Taurer
With Taurer ( ancient Greek Ταῦροι Tauroi ), as well Scythotaurer or Tauroscythen (Pliny HN 4.85), described the Greek writers of antiquity the vorskythische population on the peninsula of Crimea , which they after them Chersonesos Taurike , Taurica or Taurida called (see main article Taurien ) .
The Taurer were therefore an ancient pastoral people who mainly settled in the southern Crimea. By Pontic Greeks , who since the 7th century BC BC founded colonies on the coasts of the Crimea, the Greek world came into contact with the Taurern and Scythians .
The ethnicity can only be scientifically understood from the reports of the ancient authors. Archaeologically, they are difficult to distinguish from the Scythians and Sarmatians . Although Bronze Age ceramics are mostly attributed to the Taurians, this pastoral people had no written or their own tradition. So we remain dependent on the ancient sources.
mythology
The Taurian people under their king Thoas play an important role in the legendary tales of the Greeks about Iphigenia , the daughter of Agamemnon and Klytaimnestras , as well as her brother Orestes ( see Atriden , Tantaliden ).
Homer lets them play a prominent role in the Iliad right at the beginning of the Greeks' exodus into the Trojan War . Behind this circle of myths is probably the memory of an early cult, connected with human sacrifices for the goddess Iphigenia, which the Greeks fused with the cult of Artemis . Such an important cult center of a virgin goddess, Artemis or possibly Iphigeneia , simply called Artemis Tauropolos by the Greeks , must have existed among the Taurians. Another seems to be attested from Asia Minor in the region of Tabriz .
Some authors assume that the Iphigenia story was only included late in the Atrid saga, after the story about Clytaimnestra and Agamemnon had already been completed.
swell
Herodotus reported in the 5th century BC Chr. By the barbarian peoples on the edge of the known world, including from Tauris. In the myth of Iphigenia in the land of the Taurians, in particular, they are described as a rough, wild, ravenous and bellicose people, whom Iphigenia had to help in the temple service of Artemis to cut off the heads of the prisoners (Herodotus 4, 99; 1, 102-103).
The other authors also mention their cruelty and human sacrifice ( Euripides , Iphigenia among the Taurians , especially 28–41; Herodotus 4, 103; Pomponius Mela 2, 11; DS 3.43.5; Tacitus : Annals 2.17; Leskov 1980, 39 f.). In the myth of Orestes the temple of Artemis in the Crimea is mentioned again. Orestes was sent to the land of the Taurians to steal the image of Artemis from that temple.
The Taurians are often described as inhabiting the southern mountains of the Crimea (Herodotus 4,99,3; Strabo 7,4,3; Pliny : Naturalis 4,85). Skymnos (Frag. 12,823) characterizes them as sedentary shepherds, which the later authors probably incorrectly interpreted as nomadic mountain dwellers. However, Skymnos characterizes the Scythians as "house-carrying migrant peoples", so that he would have mentioned this characteristic also with the Taurians. Even after Leskov , the shepherds were mainly cattle breeders who drove alpine pastures in the southern mountains. The philologist Martin Korenjak has therefore suggested reading or translating Skymnos as follows: "They lead a pastoral life in the mountains" .
Ammianus Marcellinus, like Herodotus, describes them in the 4th century as extremely wild and names three Taurian tribes, namely the Arichi , the Sinchi and the Napaei .
Descent and kinship
- Herodotus mentions the Taurians in the fourth book of his Histories as allies of the Scythians against the Persians .
- Strabo describes the Taurians as a Scythian people (Strab. VII 4,5; cf. Plin. Nat. IV 26).
- Various authors have also linked the Taurians with the Kimmerer problem, e.g. B. Hall (Hall 1989, 111). He assumes that the Taurians were remnants of the Kimmerians who migrated to the Crimea and were expelled by the Scythians; This view is not shared by other authors. Others have suggested that the Taurians were a pre-Cimmerian autochthonous population .
Nothing is known about the language of the Taurians.
See also
literature
- Martin Korenjak: The Taurer - sedentary shepherds? in: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies. Duehrkohp & Radicke, Göttingen 5.2002, 221–223. (pdf; 133 kB) ISSN 1437-9074
- AM Leskov: The Taurians. in: Ancient World (AW). Zabern, Mainz 11.1980, 39–53. ISSN 0003-570X
- Ch. I. Kris: Kul'tura tavrov. In: SEC. 1989, pp. 80-83.
- JGF Hind: Archeology of the Greeks and Barbarian Peoples around the Black Sea. in: Archaeological Reports. London 1992/1993, 39, pp. 82-112. ISSN 0570-6084
- K. Kris: Kizil Kobinskaya Kultura i Tavry.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Amm. Mar. 8/22/33