Poles study ancient Greek colony of Tanais

Science and Scholarship in Poland ^ | December 7, 2015 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

...located in today’s Russia at the mouth of the River Don to the Azov Sea... said Dr. Marcin Matera from the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw... that the embankment was built after the conquest of Tanais by Polemon". Polemon was a king of Bosphorus, who ruled in the late first century BC...

University of Warsaw expedition conducts excavations in the western part of the ancient Tanais since 1996... The most important discoveries made by Polish archaeologists include a unique defence system of the western gates of the city, established in the Hellenistic period and rebuilt, probably at the beginning of the first century BC, i.e. during the reign of Mithridates VI of Pontus in the Kingdom of Bosphorus, monumental residential building and urban development adjacent to the fortification.

Until recently, scientists believed that the western part of Tanais was completely abandoned by residents after the city was captured by the Bosporan king Polemon I. Its territory was supposed to be only used as a waste disposal site and the site of children necropolis. Over the last three seasons of excavation, Poles managed to uncover the remains of evidence of the continuation of residential function of this part of town until the late 80s in the first century AD...

Tanais was probably founded by Greek settlers in the early third century BC. It was situated at the border of ancient civilization and steppe tribes. Mighty fortifications of Tanais were supposed to protect against incoming waves of nomads from the east... Revival of Tanais came at the end of the first century AD. After two hundred years, the city completely fell into decline after the invasion of Sarmatians or Goths.

[SunkenCiv]

Photo: Fotolia

[SunkenCiv]

Believe it or not, this is only the *second* topic in the Tanais keyword.

[Cronos]

Crimea is awesome — went there once years ago. Besides the beaches where most of the tourists head to, there are these lost spots where you can see monuments even older than Tanais - I think the Phoenician were there before the Greeks, but not sure

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cronos. The Assyrians got there, or at least their artifacts did. I'd be surprised if Minoans (Linear A has been found in Bulgaria in recent years, if memory serves) and/or Mycenaean Greeks didn't also colonize the Black Sea shores.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Correct. Over near Sevastopol there are remains of a Greek settlement. Also of interest is the site at Balaclava where the Light Brigade charged the Russian guns.
You

[SunkenCiv]

Mycenae and Scythia
http://www.varchive.org/dag/mas.htm

Beyond the Mountains of Darkness
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/khazars.htm

Gozan
http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/gozan.htm

[Cronos]

The Assyrians too? Wow, how? I wonder if they traded up north through to the Black Sea

[chajin]

I wouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot...

OK, a serious question: if the Myceneans could get this far north, why not the Hittites, who were much closer?

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

The Hittites weren't around all that long, contrary to the conventional pseudochronology, and there were others parked in the way, lots of competition. The Assyrian Empire, which existed in some form for over a thousand years, was basically destroyed thanks to a confluence of the Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians, the latter two of whom occupied much of the area between Babylon and what is now the Ukraine.

[SunkenCiv]

They were very much a land-based power, and marched armies off to distant locations, whipped the tar out of them, and then billed back the costs of the conquest by exacting tribute. The less a victim struggled, often the smaller the tribute would be. Those with high tributes often couldn't (or wouldn't) pay, and another Assyrian force would arrive to destroy the place and carry off everyone they didn't kill. It was a monstrously effective system, and very likely the world's first real multinational empire.