Maeotians

The Maeotians (Adyghe: МыутIэхэр, romanized: Mıwt'əxər; Ancient Greek: Μαιῶται, romanized: Maiōtai; Latin: Maeōtae^[1]) were an ancient people dwelling along the Sea of Azov, which was known in antiquity as the "Maeotian marshes" or "Lake Maeotis".^[2] They are often considered to be the ancestors of the Urums, Circassians, Abkhazians, and Abazins.

Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-138 AD), showing the location of the Maeotae on the eastern shore of the eponymous Lacus Maeotis (Sea of Azov)

A Maeotan skeleton from the burial ground near Lenin Farm, Krasnodar region, Russia; 4th to 2nd century BC

Maeotan symbol

Identity

The etymology of the name and the identity of the people remain unclear. Edward James^[2] and William Smith^{[citation needed]} were of the opinion that the term "Maeotian" was applied broadly to various peoples around the Sea of Azov, rather than the name of the sea deriving from a certain people. Their subdivisions included the Sindi, the Dandarii, the Toreatae, the Agri, the Arrechi, the Tarpetes, the Obidiaceni, the Sittaceni, the Dosci, and "many" others.^[3] Of these, the Sindi are the best attested, and were probably the dominant people among the Maeotians.^[4] The language of the Maeotians - and even its language family - is uncertain. One princess of the Ixomates was called Tirgatao,^[5] comparable to Tirgutawiya, a name on a tablet discovered in Hurrian Alalakh.^[6]

Ukrainian archaeologists and modern Hellenists claim that Maeotians were ancient Greeks who established colonies in Maeotia. A Greek historian Apostolos Vakalopoulos claimed that Greeks settled in the south of present-day Donbass and later established colonies on the coast of Kuban. He did not contest the possibility of Greeks intermixing with the local Sarmatians. The Maeotians named themselves after the name of the region, Maeotia, as the Greeks named it.^{[clarification needed]}

Karl Eichwald claimed that the Maeotians originated as a "Hindu" (Indian) colony,^[7] but this view is rejected by the majority of scholars.^{[8][9][10][11]} Soviet archaeologists, historians, and ethnographers concluded that the Maeotians were one of the Circassian tribes.^[13][15] The Cambridge Ancient History classifies the Maeotians as either a people of Cimmerian ancestry or as Caucasian aboriginals.^[4]

History

The earliest known reference is from the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos.^[16] According to Strabo, the Maeotians lived partly on fish and partly from agriculture but were as warlike as their nomadic neighbors. These wild hordes were sometimes tributary to the factor at the River Tanais (the present-day Don) and at other times to the Bosporani. In later times, especially under Pharnaces II, Asander, and Polemon I, the Bosporan Kingdom extended as far as the Tanais.

References

1. Other variant transcriptions include Mæotians, Maeotae, Maeotici, and Mæotici.
2. James, Edward Boucher. "Maeotae" and "Maeotis Palus" in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1st ed., Vol. II. Walton & Maberly (London), 1857. Accessed 26 Aug 2014.
3. Strabo. Geographica, xi. (in Latin).
4. Boardman & Edwards 1991, p. 572
5. Polyaenus. Stratagems, 8.55.
6. AT 298 II.11.^{[clarification needed]}
7. Eichwald, Karl. Alt Geogr. d. Kasp. M.^{[clarification needed]} p. 356.
8. Bayer,^[who?] Acta Petrop.^{[clarification needed]} ix. p. 370.
9. St. Croix,^[who?] Mem. de l'Ac. des Inscr.^{[clarification needed]} xlvi. p. 403.
10. Larcher,^[who?] ad Herod.^{[clarification needed]} vii. p. 506.
11. Ukert, Friedrich August, Vol. iii.^{[clarification needed]} pt. 2, p. 494.
12. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. "Adyghe people".
13. "The Kuban tribes (Adyghe people) are usually referred to by the ancient writers under the collective name Maeotae"^[12]
14. Piotrovsky, Boris. Maeotae, the Ancestors of the Adgyghe (Circassians). 1998.
15. "The study of language, toponymy and onomastics of the north-Western Caucasus gives the grounds referred ancient Maeotae population to the Adyghe- Kassogians ethnic array, which is also in line with archeological monuments Maeotae culture and its links with the subsequent cultures of medieval Adyghe (Circassians)."^[14]
16. Hellanicus's actual reference is to a Maliōtai (Μαλιῶται), which Sturz^[who?] emended to Maiōtai.

Sources

• Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S. (1991). The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 3. Part 2. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521227178. Retrieved March 2, 2015.