The development of the peninsula by man begins in the late Acheulean era 400-100 thousand years ago. The area of the Inner Ridge was mainly inhabited, where there are known sites located under rock canopies. In the open area, sites appear mainly in the Mesolithic-Neolithic era.
In the Eneolithic-Bronze Age (III - II millennium BC), agricultural-shepherd tribes lived in the plains, the monuments of which are numerous settlements and barrows, the latter were used for the inlet burials of subsequent tribes until the late Middle Ages.
At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. in connection with the formation of steppe landscapes, nomads settled here.
Since ancient times, the Crimean peninsula was distinguished by a noticeable dynamics of ethnic processes, which was largely due to its geographical location. Natural contrasts - a combination of steppe and mountain landscapes, an organic connection with the Eurasian steppe in the north, and a maritime environment - contributed both to the influx of the nomadic population and the influence from the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin. It was at the time of the beginning of sea contacts that the first information in written sources about the ethnic communities inhabiting the peninsula belongs.
It becomes possible to identify archaeological complexes with the carriers of ethnonyms mentioned by ancient authors. This is often very difficult and gives rise to heated debates, often continuing for decades.
The earliest historical nomadic tribes are known to us under the name of the Cimmerians. In the VIII - VII centuries. BC. they were supplanted by the Scythians, who ruled in the Crimea right up to the beginning of our era.
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Foothills, with the exception of the Outer Ridge, and the South Coast from the VIII century. to the III century. BC. inhabited by the Taurian tribes, then assimilated by the Scythians, who were driven out of the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region to the Crimea by the Sarmatians who came from across the Volga.
In the VI century. BC. Hellenic colonies appear on the coast, the earliest - on the Kerch Peninsula. In the V century. BC. they were united into the Bosporan kingdom under the leadership of Panticapaeum (Kerch). On the western coast of Crimea in the IV century. BC. previously independent Greek city-states Kerkinitida (Evpatoria), Kalos-Limen (Black Sea town) and others became part of the state, the center of which was Chersonesos, founded at the end of the 5th century. BC.
The development of the Greek city-states of the Crimea took place in an acute struggle with the late Scythians, who by the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. formed their own state in the foothill part of the peninsula and turned aggression on the possessions of Chersonesos. In search of allies, the city turns for help to the ruler of the Pontine kingdom, Mithridates VI Eupator (Diophantine wars). As a result, Chersonesus turns out to be dependent on Pontus, as well as the Bosporus kingdom, where power passed to the Pontic king after the suppression of the action of the Scythian nobility led by Savmak.
Mithridates YI.
In the 60s. 1st century BC. Mithridates was defeated by Rome, who established a protectorate over the Bosporus kingdom.
In the 1st century. to repel the onslaught of the Scythians, Chersonesos turned to the Roman Empire for help. After the arrival of Roman troops, the city became a vassal of the empire.
In the III century. the peninsula was invaded by the East German tribes of the Goths and the tribes of the Iranian-speaking Alans. The Late Scythian state was destroyed, the Bosporus submitted to the aliens. Chersonesus survived from the 5th century. became part of the Byzantine Empire.
In the IV century. the foothills of the Crimea were devastated by the invasion of the Huns, who created in the second half of the 5th century. on the Kerch Peninsula, its own principality, which was liquidated by Byzantium in the 20s. VI century Subsequently, Byzantium established control over the entire coastal zone from Chersonesos to the Bosporus, creating the fortresses of Gurzuvita and Aluston on the southern coast during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), as well as a number of fortresses around Kherson (the medieval name of Chersonesos). The empire persistently spread Christianity among its allied Goto-Alanian population.
In the second half of the VII century. the eastern part of the peninsula was occupied by the Khazars, who extended their rule by the end of the 8th century. to the Kherson area.
By the beginning of the X century. Byzantium regains its influence over the seaside region. In the flat part of the peninsula, for a thousand years, starting from the second half of the 1st millennium, waves of nomadic ethnic groups (Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Mongol-Tatars) have been replacing each other.
In the XIII - XV centuries. the plain and most of the foothill territory were under the rule of the Golden Horde. In the 30-40s. XV century here arose the Crimean Khanate, which separated from it. Initially, the headquarters of the khan was located in Solkhat (Old Crimea), then it was moved to the Kyrk - Or fortress (from the 17th century - Chufut - Kale). At the beginning of the XVI century. Bakhchisarai became the capital of the khanate. The coast from Bosporus to Chembalo (Balaklava) was under the control of the Genoese, the main city was Kafa (Feodosia).
Chufut-Kale.
In the foothills of the southwestern part of the peninsula, the principality of Theodoro was formed with its capital in Mangup. In 1475 the principality and the Genoese colonies were captured by the Turks and passed into the possession of the Ottoman Empire. The Crimean Khanate became its vassal, which determined its political and cultural orientation.
Theodoro.
In the XVI century. the first mention of the Crimean Tatars comes.
As a result of Turkey's defeat in the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-74, which it began. according to the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhiyskiy peace of 1774, the Crimean Khanate was recognized as independent. In 1783 Crimea was included in the Russian Empire.
The Crimean Tatars were formed as a complex multicomponent ethnos, which included both newcomers - conquerors, and the local Islamized and Turkic population. Until the Second World War, there was a clear division of the Crimean Tatars along the main landscape zones. As special groups within the ethnos in anthropological and linguistic terms, the Tatars of the Southern Coast (southern Caucasians, a language close to the Turkish Oguz subgroup of the Turkic branch of the Altai family), the Tatars of the steppe part (the predominance of Mongoloid features, the language of the Kipchak subgroup) were distinguished, the Tatars of the foothill zone occupied an intermediate position … Later, as a result of deportation and subsequent return as a territorial structure, this structure ceased to exist.