Pages: 443-462

The article examines connections between the population of the Upper Don and the Northern Black Sea regions in 5th century A. D. Black Sea region traditions are represented in the Upper Don by the Late Antique and barbarous cultural elements. On the Upper Don settlements, wheel-made pottery and products of ferrous metal were produced using Late Antique technology. In this region, 3 burials associated with Black Sea region by grave goods and details of funeral rite were studied. A small series of Upper Don hand-made polished vessels is of Late Antique Tanais origin. Some ornaments (earrings, fibulae of different types, bracelets) find analogies in the Lower Don, Crimea and Northern Caucasus. Tanais traditions are represented by a stone house built on the hillfort Chertovitskoje-3. All these data testify the presence of a population from the Northern Black Sea region in the Upper Don in 5th century A. D. This population enabled operation of the trade route from the Azov Sea by the Don River to the Oka region.

Keywords: The Upper Don region, Northern Black Sea region, the Hun period, the trade route

Information about author:

Andrej Oblomskiy (Moscow, Russia). Doctor of historical sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Science
E-mail: [email protected]