Since the 1st millennium BC. e., and possibly earlier, on the southern coast and the mountains of Crimea settled the Taurian tribes, whose ethnic origin has not yet been completely clarified. Perhaps the Taurus were the indigenous inhabitants of the Crimean Peninsula, or perhaps they are part of the Cimmerians who retreated to the Crimea from the Northern Black Sea region under the onslaught of the Scythians. It is also possible that these are the tribes who came to the Crimea through the Kerch Strait from the Central and North Caucasus. It is not known for certain. The arrangement of burial grounds - "stone boxes", the similarity of ceramics and bronze decorations of the Taurus with the monuments of the Caucasus of the 1st millennium BC. e. may mean the ethnic and cultural identity of the population of the mountainous Crimea and the Central and North Caucasus.
The self-name of this tribe has not survived to our time, since after the Taurus there were no written sources left. Tauroi is a Greek word, possibly related to the name of the area that gave the name to the tribes living there. The mountain system in the south of Asia Minor was called Taurus and in ancient times it was believed that the Crimean, Caucasian and Balkan mountains are a continuation of the Taurus mountains. The ancient Greeks called Crimea Chersonesus Tauride - "the peninsula of the Taurus".
Many ancient sources mention Taurus. In the History, written in the middle of the 5th century, Herodotus writes about the Taurus: “From Istria, there is already ancient Scythia, lying south in the direction of the south wind to the city called Kerkinitida. Further - from this city, the country facing the same sea, mountainous and protruding to Pontus, is inhabited by a tribe of Taurs up to the peninsula called Skalisty (Kerch Peninsula - A. A.), this peninsula juts out into the sea, facing the east wind. … The Taurus have the following customs. They sacrifice to the Virgin both the shipwrecked, and those Hellenes whom they will capture, having swam into the sea, thus: having completed the preliminary rites, they hit them on the head with a club. Some say that they throw the body down from the cliff (after all, the sanctuary was erected on the cliff), and stick their head on a stake; others agreethat the head is stuck on a stake, but they say that the body is not thrown off a cliff, but buried. The brands live by robberies and war. " The famous Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who lived at the turn of our era, writes in his "Geography" that "most of (Crimea - AA) up to the isthmus and the Karkinitsky Gulf was occupied by the Scythian tribe of the Taurus." He also mentions the Balaklava Bay - “a harbor with a narrow entrance, where the Taurians (a Scythian tribe) used to gather their bandit gangs, attacking those who fled here. This harbor is called Simbolon Limen and forms, together with another harbor called Ktenunt, an isthmus of 40 stadia. Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus wrote about the Taurus, calling the Taurus "barbarians and murderers" engaged in piracy. However, according to archaeological evidence,During the excavations of the Taurian settlements, no objects were found (except for beads) obtained as a result of pirate raids and plunder of foreigners.
Most of the Taurus settlements were concentrated on the southern coast of the Crimea - the sea coast from Cape Aya to Feodosia, two to eight kilometers wide, occupying one percent of its territory, and in the Crimean Mountains on the southern and southeastern parts of the Crimean Peninsula. The Crimean mountains reach a height of up to one and a half kilometers in the south and two hundred meters in the north and are up to one hundred and fifty kilometers long and about fifty kilometers wide. The highest ridge of the Crimean Mountains is the southern one, stretching from Cape Fiolent and Balaklava to the Old Crimea and the Agarmysh and Tepe-Oba mountains near Feodosia. The flat tops of the southern ridge are called "yayla", which means "pastures" in Tatar, and are usually up to four kilometers wide. The main ridge of the Crimean mountains consists of Laspinskaya, Foros, Ai-Petrinskaya, Yalta, Nikitskaya Yail, Babugan-Yaila, Chatyr-Dag, Demerdzhi-Yaila,Dolgorukovskaya and Karabi-Yaila. These "yayly" - "pastures" were used by the Tavrs for grazing sheep and pasture cattle breeding. The wide valleys between the southern and middle ridge of the Crimean mountains, starting at Inkerman and through Belogorsk reaching Feodosia, were convenient for the construction of Taurus villages. For hunting and housing, the Taurus also used the foothill areas of the third ridge of the Crimean Mountains, connecting with the second ridge east of Zuya. The path to the southern coast of Crimea was closed by a two-meter thick defensive wall built by the Taurus, folded dry from large stones and passing from the north from the foot of Cape Eklizi-Burun to the south to the cliff at the headwaters of the Alma River. In the northern and southern parts of the wall there were two gates, made in the form of openings. The wide valleys between the southern and middle ridge of the Crimean mountains, starting at Inkerman and through Belogorsk reaching Feodosia, were convenient for the construction of Taurus villages. For hunting and housing, the Taurus also used the foothills of the third ridge of the Crimean Mountains, connecting with the second ridge east of Zuya. The path to the southern coast of Crimea was closed by a two-meter thick defensive wall built by the Taurus, folded dry from large stones and passing from the north from the foot of Cape Eklizi-Burun to the south to the cliff at the headwaters of the Alma River. In the northern and southern parts of the wall there were two gates, made in the form of openings. The wide valleys between the southern and middle ridge of the Crimean mountains, starting at Inkerman and through Belogorsk reaching Feodosia, were convenient for the construction of Taurus villages. For hunting and housing, the Taurus also used the foothill areas of the third ridge of the Crimean Mountains, connecting with the second ridge east of Zuya. The path to the southern coast of Crimea was closed by a two-meter thick defensive wall built by the Taurus, folded dry from large stones and passing from the north from the foot of Cape Eklizi-Burun to the south to the cliff at the headwaters of the Alma River. In the northern and southern parts of the wall there were two gates made in the form of openings.connecting with the second ridge east of Zuya. The path to the southern coast of Crimea was closed by a two-meter thick defensive wall built by the Taurus, folded dry from large stones and passing from the north from the foot of Cape Eklizi-Burun to the south to the cliff at the headwaters of the Alma River. In the northern and southern parts of the wall there were two gates, made in the form of openings.connecting with the second ridge east of Zuya. The path to the southern coast of Crimea was closed by a two-meter thick defensive wall built by the Taurus, folded dry from large stones and passing from the north from the foot of Cape Eklizi-Burun to the south to the cliff at the headwaters of the Alma River. In the northern and southern parts of the wall there were two gates, made in the form of openings.
Inkerman Upland.
The Taurus lived in compact family communities, jointly managing the economy, in settlements located in valleys and foothills by water and hard-to-reach mountain well-fortified shelters made of stones. There are no traces of Greek colonies in the places of their settlement, there are almost no images of Taurus from Greek masters. The main occupations of the mountain Tavrs were hunting and pasture cattle breeding - seasonal migrations with herds from the valleys to the "yayly" and vice versa. The Taurus herds consisted of sheep, goats, cows and oxen. The Taurus, inhabiting the foothill regions and valleys, were engaged in hoe farming and fishing, weaving and spinning, and bronze casting. Pottery production was developed. The early Taurus did not know the potter's wheel, the dishes were made by hand using the belt method and then fired on a fire or in primitive pottery kilns.
Dozens of Taurus monuments are known in Crimea. The main monuments of the Taurus IX-VI centuries BC. e. are the settlement of Uch-Bash near Inkerman, Alma-I, five kilometers from the village of Partizanskoye, Ashlama-Dere, four kilometers east of Bakhchisarai, Balaklavskoye against the Balaklava bay, Belogorskoye on the left bank of the Karasu River, Tash-Dzhargan near the village of Krasnopeshchernoye, seven kilometers south of Simferopol. The earliest Taurus monument in the Crimea is the settlement of Uch-Bash near Inkerman. The village was surrounded by a defensive wall of one row of rough stones. Inside the wall were dwellings of irregular rectangular shape, each with an area of about forty-five square meters. The walls of the dwellings consisted of a frame coated with clay mixed with straw. Inside the semi-dugout was a hearth for cooking and an ash pit. Household and hearth pits with a diameter of up to two meters and a depth of up to half a meter and pits for storing grain with a diameter of up to one and a half meters and a depth of one meter were dug near the dwellings. During the excavations, many fragments of ceramics were found - dishes, household pots with a height of one and a half meters, a stone mold, fragments of stone hoes, stone grain grinders, flint inserts for sickles. Many grains of wheat, barley, beans and peas, bones of wild and domestic animals - pigs, sheep and goats were found.barley, beans and peas, bones of wild and domestic animals - pigs, sheep and goats.barley, beans and peas, bones of wild and domestic animals - pigs, sheep and goats.
Settlements of the Taurus VI-V centuries BC e. found on Mount Koshka near Simeiz, on Mount Karaul-Oba near the village of Novy Svet near Sudak, in the Kosh-Koba cave near the village of Lesnoye, twenty-five kilometers east of Simferopol. There are known Taurian settlements near the village of Krasnogorskoye in the Zuisky District, Simferopolskoye near the Salgir River, Inkermanskoye at the confluence of the Black River into the sea, Yusuf-Koba III cave, Syundyurlyu-Koba, Shan-Koba, Fatma-Koba in the Baydar Valley. During this period, the Taurus settled in the coastal regions of the Kerch Peninsula.
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Settlements of the Taurus V - I centuries BC e. found on Cape Ai-Todor, seven kilometers southwest of Yalta, on Mount Ayu-Dag, three kilometers east of Gurzuf, on Mount Krestovaya in the Alupka Valley, on Mount Kastel, five kilometers southwest of Alushta, in Osipova Balka and near the village of Zavetnoye near Bakhchisarai, in the village of Aivazovskoye, Staro-Krymsky District. Between the villages of Zalesnoye and Krepkoye, a Taurian refuge Kyzyk-Kulak-Kaya was discovered.
An iron sword blade, an iron dagger, arrowheads, an iron ax, a horse harness, bronze jewelry - pendants, torques, bracelets, plaques, rings, beads, and ceramic dishes were found in the only non-plundered burial ground of Mal-Muz in the Baydar Valley. In other Taurus villages, during excavations, the following were found: household and kitchen utensils - vessels, pots, braziers, drushlags; tableware - bowls, cups, cups and jugs; stone and flint tools - axes, hoes, sinkers, millstones, knives, flint arrows; bone products - spinning wheels, jewelry, awls, needles, piercing; metal items - iron ornaments, horse harness and weapons - axes, swords, arrowheads.
In the religion, the Taurus inherited from matriarchy the deity Virgo, who personified fertility. Human sacrifices were made to the Virgin. Strabo writes that the temple of the Virgin stood at Cape Partenit near Ayudag. The Taurus sanctuaries of the Virgin were found in the Yeni-Sala II cave near the village of Chaikovskoye, in the Kizil-Koba caves, in the Selim-Bek tract near Yalta, where many fifteen-centimeter terracotta statuettes of the Virgin were found. The cult of the Taurus deity was also widespread in the Greek colonial cities on the Crimean peninsula, in particular in Chersonesos. From VI to III century BC e. Taurus and ancient Greeks lived peacefully, the Chersonesus necropolis of this period was joint. The Cimmerians, Chersonesos and the Bosporus kingdom unsuccessfully tried to conquer the Taurus. In the III century, the Taurus raids on the Greeks began, seizing new lands for their vineyards.
The Taurus did not have slavery. In the 1st century, ancient sources began to call the Taurus "Tavro-Scythians" or "Scyphotaurs". When moving the center of the Scythian state at the end of the III century BC. e. the peaceful assimilation of the Taurs and Scythians - sedentary and nomadic tribes of different ethnicity - began from the Northern Black Sea region to the Crimea and the strengthening of its power. Subsequently, the Taurus and Scythians fought together against the detachments of the Pontic commander Diafant. The Scythians were greatly influenced by the Taurian culture, using, in particular, the knowledge and techniques of the Taurus in mining and fortification in the construction of their fortresses and fortifications.
Mount Mangub-kale.
According to historical sources, the Taurus as a separate people existed until the 4th century.
Historical sources telling about this period also mention the ancestors of the Slavs. The common ancestral home of a single Indo-European community, from which the most ancient ancestors of the Slavs came out, is not known for sure, perhaps it is Asia Minor. It is reliably known that around the II millennium BC. e. the ancestors of the Slavs mastered the second ancestral home - the lands between the Dnieper, the Carpathians and the Oder. In the 1st millennium BC. e. on this territory, the first association of the Pre-Slavs was formed, possibly together with the Scythians - chipped.
In the middle of the II millennium BC. e. in Eastern Europe, there was a strong cold snap that lasted until the 10th century BC. e. Due to condensation of moisture in the glaciers, the bottom of the World Ocean and the Black Sea has sunk. In the Northern Black Sea region, humidity has decreased and a dry and cold climate has been established. The deterioration of natural conditions in the Black Sea and Caspian steppes led to the fact that by the X century BC. e. there the local population almost disappeared. During this period, the climate improves and stabilizes, humidity increases, and favorable conditions are created for the development of the steppes. In the XV - XII centuries BC. e. In the northern Black Sea region, the tribes of the Sabatinovo archaeological culture lived, in the XII-IX centuries they were replaced by the tribes of the related Belozersk culture. In the 9th century BC. e. nomads appear in the Northern Black Sea region,the archaeological culture of which is known from the burial mounds, called by some researchers "Cimmerian".
Cimmerians - in Greek "kimmerioi" - semi-sedentary and nomadic pastoralist tribes that appeared in the Northern Black Sea region in the 9th-10th centuries BC. e. The ethnic origin of the Cimmerians, possibly Indo-European or Iranian, has not been reliably established. Ancient sources date their appearance on the historical arena to the 8th century BC. e.
From his homeland - the Lower Volga region at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Cimmerians went through the Urals to the Northern Black Sea region and captured the Crimea, apparently throwing the Taurus tribes - the indigenous population of Crimea - into the mountains and on the southern coast. The army of the Cimmerians, obviously, was a detachment of light cavalry and consisted of all the combat-ready men of the tribe. The warriors were armed with bows, swords, daggers and spears. In Klazomenes, a Greek city on the western coast of Asia Minor, a drawing on a sarcophagus of the 6th century BC has been preserved. e., depicting Cimmerian horsemen. The horse was domesticated by man in the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. and until the II millennium, it was used mainly in sledding, transporting chariots. Only herdsmen rode on horseback. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. In the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, horseback riding became widespread, and military cavalry was created. During the excavations, metal bits from this period were found, and the creation of a horse army was possible only if the horses had such a bridle. Previously, bridles with soft bits and bone cheekpieces were used. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppe there was a transition from sedentary to nomadic cattle breeding. The cattle ate the grass, new pastures were needed, and it was impossible to guard the huge herds on chariots during the transitions. The cavalry units were a military force characterized by simplicity of equipment and speed of movement. Perhaps the first to mount horses were the Cimmerian tribes.and the creation of a cavalry army was possible only if the horses had such a bridle. Previously, bridles with soft bits and bone cheekpieces were used. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppe there was a transition from sedentary to nomadic cattle breeding. The cattle ate the grass, new pastures were needed, and it was impossible to guard the huge herds on chariots during the transitions. The cavalry units were a military force characterized by simplicity of equipment and speed of movement. Perhaps the first to mount horses were the Cimmerian tribes.and the creation of a cavalry army was possible only if the horses had such a bridle. Previously, bridles with soft bits and bone cheekpieces were used. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppe there was a transition from sedentary to nomadic cattle breeding. The cattle ate the grass, new pastures were needed, and it was impossible to guard the huge herds on chariots during the transitions. The cavalry units were a military force characterized by simplicity of equipment and speed of movement. Perhaps the first to mount horses were the Cimmerian tribes.characterized by simplicity of equipment and speed of movement. Perhaps the first to mount horses were the Cimmerian tribes.characterized by simplicity of equipment and speed of movement. Perhaps the first to mount horses were the Cimmerian tribes.
The Cimmerians settled along the entire northern coast of the Black Sea from the Dniester to the Kerch Strait, Taman and the North Caucasus, occupying part of the steppe Crimea and the Kerch Peninsula and dividing into Dniester, Azov, Taman, Crimean and Kerch - the most powerful. The Cimmerians were the first to organize the manufacture of iron in large volumes and created the iron weapons with a steel blade, perfect at that time - swords and daggers with bronze handles. The Cimmerian tribes apparently consisted of two ethnic groups. In the Northern Black Sea region, there are two main archaeological types of Cimmerian monuments - the Chernogorov group dating from the 9th-8th centuries BC, and the Novocherkassk group of the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. At present, about ten burials of the 8th - early 7th centuries BC are known in eastern Crimea. e. The main archaeological monuments of the Cimmerians on the Crimean peninsula are located in the southeast and south of Crimea - burial grounds near Kerch, Zeleny Yar, near the modern villages of Lugovoy, Front, Maryina, in the Uch-Bash tract near Inkerman. In a burial near the village of Tselinnoye in the Northern Sivash region, bronze pendants overlaid with gold leaf, a fragment of an iron dagger, a touchstone and a vessel were found. A stone stele was also found in the mound with the image of a warrior in a harness belt with a bow attached to it, a gorite - a case for arrows and a dagger with a ring-shaped top. In a burial near the village of Zolny near Simferopol, an iron sword, bronze, iron and bone arrowheads, remains of bronze horse bits with ringed ends and three-loop cheekpieces, a flat-bottomed earthenware vessel and a stone whetstone were found. Near the village of Sergeevka on the coast of the Sivash Strait, there probably was a seasonal camp of the Cimmerians - the so-called "winter road". During archaeological excavations, bronze bits with ringed ends were found there, which is one of the main objects unearthed in Cimmerian sites. In other mounds, which belonged to the Cimmerians, bronze and copper swords, daggers, knives, spears and sickles, metal and earthenware, ornaments were found. Archaeological data indicate a significant similarity between the Sabatinovo, Belozersk and nomadic cultures. Currently, more than a thousand monuments of the Sabatinovskaya and Belozersk archaeological cultures have been excavated, the location of which coincides with the borders of the country of Cimmeria, located, according to Herodotus, between the mouth of the Danube and the northwestern Azov region, including the Crimean peninsula. These archaeological cultures are characterized by massive adobe and stone construction with settlement planning, a large number of bronze casting workshops. The population was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, crafts for the processing of leather and bone were developed. Local tribes of the Sabatinovskaya and Belozerskaya cultures went on military campaigns. In the eastern Mediterranean, in the Mycenaean cities and Asia Minor, ceramics and weapons of northern Black Sea origin were found. The Cimmerian nomads significantly accelerated the transition of the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region from a sedentary to a nomadic way of life. Local tribes of the Sabatinovskaya and Belozerskaya cultures went on military campaigns. In the eastern Mediterranean, in the Mycenaean cities and Asia Minor, ceramics and weapons of northern Black Sea origin were found. The Cimmerian nomads significantly accelerated the transition of the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region from a sedentary to a nomadic way of life. Local tribes of the Sabatinovskaya and Belozerskaya cultures went on military campaigns. In the eastern Mediterranean, in the Mycenaean cities and Asia Minor, ceramics and weapons of northern Black Sea origin were found. The Cimmerian nomads significantly accelerated the transition of the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region from a sedentary to a nomadic way of life.
Eriklik.
It is also possible that the main core of the Cimmerian tribes was not in the Northern Black Sea region, but on the Iranian plateau. There is a point of view that the Cimmerians have never been to the Northern Black Sea region at all and as an ethnos have never existed, and the term "Cimmerians" means a "mobile horse detachment" of nomads. Many researchers believe that the Cimmerians and Scythians were related East Iranian tribes driven by other nomads from Central Asia and the north of the Persian Gulf and left for the Iranian highlands, where in the 1st millennium BC. e. ancient sources recorded large movements of the Iranian-speaking tribes. The Cimmerians, as the vanguard of the Scythians, marched into Asia Minor not from the Northern Black Sea region, but from the Iranian highlands. Archaeological sites of the 10th - 9th centuries in the Northern Black Sea region are quite difficult to connect with the historical Cimmerians,since all ancient sources, in particular Herodotus, speak of the presence of the Cimmerians there as a legend. The Cimmerian archaeological culture is almost identical to the Scythian, and it is quite difficult to establish conclusively which historical monuments belong to the Cimmerians and which to the Scythians. In the geographical names of Crimea, local toponyms have survived to our time: Bosporus Cimmerian, Kerch Strait, Cimmerian crossings, Cimmerian walls, Mount Cimmeria, ancient cities of Cimmerian and Cimmeria, and eastern Crimea was called "the country of Cimmeria". However, all these names appeared in Greek antique sources, and Greek authors often confused the names of nomadic pastoral tribes, calling the Cimmerians Scythians and vice versa. Cimmerian geographical names could have been adopted by the ancient Greeks from the Scythians. Scythians,those who passed to the Crimean peninsula from the east through the North Caucasus along the long-known road through the Kerch Strait, named it after the tribes from which they learned about its existence. The Scythians could connect with the Cimmerians and the country they conquered - the Crimean Peninsula, calling it "Cimmeria", and the remains of structures, ferries and cities, to which the Cimmerians themselves might not have a relationship. The Greeks who came to the Crimean peninsula were of little interest in its steppe part and they adopted the Scythian "Cimmerian" names only in that part of the Crimean peninsula where their colonies arose and the paths of Greeks and nomads crossed. The local population also called the Kerch Strait "the fish route" - "Pantikapa". The Greeks, for whom the Cimmerians lived in the north, could call the strait Cimmerian Bosporus, that is, "northern",in contrast to the existing Thracian Bosporus. Strabo wrote: “Once the Cimmerians possessed power in the Bosporus, which is why it was named the Cimmerian Bosporus. The Cimmerians are a tribe that disturbed the inhabitants of the interior of the country with their raids on the right side of Pontus as far as Ionia. However, the Scythians drove them out of this area, and the latter - the Greeks, who founded Panticapaeum and other cities on the Bosporus … Cimmerians, who are called Treras (or some kind of Cimmerian tribe), often invade the countries located on the right side of Pontus, and in the adjacent to these areas, sometimes attacking Paphlagonia, sometimes even Phrygia. Ligdamid (king of the Cimmerians - A. A.) led his warriors to Lydia and Ionia and took Sardis, but died in Cilicia. Such incursions were often carried out by the Cimmerians and Treres. As they say,treras … were eventually driven out by Madai, the king of the Scythians. " The Cimmerians made hikes deep into European lands, along the Vistula or Oder they reached the Baltic Sea for amber. Cimmerian tribes often raided the southern Black Sea coast, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia and Phrygia. Assyrian sources of the 5th century BC e. - cuneiform, calling the Cimmerians gimir, say that the Cimmerian troops in the twenties of the VIII century BC. e. appeared on the northwestern border of the Transcaucasian kingdom of Urartu and defeated the army of the Urartian king Rusu I.who call the Cimmerians gimir, say that the Cimmerian troops in the twenties of the VIII century BC. e. appeared on the northwestern border of the Transcaucasian kingdom of Urartu and defeated the army of the Urartian king Rusu I.who call the Cimmerians gimir, say that the Cimmerian troops in the twenties of the VIII century BC. e. appeared on the northwestern border of the Transcaucasian kingdom of Urartu and defeated the army of the Urartian king Rusu I.
Subsequently, the Cimmerians made campaigns to Asia Minor, to Lydia. They often raided through the Hellespont Strait, which separates Europe from Asia, to the lands of Asia Minor, to North Africa, to Egypt, and reached Palestine. In 679 BC. e. the Cimmerians led by Teushpa invaded Assyria, but were defeated. Assyrian sources speak about the presence of Cimmerians in the Caspian and Pre-Caucasus regions, Greek - about Cimmerians in the northeast and northwest of Asia Minor - in Paphlagonia, Bithynia and Troas. In accordance with their information, large tribes of nomads, Cimmerians and Scythians, were constantly moving in Asia Minor, plundering the local population and participating as mercenaries in the hostilities of the states of this region, now on one side or on the other.
In 672 BC. e. the united Cimmerian-Median army attacked Assyria. Assyrian king Assargadon turned to the Scythians who were then living in Central Asia for help. The union was concluded, and by 650 BC. e. The Scythians ousted the Cimmerians from the Northern Black Sea region, at the same time finding themselves a magnificent living environment and escaping from the more powerful Eurasian nomads who were oppressing them themselves, whom Herodotus called the Massagets and Issedons. From this period, the Scythians are no longer mentioned in the Assyrian sources.
View of the palace in the Orianda estate.
The Cimmerian tribes were divided into several parts. Part went west and was defeated by the Scythians on the Dniester River. Another part managed to escape to Asia Minor, strengthened in its northeastern part - Cappadocia and in 644 captured the capital of Lydia - Sardis. After the wars 615 - 565 BC e. The Lydian king Aliat defeated the Cimmerian troops, the remnants of which partly mixed with the local population and remained under the control of the Scythians, and partly went to Western Asia, where they were assimilated and ceased to exist as a single people. The Crimean and Kerch Cimmerian tribes tried to conquer the lands of the ethnic ancestors of the Slavs along the Southern Bug, but were completely defeated, went to the Vistula and in the battle at the confluence of the Bug into the Vistula, were destroyed. It was in those days that the ancestors of the Slavs made the longest fortifications on the southern border of the forest-steppe - "Serpent Shafts"stretching along the banks of the Dnieper for hundreds of kilometers and protecting the border from the 7th century BC. e. until the 4th century. Subsequently, the Pre-Slavs built powerful fortresses near the ramparts.
Part of the Cimmerians remained in the Northern Black Sea region and the Northern Caucasus, submitting to the Scythians and assimilating with them and other local peoples. By the beginning of the Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea region in the VI century BC. e. Cimmerians no longer existed as an ethnos. Since that time, they are no longer mentioned in written sources.