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The first period of Ukrainian history, or, more
precisely, prehistory, lasted from about 1150 BCE to 850 CE. These twenty-one
centuries of human development on Ukrainian territory witnessed a slow
evolution from primitive agricultural and nomadic civilization to more
advanced societies that attempted to create centrally organized state and
socioeconomic structures. During these millennia, Ukrainian territory was
divided into two rather distinct spheres: (1) the vast steppe and
forest-steppe zones of the hinterland, and (2) the coastal regions of the
Black Sea and Sea of Azov. While in each of
these spheres there were quite different socioeconomic and political
structures, the two were closely linked in a symbiotic relationship based on
a high degree of economic interdependence.
In general,
the hinterland was inhabited by sedentary agriculturalists ruled by different
nomadic military elites who most often originated from the steppes of Central Asia. The Black Sea
coast, on the other hand, was characterized by the establishment of Greek
and, later, Romano-Byzantine cities that either functioned as independent
city-states or joined in federations that had varying degrees of independence
or that were dependent on the Greek, Roman, or Byzantine home- lands to the
south. In effect, the Black Sea coastal cities functioned for over two
millennia as appendages or dependencies, whose economic, social, and cultural
orientation was toward the classical civilizations of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
The
steppe hinterland
The earliest
information about the steppe hinterland and its inhabitants comes from
contemporary Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Arab writers, who almost invariably
painted negative descriptions of fierce barbarians from the east whose only
purpose in life was to destroy the achievements of the civilized world as
represented by Greece and, later, Rome and the Byzantine Empire. The few
written sources from this early era give a general picture of an unending
swarm of 'barbaric' Asiatic peoples with strange-sounding names such as
Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, and Khazars,
who successively ruled the steppe hinterland before being driven out by the
next nomadic invaders. To be sure, recent archaeological discoveries,
especially during the twentieth century, have revealed that these nomadic
peoples were neither as uncivilized nor as bent on destruction as the
classical Greek and Romano-Byzantine writers made them out to be. In fact,
the civilizations established by these nomads from the east were often
directed to maintaining a stable environment that would allow their income
from trade and commerce to increase.
Before
turning to the chronological evolution during these two millennia (1150 BCE
to 850 CE), a few general caveats should be kept in mind. When considering the
various nomadic groups and their invasions of the Ukrainian steppe, the
reader may form the impression — and misconception — that the fierce warriors
coming from Central Asia belonged to compact
tribes each made up of a particular people. Moreover, it might seem that
these nomads entered territory north of the Black Sea
that was uninhabited, and that a particular tribe remained as the sole
inhabitants until pushed out by another nomadic people, who, in turn, took
their place and began the demographic cycle all over again. Such a scenario
does not reflect what really occurred.
First of all,
the Ukrainian steppe was never virgin uninhabited land into which nomadic
hordes poured. Archaeological evidence has shown that the steppe and, for
that matter, all Ukrainian territories were inhabited throughout the Stone
Age, from its earliest (the Paleolithic, ca. 200,00o-8,000 BCE) to its most
recent (the Neolithic, ca. 5,000-1,800 BCE) stage. The most important change
during these hundreds of millennia occurred at the beginning of the Neolithic
period (ca. 5,000 ME), when the inhabitants of Ukraine changed their means of
livelihood from hunting and mobile food-gathering to the cultivation of
cereals and the raising of livestock. This sedentary and agricultural way of
life continued generally without interruption through the Neolithic or Bronze
Age (ca. 2,500-1,800 BCE), which is also known on Ukrainian territory as the
era of late Trypillian culture.
The end of
the Neolithic or Copper Age was accompanied by a change in the relatively
stable and isolated existence of sedentary communities in Ukraine. This
change took place because during the second millennium BCE, Ukrainian lands
were exposed to the movement of peoples from east-central Europe, to the
arrival of traders from the Aegean and
Oriental lands, and, finally, to the disrupting invasions of steppe peoples
from the east. Nonetheless, both before and during the period 1150 to 850 BCE
there were always fixed settlements throughout Ukrainian territory inhabited
by people who derived their livelihood from agriculture and the raising of
livestock and, secondarily, from hunting and fishing.
The other
misconception about this period concerns the nomadic invaders. Despite the
fact that authors from the Greek and Romano-Byzantine worlds gave names such
as Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and so on to these groups, none was
ever composed of a culturally or ethnolinguistically unified people. Rather,
these groups were made up of various nomadic tribes that were sometimes
united under the leadership of one tribe that gave its name to (or had its
name adopted by classical authors for) the entire group. Furthermore, after
its arrival in Ukraine,
the sedentary agricultural or pastoral settlers already living there were
also subsumed under the name of the nomadic group that had come to rule over
them. It is in this more complex sense that the names Scythians, Sarmatians,
and Khazars must be understood.
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NOMADIC CIVILIZATIONS ON UKRAINIAN TERRITORY
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Cimmerians
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1150-750
BCE
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Scythians
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750-250
BCE
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Sarmatians
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250
BCE-25o CE
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Roxolani
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Alans
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Antes
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Goths
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250-375
CE
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Huns
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375-550
CE
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Kutrigurs
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Utitrigurs
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Avars
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550-565
CE
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Bulgars
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575-650
CE
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Khazars
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650-900
CE
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The nomads
of the steppe hinterland
The first of
these nomadic civilizations on Ukrainian territory about which there is
information, albeit limited, was the Cimmerian. The Cimmerians seem to have been
an Indo-European group that came to dominate Ukrainian lands north of the Black Sea between 115o and 950 BCE, a period that
coincides with the late Bronze Age. Most of what we know about the enigmatic
Cimmerians comes from archaeological finds consisting of bronze implements
and the remains of bronze foundries. The Cimmerian era lasted on Ukrainian
territory about four centuries, and it is only from the last two of these
centuries (900-750 BCE) that there exist archaeological remains, of bronze
implements and weapons, along the Black Sea littoral near Kherson (the
Mykhailivka treasure) and from the region just south of Kiev (the Pidhirtsi
treasure).
Around the
middle of the eighth century (750 ME), the Cimmerian era came to end. The
Cimmerian leadership seems to have fled westward (across the Carpathians to Pannonia) and southward (to the Crimea and on to Thrace and Asia
'Minor) in the face of a new invasion of nomads from the east – the
Scythians. The Scythians were known in the classical world for their
fierceness as warriors, but this one-sided image has been tempered by
archaeological discoveries which have unearthed numerous examples of finely
wrought sculpture, ornamentation, and jewellery, primarily in gold. The
Scythians actually formed a branch of the Iranian people – more specifically,
that branch which remained in the so-called original Iranian country east of
the Caspian Sea (present-day Turkestan), as distinct from their Medean and
Persian tribal relatives, who established a sedentary civilization farther
south on the plateaus of Iran.
Scythian nobleman / 6th C. BCE
(reconstruction by Angus McBride)
Between 75o
and 700 BCE, the Scythians moved westward toward Ukraine, and eventually they
settled for the most part first in the Kuban Region and Taman Peninsula
(700-550 BCE) and later along the Dnieper River in south-central Ukraine
(550-450 BCE), where their civilization reached its peak between 35o and 250
BCE. Classical sources tell us that Scythian society was composed of four
groups: royalty, notables (steppe nomads), agriculturalists (georgoi), and
ploughmen (aroteres). Actually, only the first two groups – the royalty and
notables – were made up of migrants from the east. This ruling elite, of
nomadic origin and way of life, dominated the sedentary agriculturalists
living under their control and the residents of the cities. Both these
groups, together with their rulers, were known to the outside world as
'Scythians.'
The mention
of cities may seem confusing, since this discussion of the steppe hinterland
has focused so far on nomads and the sedentary agricultural dwellers under
their control. In fact, it seems that the Scythian ruling elite – the royalty
and their notables – virtually lived on horseback, roaming the steppes while
hunting for food or engaging in war with neighboring tribes. One might speak,
however, of mobile Scythian cities, that is, huge caravans of tribes which
moved from one place to another. Nonetheless, there were a few cities – or,
more properly, fortified centers with permanent settlers engaged in activity
other than agriculture – within the Scythian sphere. These were so-called
Oriental-type cities, owned by Scythian royalty and notables and inhabited by
remnants of the Cimmerians and other peoples, who paid tribute to their
Scythian overlords. Among the more important Scythian centers were
Kam"ians'k on the lower Dnieper
River (on the Left Bank opposite Nikopol') and the capital of Scythia Minor, Neapolis, in
the Crimea (north of the mountains, near
present-day Symferopol').
The Greeks of the coastal region
The
few Scythian settlements were in no way as important as the Greek trading
cities along the shores of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Not long after the
Scythians began to enter Ukraine
from the east, in the eighth century BCE, colonists fleeing civil strife in Greece arrived from the south, especially from
Miletus, in Asia Minor.
As a result, between the seventh and fifth centuries BCE several prosperous
Greek cities came into being along the shores of the Black Sea, the Straits
of Kerch, and the Sea of Azov. Among the
first to be established were Tiras at the mouth of the Dniester
River and Olbia at the mouth of the
Southern Buh, then Chersonesus at the southwestern tip of the Crimean
Peninsula and Theodosia far-they east on the Crimean
Peninsula, and Panticapaeum (Bospor) and Phanagoria on the west and east
banks respectively of the Straits of Kerch.
The Greek homeland along both shores of the
Aegean Sea was composed of individual
city-states, each of which jealously guarded its independence. By the fifth
century BCE, however, they had come to form a united civilization whose
achievements set a standard for culture in the civilized world that was to
outlast the city-states themselves. Like the Aegean homeland, the Greek
colonies along the northern Black Sea coast at least initially remained
independent of each other, though they were economically and politically
dependent on the city-state
which founded
them – generally either Miletus, along the Aegean coast in Asia Minor, or
Megara, just west of Athens. There were also periods when the Black Sea colonies were completely independent, or when
they united into federations or states.
The most important instance of a federation came into being about 480 BCE,
when the Greek cities near the Straits of Kerch began to unite under the
leadership of Panticapaeum in what became known as the Bosporan Kingdom.
The Bosporan Kingdom became independent of the Greek homeland, and under its
dynamic king Levkon I (reigned ca. 389-348 BCE) came to control all of the
Kerch and Taman Peninsulas as well as the eastern shore of the Sea of Azov as
far as the mouth of the Don River, where the city of Tanais was established
(ca. 375 BCE). The Bosporan Kingdom included not only Greek cities, but also
the regions around the Sea of Azov inhabited by Scythians and related tribes.
Until the second century BCE, the kingdom flourished as a center of grain
trade, fishing, wine making, and small-scale artisan craftsmanship,
especially metalworking. The following century was to witness a period of
political instability and the consequent loss of Bosporan independence.
Finally, in 63 BCE, the Bosporan Kingdom together with other Hellenic states around
the Black Sea came under the control of the Roman Empire.
The Pax Scythica, the Sarmatians, and
the Pax Romano
During the
nearly five centuries from 700 to 250 BCE, the Greek cities along the Black
Sea littoral, in the southern Crimean Peninsula, and in the Bosporan Kingdom
all developed a kind of symbiotic relationship with the Scythian hinterland.
By about 250 BCE, the center of Scythian power had come to be based in the
region known as Scythia Minor (Mala Skifiia), between the lower Dnieper River
and the Black Sea, as well as in the northern portion of the Crimean
Peninsula (beyond the mountains), where the fortified center of Neapolis was
located. The symbiotic relationship had three elements: (1) the Scythian-controlled
Ukrainian steppe, (2) the Black Sea Greek cities, and (3) the Greek
city-states along the Aegean Sea.
Bread and
fish were the staples of ancient Greece, and the increasing demand
for these foodstuffs was met by markets in the Black Sea Greek cities. These
and other food products came from Ukrainian lands, which already in ancient
times had a reputation for natural wealth. In the fourth book of his History,
the Greek historian Herodotus, who had lived for a while in Olbia, wrote the
following description of the Dnieper River, or, as he called it, 'the fourth
of the Scythian rivers, the Borysthenes': 'It has upon its banks the
loveliest and most excellent pasturages for cattle; it contains an abundance
of the most delicious fish; ... the richest harvests spring up along its
course, and where the ground is not sown, the heaviest crops of grass; while
salt forms in great plenty about its mouth without human aid." In this
region, the Scythians exacted grain and fish from the sedentary populations
under their control and traded these commodities in the Greek coastal cities
along with cattle, hides, furs, wax, honey, and slaves. These products were
then processed and sent to Greece.
In turn, the Scythians bought from the Greeks textiles, wines, olive oil, art
works, and other luxury items to satisfy their taste for opulence.
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SCYTHIAN
CUSTOMS
Among the various customs practiced by the Scythians, those associated with
their reputation as fierce warriors made an especially strong impression on
the classical Greek world. In the fourth book of his History, Herodotus
writes:
The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in
battle. Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries
them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty,
whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order to
strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head above the
ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull out; then with the
rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and softening it by
rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scythian is
proud of these scalps, and hangs them from his bridle-rein; the greater the
number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed
among them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the capotes of our peasants,
by sewing a quantity of these scalps together. Others flay the right arms
of their dead enemies, and make of the skin, which is stripped off with the
nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of a man is
thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other hides.
Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching it upon a
frame carry it about with them wherever they ride.
The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but of those whom they most
detest, they treat as follows. Having sawn off the portion below the
eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside, they cover the outside with leather.
When a man is poor, this is all that he does; but if he is rich, he also
lines the inside with gold: in either case the skull is used as a
drinking-cup. They do the same with the skulls of their own kith and kin if
they have been at feud with them, and have vanquished them in the presence
of the king. When strangers whom they deem of any account come to visit
them, these skulls are handed round, and the host tells how that these were
his relations who made war upon him, and how that he got the better of
them; all this being looked upon as proof of bravery.
SOURCE: Herodotus, The History, translated by George Rawlinson, Great Books
of the Western World, Vol. VI (Chicago, London, and Toronto 1952), pp.
134-135•
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As a result
of these economic interrelations, the Greeks brought to the world the earliest
and still the primary information about the Scythians. Herodotus, in
particular, left a detailed description of the geography, way of life, and
often cruel customs of the Scythians and of the lands under their control.
The other source of information about the Scythians, which corroborates much
of what Herodotus %%rote, is their numerous burial mounds, spread throughout
south-central Ukraine
and excavated in modern times. These burial mounds (known as kurhany, or
barrows) have preserved for posterity that for which the Scythians are most
famous: their small-scale decorative art, which consisted primarily of finely
balanced renderings of a host of animal forms in gold and bronze. It is not
certain whether this art was produced by the Scythians for themselves, or,
more likely, commissioned from Greek artisans living in the cities.
Nevertheless, its themes reflect the violence of the world the Scythians
inhabited, and its forms show the high level of technology their civilization
was able to foster and appreciate.
Scythian warriors
/ 4th C. BCE (reconstruction by Angus McBride)
Notwithstanding
the cruelty to human and non-human animals depicted in their art, the
Scythians brought a period of peace and stability to Ukrainian territories
which lasted for about 500 years and which has come to be known as the Pax
Scythica, or Scythian Peace. During the Pax Scythica, the Scythians promoted
trade and commerce with the Greek cities along the Black Sea, which in turn
supplied Greece
with needed foodstuffs and raw materials. The Scythians also successfully
fought off other nomadic peoples from the east, and they even defeated the
great Persian king Darius I (reigned 522-486 BCE). Darius attempted to
conquer the Scythians and to persianize their land, which he considered to be
'outer Iran'
and part of his own patrimony. His efforts against the Scythians were
unsuccessful, but the incursion of Darius in 513 BCE became the first major
historical event involving Ukrainian territory recorded in written documents.
It would be
some time before long-term stability like that created by the Pax Scythica
was reestablished in Ukraine.
Around 250 BCE, nomads related to the Scythians and known as Sarmatians
appeared in the Ukrainian steppe. The Sarmatians were typical of the
civilizations under discussion in that they were not a homogeneous people,
but rather made up of several tribes, each of which led an independent
existence. Those most directly associated with developments in Ukraine were
the Roxolam and, in particular, the Alans.
At least
during the first two centuries of the Sarmatian presence, that is, from 250
to 50 BCE, the relative stability and resultant economic prosperity that had previously
existed between the Scythian hinterland and the Greek cities of the coast was
disrupted. Pressed by the Sarmatians in the steppe, the Scythian leaders fled
to the Crimea, where they were forced to consolidate their rule over a
smaller region that included the Crimean
Peninsula north of the mountains and
the lands just to the north between the peninsula and the lower Dnieper River. This new political entity,
which, with its capital at Neapolis, was known as Scythia Minor (Mala
Skifiia), lasted from about 250 BCE to 200 CE. Initially, the Scythian
leadership in Neapolis tried to continue its traditional practice of exacting
tribute and goods from the Greeks. But because they no longer controlled the
resources of the steppes, they had nothing to give the Greeks in return. The
result was frequent conflict between the Scythians of the Crimea and the
Greek cities along the coast and in the Bosporan Kingdom.
Click on the map for better resolution
This era of
instability, which affected not only the Sarmatian-controlled hinterland but
also the Black Sea cities, came to an end
along the coastal region after 63 BCE. Beginning in that year, the Roman Empire
succeeded in extending its sphere of influence over the independent Greek
cities as well as over those within the Bosporan Kingdom.
With the presence of Roman legions and administrators in the region, peace
and stability were restored. The new Pax Romana reduced the friction between
the Scythians and the Greeks in the Crimea,
and the Sarmatian tribes in the hinterland also realized the advantages to be
accrued from some kind of cooperation with the Roman world. Reacting to the
stabilizing presence of the Romans, one Sarmatian tribe, the Alans, renewed
the Scythian tradition of trade with the Greco-Roman cities. Before long, a
Greek-Scythian-Sarmatian hybrid civilization evolved within the Bosporan Kingdom,
which itself was revived, this time under the protection of Rome. The resultant trade and commerce
between the steppe hinterland and the Mediterranean world brought a renewed
prosperity to the Bosporan
Kingdom that lasted for
over two centuries.
The third century CE, however, ushered in a
new era of instability, especially in the steppe hinterland, that was to last
until the seventh century. During these four centuries, Ukrainian territory
was subjected to the invasions of several new nomadic warrior tribes who were
bent on destruction and plunder of the classical world as represented by the Black Sea and Bosporan coastal cities. With few
exceptions, the nomads were not interested – as the Scythians and even the
Sarmatians had been before them – in settling down and exploiting by peaceful
means the symbiotic relationship of the steppe hinterland and coastal cities.
Between about 250 and 650 CE, several nomadic groups – the Goths, Huns,
Kutrigurs, Utrigurs, Avars, Bulgars – came and went across parts of Ukrainian
territory. It was not until the arrival of the Khazars in the seventh century
that stability was restored north of the Black Sea.
German map showing migration of the Goths into and
through the Ukraine in the 2nd and 3d centuries CE
The four
centuries of strife between 250 and 650 CE began not with the arrival of
nomads from Central Asia in the east, but
rather with the arrival in the early third century of Germanic tribes known
as Goths from the northwest. Originally from Sweden
and living in what is now Poland,
the Goths moved south into Ukraine,
where they broke the Sarmatian dominance of the hinterland. After 250 CE,
they captured Olbia and Tiras from the Romans, with the result that during
the following century the remaining Greco-Roman cities as well as the Bosporan Kingdom came under Gothic domination.
Mounted Hun and
Goth warrior with a captured Bosporan soldier (reconstruction by Angus
McBride)
German map showing migration of the Alans through the
Ukraine in early 5th century CE
One branch of
the Goths, the Ostrogoths or East Goths, eventually focused their control on
the Crimean Peninsula
and the remnants of the Bosporan
Kingdom, which still
had potential wealth, to be derived from trade and local artisan works.
Ostrogoth rule reached its apogee during the late fourth century under the
king Hermanaric (reigned 350-375). Anxious to maintain good relations with
the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire to the south, the Ostrogoths even
accepted Christianity. In about 400 CE, they received a bishop, the first in
a line of ecclesiastics who were to ensure the presence of Christianity among
the Ostrogoths for several centuries to come. From their mountain stronghold
at Doros, in the Crimean Peninsula (just 12 miles [2o kilometers] east of
Chersonesus), the Ostrogoths, or, as they came to be known, the Crimean
Goths, functioned during the next four centuries as a protective shield for
the Greco-Byzantine cities along the coast against further invasions by
nomads from the north.
German map showing migration of the Huns (375-454) and
Avars (562-803) into and through the Ukraine
(Click on the map for higher resolution)
Meanwhile,
the Ukrainian hinterland north of the Crimean
Peninsula and Black
Sea was subjected to a series of invaders: the Huns in the late
fourth century, the Kutrigurs and Utrigurs in the fifth century, the Avars in
the sixth century, and the Bulgars in the seventh century. More often than not,
the presence of these groups in Ukraine was short-lived. This was
because they were in search of the richer sources of booty to be found along
the borders of the Roman Empire in central Europe (the Pannonian Plain) or
along the trade routes between the Black and Caspian Seas.
During periods when one nomadic group had departed and another not yet
arrived, the power vacuum was sometimes filled by the local population. One
such case was that of the Antes, a tribe of Sarmatian (Alanic) and possibly
Gothic elements which by the third century had organized the sedentary
agricultural population of south-central and southwestern Ukraine into a
powerful military force that stood up to the Goths, the Byzantine Empire, and
the Huns. Because this sedentary population, which the Antes led and to which
they gave their name, was probably composed of Slays, the group is of
particular interest with respect to subsequent developments in Ukraine
(see chapter 4).
German map showing migration of the Bulgars (7th
– 9th centuries) and Kutrigurs / Utrigurs (9th century)
into and through the Ukraine
(Click on the map for higher resolution)
The
Byzantines and the Khazars
While the
Ukrainian steppe and hinterland were experiencing frequent disruptions
between 25o and 650 CE, the coastal region along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov was undergoing another revival. This time the
stabilizing factor was the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, which reached
its greatest territorial extent and political influence during the
sixth-century reign of Emperor Justinian (reigned 527-565). Under Justinian,
the Black Sea coastal cities received
Byzantine garrisons, their walls were fortified, and Chersonesus, on the
western tip of the peninsula, became the region's Byzantine administrative
center. Byzantine Greek culture in the form of Eastern Christianity also was
strengthened, with the result that Chersonesus, with its ten churches and
chapels (including St Peter's basilica in Kruze) and a monastery built in a
cave along cliffs at nearby Inkerman, was to become an important center from
which Christian influence was subsequently to radiate throughout Ukrainian
territory and among the East Slays. Byzantine influence was also strong at
the eastern end of the Crimea, where the Bosporan
Kingdom was revived, this time as a
colony of Byzantium.
While it is
true that direct Byzantine political control over the Crimean cities and the Bosporan Kingdom was frequently interrupted,
economic, social, and cultural ties in the form of Byzantine Orthodox
Christianity were to last until at least the thirteenth century. It was
during the era of Roman and Byzantine control of the Bosporan Kingdom,
moreover, that Hellenic Jews settled in the region's coastal cities. And it
is from these cities that Jewish contacts across the Straits of Kerch were,
by the seventh century, to reach a new nomadic civilization that was
beginning to make its presence felt.
Not
long after the rise of Byzantine influence along the coast, which began in
earnest during the late sixth century, a group of nomads arrived from the
east whose presence was to have a profound impact on the region north and
east of the Black Sea. These were the
Khazars, a Turkic group who originally inhabited the westernmost part of the
Central Asiatic Tyirkyit Empire. Unlike most of their predecessors during the
preceding three centuries, the Khazars preferred diplomacy to war. Soon after
their arrival along the Black Sea, they signed a treaty (626) with the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines, ever anxious about
their own eastern frontier with the Persians and about potential invaders
from the east who might threaten their Black Sea possessions, welcomed the
seeming willingness of the Khazars to fit into the plans of Byzantium's northern diplomacy.
The
appearance of the Khazars in the seventh century proved to be of great
significance for developments in eastern Europe in general and in Ukraine in
particular. The Khazars continued the tradition established by the Scythians
(750250 BCE) and continued by the Sarmatians (50 BCE to 250 CE) whereby
nomads from the east would gain control over the sedentary population of the
steppe hinterland, keep in line recalcitrant nomadic tribes, protect trade
routes, and foster commercial contacts with the Greco-Roman–Byzantine cities
along the Black Sea coast. The age-old symbiotic relationship between the
coast and the steppe hinterland was to be restored under the hegemony of the
Khazars. The resultant Khazar peace, or Pax Chazarica, which lasted
approximately from the mid-seventh to the mid-ninth century, did in fact
cushion the territory from further nomadic invasions from the steppes of
Central Asia in the east as well as from incursions by the Persians and,
later, the Arabs from the south. Because of the Khazars' role in protecting
the eastern and southern frontiers of the European continent, some writers
have compared them to Charles Martel and the Franks in western Europe. The
Pax Chazarica also provided two centuries of peace and stability during which
sedentary peoples living within the Khazar sphere of influence were allowed
to develop. Among those peoples, within and just beyond the northwestern edge
of the Khazar sphere, were the Slavs.
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