The Greeks on the Don. Results of the German-Russian Excavations in Taganrog and the Surrounding Area in the 2004–2007 Campaigns

Abstract

Excavations and surveys at Taganrog, approx. 50 km west of Rostov on Don, have been in progress since 2004, conducted by the German Archaeological Institute, the Don Archaeological Society in Rostov on Don and the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. A combination of excavation and drilling led to the identification, in 2004–2007, of a trade post in Taganrog which appears to have been founded in the last quarter of the 7th century B.C. by Ionian Greeks in what was, in terms of access and trans- port, a highly convenient location in the delta where the Don flows into the Sea of Asov. The settlement can be regarded as one of the earliest of all Greek settlements in the north- eastern Black Sea region.The results so far give reason to suppose that at first relatively small groups of Greeks settled alongside the indigenous population in Taganrog.The field work is integrated into a broadly based research programme which looks at the cultural-historical development of the Don delta between the late Bronze Age and the 3rd century B.C. Further excavations and a survey on the peninsula of Myus Liman west of Taganrog have yielded preliminary results which indicate that the settlement of Elisavetovka in the Don delta played a significant role from the turn of the 6th to the 5th century B.C. onwards, but was joined by other settlements in the course of the 4th century B.C., before the foundation of Tanais by traders from the Bosporan Kingdom brought about a restructuring of the entire settlement system in the Don delta.