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Tmutarakan

January 01, 1970

"Hermonassa" redirects here. For the ancient town on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, see Hermonassa (Pontus). For the moth genus, see Hermonassa (moth).

Tmutarakan[1] (Russian: Тмутарака́нь, romanized: Tmutarakán', IPA: [tmʊtərɐˈkanʲ]; Old East Slavic: Тъмуторокань, romanized: Tǔmutorokanǐ)[2] was a medieval principality of Kievan Rus' and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, between the late 10th and 11th centuries. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμώνασσα) founded in the mid 6th century BCE, by Mytilene (Lesbos), situated on the Taman peninsula, in present-day Krasnodar Krai, Russia, roughly opposite Kerch.[3] The Khazar fortress of Tamantarkhan (from which the Byzantine name for the city, Tamatarcha, is derived) was built on the site in the 7th century, and became known as Tmutarakan when it came under the control of Kievan Rus'.

Tmutarakan
Excavation at the site, September 2008
Location of the site within Russia
Tmutarakan (European Russia)
Alternative nameHermonassa
LocationKrasnodar Krai, Russia
RegionTaman Peninsula
Coordinates45°13′09″N 36°42′51″E / 45.21917°N 36.71417°E / 45.21917; 36.71417
TypeSettlement
History
Founded6th century BCE
AbandonedAfter 14th century CE
Site notes
ConditionIn ruins

History edit

See also: Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea

The Greek colony of Hermonassa was located a few miles west of Phanagoria and Panticapaeum, major trade centers for what was to become the Bosporan Kingdom. The city was founded in the mid-6th century BCE by Mytilene (Lesbos), although there is evidence of others taking part in the enterprise, including Cretans.[4] The city flourished for some centuries and many ancient buildings and streets have been excavated from this period, as well as a hoard of 4th century golden coins.[5] Hermonassa was a centre of the Bosporan cult of Aphrodite[6] and in the early centuries CE was trading with the Alans.[7] There is also archaeological evidence of extensive replanning and construction in the 2nd century CE.

After a long period as a Roman client state, the Bosporan kingdom succumbed to the Huns, who defeated the nearby Alans in 375/376. With the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the late 5th century, the area passed within the Roman sphere once again but was taken by the Bulgars in the 6th century. Following the fall of the city to the Khazars in the late 7th century, it was rebuilt as a fortress town and renamed Tamatarkha. Arabic sources refer to it as Samkarsh al-Yahud (i.e., "Samkarsh of the Jews") in reference to the fact that the bulk of the trading there was handled by Jews.[8] Other variants of the city's name are "Samkersh" and "Samkush".[9]

Fortified with a strong brick wall and boasting a fine harbor, Tamatarkha was a large city of merchants. It controlled much of the Northern European trade with the Byzantine Empire and Northern Caucasus. There were also trade routes leading south-east to Armenia and the Muslim domains, as well as others connecting with the Silk Road to the east. The inhabitants included Greeks, Armenians, Rus', Jews, Ossetians, Lezgins, Georgians, and Circassians. After the destruction of the Khazar empire by Sviatoslav I of Kiev in the mid-10th century, Khazars continued to inhabit the region. The Mandgelis Document, a Hebrew letter dated AM 4746 (985–986) refers to "our lord David, the Khazar prince" who lived in Taman and who was visited by envoys from Kievan Rus to ask about religious matters.

Medieval history edit

 
The city of Tmutarakan (Samkarsh) and its international relations during Khazar and Rus times.

Although the exact date and circumstances of Tmutarakan's takeover by Kievan Rus are uncertain, the Hypatian Codex mentions Tmutarakan as one of the towns that Vladimir the Great gave to his sons, which implies that Rus control over the city was established in the late 10th century and certainly before Vladimir's death in 1015.[10] Bronze and silver imitations of Byzantine coinage were struck by the new rulers during this period.[11][12]

Vladimir's son Mstislav of Chernigov was the prince of Tmutarakan at the start of the 11th century. During his reign, a first stone church was dedicated to the Mother of God (Theotokos). The excavated site suggests that it was built by Byzantine workmen and has similarities with the church Mstislav went on to commission in Chernigov.[13] After his death, he was followed by a succession of short-lived petty dynasts. Gleb Svyatoslavich was given command of the city by his father, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, but in 1064 he was displaced by the rival Rus prince Rostislav Vladimirovich who in his turn was forced to flee the city when Gleb approached with an army led by his father. Once Svyatoslav left, however, Rostislav expelled Gleb once again. During his brief rule, he subdued the local Circassians (also known as Kasogi) and other indigenous tribes, but his success provoked the suspicion of neighboring Greek Chersonesos in the Crimea, whose Byzantine envoy poisoned him on 3 February 1066.[14]

Afterwards command of Tmutarakan returned to the prince of Chernigov[15] and then to the Grand Prince of Kiev, Vsevolod Yaroslavich. In 1079, Svyatoslav Yaroslavich appointed a governor (posadnik), but he was captured two years later by David Igorevich and Volodar Rostislavich, who seized the city.[16] Exiled from the city to Byzantium by Khazar agents during this turbulent time, Oleg Svyatoslavich returned to Tmutarakan in 1083 and ousted the usurpers, adopting the title of "archon of Khazaria" (Arakhan of Tmutar), and placed the city under nominal Byzantine control. But he also issued rough silver coins in his own name which included a short inscription in Cyrillic letters. Then in 1094, like Mstislav before him, he returned to Rus to claim the throne of Chernigov.[17]

Byzantine interest in the city was maintained through this succession of client rulers, and thereafter by more direct rule for a while, for an important reason. There were naphtha deposits in the area and this was a vital ingredient of their main tactical weapon, Greek Fire.[18] Up until the end of the 12th century the imperial authorities were forbidding their Genoese trading partners access to the city known to them as Matracha.[19]

Decline edit

 
A Russian map of the Taman peninsula, c. 1870.

In the 13th century the city passed to the Empire of Trebizond (a Byzantine successor state). Its last recorded mention was in a scroll of 1378. The region fell under the control of the Republic of Genoa in the 14th century and formed part of the protectorate of Gazaria, based at Kaffa. It was within the territory administered by the Ghisolfi family and was conquered by the Crimean Khanate in 1482 and by Russia in 1791. A possible remaining Khazar connection is suggested by mention of “Jewish princes” in Tamatarkha under both Genoese and Tatar rule.[20]

The city subsequently fell into ruin and the site was rediscovered in 1792, when a local peasant found a stone with an inscription stating that Prince Gleb had measured the sea from here to Kerch in 1068. Archaeological excavations of the site were begun in the 19th century and have continued since. The habitation level in places exceeds twelve meters.

During much of the 17th and 18th centuries the area was dominated by Cossacks centered on the town of Taman, which was located near the remains of Tmutarakan. The modern town of Temryuk is nearby.

Etymology edit

Speculations have been advanced for how the settlement came by its later name. That it derives from the Tatar language is generally assumed. Jean Richard also mentions the Greek for "fish curing" (Τομη΄ταριχα), an important Black Sea product. Afterwards it might have been given a Russian folk etymology, combining t'ma ("darkness") and tarakan ("cockroach"), to mean metaphorically 'the back of beyond', the sense that Vladimir Mayakovsky gives it.[21]

References edit

  1. ^ Occasionally, Tmutorakan.
  2. ^ Vasmer, Max. "Тмуторокань". from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
  3. ^ Andrew Burn, The Lyric Age of Greece, New York, St Martin's Press, 1960 p. 119 & n. 60.
  4. ^ Andrew Burn, The Lyric Age of Greece, New York, St Martin's Press, 1960 p. 119 & n. 60. M.J. Traister and T.V. Shelov-Kovedyayev, “An inscribed conical clay object from Hermonassa” 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites". from the original on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  6. ^ Yulia Ustinova, The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom, Brill 1999, ch.3, p.129ff
  7. ^ "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1979". from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  8. ^ J.B.Bury, History of the Eastern Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil 1912, p.408; Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria, ML 20706, 2004, p.29-30
  9. ^ "Krimchaks". Encyclopaedia Judaica
  10. ^ Tikhomirov (1959), p. 33
  11. ^ Marlia Mundell Mango (ed.), Byzantine Trade, 4th-12th Centuries, Routledge 2016
  12. ^ "illustration at Munzeo". from the original on 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
  13. ^ Shepard (2006), pp.34-5
  14. ^ Dimnik (2003), p.82
  15. ^ Dimnik (2003), p. 285
  16. ^ Tikhomirov (1959), p. 171
  17. ^ Shepard (2006), pp.42-6
  18. ^ Shepard (2006), pp.24-5
  19. ^ Shepard (2009), pp.439-40
  20. ^ Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe”, London 1977, p.129 2016-04-06 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ "Great Online Encyclopaedia of Black Sea". blacksea.ehw.gr. from the original on 2022-08-13. Retrieved 2022-08-26.

Resources edit

  • Brook, Kevin Alan. The Jews of Khazaria. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006.
  • Christian, David. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. Vol. 1. Blackwell, 1999. pp. 298–397.
  • Dimnik, Martin. The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146–1246. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-82442-7
  • Room, Adrian. Placenames Of The World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites. 2nd ed. McFarland & Company, 2005. ISBN 0-7864-2248-3
  • Shepard, Jonathan. "Close encounters with the Byzantine world: the Rus at the Straits of Kerch" in Pre-modern Russia and its world. Wiesbaden, 2006, ISBN 3-447-05425-5
  • Shepard, Jonathan: "Mists and Portals: the Black Sea's north coast", pp. 421–42 in Byzantine trade, 4th-12th centuries, Farnham UK 2009, ISBN 978-0-7546-6310-2
  • Tikhomirov, M. The Towns of Ancient Rus. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing, 1959.
  • Ivanov, V. V., and Toporov, V. N., 1992. Pchela. In: S. A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 354–356.
  • Zand, Michael, and Kharuv, Dan (1997). "Krimchaks". Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. ISBN 965-07-0665-8

January 01, 1970
tmutarakan, hermonassa, redirects, here, ancient, town, black, coast, turkey, hermonassa, pontus, moth, genus, hermonassa, moth, russian, Тмутарака, нь, romanized, tmutarakán, tmʊtərɐˈkanʲ, east, slavic, Тъмуторокань, romanized, tǔmutorokanǐ, medieval, princip. Hermonassa redirects here For the ancient town on the Black Sea coast of Turkey see Hermonassa Pontus For the moth genus see Hermonassa moth Tmutarakan 1 Russian Tmutaraka n romanized Tmutarakan IPA tmʊterɐˈkanʲ Old East Slavic Tmutorokan romanized Tǔmutorokanǐ 2 was a medieval principality of Kievan Rus and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov between the late 10th and 11th centuries Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa Ancient Greek Ἑrmwnassa founded in the mid 6th century BCE by Mytilene Lesbos situated on the Taman peninsula in present day Krasnodar Krai Russia roughly opposite Kerch 3 The Khazar fortress of Tamantarkhan from which the Byzantine name for the city Tamatarcha is derived was built on the site in the 7th century and became known as Tmutarakan when it came under the control of Kievan Rus TmutarakanExcavation at the site September 2008Location of the site within RussiaShow map of Krasnodar KraiTmutarakan European Russia Show map of European RussiaAlternative nameHermonassaLocationKrasnodar Krai RussiaRegionTaman PeninsulaCoordinates45 13 09 N 36 42 51 E 45 21917 N 36 71417 E 45 21917 36 71417TypeSettlementHistoryFounded6th century BCEAbandonedAfter 14th century CESite notesConditionIn ruins Contents 1 History 2 Medieval history 3 Decline 4 Etymology 5 References 6 ResourcesHistory editSee also Greeks in pre Roman Crimea The Greek colony of Hermonassa was located a few miles west of Phanagoria and Panticapaeum major trade centers for what was to become the Bosporan Kingdom The city was founded in the mid 6th century BCE by Mytilene Lesbos although there is evidence of others taking part in the enterprise including Cretans 4 The city flourished for some centuries and many ancient buildings and streets have been excavated from this period as well as a hoard of 4th century golden coins 5 Hermonassa was a centre of the Bosporan cult of Aphrodite 6 and in the early centuries CE was trading with the Alans 7 There is also archaeological evidence of extensive replanning and construction in the 2nd century CE After a long period as a Roman client state the Bosporan kingdom succumbed to the Huns who defeated the nearby Alans in 375 376 With the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the late 5th century the area passed within the Roman sphere once again but was taken by the Bulgars in the 6th century Following the fall of the city to the Khazars in the late 7th century it was rebuilt as a fortress town and renamed Tamatarkha Arabic sources refer to it as Samkarsh al Yahud i e Samkarsh of the Jews in reference to the fact that the bulk of the trading there was handled by Jews 8 Other variants of the city s name are Samkersh and Samkush 9 Fortified with a strong brick wall and boasting a fine harbor Tamatarkha was a large city of merchants It controlled much of the Northern European trade with the Byzantine Empire and Northern Caucasus There were also trade routes leading south east to Armenia and the Muslim domains as well as others connecting with the Silk Road to the east The inhabitants included Greeks Armenians Rus Jews Ossetians Lezgins Georgians and Circassians After the destruction of the Khazar empire by Sviatoslav I of Kiev in the mid 10th century Khazars continued to inhabit the region The Mandgelis Document a Hebrew letter dated AM 4746 985 986 refers to our lord David the Khazar prince who lived in Taman and who was visited by envoys from Kievan Rus to ask about religious matters Medieval history edit nbsp The city of Tmutarakan Samkarsh and its international relations during Khazar and Rus times Although the exact date and circumstances of Tmutarakan s takeover by Kievan Rus are uncertain the Hypatian Codex mentions Tmutarakan as one of the towns that Vladimir the Great gave to his sons which implies that Rus control over the city was established in the late 10th century and certainly before Vladimir s death in 1015 10 Bronze and silver imitations of Byzantine coinage were struck by the new rulers during this period 11 12 Vladimir s son Mstislav of Chernigov was the prince of Tmutarakan at the start of the 11th century During his reign a first stone church was dedicated to the Mother of God Theotokos The excavated site suggests that it was built by Byzantine workmen and has similarities with the church Mstislav went on to commission in Chernigov 13 After his death he was followed by a succession of short lived petty dynasts Gleb Svyatoslavich was given command of the city by his father Svyatoslav Yaroslavich but in 1064 he was displaced by the rival Rus prince Rostislav Vladimirovich who in his turn was forced to flee the city when Gleb approached with an army led by his father Once Svyatoslav left however Rostislav expelled Gleb once again During his brief rule he subdued the local Circassians also known as Kasogi and other indigenous tribes but his success provoked the suspicion of neighboring Greek Chersonesos in the Crimea whose Byzantine envoy poisoned him on 3 February 1066 14 Afterwards command of Tmutarakan returned to the prince of Chernigov 15 and then to the Grand Prince of Kiev Vsevolod Yaroslavich In 1079 Svyatoslav Yaroslavich appointed a governor posadnik but he was captured two years later by David Igorevich and Volodar Rostislavich who seized the city 16 Exiled from the city to Byzantium by Khazar agents during this turbulent time Oleg Svyatoslavich returned to Tmutarakan in 1083 and ousted the usurpers adopting the title of archon of Khazaria Arakhan of Tmutar and placed the city under nominal Byzantine control But he also issued rough silver coins in his own name which included a short inscription in Cyrillic letters Then in 1094 like Mstislav before him he returned to Rus to claim the throne of Chernigov 17 Byzantine interest in the city was maintained through this succession of client rulers and thereafter by more direct rule for a while for an important reason There were naphtha deposits in the area and this was a vital ingredient of their main tactical weapon Greek Fire 18 Up until the end of the 12th century the imperial authorities were forbidding their Genoese trading partners access to the city known to them as Matracha 19 Decline edit nbsp A Russian map of the Taman peninsula c 1870 In the 13th century the city passed to the Empire of Trebizond a Byzantine successor state Its last recorded mention was in a scroll of 1378 The region fell under the control of the Republic of Genoa in the 14th century and formed part of the protectorate of Gazaria based at Kaffa It was within the territory administered by the Ghisolfi family and was conquered by the Crimean Khanate in 1482 and by Russia in 1791 A possible remaining Khazar connection is suggested by mention of Jewish princes in Tamatarkha under both Genoese and Tatar rule 20 The city subsequently fell into ruin and the site was rediscovered in 1792 when a local peasant found a stone with an inscription stating that Prince Gleb had measured the sea from here to Kerch in 1068 Archaeological excavations of the site were begun in the 19th century and have continued since The habitation level in places exceeds twelve meters During much of the 17th and 18th centuries the area was dominated by Cossacks centered on the town of Taman which was located near the remains of Tmutarakan The modern town of Temryuk is nearby Etymology editSpeculations have been advanced for how the settlement came by its later name That it derives from the Tatar language is generally assumed Jean Richard also mentions the Greek for fish curing Tomh tarixa an important Black Sea product Afterwards it might have been given a Russian folk etymology combining t ma darkness and tarakan cockroach to mean metaphorically the back of beyond the sense that Vladimir Mayakovsky gives it 21 References edit Occasionally Tmutorakan Vasmer Max Tmutorokan Archived from the original on 2023 09 26 Retrieved 2024 04 30 Andrew Burn The Lyric Age of Greece New York St Martin s Press 1960 p 119 amp n 60 Andrew Burn The Lyric Age of Greece New York St Martin s Press 1960 p 119 amp n 60 M J Traister and T V Shelov Kovedyayev An inscribed conical clay object from Hermonassa Archived 2015 12 22 at the Wayback Machine The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites Archived from the original on 2020 08 09 Retrieved 2021 02 21 Yulia Ustinova The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom Brill 1999 ch 3 p 129ff The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 1979 Archived from the original on 2015 12 22 Retrieved 2015 11 06 J B Bury History of the Eastern Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil 1912 p 408 Kevin Alan Brook The Jews of Khazaria ML 20706 2004 p 29 30 Krimchaks Encyclopaedia Judaica Tikhomirov 1959 p 33 Marlia Mundell Mango ed Byzantine Trade 4th 12th Centuries Routledge 2016 illustration at Munzeo Archived from the original on 2017 12 04 Retrieved 2017 12 02 Shepard 2006 pp 34 5 Dimnik 2003 p 82 Dimnik 2003 p 285 Tikhomirov 1959 p 171 Shepard 2006 pp 42 6 Shepard 2006 pp 24 5 Shepard 2009 pp 439 40 Arthur Koestler The Thirteenth Tribe London 1977 p 129 Archived 2016 04 06 at the Wayback Machine Great Online Encyclopaedia of Black Sea blacksea ehw gr Archived from the original on 2022 08 13 Retrieved 2022 08 26 Resources editBrook Kevin Alan The Jews of Khazaria 2nd ed Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers Inc 2006 Christian David A History of Russia Central Asia and Mongolia Vol 1 Blackwell 1999 pp 298 397 Dimnik Martin The Dynasty of Chernigov 1146 1246 Cambridge University Press 2003 ISBN 0 521 82442 7 Room Adrian Placenames Of The World Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6 600 Countries Cities Territories Natural Features and Historic Sites 2nd ed McFarland amp Company 2005 ISBN 0 7864 2248 3 Shepard Jonathan Close encounters with the Byzantine world the Rus at the Straits of Kerch in Pre modern Russia and its world Wiesbaden 2006 ISBN 3 447 05425 5 Shepard Jonathan Mists and Portals the Black Sea s north coast pp 421 42 in Byzantine trade 4th 12th centuries Farnham UK 2009 ISBN 978 0 7546 6310 2 Tikhomirov M The Towns of Ancient Rus Moscow Foreign Languages Publishing 1959 Ivanov V V and Toporov V N 1992 Pchela In S A Tokarev ed Mify narodov mira Vol 2 Moscow Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya pp 354 356 Zand Michael and Kharuv Dan 1997 Krimchaks Encyclopaedia Judaica CD ROM Edition Version 1 0 Ed Cecil Roth Keter Publishing House ISBN 965 07 0665 8 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tmutarakan amp oldid 1221590847, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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