download PDF

Abstract

The processes associated with the formation of close to modern ethnohistorical communities of the Crimean population are not suffi ciently covered from the standpoint of anthropological research. The purpose of this article is the fi rst presentation of the anthropological material related to the community of the Crimean Khanate of the Christian population defi ned as Crimean Greeks, to consider it in an ethnohistorical context and to address some of the debated topics related to the ethnic history of the Crimean Greeks of early modern times. By the end of the 1st millennium AD on the territory of Southwestern Taurica, an ethnic community is formed, which is named the “medieval nationality of the Mountainous Crimea”. Representatives of communities heterogeneous in their origin and economic basis participated in its formation; they settled on the peninsula from the period of the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The formed community continued its existence, having survived the decline of the political infl uence of the Byzantine Empire in the region at the beginning of the 13th century and the series of subsequent destructive invasions of the Mongols in the 14th century. Scholars use both the terms “Greek medieval nationality” and “Crimean Greeks.” After the Ottoman conquest of the Crimea in 1475, the Christian population lived in the territories under the jurisdiction of both the Crimean Khanate proper and the Ottoman Empire. The Greek Christians constitute a separate, fairly closed ethno-confessional community with elements of internal self-government. The anthropological series investigated by the author represents residents of the Late Medieval settlement of the village of Mangush located near Bakhchisaray in the mountainous part of the Southwestern Crimea. The series includes fi ve male and seven female skulls, and a teenage skull. It is noteworthy that two female skulls with signs of circular artifi cial deformation were present in the sample. The results of the intergroup comparison of the series are demonstrated by the preservation of the main features of the anthropological type characteristic of both the rural and urban population of the central regions and northern foothills of the Crimean Peninsula in the Byzantine time, and of synchronous series representing the Muslim population of the region.

Keywords

Crimea, Middle Ages, archaeology, anthropology, Greeks, Turks, craniology, ethnic history.

Aleksey V. Ivanov

Institute Archaeology of the Crimea Russian Academy of Sciences, Simferopol, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Aybabin, A.I. 1999: Etnicheskaya istoriya rannevizantiyskogo Kryma [Ethnic History of the Early Byzantine Crimea]. Simferopol.

Aybabin, A.I., Gertsen, A.G. 1990: Osnovnye etapy etnicheskoy istorii Kryma [The main stages of the ethnic history of the Crimea]. Vestnik. Informatsionno-metodicheskiy byulleten. Obshchestvenno- politicheskogo tsentra KO KPU [Historical and Methodological Bulletin of the socio-political center of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Ukraine Communist Party] 3, 2–18.

Aybabin, A.I., Gertsen, A.G., Khrapunov, I.N. 1993: Osnovnye problemy etnicheskoy istorii Kryma [The main problems of the ethnic history of the Crimea]. Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografi i Tavrii [Materials on the History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Taurica] III, 211–221.

Aliyev, V.G. 1972: Kaba-Dargo v XVIII–XIX vv. [Kaba-Dargo in the 18th and 19th centuries] Makhachkala.

Belyy, A.V., Belyy, O.B., Loboda, I.I. 1993: Pozdnesrednevekovye plitovye mogilniki Yugo- Zapadnogo Kryma [Late medieval slab cemeteries of the South-Western Crimea]. In: U.M. Mogarichev (ed.), Istoriya i arkheologiya Yugo-Zapadnogo Kryma [History and Archaeology of the South-Western Crimea]. Simferopol, 160–173.

Benevolenskaya, Yu.D. 1970: Antropologicheskiye materialy iz srednevekovykh mogilnikov Yugo- Zapadnogo Kryma [Anthropological materials from the medieval burial grounds of the South-Western Crimea]. (Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and Researches on Archaeology of the USSR] 168). Moscow–Leningrad.

Bobrovnikov, V.O. 2009: Obychay i zakon v pismennykh pamyatnikakh Dagestana V- nachala XX vv.: do prisoyedineniya k Rossii [Custom and law in the written sources of Dagestan of the 5th to the beginning of the 19th century: Before joining Russia]. Vol. 1. Moscow.

Chernysheva, T.N. 1958: Novogrecheskiy govor sel Primorskogo (Urzufa) i Yalty Pervomayskogo rayona. Stalinskoy oblasti [The modern Greek dialect of the villages of Primorsky (Urzuf) and Yalta, Pervomaysk District, Stalin Region]. Kiev.

Garkavets, A.N. 1974: V.V. Bartold o veroispovedanii kypchakov X–XIII vv. i probleme etnogeneza armyano-greko-kypchakov i karaimov [Bartold on the religion of the Kypchaks in the 10th to 13th centuries and the problem of ethnogenesis of the Armenian, Greek-Kipchaks and Karaites]. In: V.G. Gafurov (ed.), Barotoldovskiye chteniya [Barotold Readings. Abstracts of reports] Moscow, 18–20.

Ivanov, A.V. 1997: Antropologicheskiy material iz musulmanskogo nekropolya v 6 MKR. g Bakhchisaraya [Anthropological material from the Muslim necropolis in the 6th quarter of Bakhchisaray]. In: I.N. Khrapunov (ed.), Bakhchisarayskiy istoriko-arkheologicheskiy sbornik [Bakhchisarai Historian and Archaeological Collection]. Simferopol, 360–366.

Ivanov, A.V. 2003: O praktike iskusstvennoy deformatsii golovy u razlichnykh grupp naseleniya pozdnesrednevekovoy Tavriki [On the practice of artifi cial deformation of the head in various groups of the population of Late Medieval Taurica]. In: U.A. Babinov, H. Hoffmannm (eds.), Vostok–Zapad mezhkonfessionalnyy dialog [East–West interfaith dialogue] Sevastopol, 72-79.

Ivanov, A.V. 2014: Novyye dannyye o praktike iskusstvennoy deformatsii golovy u naseleniya srednevekovoy Tavriki [New data on the practice of artifi cial deformation of the head among the population of medieval Taurica]. In: A.G. Sitdikov, N.A. Makarov, A.P. Derevyanko (eds.), Trudy IV (XX) Vserossiyskogo arkheologicheskogo syezda [Proceedings of the IV (XX) All-Russian Archaeological Congress]. Vol. 3. Kazan, 57–60.

Ivanov, A.V. 2018: Antropologicheskiy material iz peshchernykh nekropoley gornogo Kryma [Anthropological material from cave necropolises of the mountain Crimea]. Vestnik Antropologii [Bulletin of Anthropology] 2(42), 56–72.

Ivanov, A.V. 2019: Ob antropologicheskom tipe «srednevekovoy narodnosti gornogo Kryma» [About the anthropological type of “medieval nationality of the mountain Crimea”]. In: N.A. Alekseyenko (ed.), ΡΣΩΝΟΣ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ. Imperiya i polis XI Mezhdunarodnyy Vizantiyskiy Seminar. Materialy nauchnoy konferentsii [Hersonas Femata: Empire and Policy XI International Byzantine Workshop. Materials of the scientifi c conference] Sevastopol, 111–114.

Ivanov, A.V., Vasilyev, S.V. 2019: Kraniologicheskaya kharakteristika pozdnesrednevekovykh krymskikh tatar [Craniological characteristics of the Late Medieval Crimean Tatars]. Vestnik antropologii [Bulletin of Anthropology] 4 (48), 243–251.

Korelov, I.A. 1990: Inoyazychnyye greki (urumy) na territorii Gruzii [Foreign Greeks (Urumahs) on the territory of Georgia]. Izvestiya Akademii nauk Gruzinskoy SSR. Seriya istoriya iskusstva. [Transactions of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR. A series of art criticism] 2, 133–149.

Pletneva, S.A. 1990: Polovtsy [The Polovets]. Moscow.

Radochin, Yu.N. 2002: Novyye antropologicheskiye materialy iz mogilnika u s. Luchistoye [New anthropological materials from the necropolis near the village Luchistoye]. Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografi i Tavrii [Materials on the History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Taurica] IX, 19–134.

Sokolova, K.F. 1962: Antropologichni materiali mogilnikiv Inkermanskoi dolini [Anthropological materials of the Inkerman Valley burial grounds]. Arkheologychny pamyatky URSR. Starodavni pamyatki Inkermanskoy dolini [Archaeological Sites of the URSR. Old-time sites of the Inkerman Valley] XIII, 124–154.

Sorochan, S.B. 2005: Vizantiyskiy Kherson. [Byzantine Kherson] Kharkov.

Shchukin, M.B. 2005: Gotskiy put [Gothic road]. Saint Petersburg.

Yakobson, A.L. 1970: Rannesrednevekovyye selskiye poseleniya Yugo-Zapadnoy Tavriki. Early medieval rural settlements of Southwest Taurica. (Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and researches on Archaeology of the USSR] 168). Leningrad.

Yakobson, A.L. 1973: Kultura i etnos rannesrednevekovykh selishch Tavriki [Culture and ethnos of the early medieval villages of Taurica]. Antichnaya drevnost i sredniye veka [Antiquity and the Middle Ages] 10, 131–138.

Zinevich, G.P. 1973: Antropologicheskiye materialy srednevekovykh mogilnikov Yugo-Zapadnogo Kryma. [Anthropological materials of the medieval burial grounds of the South-Western Crimea]. Kiev.