This people entered the history of Crimea under the name "Tavry". It comes from the ancient Greek word tauros, which translates as "bulls."
The Greeks originally called the mountain range in Asia Minor with the word taurcrs, and then transferred it to the Caucasus and Crimean mountains, which they considered its continuation. The people who lived in them got their name from the mountains.
Owners of the coast
With regard to this ancient people (as well as many others), the earliest and most complete information was provided by the "father of history" - the ancient Greek scientist Herodotus. It was he who, in his fundamental work "History", first wrote about the Taurus as inhabitants of the Crimea. Being an active traveler, he visited some cities of the Northern Black Sea region 60-70 years after the campaign of the Persian king Darius I at the end of the 6th century BC. It can be assumed that by that time some witnesses of this significant event were still alive, so the story of the Persian invasion described by him looks quite reliable.
Herodotus notes that when a huge Persian army crossed the Danube and moved into the steppe, the Scythians realized that they could not resist the enemy alone. As a result, they called the kings of neighboring tribes into allies. Some of them agreed to unite with the Scythians, others flatly refused, accusing the nomads themselves of aggression. Among the latter were brands. In particular, they said to the Scythians: “If you hadn’t hurt the Persians before and didn’t start a war with them, then we would have considered your request correct and would gladly help you. However, you, without our help, invaded the land of the Persians and owned it as long as the deity allowed it. Now the same deity is on their side, and the Persians want to take revenge on you in kind. We did not offend these people in any way, and now we will not be the first to be at enmity with them … It seems to us that the Persians did not come against us,but against their offenders."
Having reported this episode, Herodotus also described the habitats of the Taurus, pointing to the mountain and foothill Taurica (modern Crimea). He marked the southern border of their country near the city of Kerkinitida (now Evpatoria). “From here,” writes the “father of history”, “comes a mountainous country, lying along the same sea. It is issued in the Pontus (Black Sea. - Approx. Auth.) And is inhabited by the Taurian tribe up to the so-called Skalisty Chersonesos (Kerch Peninsula. - Approx. Auth.) ". Several centuries later, the "father of geography" Strabo noted practically the same territories as the possessions of the Taurus. In the 1st century BC, he mapped the Taurus coast from the Bay of Symbols (Balaklava) to Feodosia. At the same time, he named the main base of the Taurus pirates - Simbolon Limen, the current Balaklava bay. In it, the pirates, according to Strabo,"They set up their robber dens" and attacked the wanderers who were hiding in it.
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Thus, according to the data of ancient sources, it follows that the Taurus were the indigenous inhabitants of the mountainous Crimea and the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula. However, the opinion of them was not very good.
Bad glory
Even Herodotus called the Taurus a fierce people who make human sacrifices and live exclusively by robbery and war. The Greek historian cites shocking facts. He writes that the Taurus hit the doomed prisoners on the head with a club, and then their bodies were thrown off the cliff into the sea. At the same time, they chopped off the heads of their enemies, planted them on long poles and set them high above the houses. They were usually placed over chimneys so that the smoked heads would be preserved as long as possible. According to them, these terrible trophies were reliable guards and amulets of their homes.
After Herodotus, other ancient authors also wrote about Taurus. And their general characteristics are practically the same. They also considered the Taurus to be barbarians and murderers who engaged in piracy and robbery of shipwrecked seafarers. Thus, the Greek geographer Pseudo-Skimnos at the turn of the 10-11th centuries BC emphasized the cruelty of the Taurus and noted that they "love nomadic life in the mountains." The Taurians were also characterized as mountaineers-nomads by the Greek poet Nikandr Kolofonsky (II century BC), and much later by the historian Ammianus Marcellin (IV century). Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC also noted this warlike people among the pirates of the Black Sea.
The Roman historian Tacitus cites a case when in 49 year several warships returning from the Bosporus were thrown ashore by a storm the Taurus. They were immediately surrounded by hordes of barbarians, who killed all the soldiers who had escaped death in the sea. Tacitus reports that the prefect of the cohort and many soldiers from the auxiliary detachment were killed in that battle. For the proud Romans, this was not only a sensitive but also insulting defeat.
It is well known that the ethnic composition of Crimea fundamentally changed in the 5th century BC, when the Tauric Chersonesos was founded by the Greeks, and many Scythians penetrated the peninsula. For a while, relations between the Taurus and the Greek colonists remained quite peaceful. This is evidenced by the general necropolis in Chersonesos and the available evidence that some of the highlanders were even residents of Greek poleis. Thus, in Panticapaeum, the capital of the Bosporus kingdom, a tombstone was found with the following inscription: “Under this monument lies a husband, longed for by many, from Taurus. His name is Tikhon. But not all Taurus occupied such a high position, and most of them fell to the Greeks as slaves. Another inscription from Chersonesos, carved on the tombstone of the grave of two freedmen, is indicative. She reportsthat one of them - the doctor Vedy Trept - was killed by the Taurus.
Thus, there is no doubt that relations between peoples have not always been good-neighborly. At the same time, the small number of imported Greek finds on Taurian monuments speaks of the isolation of the life of the mountaineers and their unwillingness to enter into close contacts with the Hellenes.
The people of stone tombs
Studying the works of ancient writers, educated people of Russia, already from the end of the 18th century, tried to find monuments of the Taurus in the Crimea. And they were found. On the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains, as well as on the southern coast of Crimea, about 60 ancient burial grounds were discovered. But only one of them survived to our time, the rest were completely plundered. They all consisted of stone boxes, which were used as collective family tombs. The dead were laid in them until the box was filled to the top. After that, he was freed from the bones, leaving only the skulls (68 skulls were found in one of these boxes!), And continued to be buried further. Together with the deceased, a varied, but simplest inventory was placed in the grave.
As a result, the monuments of the 9th - early 3rd centuries BC were attributed to the Taurus. In the mountainous Crimea, they were combined into a Kizil-Kobi culture, named after the place of the first excavations in the Kizil-Koba tract. Their settlements were small and consisted of dugouts, semi-dugouts and small stone dwellings. There were many household (first of all, grain) pits near them. The small thickness of the cultural layer testifies to the mobile lifestyle of the mountain population, due to cattle breeding.
The Kizil-Kobins also began a wide development of deep caves, rock sheds and grottoes. Some of them were used as sanctuaries. For example, in the cave of Yeni-Sala II, animal skulls were discovered, and in another room there was a stalagmite with a mountain goat skull impaled on it. Damp, not adapted for life, caves served as shelters from enemies.
Only the seaside Taurus could engage in robbery of seafarers, and even then in combination with sea gathering and fishing. But where did the stolen valuables go? After all, only antique glass beads were found in the Taurus burials. The overwhelming majority of finds on the site of their settlements and in burial grounds indicate that they were mainly engaged in fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture.
After the II century BC, the Taurus are almost not studied archaeologically. It is only known that in the 1st century BC they, together with the Scythians, acted as allies of Mithridates VI Eupator in the struggle against Rome. The beginning of our era became the agony of the Taurus world. Some part of the Taurian population, apparently, assimilated among the Greeks. Another, much larger, became part of the inhabitants of the Late Scythian settlements. Therefore, archaeologists call the monuments of this period in the mountainous Crimea Tavro-Scythian, and the population - Tavro-Scythian. After the invasion of the Goths, and then the Huns, these fierce inhabitants of Crimea are no longer mentioned.
Evgeny Yarovoy
