Melancholy

The settlement area of ​​the Melanchlänen is located in the extreme north of the area mapped here. Anonymous copper engraving from London around 1770.

The Melanchlannen (from ancient Greek Μελαγχλαῖναι, black coats) settled according to Herodotus (4, 20) north of the Royal Scythians and the Sauromats and west of the Budins on the eastern bank of the Borysthenes , thus probably in the forest steppe . North of their settlement area, the land is swampy and deserted. They were named for their black coats. They had adopted Scythian customs (Herodotus IV, 107), but refused to support the Scythians on their campaign against the Persians.

Also Hecataeus of Miletus and Ptolemy mention this people. Ptolemy settles the melancholy in the neighborhood of horse-footed mythical creatures, the hippopods .

B. Grakow equates them with the Saudaraten , which are mentioned in a 3rd century inscription from Olbia . According to Dio Chrysostom , the inhabitants of Olbia also wore black coats, like certain neighboring peoples.

The Iron Age Sula Don culture , especially the Donets group of the forest steppe, is sometimes associated with the Melanchlanes. Grakow interprets the 26 hectare settlement Gorodistsche as a capital of the melancholy. It has a fortified main castle and two suburbia .

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• B. N, Grakow, Die Skythen (Berlin 1978). (Original Скифы, Moscow 1971).