Pages: 393-406

Excavations at the ancient city of Nikonion revealed a bone psalia, which anticipates the chronological time of the foundation of this Greek colony by about 150 years. Examining this find, the author addresses the issue of the Cimmerian presence in the lower reaches of the Dniester-Tyras, as well as the whole history of the Cimmerians in the time of their existence in the Northern Black Sea region, in Herodotus’s account. Contrary to the opinion about the unreliability of Herodotus’s account and the idea that the Cimmerian logos was set up not at the Black Sea, but in Asia Minor, the author suggests another version, according to which the Greeks could find out about the Cimmerians directly from the Northern Black Sea region, possibly from the Thracian population, with which the Cimmerians had close mutual relations, and which could be perceived by the Greek authors as a relationship between two peoples. This interaction underlay the emergence of the Thracian-Cimmerian culture. After the departure of the Cimmerians and appearance of the first colonies near the mouth of the Danube (Dalmatia, Argamum), their lineup consisted of Thracian population, diffused as a result of the collapse of the Middle Hallstatt cultural province in the middle or the second half of the 7th century. This population could provide information to the Greeks about the history of the people known as the Cimmerians.

Keywords: Northern Black Sea Region, Nikonion, Cimmerians, Tyras, cheek-piese, Asia Minor, Thraco-Cimmerian culture

Information about author:

Igor Bruyako (Odessa, Ukraine). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Odessa Archaeological Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Lanzheronovskaya St., 4, Odessa, 65026, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]