Палеогеография, археология и античная топонимика и терминология Крымского Приазовья

Abstract

The article was prepared within the framework of the project "Black Sea and Central Asian periphery of the ancient world and nomadic communities of Eurasia: at the crossroads of cultures and civilizations" № НИОКТР 122011200269-4. The article discusses ancient toponyms, terminology and relevant archeological realities of the Sea of Azov, but mostly their relevancy with paleogeology and paleogeography of the region in antiquity. The attention is mostly paid to the level changes of the Sea of Azov and the Chokrak Lake. The author uses the results of the latest archeological excavations and of some natural-scientific investigations. He analyzes both differences and similarities of the three groups of the sources. In the first “case” the author uses the results of the long-term excavations of the academic expedition led by him. The expedition investigates on the significant area and extent not only multi-temporal and multi-cultural sites of the Sea of Azov, but also relevant natural landscapes. Particularly, several periods of water level decline and rises of local bodies of water have been determined and chronologically confirmed, first and foremost those of the Sea of Azov and neighboring lakes and rivers, as well as of subsoil waters. There processes’ having had impact on the origin, location and state of conservation of settlement structures, demography and features of economic activities of the local population in the 6th century BCE to the 6th century ACE have been analyzed. These results serve to determine two or three periods which show either desolation or (vice-versa) prosperity of the lands in question. But it is important that the results have confirmed that a lot of our written sources are well informed and even objective. Sometimes they permit to better understand the sources or even to correct the former translations and, moreover, relevant comments. Thus, they emphasize again great degree of information in the works by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Scylax, Polybius, Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Plinius Major, Claudius Ptolemaeus and in the less degree of other authors of various historical and geographical works, first and foremost, peripli, on the size and depth of the Sea of Azov, the quantity of settlements on its coasts, the direction of trade routes (proceeding from the main streams), local climate and its changes through centuries, historical events etc. In a number of cases archeology served to significantly clarify the chronology and scope of some changes, and (last but not least) to emphasize the importance of the complex approach for general and specific research of the ancient geographical legacy.