[gothic-l] Neil Acherson's Crimea

[sig]

Neal Ascherson's book award winning book "Black Sea" is
recommended reading for anyone. Unfortunately I have it  available
in a Swedish translation only, out of which I try to sample some
factual notes of interest here. Crimea is a historical tangle and
I'll try first to sort out some major events which have shaped the
historical context for the Gothic precence.

1. The _Scythi_ were already settled on the Crimean steppe when
2. the _Greeks_ first landed on the shores in the 8th century BC
and the colonists could continue to arrive through some 500 years
before the Scythians went westwards and were replaced by
3. the _Sarmatians_. After the Sarmatians came
4. the _Goths_ from north, around 250 CE, followed one century
later by
5. the _Huns_, who laid everything waste, and then
6. the _Khazars_ who, during some time in the 8th century CE, were
able to form a stable empire on the steppes of the Black Sea
coast.
7. _Turk speaking tribes (kiptjaks, kumanes, polovtsijs)_ took
over and held the steppe between the 11th and the 13th centuries
but were eventually driven off west by
8. the _Golden Hoard who were mongole tatars-. The Golden Hoard's
capital city was Saraj on mid Volga but, as the empire crumbled,
the formation of an independent tatar khanate took place on the
Crimea --
9. the "Krimtataristan". Crimea could as such  enjoy a few
peaceful centuries until
10. the Osman Empire came as conquerers after the Constantinople
conquest but, since they already were converted into islam it
merely became a peaceful change of loyalty and the khanate of
Crimea was to last until Katarina the Great conquered Crimea for
_the Russian Empire_ 1783. Nikita Chrustjov finally handed Crimea
over to Ukraina.

The Gothic precence was to last through the periods 4 - 10 until
the 17th century.

Next: More on the Crimean Goths, whereabouts etc. ("Stay tuned..")

Amically,

Seigmund

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