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The article is devoted
to one of the most pressing problems of the history of the ancient Northern Black Sea region: the situation in the Lower Don
contact zone in the first centuries CE. Its main peculiarity was the mutual influence
of the ancient and barbarian Iranian world on the one hand, and the interaction
of the sedentary and nomadic population of the region on the other. In the Lower Don from the first to the
third centuries CE, lived three different ethno-cultural groups: the nomads
of Sarmatia, the Greeks (inhabitants of
Tanais), and the Meotians (in
the ancient settlements on the right and left banks of Don). Based on the
analysis of archaeological data and written sources, the features of the Lower Don contact
zone are
presented as a result of evolution in three interconnected planes: economic,
ethno-cultural, and political. Attention is paid to the problem of the Tanais
and Meotian fortifications, as
well as to the identification of specific cultural practices that arisen in
the Lower
Don contact zone.
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Key
words: Tanais, Sarmatians, Meotians, Lower Don area, surface area,
sarmatisation.
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