madius carried out an invasion of Central Europe in two streams, during which, in a battle on the lands of ancient Germanic tribes near Lake Tolensee, the Scythians with King Partatua were almost completely destroyed, and the troops of Madius were stopped on the borders of the possessions of the Skolot tribes .
In 634 BC. e. The troops of the royal Scythians of Madia entered Western Asia along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, defeated the Median army in a series of bloody battles, and in 626 almost captured the capital of Media - Ektabana. The military power of the Median kingdom was destroyed and the country was plundered. In 612 BC. e. the recovered Medes with King Cyaxares, who managed to conclude an alliance with the Scythians, captured Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. As a result of this war, Assyria as a kingdom ceased to exist.
The Scythian army with King Madius was in Western Asia from 634 to 605 BC. e. The Scythians plundered Syria, reaching the Mediterranean Sea, and imposed tribute on Egypt and the cities of Palestine. After a significant strengthening of Media, whose king Astyages poisoned almost all the Scythian military leaders at a feast, Madius turned his army to the Crimea, where the Scythians were returning after a twenty-eight-year absence. However, having crossed the Kerch Strait, the Scythian army was stopped by detachments of mutinous Crimean slaves who dug a ditch on the Ak-Monai Isthmus, the narrowest point of the Kerch Peninsula. Several battles took place, and the Scythians had to return to the Taman Peninsula. Madiy, having gathered around himself significant forces of Scythian nomads, bypassed Lake Meotia - the Sea of Azov - and broke into the Crimea through Perekop. During the fighting in Crimea, Madiy apparently died.
At the beginning of the 6th century BC. e. The Scythians, under King Ariant, finally conquered the kingdom of Urartu, and carried out constant invasions of the tribes inhabiting Eastern and Central Europe. The Scythians, having plundered the Middle Volga region, went to the basin of the Kama, Vyatka, Belaya and Chusovaya rivers and imposed tribute on the Kama region. The Scythians' attempt to cross the Ural Mountains into Asia was thwarted by nomadic tribes living in the Lik River basin and Altai. Returning to Crimea, Tsar Arant imposed tribute on the tribes living along the Oka River. The Scythian army fought through the Carpathian region along the Prut and Dnieper rivers into the area between the Oder and Elbe rivers. After a bloody battle near the Spree River, on the site of modern Berlin, the Scythians reached the coast of the Baltic Sea. However, due to the stubborn resistance of local tribes, the Scythians were unable to gain a foothold there. During the next campaign to the sources of the Western Bug, the Scythian army was defeated, and King Arianta himself died.
The conquests of the Scythians ended at the end of the 6th century BC. e., under the Scythian king Idanfirs. Peace reigned in the Northern Black Sea region for three hundred years.
The Scythians lived both in small villages and in cities surrounded by ramparts and deep ditches. Large Scythian settlements are known on the territory of Ukraine - Matreninskoye, Pastyrskoye, Nemirovskoye and Belskoye. The main occupation of the Scythians was nomadic cattle breeding. Their dwellings were wagons on wheels, they ate boiled meat, drank mare's milk, men dressed in casings, trousers and a caftan, tied with a leather belt, women - in sundresses and kokoshniks. Based on Greek designs, the Scythians made beautiful and varied pottery, including amphoras used to store water and grain. The dishes were made using a potter's wheel and decorated with scenes of Scythian life. Strabo wrote about the Scythians: “The Scythian tribe... was nomadic, ate not only meat in general, but especially horse meat, as well as kumis cheese, fresh and sour milk; the latter, prepared in a special way, serves as a delicacy for them. Nomads are more warriors than robbers, but they still wage wars over tribute. Indeed, they transfer their land into the possession of those who want to cultivate it, and are content if they receive in return a certain agreed payment, and then moderate, not for enrichment, but only in order to satisfy the necessary daily needs of life. However, the nomads fight with those who do not pay them money. And in fact, if they were paid the rent for the land correctly, they would never start a war.”
In Crimea there are more than twenty Scythian burials of the 6th century BC. e. They were left along the route of the seasonal nomads of the royal Scythians on the Kerch Peninsula and in the steppe Crimea. During this period, Northern Crimea received a permanent Scythian population, but a very small one.
In the middle of the 8th century BC, the Greeks appeared in the Black Sea region and in the northeast of the Aegean Sea. The lack of arable land and metal deposits, political struggle in the city-states - Greek city-states, and an unfavorable demographic situation forced many Greeks to look for new lands for themselves on the coasts of the Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Seas. The ancient Greek tribes of the Ionians, who lived in Attica and in the region of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, were the first to discover a country with fertile land, rich nature, abundant vegetation, animals and fish, with ample opportunities for trade with local “barbarian” tribes. Only very experienced sailors, who were the Ionians, could sail the Black Sea. The carrying capacity of Greek ships reached 10,000 amphoras - the main container in which products were transported. Each amphora held 20 liters. Such a Greek merchant ship was discovered near the port of Marseille off the coast of France, which sank in 145 BC. e., 26 meters long and 12 meters wide.
The first contacts between the local population of the Northern Black Sea region and Greek sailors were recorded in the 7th century BC. e., when the Greeks did not yet have colonies on the Crimean Peninsula. In a Scythian burial ground on Mount Temir near Kerch, a painted Rhodian-Milesian vase of excellent workmanship, made at that time, was discovered. Residents of the largest Greek city-state of Miletus on the banks of the Euxine Pontus founded more than 70 settlements. Emporia - Greek trading posts - began to appear on the shores of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC. e., the first of which was Borysphenida at the entrance to the Dnieper estuary on the island of Berezan. Then in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Olbia appeared at the mouth of the Southern Bug (Gipanis), Tiras appeared at the mouth of the Dniester, and Feodosia (on the shore of the Feodosti Gulf) and Panticapaeum (on the site of modern Kerch) appeared on the Kerch Peninsula. In the middle of the 6th century BC. e. in eastern Crimea, Nymphaeum (17 kilometers from Kerch near the village of Geroevka, on the shore of the Kerch Strait), Cimmerik (on the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula, on the western slope of Mount Onuk), Tiritaka (south of Kerch near the village of Arshintsevo, on the shore of the Kerch Gulf) arose ), Mirmekiy (on the Kerch Peninsula, 4 kilometers from Kerch), Kitey (on the Kerch Peninsula, 40 kilometers south of Kerch), Parthenius and Parfiy (north of Kerch), in the western Crimea - Kerkinitida (on the site of modern Evpatoria ), on the Taman Peninsula - Hermonassa (on the site of Taman) and Phanagoria. A Greek settlement arose on the southern coast of Crimea, called Alupka. Greek city-colonies were independent city-states, independent of their metropolises, but maintaining close trade and cultural ties with them. When sending colonists, the city or the leaving Greeks themselves chose from among themselves the leader of the colony - an oikist, whose main duty during the formation of the colony was to divide the territory of the new lands among the Greek colonists. On these lands, called chora, there were plots of the city's citizens. All rural settlements of the choir were subordinate to the city. Colonial cities had their own constitution, their own laws, courts, and minted their own coins. Their policy was independent of the policy of the metropolis. Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea region mainly occurred peacefully and accelerated the process historical development local tribes, significantly expanding the area of distribution of ancient culture.
Around 660 BC e. Byzantium was founded by the Greeks at the southern mouth of the Bosporus to protect Greek trade routes. Subsequently, in 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine founded new capital the state of Constantine - “New Rome”, which after some time began to be called Constantinople, and the Christian empire of the Romans - Byzantine.
After the defeat of Miletus by the Persians in 494 BC. e. The colonization of the Northern Black Sea region was continued by the Dorian Greeks. Coming from the ancient Greek city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, Heraclea Pontica at the end of the 5th century BC. e. on the southwestern coast of the Crimean peninsula was founded in the area of modern Sevastopol, Chersonese Tauride. The city was built on the site of an already existing settlement, and at first there was equality among all the inhabitants of the city - Taurians, Scythians and Dorian Greeks.
By the end of the 5th century BC. e. Greek colonization of Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea was completed. Greek settlements appeared where there was the possibility of regular trade with the local population, which ensured the sale of Attic goods. Greek emporias and trading posts on the Black Sea coast quickly turned into large city-states. The main occupations of the population of the new colonies, which soon became Greco-Scythian, were trade and fishing, cattle breeding, agriculture, and crafts related to the production of metal products. The Greeks lived in stone houses. A blank wall separated the house from the street; all the buildings were located around the yard. Rooms and utility rooms were illuminated through windows and doors facing the courtyard.
From about the 5th century BC. e. Scythian-Greek connections began to be established and quickly developed. There were also Scythian raids on Greek Black Sea cities. The Scythians attacked the city of Myrmekiy at the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. During archaeological excavations it was discovered that part of the settlements that were located near the Greek colonies during this period died in fires. Perhaps that is why the Greeks began to strengthen their policies by erecting defensive structures. Scythian attacks may have been one of the reasons why the independent Greek Black Sea cities around 480 BC. e. united into a military union.
Trade, crafts, agriculture, and the arts developed in the Greek city-states of the Black Sea region. They exerted great economic and cultural influence on the local tribes, while simultaneously adopting all their achievements. Trade was carried out through Crimea between the Scythians, Greeks and many cities of Asia Minor. The Greeks took from the Scythians primarily bread grown by the local population under Scythian control, cattle, honey, wax, salted fish, metal, leather, amber and slaves, and the Scythians - metal products, ceramic and glassware, marble, luxury goods, cosmetics, wine, olive oil, expensive fabrics, jewelry. Scythian-Greek trade relations became permanent. Archaeological data indicate that in the Scythian settlements of the 5th–3rd centuries BC. e. A large number of amphoras and ceramics of Greek production were found. At the end of the 5th century BC. e. The purely nomadic economy of the Scythians was replaced by a semi-nomadic one, the number of large cattle in the herd increased, and as a result, transhumance cattle breeding appeared. Some of the Scythians settled on the ground and began to engage in hoe farming, planting millet and barley. The population of the Northern Black Sea region has reached half a million people.
Jewelry made of gold and silver found in the former Scythia - in the Kul-Ob, Chertomlyk, and Solokha mounds are divided into two groups: one group of jewelry with scenes from Greek life and mythology, and the other with scenes of Scythian life, apparently made according to Scythian orders and for the Scythians. It can be seen from them that Scythian men wore short caftans, belted with a wide belt, and trousers tucked into short leather boots. Women dressed in long dresses with belts and wore pointed hats with long veils on their heads. The dwellings of settled Scythians were huts with wicker reed walls coated with clay.
At the mouth of the Dnieper, beyond the Dnieper rapids, the Scythians built a stronghold - a stone fortress that controlled the water road “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, from the north to the Black Sea.
In 519–512 BC. e. The Persian king Darius I, during his campaign of conquest in Eastern Europe, was unable to defeat the Scythian army with one of the kings, Idanfirs. The huge army of Darius I crossed the Danube and entered the Scythian lands. There were much more Persians and the Scythians turned to the “scorched earth” tactic; they did not engage in an unequal battle, but went deep into their country, destroying wells and burning out grass. Having crossed the Dniester and the Southern Bug, the Persian army passed through the steppes of the Black Sea and Azov regions, crossed the Don and, unable to gain a foothold anywhere, went home. The company failed, although the Persians did not fight a single battle.
The Scythians formed an alliance of all local tribes, a military aristocracy began to emerge, a layer of priests and best warriors appeared - Scythia acquired the features of a state formation. At the end of the 6th century BC. e. joint campaigns of the Scythians and ethnic Proto-Slavs began. The Skolots lived in the forest-steppe zone of the Black Sea region, which allowed them to hide from the raids of nomads. The early history of the Slavs does not have precise documentary evidence; it is impossible to reliably cover the period of Slavic history from the 3rd century BC. e. until the 4th century AD e. However, it is safe to say that over the centuries the Proto-Slavs repelled one wave of nomads after another.
In 496 BC. e. The united Scythian army passed through the lands of Greek cities located on both banks of the Hellespont (Dardanelles) and which at one time covered the cold of Darius I into Scythia and through the Thracian lands reached the Aegean Sea and Thracian Chersonese.
About fifty Scythian mounds of the 5th century BC were discovered on the Crimean peninsula. e., in particular the Golden Mound near Simferopol. In addition to the remains of food and water, arrowheads, swords, spears and other weapons, expensive weapons, gold items and luxury items were found. At this time, the permanent population of northern Crimea increased and in the 4th century BC. e. becomes very significant.
Around 480 BC e. the independent Greek city-states of Eastern Crimea united into a single Bosporan kingdom, located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Bosporan kingdom occupied the entire Kerch Peninsula and Taman to the Sea of Azov and Kuban. Most major cities The Bosporan kingdom was on the Kerch Peninsula - the capital Panticapaeum (Kerch), Myrlikiy, Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, Kitey, Cimmeric, Feodosia, and on the Taman Peninsula - Phanagoria, Kepy, Hermonassa, Gorgipia.
Panticapaeum, an ancient city in Eastern Crimea, was founded in the first half of the 6th century BC. e. Greek immigrants from Miletus. The earliest archaeological finds in the city date from this period. The Greek colonists established good trade relations with the Crimean royal Scythians and even received a place to build a city with the consent of the Scythian king. The city was located on the slopes and at the foot of a rocky mountain, now called Mithridates. Grain supplies from the fertile plains of eastern Crimea quickly made Panticapaeum the main shopping center in the region. The convenient location of the city on the shore of a large bay and a well-equipped trading harbor allowed this policy to quickly take control of the sea routes passing through the Kerch Strait. Panticapaeum became the main transit point for most of the goods brought by the Greeks for the Scythians and other local tribes. The name of the city probably translates as “fish route” – the Kerch Strait teeming with fish. He minted his own copper, silver and gold coins. In the first half of the 5th century BC. e. Panticapaeum united around itself the Greek colony cities located on both banks of the Cimmerian Bosporus - Kerch Strait. The Greek city-states, who understood the need for unification for self-preservation and the implementation of their economic interests, formed the Bosporan kingdom. Soon after this, to protect the state from the invasion of nomads, a fortified rampart with a deep ditch was created, crossing the Crimean peninsula from the city of Tiritaka, located at Cape Kamysh-Burun, to the Sea of Azov. In the 6th century BC. e. Panticapaeum was surrounded by a defensive wall.
Until 437 BC. e. The kings of the Bosphorus were the Greek Milesian dynasty of the Archeanaktids, whose ancestor was Archeanakt, an oikist of the Milesian colonists who founded Panticapaeum. This year, the head of the Athenian state, Pericles, arrived in Panticapaeum at the head of a squadron of warships, making a detour around the Greek colonial cities with a large squadron to establish closer political and trade ties. Pericles negotiated grain supplies with the Bosporan king and then with the Scythians in Olbia. After his departure in the Bosporan kingdom, the Archeanactid dynasty was replaced by the local Hellenized Spartokid dynasty, possibly of Thracian origin, which ruled the kingdom until 109 BC. e.
In his biography of Pericles, Plutarch wrote: “Among the campaigns of Pericles, his campaign to Chersonesus (Chersonese in Greek means peninsula - A.A.), which brought salvation to the Hellenes living there, was especially popular. Pericles not only brought with him a thousand Athenian colonists and strengthened the population of the cities with them, but also built fortifications and barriers across the isthmus from sea to sea and thereby prevented the raids of the Thracians, who lived in large numbers near Chersonesus, and put an end to the continuous, difficult war, from which This land constantly suffered, being in direct contact with barbarian neighbors and filled with bandits of bandits, both border and located within its borders.”
King Spartok, his sons Satyr and Leukon, together with the Scythians as a result of the war of 400–375 BC. e. with Heraclea Pontic, the main trade competitor was conquered - Theodosius and Sindica - the kingdom of the Sind people on the Taman Peninsula, located below the Kuban and Southern Bug. King of the Bosporus Perisad I, who reigned from 349 to 310 BC. e., from Phanagoria, the capital of the Asian Bosporus, conquered the lands of local tribes on the right bank of the Kuban and went further north, beyond the Don, capturing the entire Azov region. His son Eumelus managed, by building a huge fleet, to clear the Black Sea of pirates who interfered with trade. In Panticapaeum there were large shipyards that also repaired ships. The Bosporan kingdom had a navy consisting of narrow and long fast-moving trireme ships, which had three rows of oars on each side and a powerful and durable ram at the bow. Triremes were usually 36 meters long, 6 meters wide, and the draft depth was about a liter. The crew of such a ship consisted of 200 people - oarsmen, sailors and a small detachment of marines. There were almost no boarding battles then, the triremes full speed ahead rammed enemy ships and sank them. The trireme ram consisted of two or three sharp sword-shaped tips. The ships reached speeds of up to five knots, and with a sail - up to eight knots - approximately 15 kilometers per hour.
In the VI–IV centuries BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom, like Chersonesos, did not have a standing army; in the event of hostilities, troops were gathered from citizen militias armed with their own weapons. In the first half of the 4th century BC. e. in the Bosporan kingdom under the Spartokids, a mercenary army was organized, consisting of a phalanx of heavily armed hoplite warriors and light infantry with bows and darts. Hoplites were armed with spears and swords, and their protective equipment consisted of shields, helmets, bracers and leggings. The cavalry of the army consisted of the nobility of the Bosporan kingdom. At first, the army did not have a centralized supply; each horseman and hoplite was accompanied by a slave with equipment and food, only in IV BC. e. a convoy on carts appears, surrounding the soldiers during long stops.
All the main Bosporan cities were protected by walls two to three meters thick and up to twelve meters high, with gates and towers up to ten meters in diameter. The walls of the cities were dry-built from large rectangular limestone blocks one and a half meters long and half a meter wide, fitted closely to each other. In the 5th century BC. e. Four kilometers west of Panticapaeum, a rampart was built, stretching from the south from the modern village of Arshintsevo to the Sea of Azov in the north. A wide ditch was dug in front of the rampart. The second shaft was created thirty kilometers west of Panticapaeum, crossing the entire Kerch Peninsula from Lake Uzunla near the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. According to measurements taken in the mid-19th century, the width of the shaft at the base was 20 meters, at the top - 14 meters, height - 4.5 meters. The depth of the ditch was 3 meters, width - 15 meters. These fortifications stopped the raids of nomads on the lands of the Bosporan kingdom. The estates of the local Bosporus and Chersonesos nobility were built as small fortresses from large stone blocks, with high towers. The lands of Chersonese were also protected from the rest of the Crimean Peninsula by a defensive wall with six towers, about a kilometer long and 3 meters thick.
Both Perisad I and Eumelus repeatedly tried to seize the lands of the ethnic Proto-Slavs, but were repulsed. At this time, Eumel, at the confluence of the Don into the Sea of Azov, built the fortress-city of Tanais (near the village of Nedvigolovka at the mouth of the Don), which became the largest trade transshipment point in the Northern Black Sea region. The Bosporan kingdom in its heyday had a territory from Chersonesos to Kuban and to the mouth of the Don. The Greek population united with the Scythians, the Bosporan kingdom became Greco-Scythian. The main income came from trade with Greece and other Attic states. The Athenian state received half of the bread it needed - one million poods, timber, furs, leather - from the Bosporan kingdom. After the weakening of Athens in the 3rd century BC. e. The Bosporan kingdom increased trade turnover with the Greek islands of Rhodes and Delos, with Pergamum, located in the western part of Asia Minor, and the cities of the southern Black Sea region - Heraclea, Amis, Sinope.
The Bosporan kingdom had many fertile lands both in the Crimea and on the Taman Peninsula, which produced large grain harvests. The main arable tool was the plow. The bread was harvested with sickles and stored in special grain pits and pithos - large clay vessels. Grain was ground in stone grain grinders, mortars and hand mills with stone millstones, found in large quantities during archaeological excavations in the eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. Winemaking and viticulture, introduced by the ancient Greeks, were significantly developed, and a large number of orchards were planted. During the excavations of Myrmekia and Tiritaki, many wineries and stone presses were discovered, the earliest of which dates back to the 3rd century BC. e. The inhabitants of the Bosporan kingdom were engaged in cattle breeding - they kept a lot of poultry - chickens, geese, ducks, as well as sheep, goats, pigs, bulls and horses, which provided meat, milk, and leather for clothing. The main food of the common people was fresh fish- flounder, mackerel, pike perch, herring, anchovy, sultana, ram, salted in large quantities, exported from the Bosporus. Fish were caught with a seine and hooks.
Weaving and ceramic production, and the production of metal products have received great development - on the Kerch Peninsula there are large deposits of iron ore, which lies shallow. During archaeological excavations, a large number of spindles, spindle whorls, and weights suspended from threads were found, which served as the basis for tensioning them. Many items made of clay were discovered - jugs, bowls, saucers, bowls, amphoras, pithoi, roofing tiles. Ceramic water pipes, parts of architectural structures, and figurines were found. Many openers for plows, sickles, hoes, spades, nails, locks, weapons - spear and arrowheads, swords, daggers, armor, helmets, shields were excavated. In the Kul-Oba mound near Kerch, many luxury items were discovered, precious dishes, magnificent weapons, gold jewelry with animal images, gold plates for clothing, gold bracelets and hryvnias - hoops worn around the neck, earrings, rings, necklaces.
The second major Greek center of Crimea was Chersonesus, located in the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula and has long been closely associated with Athens. Chersonesus was the closest city to both the steppe Crimea and the Asia Minor coast. This was crucial for its economic prosperity. Trade connections of Chersonese extended to the entire western and part of the steppe Crimea. Chersonese traded with Ionia and Athens, the cities of Asia Minor Heraclea and Sinope, and island Greece. The possessions of Chersonese included the city of Kerkinitida, located on the site of modern Evpatoria, and Beautiful Harbor, near the Black Sea.
Residents of Chersonesus and the surrounding area were engaged in agriculture, viticulture and cattle breeding. During excavations of the city, millstones, stupas, pithos, tarapans - platforms for squeezing grapes, curved grape knives in the form of an arc were found. Pottery production and construction were developed. Your legislative bodies in Chersonesus were the Council, which prepared decrees, and the People's Assembly, which approved them. In Chersonesus there was state and private ownership of land. On a Chersonesos marble slab of the 3rd century BC. e. The text of the act of sale of land plots by the state to private individuals has been preserved.
The greatest flourishing of the Black Sea city policies occurred in the 4th century BC. e. The city-states of the Northern Black Sea region become the main suppliers of bread and food for most cities in Greece and Asia Minor. From purely trading colonies they become trade and production centers. During the 5th and 4th centuries BC. e. Greek craftsmen produce many highly artistic products, some of which have general cultural significance. The whole world knows a golden plate with an image of a deer and an electric vase from the Kul-Oba mound near Kerch, a golden comb and silver vessels from the Solokha mound, and a silver vase from the Chertomlytsky mound. This is also the time of the highest rise of Scythia. Thousands of Scythian mounds and burials of the 4th century are known. All the so-called royal mounds, up to twenty meters high and 300 meters in diameter, date back to this century. The number of such mounds directly in Crimea is also increasing significantly, but there is only one royal one - Kul-Oba near Kerch.
In the first half of the 4th century BC. e. one of the Scythian kings, Atey, managed to concentrate supreme power in his hands and form a large state on the western borders of Great Scythia in the Northern Black Sea region. Strabo wrote: “Ataeus, who fought with Philip, son of Amyntas, seems to have dominated the majority of the local barbarians.” The capital of the kingdom of Atey was obviously a settlement near the city of Kamenka-Dneprovskaya and the village of Bolshaya Znamenka in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine - Kamensky settlement. On the side of the steppe, the settlement was protected by an earthen rampart and a ditch; on the other sides there were steep Dnieper steeps and the Belozersky estuary. The settlement was excavated in 1900 by D.Ya. Serdyukov, and in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century B.N. Grakov. The main occupation of the inhabitants was the production of bronze and iron tools, dishes, as well as agriculture and cattle breeding. The Scythian nobility lived in stone houses, farmers and artisans lived in dugouts and wooden buildings. There was active trade with the Greek policies of the Northern Black Sea region. The capital of the Scythians was the Kamensk settlement from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC. e., and how the settlement existed until the 3rd century BC. e.
The power of the Scythian state of King Atey was thoroughly weakened by the Macedonian king Philip, the father of Alexander the Great.
Having broken the temporary alliance with Macedonia due to the reluctance to support the Macedonian army, the Scythian king Ataeus and his army, defeating the Macedonian allies of the Getae, captured almost the entire Danube delta. As a result of the bloodiest battle between the united Scythian army and the Macedonian army in 339 BC. e. King Atey was killed and his troops were defeated. The Scythian state in the northern Black Sea steppes collapsed. The reason for the collapse was not so much the military defeat of the Scythians, who a few years later destroyed the thirty thousand army of Zopynion, commander Alexander the Great, but the sharp deterioration of natural conditions in the Northern Black Sea region. According to archaeological data, during this period in the steppes the number of saigas and gophers living on abandoned pastures and lands unsuitable for livestock increases significantly. Nomadic cattle breeding could no longer feed the Scythian population and the Scythians began to leave the steppes for river valleys, gradually settling on the ground. Scythian steppe burial grounds of this period are very poor. The situation of the Greek colonies in Crimea, which began to experience the Scythian onslaught, worsened. By the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. Scythian tribes were located in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the northern steppe part of the Crimean peninsula, forming here under Tsar Skilur and his son Palak a new public education with its capital on the Salgir River near Simferopol, which later became known as Scythian Naples. The population of the new Scythian state settled on the land and the majority were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. The Scythians began to build stone houses, using the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. In 290 BC e. The Scythians created fortifications throughout the Perekop Isthmus. The Scythian assimilation of the Taurus tribes began; ancient sources began to call the population of the Crimean Peninsula “Tauroscythians” or “Scythotaurs,” who subsequently mixed with the ancient Greeks and Sarmato-Alans.
Sarmatians, Iranian-speaking nomadic pastoralists who were engaged in horse breeding, from the 8th century BC. e. lived in the territory between the Caucasus Mountains, Don and Volga. In the 5th–6th centuries BC. e. a large union of Sarmatian and nomadic Sauromatian tribes was formed, living since the 7th century in the steppe zones of the Urals and Volga region. Subsequently, the Sarmatian union constantly expanded at the expense of other tribes. In the 3rd century BC. e. the movement of the Sarmatian tribes towards the Northern Black Sea region began. Part of the Sarmatians - Siraks and Aorses - went to the Kuban region and the North Caucasus, another part of the Sarmatians in the 2nd century BC. e. three tribes - Iazyges, Roxolans and Sirmatians - reached the bend of the Dnieper in the Nikopol region and within fifty years populated the lands from the Don to the Danube, becoming the masters of the Northern Black Sea region for almost half a millennium. The penetration of individual Sarmatian detachments into the Northern Black Sea region along the Don-Tanais riverbed began in the 4th century BC. e.
It is not known for certain how the process of ousting the Scythians from the Black Sea steppes took place - military or peaceful means. Scythian and Sarmatian burials of the 3rd century BC have not been found in the Northern Black Sea region. e. The collapse of Great Scythia is separated from the formation of Great Sarmatia on the same territory by at least a hundred years.
Perhaps there was a great multi-year drought in the steppe, food for horses disappeared and the Scythians themselves left for fertile lands, concentrating in the river valleys of the Lower Don and Dnieper. There are almost no Scythian settlements of the 3rd century BC on the Crimean Peninsula. e., with the exception of the Aktash burial ground. During this period, the Scythians did not yet populate the Crimean Peninsula en masse. Historical events that took place in the Northern Black Sea region in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. e. practically not described in ancient written sources. Most likely, the Sarmatian tribes occupied free steppe territories. One way or another, but at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. The Sarmatians are finally established in the region and the process of “Sarmatization” of the Northern Black Sea region begins. Scythia becomes Sarmatia. About fifty Sarmatian burials of the 2nd–1st centuries BC were found in the Northern Black Sea region. e., of which 22 are north of Perekop. The burials of the Sarmatian nobility are known - Sokolov's Tomb on the Southern Bug, near Mikhailovka in the Danube region, near the village of Porogi, Yampolsky district, Vinnytsia region. Found in Porogi: an iron sword, an iron dagger, a powerful bow with bone plates, iron arrowheads, darts, a gold plate-bracer, a ceremonial belt, a sword belt, waist plates, brooches, shoe buckles, a gold bracelet, a gold hryvnia, a silver cup , light clay amphorae and jug, gold temple pendants, gold necklace, silver ring and mirror, gold plaques. However, the Sarmatians did not occupy Crimea and visited there only sporadically. No Sarmatian monuments of the 2nd–1st centuries BC have been found on the Crimean peninsula. e. The appearance of the Sarmatians in Crimea was peaceful and dates back to the second half of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. There are no traces of destruction in the found monuments of this period. Many Sarmatian names appear in the Bosporan inscriptions; the local population begins to use Sarmatian dishes with a polished surface and handles in the shape of animals. The army of the Bosporan kingdom began to use more advanced weapons of the Sarmatian type - long swords and pike-spears. Since the 1st century, Sarmatian tamga-like signs have been used on tombstones. Some ancient authors began to call the Bosporan kingdom Greco-Sarmatian. The Sarmatians settled throughout the Crimean Peninsula. Their burials remained in Crimea near the village of Chkalovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, near the village of Istochnoye, Dzhankoy region, near the regional centers of Kirovsky and Sovetsky, near the villages of Ilyichevo, Leninsky region, Kitai, Saki region, Konstantinovka, Simferopol region. In the Nogaychik Kugan near the village of Chervony, Nizhny Novgorod region, a large number of gold jewelry was found - a gold hryvnia, earrings, and bracelets. During excavations of Sarmatian burials, iron swords, knives, vessels, jugs, cups, dishes, beads, beads, mirrors and other decorations were discovered. However, only one Sarmatian monument of the 2nd–4th centuries is known in Crimea - near the village of Orlovka, Krasnoperekopsky district. Obviously, this indicates that in the middle of the 3rd century there was a partial departure of the Sarmatian population from Crimea, perhaps to participate in the Gothic campaigns.
The Sarmatian army consisted of tribal militia; there was no standing army. The main part of the Sarmatian army was heavy cavalry, armed with a long spear and an iron sword, protected by armor and at that time practically invincible. Ammianus Marcelinus wrote: “They travel through vast spaces when they are pursuing the enemy, or they run themselves, sitting on fast and obedient horses, and each one also leads a spare horse, one, and sometimes two, so that, changing from one to another, they can save the strength of the horses, and by giving rest, restore their vigor.” Later, Sarmatian heavily armed cavalry - cataphracts, protected by helmets and ringed armor, were armed with four-meter pikes and meter-long swords, bows and daggers. To equip such cavalry, well-developed metallurgical production and weaponry, which the Sarmatians had, were required. The cataphracts attacked with a powerful wedge, later called a “pig” in medieval Europe, cut into the enemy formation, cut it in two, overturned it and completed the rout. The blow of the Sarmatian cavalry was more powerful than the Scythian, and the long weapon was superior to the weapons of the Scythian cavalry. Sarmatian horses had iron stirrups, which allowed riders to sit firmly in the saddle. During their stays, the Sarmatians surrounded their camp with wagons. Arrian wrote that the Roman cavalry learned Sarmatian military techniques. The Sarmatians collected tribute and indemnities from the conquered settled population, controlled trade and trade routes, and engaged in military robbery. However, the Sarmatian tribes did not have centralized power; each acted on its own, and during the entire period of their stay in the Northern Black Sea region, the Sarmatians never created their own state.
Strabo wrote about the Roxolani, one of the Sarmatian tribes: “They wear helmets and armor made of rawhide oxhide, they wear wicker shields as a means of protection; They also have spears, a bow and a sword... Their felt tents are attached to the tents in which they live. Around the tents there are cattle grazing, from which they feed on milk, cheese and meat. They follow the pastures, always taking turns choosing places rich in grass, in winter in the swamps near Maeotis, and in summer on the plains.”
In the middle of the 2nd century BC. e. The Scythian king Skilur upset and strengthened a city that had existed for a hundred years in the middle of the steppe Crimea and was called Scythian Naples. We know of three more Scythian fortresses of this period - Khabei, Palakion and Napite. Obviously these are the settlements of Kermenchik, located directly in Simferopol, Kermen-Kyr - 5 kilometers north of Simferopol, Bulganak settlement - 15 kilometers west of Simferopol and Ust-Alminskoye settlement near Bakhchisarai.
Scythian Naples under Skilura turned into a large trade and craft center, connected both with the surrounding Scythian cities and with other ancient cities of the Black Sea region. Apparently the Scythian leaders wanted to monopolize the entire Crimean grain trade, eliminating Greek intermediaries. Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom faced a serious threat of losing their independence.
The troops of the Scythian king Skilur captured Olbia, in the harbor of which the Scythians built a powerful galley fleet, with the help of which Skilur took the city of Tyre, a Greek colony at the mouth of the Dniester, and then Karkinita, the possession of Chersonesus, which gradually lost the entire northwestern Crimea. The Chersonese fleet tried to capture Olbia, which became the naval base of the Scythians, but after a large naval battle that was unsuccessful for them, it returned to its harbors. The Scythian ships also defeated the fleet of the Bosporan kingdom. After this, the Scythians, in long-term conflicts, cleared the Crimean coast for a long time from the Satarchean pirates, who literally terrorized the entire coastal population. After the death of Skilur, his son Palak began a war in 115 with Chersonese and the Bosporan kingdom, which lasted ten years.
Chersonesos, starting from the end of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. e. in alliance with the Sarmatian tribes, he constantly fought with the Scythians. Not relying on one's own strength in 179 BC. e. Chersonese concluded an agreement on military assistance with Pharnaces I, the king of Pontus, a state that arose on the southern coast of the Black Sea as a result of the collapse of the state of Alexander the Great. Pontus was an ancient region in the northern part of Asia Minor that paid tribute to the Persian kings. In 502 BC. e. The Persian king Darius I turned Pontus into his satrapy. From the second half of the 4th century BC. e. Pontus was part of the empire of Alexander the Great, after the collapse of which it became independent. The first king of the new state in 281 BC. e. Mithridates II declared himself from the Persian Achaemenid family, and in 301 BC. e. under Mithridates III, the country received the name of the Kingdom of Pontus with its capital in Amasia. In the treaty of 179 BC. BC, concluded by Pharnaces I with the Bithynian, Pergamon and Cappadocian kings, along with Chersonese, the Sarmatian tribes led by King Gatal are the guarantors of this agreement. In 183 BC. e. Pharnaces I conquered Sinope, a port city on the southern coast of the Black Sea, which became the capital of the Pontic Kingdom under Mithridates V Euergetes. From 111 BC e. Mithridates VI Eupator becomes king of the Pontic kingdom, his life goal set the creation of a world monarchy.
After the first defeats from the Scythians, the loss of Kerkinitis and the Beautiful Harbor, and the beginning of the siege of the capitals, Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom turned to the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator, for help.
Mithridates in 110 BC e. sent a large Pontic fleet to the rescue with a landing force of six thousand hoplites - heavily armed infantrymen, under the command of Diophantus, the son of the noble Pontic Asclapiodorus and one of his best commanders. The Scythian king Palak, having learned about the landing of Diaphant's troops near Chersonesos, asked for help from the king of the Sarmatian tribe of the Roxolans, Tasia, who sent 50 thousand heavily armed cavalry. The battles took place in the mountainous regions of southern Crimea, where the Roxalan cavalry was unable to deploy its battle formations. The fleet and troops of Diophantus, together with the Chersonese detachments, destroyed the Scythian fleet and defeated the Scythians, who had besieged Chersonese for more than a year. The defeated Roksolans left the Crimean Peninsula.
The Greek geographer and historian Strabo wrote in his “Geography”: “The Roxolani even fought with the generals of Mithridates Eupator under the leadership of Tasius. They came to the aid of Palak, the son of Skilur, and were considered warlike. However, any barbarian nation and a crowd of lightly armed people are powerless against a properly formed and well-armed phalanx. In any case, the Roxolani, numbering about 50,000 people, could not resist the 6,000 people fielded by Diaphant, the commander of Mithridates, and were mostly destroyed.”
After this, Diophantus marched along the entire southern coast of Crimea and, with bloody battles, destroyed all the settlements and fortified points of the Tauri, including the main sanctuary of the Tauri - the goddess of the Virgin (Parthenos), located on Cape Parthenia near the Bay of Symbols (Balaklava). The remnants of the Taurians went to the Crimean Mountains. On their lands, Diaphant founded the city of Evpatorium (probably near Balaklava), a stronghold of Pontus in southern Crimea.
Having liberated Theodosia from the army of slaves besieging it, Diaphant defeated the Scythian army at Panticapaeum and ousted the Scythians from the Kerch Peninsula, taking the fortresses of Cimmeric, Tiritaku and Nymphaeum. After this, Diaphantes with the Chersonese and Bosporan troops marched into the steppe Crimea and took the Scythian fortresses of Naples and Khabaei after an eight-month siege. In 109 BC. e. Scythia, led by Polak, recognized the power of Pontus, losing everything conquered by Skilur. Diophantus returned to Sinope, the capital of Pontus, leaving garrisons in Evpatoria, Beautiful Harbor and Kerkinida.
A year later, the Scythian army of Palak, having gathered its strength, again began military operations with Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom, defeating their troops in several battles. Again Mithridates sent a fleet with Diaphant, who pushed the Scythians back to the steppe Crimea, destroyed the Scythian army in a general battle and occupied Scythian Naples and Habaea, during the assault of which the Scythian king Palak died. The Scythian state lost its independence. The following Scythian kings recognized the power of Mithridates VI of Pontus, gave him Olbia and Tyre, paid tribute and gave soldiers to his army.
In 107 BC. e. The rebellious Scythian population, led by Savmak, captured Panticapaeum, killing the Bosporan king Perisad. Diaphantus, who was conducting negotiations in the capital of the Bosporus on the transfer of power in the kingdom to Mithridates VI of Pontus, managed to leave for the city of Nymphaeum, located not far from Panticapaeum, and sailed by sea to Chersonesus, and from there to Sinope.
Within two months, Savmak's army completely occupied the Bosporan kingdom, holding it for a year. Savmak became the ruler of the Bosporus.
In the spring of 106 BC. e. Diaphantus with a huge fleet entered the Quarantine Bay of Chersonese Tauride, recaptured Feodosia and Panticapaeum from Savmak, capturing him himself. The rebels were destroyed, Diaphant's troops established themselves in the west of the Crimean Peninsula. Mithridates VI of Pontus became the master of almost all of Crimea, receiving a huge amount of grain and silver in the form of tribute from the population of the Crimean peninsula.
Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom recognized the supreme power of Pontus. Mithridates VI became king of the Bosporan kingdom, incorporating Chersonesos into its composition, which retained self-government and autonomy. Pontic garrisons appeared in all the cities of southwestern Crimea, which were there until 89 BC. e.
The Pontic kingdom prevented the Romans from pursuing their policy of conquest in the east. Founded in the middle of the 8th century BC. e. small town at the end of the 1st century BC. e. became an empire, controlling vast territories. The Roman legions had clear management - ten cohorts, each of which was divided into three maniples, each consisting of two centuries. The legionary was dressed in an iron helmet, leather or iron armor, had a sword, a dagger, two darts and a shield. The soldiers were trained to thrust, which was most effective in close combat. The legion, which consisted of 6,000 soldiers and a detachment of cavalry, was the most powerful military formation of that time. In 89 BC. e. Five Mithridatic wars with Rome began. Almost all local tribes, including the Scythians and Sarmatians, took part in them on the side of Mithridates. During the First War of 89–84, the Bosporan kingdom was separated from the Pontic king, but in 80, its military commander Neoptolemus twice defeated the Bosporan army and returned the Bosporus to the rule of Mithridates. The son of Mithridates Mahar became king. During the third war in 65 BC. e. Roman troops, led by the commander Gnaeus Pompey, captured the main territory of the Pontic kingdom. Mithridates went to his Bosporan possessions in the Crimea, which were soon blocked from the sea by the Roman fleet. The Roman fleet mainly consisted of triremes, biremes and liburnes, the main driving force of which, along with sails, were oars arranged in several rows. The ships had rams with three points and powerful lifting ladders, which, during boarding, fell from above onto the enemy ship and broke its hull. During boarding, the marine infantry burst into the enemy ship, which the Romans turned into a special type of troops. The ships had heavy catapults that threw clay pots with a mixture of resin and saltpeter onto other ships, which could not be filled with water, but only covered with sand. The Roman squadron carrying out the blockade had orders to detain and execute all merchants traveling to the harbor of the Bosporan kingdom. Bosporan trade suffered great damage. The policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, aimed at strengthening the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region, a large number of taxes imposed by the Pontic king, and the Roman blockade of the coast did not suit the highest nobility of Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom. An anti-Mithridates uprising took place in Phanagoria, spreading to Chersonesus, Feodosia, Nymphaeum and even to the army of Mithridates. In 63 BC. e. he committed suicide. The son of Mithridates Pharnaces II became the king of the Bosporus, he betrayed his father and actually organized and led the uprising. Pharnaces sent the body of his murdered father to Sinope to Pompey and expressed complete submission to Rome, for which he was left by the king of the Bosporus with the subordination of Chersonesus, which he ruled until 47 BC. e. The states of the Northern Black Sea region lost their political independence. Only the territory of the Tauri from Balaklava to Feodosia remained independent until the arrival of Roman military units on the Crimean peninsula.
In 63 BC. e. Pharnaces II concluded a treaty of friendship with the Roman Empire, receiving the title of “friend and ally of Rome,” given only after the king was recognized as the legitimate monarch. An ally of Rome was obliged to protect its borders, receiving in return money, the patronage of Rome and the right of self-government, without the right to conduct independent foreign policy . Such an agreement was concluded with each new king of the Bosporus, since in Roman law there was no concept of hereditary royal power. Becoming king of the Bosporus, the next candidate necessarily received approval from the Roman emperor, for which he sometimes had to go to the capital of the empire, and the regalia of his power - a curule chair and a scepter. The Bosporan king Cotim I added two more to his name - Tiberius Julius, and all subsequent Bosporan kings mechanically added these two names to their own, creating the Tiberius Julius dynasty. The Roman government, when carrying out its policies in the Bosporus, relied, as elsewhere, on the Bosporan nobility, linking it with itself with economic and material interests. The highest civil positions in the kingdom were the governor of the island, the manager of the royal court, the chief bedroom officer, the king's personal secretary, the chief scribe, the head of reports; by the military - citizen strategist, navarch, chiliarch, lohag. The citizens of the Bosporan state were led by a polytarch. Around this period, a number of fortresses were built on the Bosporus, located in a chain at a distance of visual communication from each other - Ilurat, fortifications near the modern villages of Tosunovo, Mikhailovka, Semenovka, Andreevka South. The thickness of the walls reached five meters, and a ditch was dug around them. Fortresses were also built to protect the Bosporan possessions on the Taman Peninsula. Rural settlements of the Bosporan kingdom in the first centuries of our era were divided into three types. In the valleys there were unfortified villages consisting of houses separated from each other by private plots. In places convenient for the construction of fortifications, there were settlements whose houses did not have personal plots and were crowded one next to another. The rural villas of the Bosporan nobility were powerful fortified estates. On the shore of the Sea of Azov near the village of Semenovka in the first centuries of our era there was a settlement that was most studied by archaeologists. The stone houses of the settlement had wooden floors and roofs made of wicker rods, coated with clay. Most of the houses were two-story, also covered with clay inside. On the first floors there were utility rooms, on the second floors there were living rooms. In front of the entrance to the house there was a courtyard lined with stone slabs, in which there was a room for livestock with a manger for hay, made of stone slabs placed on edge. The houses were heated by stone or brick stoves with an adobe top slab with edges curved upward. The floors of the houses were earthen, sometimes covered with planks. The inhabitants of the settlement were free landowners. During excavations of the settlement, weapons, coins and other items were found that the slaves could not have had. Also discovered were grain grinders, looms, clay vessels with food, religious figurines, locally made molded dishes, lamps, bone needles for knitting nets, bronze and iron hooks, cork and wooden floats, stone weights, twisted cord nets, small iron openers, scythes, sickles, grains of wheat, barley, lentils, millet, rye, wineries, winegrowing knives, grape seeds and seeds, ceramic dishes - containers for storing and transporting grain. Found coins, a red-glazed dish, amphorae, glass and bronze vessels indicate extensive trade ties between the Bosporan cities and towns.
During excavations, a large number of wineries were found, which indicates a large production of wine in the Bosporan kingdom. The 3rd century wineries excavated in Tiritaka are interesting. The wineries, measuring 5.5 by 10 meters, were located indoors and had three nearby pressing platforms, adjacent to which were three tanks for draining grape juice. On the middle platform, separated from the others by wooden partitions, there was a lever-screw press. The three tanks of each of the two wineries could hold about 6,000 liters of wine.
In the 50s of the 1st century in the Roman Empire, Caesar and Pompey began a civil war. Pharnaces decided to restore the former kingdom of his father and in 49 BC. e. went to Asia Minor to regain the Pontic throne. Pharnaces II achieved significant success, but on August 2, 47 BC. e. In the battle near the city of Zela, the army of the Pontic king was defeated by the Roman legions of Julius Caesar, who wrote his famous words in a report to the Senate of Rome: “Veni, vidi, vici” - “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Pharnaces again submitted to Rome and was sent back to his Crimean lands, where in an internecine struggle he was killed by the local leader Asander. Julius Caesar, who won the civil war, did not accept Asander and sent Mithridates of Pergamon to occupy the Bosporan kingdom, who failed to do this and was killed. Asander married Pharnaces' daughter Dynamis in 41 BC. e. was declared king of the Bosporans. The previous order was gradually restored in the kingdom and a new economic boom began. The export of bread, fish, and livestock increased significantly. Wine in amphorae, olive oil, glass, red-glazed and bronze dishes, and jewelry were brought to the Bosporus. The main trading partners of the Bosporus were the cities of Asia Minor on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The Bosporan kingdom traded with the cities of the Mediterranean, the Volga region and the North Caucasus.
In 45–44 BC. e. Chersonese sends an embassy to Rome led by G. Julius Satyr, as a result of which he receives from Caesar eleutheria - “charter of freedom” - independence from the Bosporan kingdom. Chersonesus was declared a free city and began to obey only Rome, but this lasted only until 42 BC. e., when, after the assassination of Caesar, the Roman commander Antony deprived Chersonesus and other cities in the eastern part of the empire of eleutheria. Asander tries to capture Chersonesus, but is unsuccessful. In 25–24 BC. e. In Chersonesos, a new chronology is introduced, usually associated with the fact that the new Roman emperor Augustus granted the city the rights of autonomy granted to Greek cities in the east. At the same time, Augustus recognized Asander's rights to the Bosporan throne. Under pressure from Rome, another rapprochement between Chersonesus and the Bosporan kingdom begins.
In 16 BC. e. The economic and political rise of the Bosporus kingdom arouses the displeasure of Rome; Asander is forced to leave the political arena and transfer his power to Dynamia, who soon married Scribonius, who seized power in the Bosporus. This was not agreed with the empire and Rome sent the Pontic king Polemon I to Crimea, who, in the fight against Scribonius, hardly established himself on the throne and ruled the Bosporan kingdom from 14 to 10 BC. e.
Aspurgus becomes the new husband of Dynamis and the king of the Bosporans. There are several known wars between the Bosporan kingdom and the Scythians and Taurians, as a result of which some of them were conquered. However, in the title of Aspurgus, when listing the conquered peoples and tribes, there are no Taurians and Scythians.
In 38, the Roman Emperor Caligula transferred the Bosporan throne to Polemon II, who was unable to establish himself on the Kerch Peninsula, and after the death of Caligula, the new Roman Emperor Claudius in 39 appointed Mithridates VIII, a descendant of Mithridates VI Eupator, as the Bosporan king. The brother of the new Bosporan king Cotis, sent by him to Rome, informed Claudius that Mithridates VIII was preparing for an armed rebellion against Roman power. Roman troops sent to the Crimean peninsula in 46 under the command of the legate of the Roman province of Moesia, which existed on the territory of modern Romania and Bulgaria, A. Didius Gallus, overthrew Mithridates VIII, who, after the departure of the Roman troops, tried to regain power, which required a new Roman military expedition to the Crimea. Legionnaires of G. Julius Aquila, sent from Asia Minor, defeated the troops of Mithridates VIII, captured him and brought him to Rome. It was then, according to Tacitus, that off the southern coast of Crimea the Tauri captured several Roman ships returning home.
The new Bosporan king in 49 was the son of Aspurgus and the Thracian princess Cotis I, with whom a new dynasty began, no longer having Greek roots. Under Cotis I, foreign trade of the Bosporan kingdom began to recover in large volumes. The main goods were grain, traditional for the Northern Black Sea region, both locally produced and delivered from the Azov region, as well as fish, livestock, leather and salt. The largest seller was the Bosporan king, and the main buyer was the Roman Empire. Roman merchant ships had up to twenty meters in length and up to six in width, a draft of up to three meters and a displacement of up to 150 tons. The holds could hold up to 700 tons of grain. Very large ships were also built. Olive oil, metals, building materials, glassware, lamps, and art objects were brought to Panticapaeum for sale to all the tribes of the Northern Black Sea region.
From this period, the Roman Empire controlled the entire Black Sea coast, except Colchis. The Bosporan king became subordinate to the governor of the Roman Asia Minor province of Bithynia, and the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, together with Chersonesos, was subordinated to the legate of Moesia. The cities of the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonesus were satisfied with this situation - the Roman Empire ensured the development of the economy and trade, and protected them from nomadic tribes. The Roman presence on the Crimean peninsula ensured the economic flourishing of the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonese at the beginning of our era.
Chersonesus was on the side of Rome during all the Roman-Bosporan wars, for participation in which it received from the empire the right to mint gold coins. At this time, ties between Rome and Chersonesus strengthened significantly.
In the middle of the 1st century, the Scythians became active again on the Crimean Peninsula. On the western coast, in the steppe and foothills of Crimea, a large number of Scythian settlements fortified with stone walls and ditches were discovered, inside which there were stone and brick houses. Around the same time, the Sarmatian tribe of Alans, who called themselves Irons, created a union of Iranian-speaking tribes that settled in the Northern Black Sea region, the Azov region and the Caucasus Mountains. From there, the Alans began to raid Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Media. Josephus Flavius in “The Jewish War” writes about the terrible invasion of the Alans on Armenia and Media in 72, calling the Alans “Scythians living near Tanais and Lake Meotia.” The Alans made a second invasion of the same lands in 133. The Roman historian Tacitus writes about the Alans that they were not united under a single authority, but were subordinate to the khans, who acted independently of each other and quite independently entered into alliances with the sovereigns of the southern countries, who sought their help in hostile clashes among themselves. The testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus is also interesting: “Almost all of them are tall and beautiful, their hair is brown; they are menacing with the fierce gaze of their eyes and fast, thanks to the lightness of their weapons... The Alans are a nomadic people, they live in wagons covered with bark. They do not know agriculture, they keep a lot of livestock and mainly a lot of horses. The need to have permanent pastures causes them to wander from place to place. From early childhood they get used to riding horses; they are all dashing riders and walking on foot is considered a disgrace among them. The limits of their nomads are Armenia and Media on one side, and the Bosporus on the other. Their occupation is robbery and hunting. They love war and danger. They take scalps from killed enemies and decorate the bridles of their horses with them. They have no temples, no houses, no huts. They honor the god of war and worship him in the form of a sword planted in the ground. All Alans consider themselves noble and do not know slavery in their midst. In their way of life they are very similar to the Huns, but their morals are somewhat softer.”
On the Crimean Peninsula, nomads were interested in the foothills and southwestern Crimea, the Bosporan kingdom, which was experiencing economic and political growth. A large number of Sarmato-Alans and Scythians mixed and settled in the Crimean cities. In the steppe Crimea, Alans appeared only sporadically, without assimilating with the Scythian population. In 212, on the southeastern coast of Crimea, probably the Alans built the fortress of Sugdeya (present-day Sudak), which became the main Alan port on the Crimean peninsula. Alans lived in Crimea during the Tatar-Mongol period. The Alanian bishop Theodore, who in 1240 took holy orders and was heading from the residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, which was at that time in Nicaea to the Transcaucasian Alans through Chersonesos and Bosporus, wrote in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople: “Near Kherson the Alans live as much of their own free will as at the request of the Kherson residents, like some kind of fence and security.” Sarmatian-Alanian burial grounds were found near Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai, in Scythian Naples, in the area between the Belbek and Kacha rivers.
In the second half of the 1st century, almost all Scythian fortresses were renovated. The Sarmatians and Scythians began to seriously threaten the independence of Chersonesos. The city turned to its superiors, the legate of the Roman province of Moesia, for help.
In 63, ships of the Moesian squadron appeared in the harbor of Chersonese - Roman legionnaires arrived in the city under the command of the governor of Moesia, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus. Having driven the Scythian-Sarmatian tribes back from Chersonesos, the Romans took military action in the northwestern and southwestern Crimea, but they failed to gain a foothold there. No ancient monuments of the 1st century have been discovered in these areas. The Romans controlled Chersonesos with adjacent territories and the southern coast of Crimea to Sudak.
The main base of Rome and then Byzantine Empire Chersonese became the Crimea and received a permanent Roman garrison.
On Cape Ai-Todor, near Yalta, in the first century the Roman fortress Charax was built, which became a strategic stronghold of Rome on the southern coast of Crimea. The fortress was constantly home to a Roman garrison of soldiers from the 1st Italian and 11th Claudian legions. Kharaks, who controlled the coast from Ayu-Dag to Simeiz, had two defense belts, ammunition depots and water reserves in a cemented nymphaeum, which made it possible to withstand prolonged attacks. Stone and brick houses were built inside the fortress, there was a water supply system, and there was a sanctuary of the Roman gods. The camp of the Roman legionnaires was also located near Balaklava - near Simbolon Bay. The Romans also built roads in Crimea, in particular the road through the Shaitan-Merdven pass - the “Devil's Staircase”, the shortest route from the mountainous Crimea to the southern coast, located between Kastropol and Melas. Roman warships for some time destroyed the coastal pirates, and the soldiers destroyed the steppe robbers.
At the end of the 1st century, Roman troops were withdrawn from the Crimean peninsula. Subsequently, depending on the political situation in the region, Roman garrisons periodically appear in both Chersonesus and Charax. Rome has always closely monitored the situation developing on the Crimean Peninsula. The southwestern Crimea remained with the Scythians and Sarmatians, and Chersonesus successfully established trade relations with the Scythian capital Naples and the local settled population. Grain trade increases significantly; Chersonesus supplies a significant part of the cities of the Roman Empire with bread and food.
During the reign of the Bosporan kings Sauromat I (94-123) and Kotis II (123-132), several Scythian-Bosporan wars took place, in which the Scythians were defeated, not least due to the fact that the Romans again provided military assistance to the Bosporan kingdom Chersonesos at their request. The Roman Empire under Kotis again gave supreme power in the Crimea to the Bosporan kingdom and Chersonesos once again found itself dependent on Panticapaeum. Roman military units were stationed in the Bosporan kingdom for some time. Two stone tombstones of a centurion of the Thracian cohort and a soldier of the Cypriot cohort were excavated in Kerch.
In 136, a war between the Romans and the Alans, who came to Asia Minor, began, and the Tauro-Scythian troops besieged Olbia, from which they were driven back by the Romans. In 138, Chersonese received from the empire the “second eleutheria,” which at that time no longer meant the complete independence of the city, but only gave it the right of self-government, the right to dispose of its land and, obviously, the right of citizenship. At the same time, to protect Chersonese from the Scythians and Sarmatians, a thousand Roman legionaries appear in the Chersonese fortress, five hundred in the fortress of Charax, and ships of the Moesian squadron appear in the harbor. In addition to the centurion, who led the Roman garrison, in Chersonesus there was a military tribune of the I Italian Legion, who led all the Roman troops in Taurica and Scythia. In the south-eastern part of the Chersonese settlement, in the city citadel, the foundation of the barracks, the remains of the house of the Roman governor and the baths - baths of the Roman garrison, built in the middle of the 1st century, were discovered. Archaeological excavations have witnessed Roman monuments of the 1st and 2nd centuries on the northern side of Sevastopol, near the Alma River, Inkerman and Balaklava, near Alushta. In these places there were Roman fortified posts, the task of which was to guard the approaches to Chersonesus, control the population of the southern and southwestern part of Crimea and protect Roman ships sailing along the southern part of the Crimean peninsula along sea route, passing from Olbia to the Caucasus. In addition to guard duty, legionnaires were engaged in agriculture on specially allocated lands and various crafts - foundry, pottery, production of bricks and tiles, as well as glassware. Remains of manufacturing workshops have been discovered in almost all Roman settlements in Crimea. Roman troops were also supported at the expense of the Tauride cities. Roman traders and artisans appeared in Crimea. In addition to the legionnaires, predominantly of Thracian ethnic origin, members of their families and retired veterans lived in Chersonesos. The stable, calm situation allowed a significant increase in foreign trade in grain and food, which greatly improved the economic situation of Chersonesos.
After the defeat of the Scythians, the Roman garrisons left the Crimean peninsula, apparently to protect the Danube borders of the empire.
We find the first written mention of the Scythians in the well-known Herodotus. The “Father of History” described the heroic, victorious war of this people in 512 BC against the huge hordes of the Persian king Darius I. The Scythians living in the Crimea also played an important role in the victory over the Persians, who wanted to enslave the Scythian lands. The Scythians were divided into several tribes, and the tribe inhabiting the peninsula was called the “royal Scythians.” Herodotus gives them the following description: "... the most valiant and most numerous Scythian tribe. These Scythians consider other Scythians to be their subjects."
As for the origin of this people, scientists are unanimous here on only one thing: the Scythians come from numerous Iranian-speaking steppe nomads of Eurasia. But regarding the territory where these people came from, there are two main versions. Herodotus and his supporters believe that the Scythians came from the Asian East. Their opponents believe that the homeland of this formidable people is the Northern Black Sea region. In any case, already in the 7th century BC the Scythians lived in Crimea.
The Greeks called them Scythians, the Babylonians and Assyrians called this Ishkuza, but they called themselves Skolots. Open the biblical book of the prophet Jeremiah - there you will find characteristics of this people. “A strong people, a people whose language you do not know, and you will not understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all brave people. And they will eat your harvest and your bread; they will eat your sons and daughters.. They will destroy your fortified cities with the sword..."
In the IV-III centuries. BC e. serious changes occurred in the economic and social structure of the Scythians. The collapse of primitive communal relations among the Scythian tribes began in the 6th-5th centuries. BC e. Even then, economic and social inequality was observed among them; slavery and primitive exploitation through the collection of tribute from conquered tribes were known. Over time, these elements of social life, contrary to the norms of the primitive communal structure, continued to intensify, and by the 4th-3rd centuries. BC The Scythian tribes developed a slave-owning class society and, following it, statehood.
The first and most ancient Scythian state was, apparently, the kingdom of Atea, which arose in the Northern Black Sea region in the first half of the 4th century. BC e. During that period, the royal dynasty and aristocracy widely exploited the Scythian tribes, receiving from them bread and cattle as tribute - the main goods in the Scythian kingdom.
The territory of the Scythian kingdom of the Atey era was limited to the steppe from the Perekop Isthmus to the Danube (Istra) and included the steppe Crimea. Moreover, in the steppe Crimea there lived not nomads, as in the time of Herodotus, but agricultural tribes. Changes that occurred after the 5th century. in the steppe Crimea, some researchers are inclined to explain it by the settling of nomads on the land, others admit the possibility of a resettlement, probably forcible, of part of the Scythian farmers from the Dnieper to the Crimea. The center of the kingdom of Atey was located in the Lower Dnieper region, and the Kamensky settlement mentioned above may have been the capital of Scythia in the 4th century. BC e.
After the defeat of Ataeus by Philip in 339 BC. e., as already mentioned above, the Scythian kingdom with its center on the Dnieper survived for about one hundred and fifty years (IV-III centuries BC), but its territory was somewhat reduced. The Getae moved to the left bank of the Danube, and the steppes between the Prut and the Dniester entered their possessions.
At the turn of the III-II centuries. BC e. the center of the Scythian state was moved from the Lower Dnieper to the Crimea, the capital of Scythia became the city of Naples, founded, probably, by the Scythian king Skilur. At the same time, the picture of life in the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region changed dramatically. The large Kamensk settlement ceased to exist; instead, a number of small towns arose on the Lower Dnieper, Ingulets and Southern Bug, existing along with open-type settlements. The Sarmatians, who crossed over in the 4th century. BC e. to the right bank of the Don, in the 2nd century. BC e. occupied the former nomadic camps of the royal Scythians along Meotida from the Don to the Dnieper.
Thus, the territory of the late Scythian kingdom was limited to the steppe Crimea and the Lower Dnieper region up to Olbia. Within such limits the Scythian state existed until the 2nd century. n. e.
On the outskirts of Simferopol in Crimea, archaeologists discovered the remains of the Scythian capital - Naples. The city was located on a hill and fortified with powerful walls made of large stones. Among the various residential buildings that belonged to the inhabitants of the city, rose the rich public buildings and houses of the nobility, often built according to Hellenistic models. Near the city gate, on the outer side of the walls, during excavations, an extensive crypt-mausoleum, apparently of a Scythian king, was discovered; 72 people were buried in the crypt, and the skeletons of four horses were also found there. The main burial, which belonged to the king (maybe Skilur), turned out to be in a stone tomb. One of the rich female burials was made in a luxurious wooden sarcophagus. The abundance of gold, precious stones, various weapons and the presence of horse burials discovered in the mausoleum make us recall the rich Scythian burial mounds of previous times. Among the finds made during the excavations of Naples, noteworthy is a fragment of a marble relief, on which an image of two faces has been preserved - an elderly and a young one, presented in Scythian attire. The image of an elderly man is close to the images of Skilur on Olbian coins.
Of the numerous sons of Skilur, who according to some evidence were 80, and according to others 50, Strabo names Palak, who stood at the head of the Scythians at the very end of the 2nd century. BC e. It is believed that Palak is depicted on the above-mentioned marble bas-relief next to Skilur.
In addition to Naples, in the western and central parts of Crimea, mainly on the banks of the Salgir and Alma rivers, a number of settlements similar to those that existed on the Lower Dnieper, Ingulets and Southern Bug were discovered. They are small in size and fortified in the form of stone walls. These fortifications date from the same period as Naples.
The nature of social relations and the organization of the Scythian kingdom in the Hellenistic period are not exactly known. Based on fragmentary evidence from written sources and archaeological material, it can be assumed that developed state forms. The old division of society into clans and tribes has not yet been replaced by a new territorial division. However, there is no doubt that public power had already separated and represented in the person of the king, surrounded by a squad, an organization that dominated society in the interests of the slave-owning tribal nobility. The source of the main income of the Scythian aristocracy was the export of grain through the Greek cities of the Northern Black Sea region. The main productive force was probably slave labor. The exploitation of impoverished community members also played a significant role in aristocratic households. The dominant form of slavery in Scythia was slavery of conquest, which existed along with the enslavement of farmers or cattle breeders in a type close to the position of helots or penests.
The foreign policy of the Scythian kingdom of the Hellenistic period was marked by a fierce struggle with the Greek colonies.
The first military performances of the Scythian state were directed against Olbia - a city with which the Scythian tribes had long been in close economic relations. Judging by the decree in honor of Protogen, Olbia in the 3rd century. BC e. I was going through a very worrying time. In the northwestern Black Sea region, among the Thracian tribes, the Getae kingdom arose at that time, independently of the Scythians, extending to the Dniester. At the same time, a threat loomed over Olbia from the Celtic tribe of Galatians, who lived in the northern Carpathian region. But the greatest danger threatened Olbia from the Scythians-Sai, whose name, apparently, meant “royal”. The particle “sai” was part of the names of a number of Scythian kings, such as Saytafarnes, Koloksai, Lipoksai and Arpoksai (the last three are the names of the legendary ancestors of the Scythians, mentioned by Herodotus).
Saitafarna is mentioned in the decree in honor of Protogen. Olbia regularly presented him and the Scythian kings under his control with “gifts,” that is, paid tribute to save the city from attacks. Due to the fact that Olbia's trade with neighboring tribes was now in a depressed state due to frequent military clashes in the surrounding steppes, it was not easy to obtain the funds necessary to pay the Scythians, the city had to turn to its rich merchants for loans. The aforementioned decree praises the wealthy Olbian citizen Protogenes for the fact that in this difficult time he repeatedly came to the aid of the city: he gave money, sold bread to his fellow citizens at a reduced price, and at a critical moment redeemed the city’s precious sacred vessels pawned from usurers.
The change in relations between the Scythians and Olbia, which had hitherto been mostly peaceful and friendly, was caused primarily by the fact that the Scythian nobility began to show increased interest in organizing the most profitable sale of the products of their growing economy and could no longer tolerate the independence of the Black Sea cities. The Scythian nobility sought to have full control over the Greek cities and receive all the profits from trade. She could not indifferently tolerate the fact that the Greeks captured the best sea harbors along with the vast land adjacent to them.
Among the coins of the Scythian kings found on the territory of the Black Sea region, there is a group of coins associated with Olbia and indicating the latter’s subordination to the Scythian kings. In addition to Saitafarna, mentioned in the decree of Protogen, dating back to the end of the 3rd century. BC e., known by name, who still owned Olbia in the 2nd century. BC e. Scythian king Skilur, discussed above.
Among the inscriptions found in the ruins of Naples, there are three dedicatory inscriptions of the Olbiopolitan Posideius, the fourth inscription with his name was found in Olbia itself. Posidei was in the service of the Scythian king, serving as commander of a squadron that distinguished itself in the fight against the Satarchean sea pirates.
Obviously, the Scythian rulers cared about the safety of sea communications leading to Olbia, which was important for maintaining its trade relations with foreign markets. Thus, there were close relationships between Naples and Olbia, and the Olbiopolitans, as can be seen in the example of Posidei, played an important role in the Scythian kingdom.
Having established a protectorate over Olbia, the Scythian kings directed their forces against other Black Sea cities located near their capital Chersonese and the cities of the Bosporan kingdom. From a remarkable epigraphic monument of the early 3rd century. BC BC - the civil oath of the Chersonesos - it is clear that at that time Chersonesos possessed large lands stretching along the western coast of the Tauride Peninsula. There were two fortified ports on the seashore: Beautiful Harbor (Kalos Leimen) and Kerkipitida. The latter was located in the vicinity of present-day Yevpatoria, and the Beautiful Harbor was probably in Akmechetskaya Bay, on the site of the modern village of Chernomorskoye. The oath of the Chersonesos shows that at that time there was a danger of Chersonesos losing these possessions.
During the 2nd century. BC e. The Scythians repeatedly attacked Chersonesos. In the last decades of the 2nd century. BC e. Chersonesos, as mentioned above, not hoping on our own to repel the increased pressure of the Scythians, they turned to Mithridates Eupator for help.
As a result of pressure from the Scythians, the Bosporan kingdom also found itself in a difficult situation. The Boszor government first tried to pay off the Scythians with “gifts”. But the demands of the Scythians kept increasing, while the Bosporan treasury was steadily growing poorer. In the end, Bosporus followed the same path as Chersonese, that is, it began to seek help from Mithridates VI Eupator. Ruled the Bosporus at the end of the 2nd century. BC e. King Perisad, not having the strength to cope with the Scythians, transferred his power to Mithridates Eupator, hoping that the internal socio-economic system of the slave-owning Bosporus with all the established orders in it and the dominance of its nobility over the mass of the enslaved population would remain unchanged. Perisad renounced the prerogatives of his royal power in favor of the Pontic king. Circumstances, however, were such that Mithridates, before taking advantage of this agreement and leading the Bosporan kingdom, was forced to suppress the great uprising of Savmak, which broke out in the Bosporus and has already been described above.
Having first taken Chersonesus under his protection, Mithridates sent an army under the command of the commander Diophantus to help the city. The decree issued by the Chersopesians in honor of Diophantus tells in detail how, having arrived by sea in Chersonesus, Diophantus defeated the Scythians and began to subjugate the Tauri, who lived in the vicinity of the city, and were, apparently, in alliance with the Scythians. Then Diophantus moved to the western coast of Crimea, took away all the old possessions of Chersonese from the Scythians and after that invaded the center of Scythia, occupying the Scythian city of Naples and the royal headquarters of Khabaea.
“It turned out that almost all the Scythians found themselves under the rule of Mithridates Eupator,” says the Chersonesos decree in honor of Diophantus. Having successfully ended the war, which lasted almost two years, Diophantus returned with his troops to the Pontic kingdom.
But that was not the end of the matter. After some time, the Scythians again went on the offensive, again captured the western possessions of Chersonesos and increased pressure on the Bosporus. Diophantus reappeared with an army in Chersonese, despite the late autumn, and moved against the Scythian king Palak, who now attracted the Sarmatian tribe Roxolans to his side. The Pontic troops, acting together with the Chersonese militia, defeated the Scythians in such a way that, according to the Chersonese decree in honor of Diophantus, “almost no one escaped from the Scythian infantry, and only a few of the horsemen managed to escape.” With the onset of spring, Diophantus again penetrated deep into Scythia and again captured Naples and Chabaea.
Strabo explained the reason for Diophantus’ success by the military-technical advantages of his army over the Scythians: “Against a closed and well-armed phalanx, every barbarian tribe and lightly armed army turns out to be powerless.”
Thus ended the Scythians’ attempt to take possession of the Black Sea cities. The latter avoided submission to the Scythians at a high cost - they lost their independence, henceforth becoming subject to the Pontic king and becoming part of his vast power. The Scythian kingdom, after the heavy defeat inflicted on it by Diophantus, although it continued to exist, having Naples as its capital, did not show political and military activity for a long time. Only later, by the middle of the 1st century. n. e., the Scythian state again achieved significant strength, again subjugated Olbia, where they again began to mint coins with the names of the Scythian kings, and became a dangerous rival of the Bosporan kingdom and Roman power in the Northern Black Sea region. It is known that the Bosporus and Chersonese in the first centuries of our era repeatedly had to repel the pressure of the Scythians. This struggle sometimes became so intense that the Roman Empire intervened in it, trying to prevent the Scythians from taking control of Greek cities.
Excavations in recent years carried out in Naples have established that in the I-II centuries. n. e. the city was experiencing a period of growth. In Naples, city walls were restored, monumental buildings were erected, and rich funerary crypts decorated with paintings were built. Nothing is known about the internal life of the Scythian state.
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
Sevastopol State Technical University.
Department of Philosophical and Social Sciences.
Abstract on the topic:
"Crimean Scythia"
Completed:
student group P-12d
Kvasov Evgeniy Alexandrovich.
Checked:
Kukhnikova Tatyana Konstantinovna.
Sevastopol – 2001
Introduction.
1. The appearance of the Scythians in Crimea. Formation of the Scythian state.
2. Social structure, government structure and political history of the Scythian kingdom.
3. Weapons, dishes, culture and art of the Scythians.
4. Burials.
5. Scythian settlements in Crimea.
6. The death of the Scythian state in Crimea.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Collectively they are called split after the name of the king; The Greeks called them Scythians...
Introduction.
Crimea is not only a land of unique routes and magnificent beaches, a favorable climate and numerous resorts and tourist centers. A small piece of land, like an old treasure chest, stores a wide variety of historical monuments. Each passing century added new pearls to the treasury of the peninsula. Not all, of course, but many of them have survived to this day.
Among the numerous tribes and peoples who lived in Crimea hundreds and thousands of years ago, a special place is occupied by the Scythians, who in the 7th century. BC e. – III century n. e. played a major role in the historical destinies of the European part of our country, as well as Western, Central and Central Asia, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The memory of the Scythians, an invincible warlike people of horse archers, was preserved for many centuries after their disappearance in legends, historical chronicles and toponyms.
Today we are quite clearly aware of the inextricable connection and interconnection of nature and society. In ancient times natural conditions and climate decisively influenced the way of life, economic system, material and partly spiritual culture of the human collective. The Scythians were no exception in this regard.
The territory where native speakers once lived Scythian culture, is very extensive. There is no doubt that it included the steppes of the Black Sea region, Ciscaucasia, and possibly other areas. Crimea formed a small but very important part of this vast territory. The Scythians lived here for about a thousand years. The peninsula, which in the first centuries of our era was called Lesser Scythia, remained the last relatively large “island” of Scythian culture even in the later period of its existence. The study of Scythian monuments in Crimea provides a unique opportunity to obtain an almost complete chronological “slice” of Scythian culture, to present it quite fully and comprehensively.
The culture of the Scythians of Crimea has been studied by archaeologists and historians for many decades. The main goal of my essay is to get acquainted with the main results of this work.
1. The appearance of the Scythians in Crimea. Formation of the Scythian state.
/>The Scythians were first mentioned in sources as participants in the anti-Assyrian coalition of the 70s. 7th century BC However, this event was preceded by the appearance of the Scythians in Western Asia and their expulsion of the Cimmerians from the Northern Black Sea region. According to historical tradition, the Scythians were forced out of Southern Siberia by their eastern neighbors, the Massagetae, and occupied vast spaces of the steppes between the Danube and Don. The territory of Scythian residence was called Scythia by ancient authors. According to one of the common hypotheses, the ancestors of the Scythians were tribes of the so-called log crop.
Having settled over a vast territory, the Scythians created a distinctive culture that had a significant influence on neighboring tribes, primarily on the population of the steppe and forest-steppe zones north of the Black Sea (mainly along the Middle Dnieper, Upper Don and Kuban region). In the area of Scythian culture, dating back to the 7th-3rd centuries. BC, there are many local variants associated with both Scythian and non-Scythian peoples. Ancient authors used the ethnonym “Scythians” in relation to the entire ethnocultural community, which consisted of tribes that differed from each other in terms of language and economic structure. However, the ethnonym “Scythians” should be understood primarily as Scythian nomads.
Following the Cimmerians, the Scythians made a series of campaigns from the Northern Black Sea region to Transcaucasia and the Middle East. Their main road became the Caspian route through the Derbent pass; sometimes other pass paths were also used. Naturally, not the entire population of the steppe zone of the Northern Black Sea region and Ciscaucasia went with the Scythian hordes to Western Asia. Part of it remained and it is possible that those who left maintained some contact with those who remained.
During their stay in Asia Minor and Asia Minor, the Scythians fought with Assyria, Media, and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Repeatedly changing allies, the Scythians terrified the local population for several decades - according to Herodotus, “they devastated everything with their riotousness and excesses. They collected from each nation the tribute they imposed, but in addition to the tribute they carried out raids and plundered what each nation had.” The military-political activity of the Scythians in Asia lasted until the beginning of the 6th century. BC, when, defeated by the Media, they returned to their lands.
Since the return of the Scythians from Western Asia, the proper Scythian period began in the history of the southern Russian steppes, about which more or less reliable information has been preserved in ancient sources. Returning from their campaigns, the Scythians formed the dominant group of nomads, the so-called “royal Scythians,” who considered the rest of the Scythians their slaves. It was they who formed the core of the emerging state, the center of which was located in the lower reaches of the Dnieper.
At the end of the 4th century. BC. The Scythian state suffered a number of defeats in the wars on the Balkan Peninsula. The power of the Scythians was undermined. The active displacement of the Scythians from the Northern Black Sea region began in the 3rd century. BC, when a new powerful tribal union of the Sarmatians was formed in the historical arena.
Having lost vast steppe spaces in the Northern Black Sea region under the pressure of the Sarmatians, concentrating on the Lower Dnieper and the Crimea, the Scythians gradually turned into sedentary farmers and cattle breeders living in permanent long-term settlements. Fundamental changes in the economy led to significant innovations in the way of life, in material culture, in social relations and religious beliefs, and largely influenced the political history of the Scythians. All this gives reason to highlight its last, late stage (III century BC - III century AD), which is fundamentally different from the previous ones. In Crimea, the Scythians settled in river valleys that originated on the northern slopes of the main Crimean ridge mountains and flowed in the north into the Black Sea or Sivash. The main ridge served as the natural southern border of the spread of Late Scythian settlements. In the east, opportunities for settlement were limited to the Ak-Monai Isthmus, along which the border of the Bosporan kingdom probably ran. The western coast of Crimea was colonized by Chersonesos by the time the Late Scythian settlements arose. From the north, Crimea is naturally limited by the Perekop Isthmus. But, as some events in the political history of the Scythians show, there was no clear boundary between them and other tribes in the steppe.
In 339 BC. King Atey died in the war with the Macedonian king Philip II. In 331 BC. Zopyrion, the governor of Alexander the Great in Thrace, invaded the western possessions of the Scythians, besieged Olbia, but the Scythians destroyed his army. By the end of the 3rd century. BC. The Scythian power was significantly reduced by the onslaught of the Sarmatians who came from beyond the Don. The capital of the Scythians was moved to Crimea, where the city of Scythian Naples arose on the Salgir River (near Simferopol), probably founded by King Skilur. In addition to the Crimea, the Scythians continued to hold the lands of the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug.
As a result of the above events, by the end of the 3rd century. BC e. the Late Scythian state was formed.
2. Social system, government structure and political history of the Scythian kingdom.
Social system and government structure.
In Scythia, the royal Scythians occupied a dominant position. They formed the main force during military campaigns. On early stages In their history, the royal Scythians obviously represented a union of tribes, each of which had its own territory and was under the authority of its king. This division of tribes is reflected in the story of three formations of the Scythian army during the war with Darius I. Moreover, the leader of the largest and most powerful military formation of the Scythians, Idanfirs, was considered the eldest.
The royal Scythians considered themselves “the best and most numerous.” The remaining tribes depended on this dominant group. This dependence was expressed in the payment of tribute.
The form of dependence of the subject peoples on the royal Scythians was different. The degree of ethnic affinity, when peoples close in ethnicity and culture were in a more privileged position than ethnically alien ones, could have a direct impact on the nature of the relationship.
From the moment it appeared on the historical stage, Scythian society acted as a complex entity. The tribal structure played an important role, but gradually its foundations were similar and modified by the growth of private property, property inequality, the emergence of a wealthy aristocratic elite, the strong power of the king and his surrounding squad.
The basis of Scythian society was a small individual family, whose property was livestock and household property. But the families were different. Rich families had more herds, while at the same time there were families so impoverished that they could not ensure independent nomadic farming due to the small number of livestock.
The Scythians were led by kings and clan elders, who also headed military units. The power of the kings was hereditary and quite strong. There was a belief about the divine origin of the royal family. The kings also performed judicial functions. Disobedience to the king's order was punishable by death. The king's closest circle was his personal squad, consisting of the best warriors.
/>To a certain extent, the power of the king was limited by the institutions of the clan system. The highest legislative body was the national assembly - the “Council of the Scythians”, which had the right to remove kings and appoint new ones from among the members of the royal family.
The Scythian nobility and kings understood that the property of the Scythians largely depended on the preservation of the democratic traditions of the military clan organization, and they sought to preserve them.
The bulk of the Scythian population were free warriors. In peacetime, they herded livestock, cultivated the land, and were engaged in craft production or trade. They had personal livestock, various property and even slaves. IN war time all men became warriors. They went on a campaign with their weapons and equipment. Separate detachments were formed from free soldiers under the command of the nobility. Any free warrior could become a military leader if he showed personal bravery and courage. Then he received lands and had his own detachment, whose warriors settled on his lands. Free warriors had many political rights. In especially critical periods for the state, they assembled a “council of the Scythians.”
/>A separate category of the population consisted of priests - Enareans. It was believed that the goddess Aphrodite punished them with the gift of providence. They were servants of various gods, performed religious rituals and sacrifices. In addition, they were engaged in healing, fortune telling, were advisers to leaders, and people turned to them for help in the most difficult situations.
/>It is very inconvenient to use slave labor in a nomadic economy. Therefore, the Scythians had few slaves. All captured slaves were usually sold to other countries. Only a few of them were maimed so that they could not escape, and they were used in household chores. Among the Scythians - farmers and artisans - slavery was much more widespread. But they also contained only a few of the most skilled slaves. After a certain period, the slave could be released, or made a member of the family and left to live as a free person. Scythians who committed serious crimes, showed cowardice and betrayal, or simply angered the king, could also become slaves. Such slaves were not left in Scythia, but were usually immediately sold. Scythian slaves were willingly bought by the Greeks, who replenished their armies with them, since all Scythians were considered excellent archers.
/>It is impossible not to mention friendship. The oath of friendship among the Scythians was sealed with blood. To do this, wine was poured into the cup. Warriors swearing friendship to each other cut the skin on their hand and poured a few drops into this cup. Then they took turns drinking from it. The most respected tribesmen were usually invited to such a ceremony. They witnessed and also drank from the bowl. An oath sealed with blood was considered sacred. Thus, friends became blood relatives. This obliged them to help each other, not abandon each other in trouble, and fight each other in battle. Since the Scythians spent almost all their time in war, the oath of friendship played a very important role in society. Blood friends, fighting side by side in battle, could not betray or flee from the battlefield. Blood friendship was one of the important factors in the invincibility of the Scythians.
Political history of the Scythian kingdom.
At the time when the Scythians settled in the foothills of Crimea, the western coast of the peninsula belonged to Chersonesus. Already in the 3rd century. BC. The Scythians launched an active attack on the settlements of the Chersonese chora, and thereby began a series of Scythian-Chersonese wars that lasted until the end of the 2nd century. BC. The Scythian claims were limited only to Chersonesos. In the II century. BC. Olvia submitted to him for a short time. Almost nothing is known about the circumstances of the subordination of this policy and the forms of its dependence. But to say that Olbia in the 2nd century. BC. was part of the Late Scythian state can be quite confident. The best evidence of this fact is the finds of coins that were minted in Olbia on behalf of the Scythian king Skilur. Thus, it can be argued that in the III-II centuries. BC. The Scythians played an extremely active role in the economic and political life of the Northern Black Sea region. At the same time, when resolving controversial issues with their neighbors, they often acted from a position of strength and usually successfully.
The situation changed radically at the end of the 2nd century. BC. By this time, the Scythians had probably approached the very walls of Chersonesos more than once. In any case, they destroyed and set on fire many fortified estates that belonged to the citizens of this polis and located in its immediate surroundings - on the Heraclean Peninsula. The Chersonesites, feeling powerless before the barbarian invasion, turned to the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator, for help. He sent warriors led by his best commander Diophantus to help Chersonesos. Then events developed rapidly. Skilur's son Palak unexpectedly attacked the Pontic army, but was put to flight. After this, Diophantus went to the Bosporus. After returning from there, he strengthened his detachment at the expense of the Chersonesos and made a campaign into the depths of Scythia, conquering the royal fortresses of Habaea and Naples. Obviously, having decided that the job was done, Diophantus returned to Pontus. However, the Scythians quickly captured the lost lands, which forced the famous commander to return to Crimea. He tried once again to subjugate the royal fortresses, but at first he failed. Then Diophantus moved to the North-Western Crimea, took possession of Kerkinitida, some other fortifications and began the siege of Kalos Limen. At this time, Palak, having gathered a large army, reinforced by the Sarmatian tribe of the Roxolani, allied with the Scythians, once again tried to win the scales to his side. The battle ended with the defeat of the Scythians. Diophantus again moved towards Habaea and Naples, but it remained unknown whether he captured them this time. It seemed that Crimean Scythia had been dealt a mortal blow. Diophantus went to the Bosporus and there participated in an act of great political significance: the Bosporan king Perisad abdicated the throne in favor of the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator. Probably, it was this event that led to the uprising of the Scythians living in the Bosporus. They killed Perisad and would have done the same with Diophantus if he had not fled on the ship sent for him by the Chersonesos. The unfavorable course of events did not break the tenacity of Mithridates VI Eupator. A year later, he again sent Diophantus to the Crimea, who defeated the rebels, captured their leader Savmak and thus returned the Bosporus to the power of Mithridates VI Eupator. Probably, the late Scythian kingdom, unlike the Bosporus, was not annexed to Pontus, but turned out to be dependent on it.
Unsuccessful wars with Rome led to the loss of Mithridates' hopes. In the end, even the troops that were previously loyal to him rebelled, and his own son Pharnaces led this uprising. The terrible king hid in the palace on the acropolis of Panticapaeum and ordered the chief of the guard to stab himself. This happened in 63 Don. e. The Pontic kingdom collapsed. The Scythians, naturally, were free to ally with him.
After the collapse of the Pontic Empire, the Scythians almost disappeared from the sight of ancient authors. They, apparently, temporarily abandoned their claims to Chersonesus, but retained almost the entire choir of this polis, except for the Heraclean peninsula. They continue to live on the sites of former Greek settlements, and very rich life, as evidenced by powerful cultural layers. The old settlements in the central and southwestern Crimea (Naples, Kermen-Kyr, Bulganak, Ust-Alma, etc.) continue to function, without any interruption. New settlements are emerging, and one of them is Alma-Kermen in the valley of the Alma River near the village. Treasured - obviously, immediately after the Diophantine Wars. Vast necropolises containing hundreds of burials are associated with many settlements. All this suggests that the defeat by the troops of Diophantus did not weaken the Scythians too much. It is known, for example, that almost immediately after their death, the Mithridatascythians took part in the internecine war for the Bosporan throne. Probably, the restless western neighbors forced the Bosporan kings to build at the border with them in the middle of the 1st century. BC. the powerful fortress of Ilurat (on the Kerch Peninsula, near the modern village of Ivanovka), apparently in time, because at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd century AD, the kings of the Bosporus - first Sauromatus I, and then Cotis II - were celebrated in special inscriptions for their victory over the Scythians. In the 1st century AD The Scythians were so strong that they could conduct military operations on two fronts: both against the Bosporus and against Chersonese. They firmly held in their hands the former choir of Chersonesos - Northwestern Crimea. It is not for nothing that the author of the ancient description of the Black Sea coast, Arrian, calls Kerkinitida and Kalos Limen Scythian. His information is clearly confirmed by archaeological data: in settlements located in the north-west, powerful cultural layers dating back to the 1st century BC have accumulated. BC. - Iv. AD We do not have such detailed sources about this time as about the era of Mithridates, but we can guess that this time Chersonesos turned out to be powerless before the Scythians. Its citizens were forced to turn for help to the ruler of the Roman province of Moesia, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus. It was he who, around 63 AD, as his tombstone says, “... drove the Scythian king away from Chersonese...” and left a garrison in the city, freeing the citizens from the claims of their neighbors.
By the time of the clash between the Scythians and the Romans, their society had undergone serious changes, compared, for example, with the era of Skilur's reign.
3. Weapons, dishes, culture and art of the Scythians.
/>The warlike life is reflected in the animal style, i.e. in images of certain stylized strong and fast animals. A similar animal style is contained in the story about the palace of King Skil and Olbia. This palace was decorated with images of sphinxes and griffins. Those and other fantastic beasts are known in different images of the animal style, the former, for example, on plaques, the latter - on a variety of ubiquitous objects from decorations on horse harnesses to worn gold plaques on clothes.
Weapons are the most important part of the lifetime use and funeral equipment of the Scythian aristocrat and free community member - war. But it is enough to recall the images of simple warriors and leaders in examples of Greek toreutics, such as the Kulob or Voronezh vase, and immediately we will see pointed leather hoods, which, of course, played the role of leather helmets, and quilted, obviously leather sleeveless vests, which also played the role of shells. This is not surprising: almost all historical peoples went through the use of leather helmets and armor before mastering metal ones. Skif was a mounted rifleman. The bow and arrow are his main weapons.
The bow was made of wood and sinew. Legends surrounded Scythian archery. Some myths claimed that some Tosciff taught Hercules to shoot, former hero- archer. In one of the legends about the origin of the Scythians, on the contrary, Hercules brought his bow to Scythia and bequeathed it to one of the three sons born to him from a half-woman - half-snake, daughter of the river Borysthenes. The bow went to the youngest of them, Scythus. The most ancient Scythian arrows are flat, often with a spike on the sleeve. The arrows are made of bronze. They were produced in huge quantities, which was probably facilitated by the ease of their casting.
/>There are quite a lot of similarities in the costumes of both women and men. The men's suit consisted of a leather sleeveless vest - a shell, from which came the sleeves of a soft shirt, trousers dropped to the ankle, where they ended over soft leather ankle boots without heels, covered with a belt at the same ankle. A woman's suit is a long pleated dress. The head is often covered with a soft blanket that falls to the lower back.
/>A lot of wooden utensils were made. Scythian ceramics are made without the help of a potter's wheel. Scythian vessels are flat-bottomed and varied in shape. Scythian bronze cauldrons up to a meter high, which had a long and thin leg and two vertical handles, became widespread.
Scythian art is well known mainly from objects from burials. It is characterized by images of animals in certain poses and with exaggeratedly visible paws, eyes, claws, horns, ears, etc. Ungulates were depicted with bent legs, predators - curled up in a ring. Scythian art depicts strong or fast and sensitive animals. It is noted that some images are associated with certain Scythian deities. The figures of these animals seemed to be guarding their owner. The claws, tails, and shoulder blades of predators were often shaped like heads bird of prey; sometimes full images of animals were placed in these places. This artistic style is called animal style.
The Scythian culture was more widespread than the area where the Scythians settled. The influence of Scythian life on neighboring tribes was enormous. In addition to the animal style, forms of Scythian weapons, some tools and a number of decorations penetrated to the neighbors. But there are also significant differences that are reflected in the form of dwellings and settlements, in the form of burial structures, in funeral rites, and in ceramics.
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4. Burials.
/>The most famous are the Scythian burials. The Scythians buried their dead in pits or catacombs, under burial mounds. The burial rite of the Scythian kings is described by Herodotus. When the king died, his body was transported along the Scythian roads for a relatively long time, the Scythians had to express their sadness in every possible way over the death of the ruler. Then the body king was brought to Guerra, they placed him in a grave pit along with his murdered wife, murdered servants, horses, and a huge mound was poured over him.
In general, the Scythian imagined the afterlife as a kind of repetition of the real one. He was provided for so much that he remained the same as he was here, a king, a warrior, a servant. The social order on the other side of death seemed to the Scythian to be unchanged, earthly. The laws of religion were strictly observed. Apostasy was punishable by death.
In the royal burial mounds of the Scythians, gold vessels, artistic items made of gold, and expensive weapons are found. Most of these mounds were robbed in ancient times.
The oldest Scythian mounds date back to the 6th century. BC. The archaic mounds include Melgunovsky near Kirovograd. An iron sword was found in a golden scabbard, on which winged elves shooting from bows and winged bulls with human faces were depicted.
From VI-V centuries. BC items from Scythian burial mounds reflect connections with the Greeks. There is no doubt that some, and the most artistic, things were made by the Greeks.
The Chertomlyk mound is located near Nikopol. The height of its earthen embankment with a stone base is 20 m. It hid a deep shahtus with four chambers in the corners. Through one of these chambers there was a passage to the burial of the king, which had been robbed by the Scythians, but the golden lining of a bow case lying in a cache, which depicted scenes from the life of Achilles, eluded the robbers. The burial of the king’s concubine was not robbed. Her skeleton with gold jewelry lay on the remains of a wooden hearse. Nearby they found a large silver basin, next to which stood a silver vase, about 1 m high. It was a vessel for wine and was equipped with taps at the bottom in the form of lion icon heads. The vase depicts plants and birds, and above are Scythians decorating horses. The images are made in the traditions of Greek art.
The Tolstaya Mogila mound (located 10 km from the Chertomlyk mound) contained a rich burial with many gold items, despite the fact that it was also robbed in ancient times. The sword in a golden scabbard and the pectoral, a neck-chest decoration, deserve the most attention.
The most remarkable of all works of jewelry art is the pectoral. It is massive, its weight is more than 1 kg, its diameter is more than 30 cm. There are three zones of images on it, separated by gold strands. In the upper (inner) belt there are scenes of Scythian life, in the center there are two naked men sewing fur clothes, stretched out by the sleeves. To the right and left of them is a horse with a foal, and at the ends of the composition are birds flying in different directions.
The middle tier is represented by floral ornaments made on a solid plate.
The lower tier is filled with the struggle of animals. Each figure is made separately, and then they are attached to their places, as they move away from the center of the composition they become smaller (see appendix)
In terms of artistry and number of images, the pectoral has no equal.
In the Scythian mounds there is a strong property stratification. There are small and huge mounds, some burials without things, others with huge amounts of gold.
Property equality here is so strong that the conclusion about the rapid process of class formation suggests itself.
Thus, the listed phenomena of the history of Scythia contributed to the wide dissemination of general forms of material culture and accelerated the development of a society that still retained many primitive features. The Scythians created their own art. Much of it has entered the world Russian culture.
5. Scythian settlements in Crimea.
The Scythians, in all likelihood, founded the very first settlement on the Crimean land on the outskirts of modern Simferopol. Later, a city arose on this site, the future capital of the Late Scythian state. The location of the city simplified the task of its defense as much as possible. From the east it was limited by the cliffs of Petrovsky rocks, from the north and west - by the steep slopes of Petrovskaya Balka. There was no natural protection from the south. It is clear that it was here that a powerful defensive wall was erected, which cut off the territory of the settlement from the plateau. It was a powerful defensive structure - probably between the cliff and the slope of the beam. In the lower part, which was supposed to withstand the blows of battering machines, the wall was made of very large limestone slabs, and the upper part, which protected the defenders from arrows and stones fired from slings, was made of adobe (not baked, but only dried in the sun) bricks. Defensive wall was rebuilt several times, becoming thicker and thicker. By the end of the 2nd century. BC, when the Scythians were in great danger from external enemies, its thickness became very impressive. The wall was fortified with several towers. Excavations have uncovered the entrance to the city and the remains of a wooden gate. Around the corner was a small area that had never been built up, covered with a layer of limestone chips. On the side opposite the gate, the square was limited by a building built in a purely Greek style. It was given a special flavor by the porticoes - galleries closed on three sides by walls, the ceiling of which was supported by rows of columns located along the facade. Near this building or in it there were sculptures and slabs with inscriptions, the fragments of which were found during excavations. In the area of the square there were several more rich houses. Their walls were made of stone, plastered on the inside and, in some cases, decorated with fresco paintings, and the roofs were covered with tiles. The floors were most often made of adobe, but sometimes also wooden, since basements carved into the rock were discovered under some houses. This is the appearance of the capital of the Late Scythian state in the 2nd century. BC, in that still very small part of it that has been discovered by excavations.
Approximately simultaneously with the settlement, the ruins of which have been preserved on the outskirts of modern Simferopol, and somewhat later - at the turn of the 3rd - 2nd centuries BC. - two other powerful Late Scythian fortresses arose. One of them was located 6 km north of Simferopol, on the outskirts of the village of Mirny, on a hill overlooking the Salgir valley. The ruins of this fortress were named Kermen-Kyr. The remains of another fortification, the so-called. The Bulganak settlement is located 15 km west of Simferopol near the village of Pozharskoye, on a hill bordering the southern valley of the Western Bulganak River. The question arises about the ancient names of the described fortresses. In Strabo's "Geography" and in the inscriptions, four Late Scythian fortresses are mentioned: Naples, Habaei, Palakium and Napitus. Archaeologically, the four largest Late Scythian settlements have been studied in more or less detail - Kermenchik, Kermen-Kyr, Bulganak, and Ust-Alminskoye, which, apparently, is what Strabo had in mind and in the inscriptions. But it is not possible to identify any of the settlements with one of the names with complete conviction. Various hypotheses have been expressed, but none of the authors has been able to find decisive arguments. True, most scientists believe that the capital of the Scythians, located on the site of present-day Simferopol, was called Naples.
At the time when the Scythians settled in the foothills of Crimea, the western coast of the peninsula belonged to Chersonesus. Already in the 3rd century. BC. The Scythians launched an active attack on the settlements of the Chersonese chora, and thereby began a series of Scythian-Chersonese wars that lasted until the end of the 2nd century. BC. The Scythian claims were limited only to Chersonesos. In the II century. BC. Olvia submitted to him for a short time. Almost nothing is known about the circumstances of the subordination of this policy and the forms of its dependence. But to say that Olbia in the 2nd century. BC. was part of the Late Scythian state can be quite confident. The best evidence of this fact is the finds of coins that were minted in Olbia on behalf of the Scythian king Skilur. Thus, it can be argued that in the III-II centuries. BC. The Scythians played an extremely active role in the economic and political life of the Northern Black Sea region. At the same time, when resolving controversial issues with their neighbors, they often acted from a position of strength and usually successfully.
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6. The death of the Scythian state in Crimea.
By the time of the clash between the Scythians and the Romans, their society had undergone serious changes, compared, for example, with the era of Skilur's reign. And if there are almost no sources about the sphere of social relations and, strictly speaking, one cannot be sure even of the very existence of the Late Scythian state, then our knowledge about ethnic transformations is more extensive.
Studies of funeral rites, features of material culture, and anthropological characteristics show that the main inhabitants of the Late Scythian settlements in the first centuries of our era were the descendants of the Scythians who roamed the northern Black Sea steppes in the 7th-4th centuries. BC e. However, this array has absorbed significant components of other ethnic groups. The Sarmatians played a significant role in this. From written sources it is known about their political connections with the late Scythians, but contacts were not limited to this. Sarmatians became residents of Late Scythian settlements. Attempts have been made to trace the waves of Sarmatian migrations to the territory of the Late Scythian state. Burials in logs, sprinkling graves with chalk or coal, the design of some burial structures, especially undercut graves, the position of the dead with their legs crossed at the shins or with their arms folded on their stomachs, a partial change in the orientation of the buried from latitudinal to meridional and other signs allow us to trace archaeologically the presence of the Sarmatians. It is impossible not to notice that by the first centuries of our era, traditional Scythian weapons were completely replaced by Sarmatian ones, new elements of costume appeared, for example, the edges of dresses began to be trimmed with beads, as was the case among the Sarmatians. But changes in weapons and clothing, perhaps, should not be associated with the direct penetration of the Sarmatians into the Late Scythian environment: such was the fashion that spread across vast regions located north of the Black Sea. Religious ideas are another matter. They were recorded in the above-mentioned features of the funeral rite and could probably appear only together with their bearers. The Sarmatians settled among the later Scythians scatteredly, but in some places, obviously, they formed fairly compact groups. One of these groups (perhaps a tribe that settled on the land) belonged to the Skalistoe II burial ground, which was distinguished by the uniformity of burial structures, grave goods, and graves. The things found in them do not contradict the assumption that they were left by the Sarmatians.
It is perhaps more difficult to identify traces of the presence of the late Scythians of the Tauri. Archaeologically, they are detected in some structures of burial structures (most clearly in the already mentioned Tavel mounds), in certain forms of molded vessels and very rarely in bronze jewelry. However, in this case, written sources come to the rescue. In them, a new term appears to designate the population of Crimea - “Tavro-Scythians” or “Scyphotaurs”. This name was widely distributed in the first centuries of our era. It is used, for example, in the inscriptions of the Bosporan kings, who must have known their closest neighbors well. Most likely, we are dealing with the process of merging two previously independent ethnic groups - the Taurians and the Scythians. Judging by the fact that at this time the original habitat of the Tauri - the Crimean Mountains - was deserted, while the Late Scythian settlements in the foothills continued to live an active life, migration went in one direction: the Tauri descended from the mountains and joined the inhabitants of the Late Scythian settlements.
The Hellenes had a noticeable influence on Late Scythian culture. And not only materially (the Scythians used a huge amount of things bought from the Greeks, borrowed many architectural techniques, etc.), but also spiritually. Greek statues were installed in the capital of the state, painting developed under the noticeable influence of Greek, and specifically Bosporan examples, inscriptions were carved on Greek(and not only in Naples).
More similar examples could be given, but it still remains unclear to what extent these influences were determined by the influx of Greek settlers into the Late Scythian settlements, and to what extent by other reasons (inviting sculptors and painters for temporary work, studying the Greek language and writing by the Scythians themselves, etc. ). True, it is well known
that Greek merchants lived in Naples, first Posidei, later Eumenes, but these could have been isolated cases. The Scythians were influenced by some other peoples. During excavations, things are found whose origin can be associated with the Thracians and Celts. However, it is quite difficult to establish whether these objects were the work of the Thracians and Celts themselves or whether they were made by the Scythians to foreign models. However, the quantity, and most importantly, the range of items, is such that it suggests the presence of Thracians among the later Scythians. It is too early to make similar assumptions regarding the Celts.
Thus, the Romans had to face a rather complex population in Crimea. The first units of Roman troops appeared here in the 40s. I century AD, but they were thoroughly strengthened on the peninsula in connection with the already mentioned campaign of Tiberius Plautius Silvanus, provoked by the Scythians. Chersonesus became the most important base of Roman troops and fleet in Crimea. But Roman outposts were also located outside this city.
In particular, the Kharaks fortress was built on the southern coast. In an effort to establish control over the interior of the peninsula, one of the units of the XI Claudian Legion occupied the Scythian settlement of Alma-kermen. Its former inhabitants were evicted outside the defensive walls and settled in the immediate vicinity. On Alma-kermen, the Romans organized their lives very thoroughly. They erected permanent houses and even organized the production of glass products, rare for the Crimea and completely unknown to the late Scythians. Roman legions penetrated into other regions of Crimea. This is evidenced, for example, by a coin treasure buried on the embankment of Lake Saki. But other than Alma-kermen, places of long-term stay of the Romans in the territory occupied by the late Scythians are not known. The relationship between the Romans and the late Scythians sometimes took on the character of armed conflicts. This can be guessed by referring to the inscriptions on some tombstones found in Chersonesos. One of the epitaphs talks about a freedman who was killed by the Taurians. Other tombstones do not say so directly about the perpetrators of the death of the Roman soldiers, but it is likely that some of them died in skirmishes with local tribes. In the 40s I century n. e. The barbarians destroyed several ships with Roman legions, which, as Tacitus reports, “were carried to the shores of the Tauri.”
At a time when the Romans were still very firmly in Crimea, the late Scythian state experienced some kind of major catastrophe. This happened approximately at the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries. AD Almost the entire northwestern Crimea was deserted. Only the settlement of Tarpanchi survived, but it, having lost its defensive structures, thus turned into an unfortified settlement. Life comes to a standstill in the Bulgavak settlement in central Crimea. At the same time, no traces of one-time destruction or fires, which usually accompany military operations, were recorded. It seems that people left their habitable places in an organized and deliberate manner. But for this they had to have good reasons. I remember that at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd centuries. AD Some events are taking place in the Northern Black Sea region, accompanied by active military operations. The late Scythians who lived on the Lower Dnieper abandoned all but one of the settlements explored to date. Judging by the epigraphic documents, Olbia is going through difficult times in the fight against the barbarians. Many settlements on the Asian side of the Bosporus and Mikhailovskoye in its European part are burning and being destroyed.
If we assume that all the changes described above occurred as a result of one historical event, and not different, but practically simultaneous ones, then this could be some kind of major movement of the Sarmatian tribes. This assumption does not find reliable confirmation in the sources, but it is known that at this time the Sarmatians represented the only political force in the Northern Black Sea region capable of operating in vast territories from the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea in the east to the Dnieper region in the west.
In the II-III centuries. AD In the foothills of Crimea, a rather curious group of settlements appears, consisting of small fortified shelters, devoid of a cultural layer and located near large settlements. Probably, people did not live in shelters permanently, but gathered there from unfortified villages in case of military danger. Perhaps the emergence of such complexes in the foothills is explained by the influx of people leaving northwestern Crimea to these places.
It is surprising that, despite these events, under the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD), the Tauro-Scythians attacked Olbia. The danger for the Olbiopolitans was so serious that they were forced to ask the emperor for help. The Romans, together with the Olbian militia, defeated the barbarians, and a treaty beneficial for Olbia was concluded, to guarantee the fulfillment of which the Tauro-Scythians saw their hostages.
While being active in the west, in the east the Scythians experienced pressure from the Bosporus. 193 AD The inscription found in Tanaisen dates back to the inscription, in the surviving part of which we read: “... having conquered the Siracians and Scythians and annexed Taurica by treaty...”. Probably, under King Sauromat II, to whose reign this inscription dates, the Bosporus managed to inflict a serious defeat on the Scythians. In any case, such a formulation has never been seen before. Another Bosporan king, Reskuporid III (210/211-226/227 AD), was already named the king of “the whole Bosporus and the Tauro-Scythians.” Perhaps Rheskuporidas III undertook campaigns into the depths of Scythia. The fact is that during the entire period of excavations of Late Scythian monuments, only three coin treasures were found (in Naples and not far from it in Chokurcha and Beeli), which were buried during the reign of Reskuporidas III - at the end of the first quarter of the 3rd century. AD Let us also note that the name of Rheskuporidas III is mentioned in an inscription found much to the west of the traditional Bosporan borders, in the city of Old Crimea. True, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the inscription came to Stary Crimea by accident in recent times.
Excavations of settlements in central and southwestern Crimea show that very intensive life there continued even after the events described above. Late Scythian settlements and the burial grounds associated with them ceased to function almost simultaneously in the middle of the 3rd century. It is known from written sources that at this time a tribal union headed by the Germanic tribes of the Goths appeared in Crimea. The militancy of the Goths is described by many ancient historians. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that it was these tribes that destroyed the Late Scythian settlements.
Traces of the Gothic defeat have been traced archaeologically. For example, in the layers formed in connection with the destruction of Naples, several dozen bones and individual skulls were discovered, buried without observing the usual norms of funeral rites. In one of the pits, 42 injured skulls were found. Now it is difficult to decide whether these remains belong to the defenders of the city or its invaders. But, despite the difficulties associated with dating these burials, it can be assumed that they were committed immediately after the final death of Naples. A treasure of silver Roman coins of the Antoninians, found in the Kachi Valley, allows us to clarify the time of penetration of the Goths into the territory of the Late Scythians. The circumstances of the find are not entirely clear, but we can agree with the authors of the publication about it, who believe that the treasure belonged to one of the Izgothic warriors. The latest coin in the hoard dates back to 251 AD. The treasure was probably hidden a little later than this time. The Scythians could not survive the Gothic defeat, only in some places, apparently in the most remote corners, life continued to glimmer. Only at one site - Tas-Tepe in the Kachi Valley - were reliable materials from the 4th century discovered. The death of this, but it is possible that some other settlements, can be associated, of course, only hypothetically, with the invasion of the Huns, who appeared in Crimea in the 70s. IV century AD
Conclusion.
This is the ending of Scythian history. Some of the inhabitants of the Late Scythian settlements apparently became part of the Gothic tribes, another part ended up among the Huns, the third retreated to the mountains and became one of the components of the medieval Crimean people taking shape here. In any case, the Scythians lost their territory, their common material and spiritual culture and, thus, ceased to exist as a single people. Probably, some Late Scythian features enriched the culture of the tribes that assimilated them. This is partly traced archaeologically on the example of such burial grounds as Chernorechensky, Iikermansky, State Farm No. 10 near Sevastopol, Ozernoye III in the southwestern and Neyzats in the central Crimea, but quite soon the last reminiscences of Scythian culture are “eroded” under the powerful influence of the various ethnic groups inhabiting Crimea. Outside the Crimea, everything Scythian was lost even earlier. Therefore, none of the modern peoples can claim to be called a direct descendant of the Scythians.
True, the very name of the Scythians still appears for a long time in various sources. Insufficiently informed authors called the Goths, Huns, Khazars, and Slavs who appeared on the Black Sea shores. And the entire Northern Black Sea region was often still called Scythia. But this is nothing more than an echo of the former glory of the famous Scythians.
Each nation goes through its own segment of the path, which is called the history of mankind. The path of the Scythians was not short; history measured out about a thousand years for them. For a long time they represented the dominant political force in the vast steppe spaces between the Don and Danube. Therefore, the history of the south of our country cannot be studied outside the context of the history of the Scythians. It is not for nothing that many generations of researchers have been engaged in its reconstruction. But, it seems, it is not only the awareness of the importance of the mission they have undertaken that forces scientists to remain at their desks for hours and lose their usual comfort while working on expeditions. A huge interest, beyond the control of the will, drives them. Interest in the past is completely natural in every person.
Bibliography.
1. Altabaeva E.B., Kovalenko V.V. At the Black Sea crossroads. Crimea from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. – Simferopol, 1997.
2. Vysotskaya T. N. Scythian settlements. – Simferopol, 1989.
3. Dyulichev V.P. Stories on the history of Crimea. – Simferopol, 1996.
4. Olkhovsky V.S., Khrapunov I.N. Crimean Scythia. – Simferopol, 1990.
5. Podgorodetsky P.D. Northwestern Crimea. – Simferopol, 1979.
6. Popular encyclopedia. Non-Slavic Russia. Section Scythians. www.sib.net/n_russia/1_vol/
Scythians are a people who inhabited the Eastern European steppes, bounded by the Don and Danube rivers, as well as the North Caucasus in the 7th - 4th centuries. BC. In the 3rd century. BC. The Scythians' habitat was greatly reduced. In the middle of the 7th century. before. AD The Scythians apparently became the dominant political force in the Northern Black Sea region.
However, it was not the Crimea or even the Northern Black Sea region as a whole that were the centers of concentration of the Scythians in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. Scythian monuments this time concentrated in the North Caucasus.
The steppes of the Kuban region and Stavropol region, the foothill areas served as springboards for the Scythian campaigns in Western Asia. The hikes began in the 70s. VII century BC. In any case, from this time the Scythians under the name “ishkuza” became known to the authors of ancient Eastern chronicles. The Scythian invasions of Asia continued for about 100 years. During this time, they participated in military operations on the territory of many states, reaching the borders of Egypt. Only after 585 were the Scythians finally expelled from Asia and returned to the North Caucasus and the Black Sea steppes.
The Western Asian campaigns had a significant impact on the formation of Scythian culture. In particular, the art of animal style was enriched with new motifs and subjects.
Not all Scythians participated in raids on ancient Eastern states. This was probably the prerogative of military squads. Herodotus recorded a legend that takes place in the Crimea during the return of the Scythians from their campaigns.
“While the Scythians were fighting in Asia, their wives entered into relations with slaves (the Scythians blinded the slaves, probably in order to make it difficult for them to escape). The children of Scythian wives and blind slaves dug “a wide ditch stretching from the Taurus Mountains to Lake Meotia, in the exact place where it is widest,” that is, approximately on the site of the current Ak-Monai Isthmus, separating the Kerch Peninsula from the rest of Crimea. Hiding behind a ditch, the descendants of the blind slaves entered into battle with their returning masters. The Scythians failed to defeat them in battle, and then they used whips. The whistling of the whips was unbearable for the descendants of the slaves, and they retreated.”
In the VI century. BC. The most outstanding event in Scythian history took place - the war with the Persian king Darius I Hystaspes. The Scythian-Persian War is described in detail in the description of Herodotus, the text of which, together with data from other written sources and archaeological materials, has been repeatedly analyzed by researchers. According to Herodotus, Darius crossed the Danube and, following parallel Black Sea coast, but without going into Crimea, he reached the Sea of Azov (however, some modern authors doubt the veracity of this point and believe that all the events of the Scythian-Persian war took place in the steppes of the northwestern Black Sea region). There were no direct military clashes, but the huge Persian army suffered greatly from a lack of food, water, and animal feed. As a result, Darius was forced, enduring enormous hardships, to return to the Danube, cross it and go to Thrace. The Scythian-Persian War dates, according to various estimates, between 519 and 510. BC. None of his contemporaries doubted that the Persians suffered a crushing defeat, oddly enough, without engaging in a single battle. It was from this time that in ancient, and thanks to it, in modern literature, the Scythians gained the glory of invincible warriors.
During the time of Darius, the steppe Crimea was undoubtedly inhabited by the Scythians and belonged to them. This conclusion follows from that part of Herodotus’ story where he talks about the Scythians’ preparation for war. The terrible Persian danger forced the Scythians to turn to neighboring tribes for help. Some of them agreed to become allies of the Scythians, others, including the Tauri, refused. The Tauri, who according to Herodotus inhabited the mountainous and foothill Crimea, could be neighbors of the Scythians only if the steppe part of the peninsula belonged to the latter.
The need for joint military action and the victory over the Persians probably contributed to the consolidation of the Scythian tribes. The opinion has been expressed that it was only at this time that the Scythian ethnos was formed.
Ancient Greek settlements located on the European shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus, for example, Myrmekium, at the beginning of the 5th century. BC. were attacked by the Scythians, which became the reason for the construction of defensive walls. According to some authors, it was the Scythian threat that forced the ancient city policies around 480 BC. unite in a military alliance. True, not all researchers agree with this formulation of the question.
In 339 BC. The 90-year-old Scythian king Ataeus died fighting the troops of Philip of Macedon. He led numerous detachments of Scythians, making successful campaigns across the Danube with them, and minted coins in his own name. Some researchers believe that Atey was the king of all the Scythians who lived between the Don and Danube. According to other authors, only the tribes living in the northwestern Black Sea region were subordinate to him. In any case, Atey played an outstanding role in the history of the Scythians. It is not without reason that his name is mentioned several times by ancient authors, including in an anecdotal context (he allegedly preferred the neighing of a horse to the sounds of a flute).
Written sources report military contacts between the Scythians and the Bosporan Greeks.
In the first quarter of the 4th century. BC. The Scythians, on the side of King Leukon I, took part in a difficult war with Feodosia and contributed greatly to the annexation of the city to Bosporan Kingdom. On this basis, it has been suggested that an alliance agreement was concluded between Leukon I and Ataeus, according to which the Scythians were to provide military assistance to the Bosporus, and the Greeks were to pay tribute to their allies. However, in the author's opinion, the arguments in favor of this hypothesis are among those that can neither be refuted nor confirmed.
Pseudo-Demosthenes' speech against Phormion mentions a war between the Scythian king and Perisades I. This event occurred somewhat earlier than 328 BC.
A thirty-thousand-strong detachment of Scythian mercenaries fought in 310/309. BC. on the side of the Bosporan king Satyr against his brother Eumelus. When Satyr died of his wounds, his third brother Prytan tried to succeed him. However, he failed, fled to the Asian side of the Bosporus and was killed. Eumelus, entering Panticapaeum, massacred all the relatives of his brothers, except one. The son of Satyr Perisad, having escaped death, reached the Scythian king Agar on horseback, with whom he found refuge. If we take Diodorus literally, then the headquarters or nomadic camps of Agar should have been located not far from Panticapaeum, hardly outside the Crimea.
Written sources report almost nothing about the Scythians living near the western coast of Crimea. One can only recall the famous civil oath of the Chersonesos. From its text it is clear that the citizens were very afraid for Kerkinitida, Kalos-Limen, as well as for the “bread brought from the plain.” The drafters of the oath called the northwestern Crimea a plain, for which only the Scythians could pose a real danger.
During the 3rd century. BC. Global political, economic and ethnic changes are taking place in the Northern Black Sea region. The Scythians' habitat is reduced to the limits of the Lower Dnieper region, foothills and northwestern Crimea. From nomadic pastoralists they turn into settled farmers. Most of the northern Black Sea steppes are deserted, and then gradually populated by Sarmatians who came from beyond Tanais. Scythia becomes Sarmatia.
Fundamental changes in the way of life of the Scythians led to the formation of a new complex of material culture, a significant transformation of social relations and religious ideas. In this regard, the definitions “late Scythians”, “late Scythian culture” accepted in modern scientific literature seem very successful, as reflecting, on the one hand, ethnic and cultural continuity from early Scythians, and on the other hand, significant changes that occurred as a result of the Scythians’ transition to sedentism and the inclusion of numerous foreign ethnic elements in their composition.
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