Crimea: from the Aryans to the Russian Tmutarakan Principality
The Crimean peninsula, due to its geographical position, from ancient times was the crossroads of many maritime communications that connected various states, cities and peoples. So the famous "Great Silk Road" tied ancient Rome and Celestial. It is not for nothing that at present China is laying a new “Great Silk Road” to Europe, and the Crimea plays an important role in these plans. The geographical position of the Crimea, the “natural pearl of Europe,” determined and determines its strategic importance in the past and in the present. One of the first known names of Crimea is Tavrik. In ancient times, a part of the peninsula was inhabited by a tribe of Tauris. The modern name "Crimea" became widely used only after the XIII century, during the time of the Golden Horde. “Kırım” was the name of the city, which, after the capture of the Northern Black Sea Coast, was erected by “Tatar-Mongols” (the name is conditional, since the Mongols did not participate in the historical campaign, and the “Tatars” in this period were called the successors of Great Scythia, which became “Tartary”) Peninsula and was the residence of the governor of the Golden Horde Khan. Over time, this name has spread throughout the peninsula. In addition, it is believed that the name "Crimea" came from Perekop. The Russian word "Perekop" is a translation of the Turkic word "qirim", which means "moat". From the 15th century, Crimea was called Tavria, and after the peninsula was incorporated into the Russian Empire, it was called Tavrida. Also called and the entire Northern Black Sea coast.
Oldest period
The Crimean peninsula is favorable for life. The sea allows you to conduct maritime trade, engage in fishing. The short warm winter and the long sunny summer, the rich flora and fauna allowed people to engage in hunting, beekeeping, cattle breeding and farming. A large number of iron ore deposits contributed to the development of crafts, metallurgy and mining. The Yayly (plateau-like treeless mountain peaks) of the Main Ridge of the Crimean Mountains contributed to the creation of well-fortified settlements. Narrow Perekop isthmus connected the peninsula with the mainland and increased the safety of living.
It is not surprising that people lived on the peninsula from ancient times. The parking lots of the first people on the peninsula are about 100 thousand years. Primitive people on the Crimean peninsula were engaged in collecting, hunting and fishing. The mild climate, a lot of wild animals and the then rich and diverse vegetation created favorable conditions for human habitation. Gradually, people mastered agriculture and cattle breeding, a rough craft appeared.
The people of the pit, catacomb and Sruba culture (Aryan-Indo-Europeans) who lived in the Crimea in the era of the copper age - the Aeneolithic (4000 years - 2000 years BC) also left their traces in the steppe and mountainous Crimea and on the Kerch Peninsula. They were engaged in farming and animal husbandry, there was a copper weapon and wheeled transport - wagons. The Aryans were left behind by the Kurban-Bayram barrows at Krasnoperekopsk, Kemi Oba at Belogorsk, the Golden Kurgan near Simferopol, etc. The direct continuations of these archaeological cultures during the Bronze Age were representatives of the Yamna, Kemi-Oba, Catacomb, Multi-storey, Srubna, Sabatinovskaya and Belozero cultures. They built stone dwellings, engaged in cattle breeding and plow farming. Marked traces of trade with the tribes of south-western and western Asia Minor, as well as the Aegean basin.
At the beginning of I millennium BC. er the bronze age in the Crimea was replaced by iron. During this period, the Crimea was inhabited by tribes of Tauris and Cimmerians. Their main occupations were farming and animal husbandry. It is known that the Tauri worshiped the mother goddess - the Virgin. In general, the spiritual and material culture of the Taurians (in the future Tauroskifs) and Cimmerians was derived from the culture of Great Scythia, which stretched from the Danube, the Carpathians and the Northern Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and in the south to the borders of China and India. Cimmerians are famous for their campaigns in the Caucasus and the Eastern Mediterranean. They carried out a military revolution - in large quantities they organized the production of iron and made an iron weapon with a steel blade that was perfect at that time - swords and daggers with bronze handles. The Cimmerian kingdom covered a large territory - the Northern Black Sea coast from the Dniester to the Kerch Strait, Taman and the North Caucasus, part of the Crimea.
Great ScythiaIn the VII century BC. er between the Scythians and the Cimmerians there was a military conflict. The Cimmerians were defeated, part of their military elite fled to Asia Minor, part to the west. The bulk of the common population was assimilated into the related Scythian population. A long period of predominance in the Northern Pontic and Crimea of the Scythians, who were the direct ancestors of the Slavic Rus (Great Scythia and superethnos Rus. Part of 1; Part 2). More about this silent period of Russian stories can be found in the work of Vasilyeva N. I., Petukhova Yu. D. “Russian Scythia”, which is based on a significant number of archaeological, linguistic, mythological and other sources.
Great Scythia was not a single empire, as it included a huge number of tribal unions, which occupied a colossal territory from the Dniester and the Bug in the west to the Pacific in the east (Scythian influence - “rider culture”, can be traced in early Korea and Japan). They were united by a common spiritual and material culture, all Scythians (in the future Sarmatians, “Tatars” and Russ) were engaged in farming and cattle breeding, in forest areas - hunting, had developed crafts and military production, which allowed Scythians to be the most powerful military force in the open spaces of Eurasia .
It was not for nothing that the Scythians reached Egypt and Greece, repulsed the invasions of the Persian Empire eastward (King Cyrus, Queen Tomiris "drank blood," and Darius was able to escape), repelled the blow of the generals of Alexander the Great and restrained the pressure of Rome (Great Scythia and the Middle East; Great Scythia and the Middle East. Part of 2; Great Scythia, Greece and Rome). And the echo of the horror that our ancestors instilled in the Middle Eastern peoples (much later, in a similar way, the Europeans described the Russian "beast-like Cossacks"), entered the Old Testament. The Book of Ezekiel describes the “great gathering of hordes,” which “in the last days” under the leadership of “Gog in the land of Magog, Prince Roch (Dew — author), Meshech and Tubal” will invade the Middle East.
In the West, through the Greeks, the most famous was the so-called. Herodotova Scythia (described by Herodotus) or Western Scythia, which occupied the Northern Black Sea region, the land from the Dniester to the Don. Scythia was a military democracy with a people's assembly (veche), a council of elders and leaders (kings). The main deities were Heavenly Father, depicted on horseback and the Great Goddess (Mother of Gods). Of great importance was the cult of war, the sword was the personification of the god of war. Warriors were all free communal men, and could be women (Amazons, Polarians). Scythians had large metallurgical centers that produced bronze and then iron weapons. Such a center was in the Belsky site of ancient settlement in the Poltava region and the Kamensky site of ancient settlement on the Dnieper.
Scythians made another revolution in military affairs, their horses had a bridle and saddle, which immediately gave an advantage in battle. In addition, they were wonderful archers. The fast horsemen detachments of the Scythians easily escaped the blow of the enemy and literally shot the enemy. Therefore, the Scythian cavalry terrified its enemies and was stronger than the Greek and Roman cavalry. Their tactics resembled the tactics of future "Tatars" (Scythia will be replaced by "Tartary") and the Cossacks. Scythians easily made long hikes, striking the enemy with sudden blows. They attacked the enemy with lava by small detachments in the equestrian ranks in several places at the same time, and then pretended to retreat, enticing the enemy to a convenient place. Then the enemy was surrounded and destroyed in hand-to-hand combat. A big role in the battle played bows. The methods used by the horse fist to the center of the enemy troops, the tactics of starvation and "scorched earth" (in the future it will be successfully applied by Kutuzov against Napoleon’s Great Army) were also used. If necessary, the Scythians exhibited large foot militias.
In the middle of the VIII century BC, the Greeks will appear on the Black Sea coast. Population growth, the lack of arable land and the internal political struggle forced many Greeks to leave their homeland and establish colonies on the coasts of the Mediterranean, Marmara and Black Seas. Later, some colonies became independent political centers. Greek trading points began to appear on the shores of the Black Sea in the VII century BC. er The first known such settlement at the entrance to the Dnieper estuary on the island of Berezan was Borysfenida. In the first half of the VI century BC. er Olbia appeared at the mouth of the Southern Bug, Tiras appeared at the mouth of the Dniester, and Feodosiya and Pantikapaion (on the site of modern Kerch) on the Kerch Peninsula. Then other centers emerged: Nymphaeus, Kimmerik, Parthenius, Parthii, Alupka, Germonassa (in the place of Taman), Fanagoria, Chersonese of Tauris (in the place of modern Sevastopol). Around 480 year BC. er independent Greek city-states of Eastern Crimea united into a single Bospor kingdom, located on both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus - the Kerch Strait, with its capital in Pantikapey.
Peaceful trade relations prevailed between the Scythians and the Greeks, although they had fought. The Greeks did not go deep into Scythia, so they were tolerated. Greeks were most interested in food, primarily grain, also exported honey, cattle, fish, wax, metal, leather, amber and other goods. Handicrafts, luxury goods, wine, olive oil, cosmetics, marble were brought to Scythia. However, in the late period there were heavy wars between the Crimean Scythians and the Kingdom of Bosporus, Chersonese. Greeks supported Pontic kingdom in Asia Minor.
Electric cup. Kul-Oba
Great Sarmatia
In the III century BC. er the movement of the Sarmatian tribes towards the Northern Black Sea region began. Sarmatian military elite supplanted the Scythian, which was subjected to Westernization (through the Greeks) and could not resist the next passionate wave from the east. The bulk of the simple Scythians culturally did not differ from the Sarmatians and Roksalans-Alans, and quietly joined the Great Sarmatia. Sarmatians became the masters of the Northern Black Sea region for almost half a millennium. Part of the Scythians went to the Crimea, creating in the northern steppe part of the peninsula a new state formation with the capital on the Salgir River near Simferopol, later called the Scythian Naples. Part of the Scythians went to Europe. Crimea Sarmatians are not occupied and have been there only sporadically.
Sarmatians made the next military revolution - they used long swords and spears-pikes, massively used scaly armor (they would come from chain mail). The horses of the Sarmatians had iron stirrups, which allowed riders to sit firmly in the saddle and put powerful blows with lances and swords. The heavy Sarmatian cavalry, protected by armor, armed with long spears and swords (a type of knightly) was invincible for a long time. At the same time, Sarmatian warriors were also good archers. Sarmatians preserved the mobility of the Scythians, overcoming vast distances. Warriors led on the occasion of a spare horse, sometimes two. The heavily armed horsemen attacked with a powerful wedge (late knightly “pig”), cut in the ranks of the enemy, overturned it and completed destruction. Great Sarmatia, continuing the traditions of the Great Scythia, had a powerful military industry. The Sarmatians had well-developed metallurgical production and weapons business, which were required for the creation of such well-armed detachments.
The Sarmatians, as well as the Scythians, developed the cult of the god of war, they worshiped him in the form of a sword hoisted into the ground. Anthropologically and culturally, they did not differ from the previous Aryan (Indo-European) population. According to the testimony of Ammianus Marcellina: “Almost all of them are tall and beautiful, their hair is blond”. Somewhat later, foreign sources will also describe the Slavic Rus. Sarmatians and Alans considered themselves noble and did not know slavery in their midst.
In the I century BC. er Greek Black Sea coast fell into the sphere of influence of Rome. The states of the Northern Black Sea coast have lost their political independence. During this period, several Scytho-Bosporus wars took place, in which the Scythians were defeated, as now the Bosporus and Chersonesos were supported by the Roman legions. In Asia Minor and the Balkans, Rome was confronted by Sarmatians and Alans, who were part of the Great Sarmatia. At the end of the third century, Rome, which was already degraded and could not successfully fight in all directions, began to withdraw its troops from the Crimea. With the legionaries the Crimean peninsula began to leave the Roman population.
During the period of the protectorate of the Roman Empire over Chersonesus, he was seriously strengthened and managed to preserve himself during the so-called. The Great Migration in the IV and V centuries. A stable economy made it possible to maintain a strong army, and to build and maintain powerful fortifications in good condition. The kingdom of Bosporus fell under the blows of new waves of migration from the east. After the appearance of the Goths and the Huns, the ties between Chersonesos and the Bosporus and Rome were severed, but as the position of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) strengthened, the Romans again established themselves in the Crimea.
Tower of Zeno (fortress tower) - defensive left-flank tower of Chersonese
Great migration of peoples
In the middle of the 3rd century, the Goths invaded the Northern Pontic, who drove the Sarmatians back and broke the Slav-Ants alliance. Coming from the upper tributaries of the Vistula along the Dnieper and Bug, the Goths settled in the steppes near the Sea of Azov, establishing control over the Alans. With the Alans, we have a pretty good relationship. Goths and Alans together made a series of trips to the Crimea, the Balkans and Asia Minor. The Bosporan kingdom fell under the power of the ready, becoming their supply base. The Goths and Alans inflicted a series of heavy defeats on the Romans, plundered Athens. By the 70 years of the III century, almost all the cities on the Taman Peninsula were crushed by the Goths. The Goths entered the Crimea from the north and destroyed all Scythian settlements, including their capital, Scythian Naples. Scythian presence in the Crimea was almost destroyed. Goths captured almost the entire peninsula, except for Kherson, where the Roman garrison stood. Goths settled part of the Crimea, the area of their settlement received the name of the Crimean Gothia (the last Crimean Tatars were ready to exterminate the Crimea in the XVII century).
The Goths created a huge empire led by King Germanarich. However, their public education was loose and short-lived. In the second half of the 4th century, a new wave of migrants came to Europe from Southern Siberia - Hun tribes, which the “classical” version of history counts among the Mongol Türks, as well as the future “Tatars”. Although the descriptions of the Huns were typical Caucasians, in arms, military customs did not differ from previous tribes - the Scythians and Sarmatians. There are several "Hun" words that are no different from Slavic. And Attila's funeral was a typical Russian triznoy. In general, the Gunn military elite practically did not change the ethnic picture of the region, as the descendants of Scythians and Sarmatians (future Ruses, Polovtsy and “Tatars”) lived here, and continued to live. Spiritual and material culture was preserved in the expanses of Northern Eurasia for thousands of years without any changes.
In 350, the Huns invaded Ciscaucasia, by 370, they suppressed the resistance of the local Alans and, through the shallowed Kerch Strait, broke into the Crimea, having finished the Bosporian kingdom. Then the Huns inflicted a crushing defeat on the Goths. The empire of Germanarich collapsed. In 375, Vinitaria Ostrogoths tried to stop the Huns on the lower Dnieper, but again suffered a terrible defeat. The Goths fled to Europe, and in despair defeated the Roma. The invasion of Goths and Alans caused a great confusion in Europe. So, part of the Alans, together with the Wendy vandals, reached North Africa. Part of the ready was strengthened in the mountains of the Crimea, part - obeyed the Huns, and others - entered into an alliance with Rome. The Huns took control of the Northern Black Sea region.
The Huns gradually moved to the west and by 420 they roamed on the Middle Danube. The Hun Empire was headed by the talented commander Attila. His empire included the Slavic tribes. It seemed that the "scourge of God," as Attila was nicknamed, would finally crush Rome. However, in a titanic battle on the Catalounian fields in 451, the troops of the Western Roman Empire under the command of commander Aetius, in alliance with the army of the Visigoths, stopped the allied army of the Huns, Germans and Slavs. In the year 453, Attila died and his empire fell apart immediately. The remnants of the Huns were assimilated into the local Scythian-Sarmatian population in the Black Sea region, on the Volga and Altai.
By the end of the century on the Crimean peninsula there were no longer any Greek cities-policies, except Chersonesos. All of them were defeated during the invasions of the Goths and the Huns. Chersonesos became the main stronghold of Byzantium to the Crimea. In the 6th century, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who dreamed of restoring the Roman Empire, took a number of steps to restore Romanian influence in the Black Sea region. Measures were taken to restore the Bosporan kingdom. By order of Justinian, on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, they created several strong outposts. The main defense nodes were the Romanesque fortresses of Aluston (Alushta), Gorzuity (Gurzuf) and a fortified point in Simbolon (Balaclava). They built a fortification at Sudak.
In the western part of the Black Sea coast in this period there were new aliens - Avars. Then they settled on the Middle Danube in Pannonia, where they created the Avar Khaganate. But he existed relatively long. After stubborn wars by Byzantium, Franks and Slavs, the Avar Kaganate was destroyed.
The Huns in the Black Sea region were replaced by the Bulgarians, who were previously part of the Hunnish state. The ancient ancestors of the Bulgarians Kuturgurs and Uturgurs in the 6th century lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, the Don, and in the basin of the Kuban. By the middle of VII, these tribes united under the rule of Kubrat. Around 660, the Bulgarian horde of the son of Kubrat Khan Asparuh, under pressure from the Khazars, went to the Danube. Part of the Bulgarians fled to the Crimea, where it mingled with the Greeks, Goths and Alans. Another large part of the Bulgarian tribe moved to the region of the Middle Volga and Kama regions, where the Bulgarians created the state of Volga Bulgaria, which was dependent on the Khazars.
To be continued ...
Information