Sindians

Sindians 

one of the many Maeotae tribes, which separated from the main group of tribes at an early period and lived from the first millennium B.C. to the first centuries A.D. on the Taman’ Peninsula and in adjacent areas of the Black Sea shore as far as Novorossiisk.

The first mention of the Sindians is found in logographic texts, with additional information provided by the Greek and Roman historians Herodotus, Scylax of Caryanda, Skymnos, and Strabo. Most Sindians were land cultivators, fishermen, craftsmen, or traders. In the early period trade was conducted mostly with Urartu, but in the sixth century B.C. the Sindians began to have commercial dealings with the Greeks. Trade was handled through the Sindians’ own ports of Sind Harbor and Corocondame and through the Greek cities in Sindian territory. Wars with the Scythians led to an increase in the power of Sindian military leaders. In the fifth century B.C., a Sindian state emerged. In the fourth century B.C., the Sindians lost their political independence and became part of the Bosporan Kingdom; the Sindian nobility became part of the ruling Bosporan aristocracy.

The Sindians were the most hellenized of the Black Sea tribes. They took from the Greeks their language, system of writing, names, and customs; participated in Greek competitions and religious rites; and wore Greek ornaments. Sindian weapons were of the Scythian type. Sindian cities are known from archaeological finds and include the Seven Brothers’ gorodishche (site of a fortified town) near the Kuban’ and Ra-evskoe, near Anapa. Many of the kurgans on the Taman’ Peninsula and in the Kuban’ region (Bol’shaia Bliznitsa, Karago-deuashkh, Merdzhany) are burial sites of Sindian nobility. In the first centuries A.D., the Sindians were assimilated by the Sarmatians.

REFERENCES

Gaidukevich, V. F. Bosporskoe tsarstvo. Moscow-Leningrad, 1949.
Anfimov, N. V. Izproshlogo Kubani [2nd ed.]. Krasnodar, 1958.
Krushkol, lu. S. Drevniaia Sindika. Moscow, 1971. [23–1236–]