Goths and Huns in the Crimea. Goths and Huns in the Black Sea region and Slavic tribes

Chufut-Kale One of the most famous "cave cities" is Chufut-Kale, located three kilometers from Bakhchisarai. It is located on a plateau of a mountain spur that dominates three valleys. Man used the top of the rock prepared by nature itself, increasing

HUNS

According to L.N. Gumilev, the ancestors of the Huns, the Turkic people of the Xiongnu, lived on the territory of modern Mongolia, Buryatia and Northern China, where they created their mighty state. As a result of wars with China and internal strife in 93, it disintegrated. Part of the Xiongnu retreated to the west and formed a new state on the lands of present-day East Kazakhstan. For several decades they successfully resisted the Chinese, and in 155 they were defeated by the Xianbei, the ancestors of the Mongols, after which the Xiongnu ethnos disintegrated. Some merged with the Xianbi, others moved to China, the third, the so-called "weak", settled in the mountain valleys of Tarbagatai and Semirechye, and the fourth, "indomitable", 20-30 thousand warriors, with rearguard battles managed to break away from the pursuing Xianbi and left to the west.

In 158 they reached the Caspian steppes - in 160 g, Dionysius Perieget wrote about their appearance, and in 175-182 - Ptolemy, the Alans in the North Caucasus met them with hostility, but in the neighborhood the refugees found good friends for themselves - the Ugric tribes, inhabiting the forest-steppe zone of the Volga region and the Urals. Probably, for them, an alliance with experienced warriors turned out to be very useful, providing protection from Sarmatian and, apparently, Slavic raids. They lived together for 200 years, gradually merging and mixing, in order to show the world their formidable and ugly face in the middle of the 4th century.

However, in addition to Gumilev's view, supported, by the way, by most modern historians, on the problem of the origin of the Huns, there are others. And the first place in this row undoubtedly belongs to Jordan, the 6th century Gothic historian, who is unfamiliar for objective reasons with the arguments of both ours and foreign luminaries. Here's what he writes in particular:

“King Goths Filimer, the son of the great Gadarich, after leaving the island of Skandza, was the fifth in order to hold power over the Geth and, as we said above, entered the Scythian lands. He found among his tribe several women sorcerers, whom he himself called Galiurunn in his own language. Finding them suspicious, he drove them away from his army and, thus putting them to flight, forced them to wander in the desert. When unclean spirits saw them, wandering through barren spaces, in their arms they mingled with them and produced that fierce tribe that first lived among the swamps - small, disgusting and lean, understandable as a kind of people only in that sense, which revealed a semblance of human speech. It was these Huns, created from such a root, that approached the borders of the Goths. This fierce clan, according to the historian Priscus, having settled on the far shore of Lake Maotian, knew no other business than hunting, except that it, having grown to the size of a tribe, began to disturb the peace of neighboring tribes with treachery and robberies. "("Getika")

Let me remind you in passing that Jordan was a Christian, and therefore by women-witches he meant, most likely, the priestesses of the pagan gods who came into conflict with the king of the Goths. It must be assumed that the witches had many supporters who left with them. Thus, the only logical and completely realistic conclusion from the above statements of Jordan will be this: after the Goths entered the land of Scythia, a split occurred between them, provoked by a religious conflict. Therefore, initially, the Goths and the Huns were either a single tribe, or were part of one inter-tribal union.
It should also be noted that Dionysius Perieget and Ptolemy do indeed mention the Huns, but place them in the Dnieper region, west of the Rusalans. A reasonable question arises as to how the Huns passed from the Chinese border to the banks of the Dnieper without disturbing the Alans. After all, military clashes between the Alans and the Huns will begin only two hundred years later, while the Huns will attack the Alans not from the east, but from the north. Roman historian 4th century. Marcellinus directly writes:

"The tribe of the Huns, about which the ancient writers know very little, lives beyond the Meotian swamp towards the Arctic Ocean and surpasses every measure in their savagery."("Roman History")

The Greeks and Romans called the Sea of ​​Azov the Meotian swamp. Consequently, the Huns lived somewhere in the Volga-Oka interfluve, on the territory of present-day Moscow and the Moscow region, where, according to Herodotus, Gelons and Budins lived in his time (5th century BC). (Read the article "Velikorosy") And where was the capital of Gelons, the city of Gelon or Golun of later sources. According to the Veles Book, Golun was the capital of Rusalania and fell as a result of the war with the Goths. (Read the article "Rusalania"). In domestic medieval sources gelons are referred to as goliad, and Jordan calls them goldeskifs. Let me remind you that Rusalania was formed by people from the southern coast of the Baltic, the Rugs-Wends, who were driven out of their lands by the Goths.
The Rusalans successfully opposed the Goths for nearly eighty years, but were ultimately defeated. And this victory allowed the Goths to break through to the Northern Black Sea region. However, the struggle between the Goths and the Rusalans did not end there, it continued until the Hunnic invasion, the success of which in many respects predetermined. (Read the article "Goths" posted in this section).

The fact that the Slavs were part of the Hunnic alliance is not denied by any of the historians, and it is difficult to deny this in the light of the revelations of the Byzantine ambassador Priscus (mid-5th century AD), who wrote down several words used by the soldiers of the Hunnic leader Attila: "honey", " kvass "," strava "(a memorial meal among the Slavs). Moreover, the entire way of life of Attila and his entourage, also described by Priscus, turned out to be so similar to the Slavic that even stubborn Slavophobes did not dare to deny it. Of course, the Finno-Ugric tribes were a part of the Hunnic union and their nobility played an important role in this union, but the language of the environment of the Hunnic leader was the language of the Gelons-Goltescythians, that is, in fact, the Great Russians. (Actually, the word "Great Russians" is accepted, God knows why, to write with two "s", but I prefer to use one, since "ros" is just a Greekized version of the word "rus"). By the way, the name "Attila", which is considered to be either Turkic or Ugric, is quite consonant with such names as Attal (Roman) and Atalav (Gothic) and, in fact, may turn out to be the Slavic name "Vadislav", which means "vadit", that is, to enchant glory , or "Vladislav". Here is how the Byzantine Priscus describes his visit to the Huns:

“Having crossed some rivers, we arrived at a huge village, in which, as they said, were the mansions of Attila, more prominent than in all other places, built of logs and well-cut planks and surrounded by a wooden fence that encircled them out of sight safety, but for beauty. Behind the royal mansions stood the mansions of Onegesia, also surrounded by a wooden fence; but it was not decorated with towers like Attila's ...
At the entrance to this village, Attila was greeted by girls walking in rows under thin white and very long veils; under each veil, supported by the hands of women walking on both sides, there were seven or more girls singing Scythian songs; there were many such rows of women under the bedspreads. When Attila approached the house of Onegesius, past which the road to the palace ran, Onegesius's wife came out to meet him with a crowd of servants, of whom some carried food, others - wine (this is the greatest honor among the Scythians), greeted him and asked him to taste the treat she had brought benevolently. Wanting to please the wife of his favorite, Attila ate while sitting on a horse, and the barbarians following him lifted the platter (it was silver). Having also sipped the bowl that was brought to him, he went to the palace, which was different in height from other buildings and lay on an elevated place. " ("Gothic Story")

What do you think is the way of life of nomadic steppe people? And where is the mare's milk, in the sense of koumiss? Where are the wagons on wheels? Where are the famous yurts? Of course, Attila could force the conquered Slavs to build mansions for him, but why are these mansions made of wood and not stone? There is only one explanation for this - the Hunnic nobility, including Attila, was used to living in wooden chambers and was not going to change their habits, even moving from the Volga-Oka interfluve to the Danube.

According to Vasilyeva, the Huns themselves were originally participants in the Gothic movement from the shores of the Baltic to the shores of the Black Sea. And here's what she writes about this:

“Many peoples of Central Europe were involved in this movement, and it seems that the Huns were the most western of them. Indeed, in ancient times one of the tribes of Friesland was called "Huns"; all the names of the leaders of the Huns are European, of the Celtic type. The historical and epic tradition of Western Europe has always considered the Huns "their own", in contrast to the Slavs. Thus, the monument of the Germanic epic, "The Saga of Tidrek of Berne", describes the Huns quite amicably, Attila is depicted as a positive hero and is called a native of Friesland; at the same time, the Russians in this saga act as the main opponents of the Huns and "Germans". The same "positive" Huns appear in the "Song of the Nibelungs" ... "("Eurasian history of the Scythians")

Moreover, under the name of the Rus in the "Saga", most likely there are Rugs and Rusalans, under the name of the Huns are immigrants from Goldescythia, who have mixed with the Frisian by this time, and under the name of "Germans" are the descendants of the Scythians, the Wends, who spoke Slavic languages ​​and settled during the "Great resettlement of peoples ”throughout Central Europe. The Russian epic epic dates back to the same period, which, of course, underwent significant changes over the centuries of its existence. (Read the article "Land of the Slovenes" posted on this site). In fact, the cause of the Gothic and Hunnic "invasions" in Europe was the civil war in Great Scythia, which in its final phase had a religious background.

It was started by the Goths who sailed from the distant "Skandza" to the banks of the Vistula. Their onslaught forced the Rugs to retreat to the Danube and the Dnieper. Some of them settled on the border of the Roman Empire, where Danube Russia or Rugia arose, and the other part, led by Kiy, shifted to the Dnieper, where they formed a state or, if you like, a tribal union, which, in addition to the Rugs, included the local tribes of Spols (Polyans), Rosomons ( Sarmatians) and Goldescythians (Great Russians). This state, called Rusalania, rather successfully resisted the Goths for almost a century, but, in the end, was defeated. Apparently, it was at this time that Golun and Voronezhets, mentioned in the Veles book, fell. Most likely, at the same time, Goldskithia fell away from Rusalania, where the Huns established themselves, the allies are ready in the war with the Rusalans. It is difficult to say exactly where the border between the Rusalans and the Huns passed, but in any case, both were originally vassals of the Gothic Empire. Judging by the archaeological data, the Rusalans were forced to move to the northwest, where they partially mixed with the Wends. As for the Frisian Huns, in two hundred years they finally disappeared among the Goldescythians, subjugating the Finno-Ugric tribes, inhabiting both the forest and the steppe zone of the Volga region, between the times of their power. This was all the easier to do because most of these tribes were already part of Rusalania and they inherited the new state of the Huns.

Of course, I can object that there is other evidence of historians, in particular Marcellinus, who paint the Huns themselves and their way of life in the blackest colors. Here's a sample for you:

“Since at the very birth of a baby, his cheeks are cut deeply with a sharp weapon in order to delay the timely appearance of hair on the healed cuts, they live to old age without a beard, ugly, like eunuchs. Their body members are muscular and strong, their necks are thick, they have a monstrous and terrible appearance, so that they can be mistaken for two-legged animals, or likened to those crudely hewn like a man block, which are placed on the edges of bridges.
With such a wild ugliness of the human appearance, they are so tempered that they do not need either fire or food adapted to the taste of a person; they feed on the roots of wild grasses and the half-baked meat of all cattle, which they put on the backs of their horses under their thighs and let it grind a little.
They never hide in any building; on the contrary, they avoid them like tombs, far from the usual environment of people. You can't even find a hut covered with reeds. They roam the mountains and forests, from the cradle they are accustomed to endure cold, hunger and thirst. And in a foreign land they enter under the roof only in case of emergency, since they do not consider themselves safe under it.
They cover their bodies with linen clothes or clothes made from the skins of forest mice. They have no difference between a home dress and an outdoor dress; once a dirty-colored tunic put on the body is removed or replaced with another one not earlier than it crawls into rags from long-term decay.
They cover their heads with crooked caps, their hairy legs with goat skins; shoes that they do not make on any last make it difficult for them to step freely. Therefore, they are not suitable for fighting on foot; but they seem to have grown to their horses, hardy, but ugly in appearance, and often, sitting on them in a female manner, go about their usual activities. They spend day and night on horseback, buying and selling, eating and drinking, and, bending over the steep neck of the horse, fall asleep and sleep so soundly that they even dream. When they have to confer on serious matters, then they conduct the conference, sitting on horses. They do not know the strict royal authority over themselves, but, content with the casual leadership of one of their elders, they crush everything that gets in the way. "("Roman History")

All this resembles the descriptions of the Mongol-Tatars, which European authors sin with in the corresponding era. Especially in this case, the clothes made from the skins of forest mice are touching.
Do you know how Priscus differs from Marcellinus? Priscus is a scout sent by the Byzantine emperor with a rather vile goal - to eliminate the leader of the Huns. However, the conspiracy was revealed and Priscus had no choice but to return home with nothing. His report was not intended for the general public. In essence, his notes are a report to the emperor about a journey to the enemy's camp; Priscus has no reason to either praise the Huns or scold them. He's just doing his job. As for Marcellinus, who died by the way in 390, he worked for the general public. Moreover, he did not see a living Hun in his eyes, since he spent the last decades of his life in Rome. He described the Huns from the words "eyewitnesses", and fear, as you know, has large eyes. Naturally, we all want our enemies to be completely ugly, and our comrades-in-arms are entirely written beauties. In life, however, it happens for everyone.

The reason for the war between the Goths and the Huns, in my opinion, was the murder of his wife Sunilda by the supreme ruler of the Goths by Germanareh. Apparently, in the eyes of not only the Rusalans, but also the Huns, this essentially meant an act of renunciation of the religion of their ancestors, for the wife of the leader among all the tribes of Great Scythia was the personification of the earth. (Read more about the murder of Sunilda in the article "Gotha"). No, it is not by chance that Jordan mentioned the witches who gave birth to the Huns. We are probably talking about the priestesses of the Scythian-Sarmatian-Slavic goddesses, who, by the way, enjoyed great influence in the pagan era and even had their own military formations consisting of women. (You can read more about the witches of the goddess Lada in my novel "The Gold of the Emperor").

During the first stage of this war, the Huns managed to defeat the allies of the Goths Alans and create a bridgehead for an attack on Gothia on the left bank of the Don. This stage demanded considerable effort from the Huns. It began in 360 and ended in 370. The defeated but not broken Alans partly took refuge in fortresses located in the foothills of the Caucasus, partly moved to Gothia, on the right bank of the Don. It was at this Don frontier that the Goths, it seems, were going to stop the Huns, having gathered for this purpose a very powerful army.
However, the Huns, led by Tsar Balamber, made a deep detour in 371 - from Taman they crossed into the Crimea and through Perekop broke into the rear of the enemy. The vast empire of Germanarich instantly crumbled like a house of cards. All the tribes and peoples that made it up, even the Visigoths and Gepids, at the first major defeat, remembered the old grievances and got out of her control, no longer wanting to know the Ostrogothic king. Having dispersed the enemies in the Northern Black Sea region, the Huns also conquered the cities of the Bosporus. It is known that in 375, Germanarich committed suicide by piercing himself with a sword, but the gap between the defeat of the Goths in 371 and this date in the chronicles remains unfilled. Apparently, part of the Ostrogoths retreated to the Danube. Others tried to find support in alliance with the mermaids. For the mermaids, this union turned out to be fatal. After the death of Germanarech, a significant part of the Ostrogoths went over to Balamber and, through combined efforts, they crushed the remnants of the once powerful state of Kiy. The Rusalans, following the Goths, retreated to the Danube. Of course, she left first of all to know. Farmers and cattle breeders, for the most part, had nowhere to run, so after sitting out in the forests, they slowly returned to their native ashes. In this case, the following circumstance must be taken into account: neither for the Goths, nor for the Rusalans, nor for the Danube Slavs, the Huns were by no means strangers. They were all people of the same faith and adhered to similar customs. Hence the unexpected alliances and transitions from camp to camp. Hence the coincidence of Gothic, Hunnic and Slavic names, which seems strange to someone and to which historians adhering to the "Mongolian" version of the origin of the Huns cannot give a clear explanation.
According to the Veles Book, Rusalania fell from the collusion of the Goths with the Huns. Which most likely corresponds to reality and is confirmed by archaeological data: it was by the 4th century. the final death of the forest-steppe Chernyakhovsk culture, which coincides with the existence of Rusalania in terms of time of occurrence, distribution, and other characteristics. Excavations show traces of its brutal defeat, and some remnants of culture are preserved only in the forests.

“Having finished with the northern opponents, Balamber turned to the west, where the Visigoths and the part of the Ostrogoths with the Alans, who joined them, were preparing to defend themselves on the Dniester border. The Huns, of course, did not hesitate to take advantage of this. In 376 - apparently, already taking into account the sensitivity of being ready for detours and encirclements - a detachment of the Huns crossed the Dniester at night in an unprotected place and hit the rear. The calculation turned out to be correct - panic arose again. Part of the Goths rushed over the Danube and asked for refuge from the Romans. Emperor Valens II agreed, but made it a condition for those who had not yet been baptized, universal baptism according to the Arian rite, of which he was a supporter. Another part, led by Atanarikh, fortified in the forests between the Prut and Dniester, and the Gepids who lived in Dacia preferred to enter into an alliance with Balamber. "(Shambarov. "When Legends Come to Life")

In the 3rd century BC it was not in the ground. Northern. The Sarmatians came from the Volga-Ural steppes on the Black Sea coast. Already in the 11-1 centuries before they completely occupied the steppes between. Don and. Dnieper, and sometimes their settlements reached navi. Yuzhny. Buga and. Danube. The name "Sarmatians" comes from the Iranian word - "saoromant", which means "girded with a sword" According to the legend recorded. Herodotus, the Sarmatians came from the marriages of the Scythians with the Amazons - fearless female warriors. Sarmatian women knew how to ride horses no worse than men, they owned weapons and went on campaigns with them. In military affairs, the Sarmatians differed from the Scythians even more in their cruelty and inflexibility, in an even greater horror and unpretentiousness.

... When they appear in cavalry units, no other formation can resist them.

... Tacitus

The main occupation of the Sarmatians was nomadic cattle breeding. They raised cattle, sheep, horses. In addition, they hunted steppe animals and birds, fished, and practiced handicrafts.

At the end of the 1st century a large union of tribes was formed, headed by the Sarmatian tribe of Alans. The end of the Alanian domination in the southern Ukrainian lands was put in the 3rd century by the Germanic tribes of the Goths, and in the second half of the 4th century - by the Hungunis.

Goths

In III in his reign of c. North. The Black Sea region was established by the Germanic tribes of the Goths, forming here. The Gothic state is the goethics. The capital of the state was the so-called "Dneprovo gorod", which was located near one of the rapids. Dnieper (not far from the present village of Bashmachka. Zaporozhye region). Having fixed in. North. Black Sea region, the Goths began their military expansion on. Balkans and. Small. The political unification of the Goths reached Asia the most powerful and powerful in the middle of the 4th century AD during the reign of the king. Germanarich (332-375) Towards the end of the reign. Germanarikha began an unsuccessful war for the Goths with the A Ntiv tribes. After the death of the Gothic king, the military dispute with the antes was continued by his heir. Vinitarian. It was he who, in 375 g, insidiously killed the ants of the prince. God with sons and 70 elders. But the very next year, the Goths were defeated by the nomadic tribes of the Huns, who supported the Antes in their struggle against the Gothic state. After this crushing defeat, the Goetics as a state quickly fell into decay. Most of the population, I moved to the naddunaiski lands, less - remained on the territory. Crimean peninsula. Krimsky p_vostrov.

Huns

After defeating the Goths, the Huns soon seized vast territories from. Don before. Danube. They destroyed the Greek colonies c. The Black Sea region, conquered the tribes of the Goths, Alans, Slavs. To the board. Attila (this is ep V in) the state of the Huns controlled vast territories from. Reina up. Volga. And only after the defeat of V. The Catalaunian battle (451 g) was finally stopped by the Huns. The Catalaunian defeat undermined the power of the Huns' empire. After the death of the king in 453. Attila's state disintegrated, and the Huns gradually dispersed among the local peoples.

... They dress in linen shirts or skins, feed on raw meat and roots

... Ammian. Marcilin

The Huns were replaced by new waves of Turkic nomadic tribes that, crossing. Black Sea region, they were eager for. Danube, in rich European countries

Avars and Bulgarians

In the VI century. North. Hordes of Avars appeared on the Black Sea coast. They attacked the ants, devastated their lands. The struggle turned out to be very grueling, and the Ant tribal union disintegrated (602 g)

Another threat to the Slavs at this time was the attacks of the Bulgars (Bulgarians). Part of the Bulgars settled on. Kame and. Volga, having created a state formation here (Volga. Bulgaria), and the other, passing through the territory of modern Ukraine, settled in the eastern part. The Balkan Peninsula, having founded a strong state -. Danube. Bulgaria. It included the lands of the South Slavs, whose culture exceeded the culture of the Peremozs.

Khazars

Khazars came from. Asia and founded a large state - the Khaganate, which reached its greatest power in VIII. The Khazars were a warlike people who conquered many tribes: Alans, Radimichs, Vyatichs, Polyans, from the northerners the form of dependence of the conquered tribes was the payment of tribute. The capital. Khazar Kaganate was m. Itil na. Lower. VolgeVolzі.

Pechenegs

At the end of the 9th century, new nomads appeared in the southern Russian steppes - the Pechenegs, whose main occupation, in addition to cattle breeding, were predatory raids on neighboring tribes and countries during 915-1036. R. Rus fought with them 16 times, not counting the minor skirmishes of 972 Khan. Smoking u. The Dnieper rapids were defeated by a detachment. Svyatoslav and made a bowl for pittpitta out of the prince's skull.

In 1036, his wife. Yaroslav. She crushed the wise under the walls. Kiev Pechenezh horde and threw it into the endless steppes

Polovtsi

Coming out in the IX century from the territories of the modern. Kyrgyzstan and. Kazakhstan, the Polovtsians ousted the Pechenegs - first from. Urals, and in the first half of the XI century - and from. Black Sea region. The first blow of the Polovtsians on. Russia falls on the 60s of the XI century. By the beginning of the XIII century, the Polovtsians made 46 large campaigns on. Rusa. Russia.

At different times. Russia not only fought with the nomads, but also had peaceful relations with them and even traded. When, from the 60s of the XI, the Polovtsians began to press the Pechenegs, some of them retreated. Danube. With the permission of the Kiev prince, they occupied sparsely populated lands. Pigs and. South. Pereyaslav region. The Rusichi called these Turkic tribes by the color of their hats black klobukamuk.

The chronicles have preserved information about one and a half dozen Russian-Polovtsian marriage unions. Polovtsy, for example, were married. Oleg. Svyatoslavich (grandson. Yaroslav. The Wise, founder of the. Olzhych dynasty) ,. Izyasla av. Davidovich ,. Vsevolod. Olgovich ,. Yuri. Vladimirovich (Dolgoruky), v. Vsevoloda I. Svyatoslav. Olgovich was a Polovchanka mother, u. Igor and. Vsevolod. Svyatoslavich - both mother and grandmother (patronymic).

Nomadic peoples have left a noticeable mark on the history of Ukraine over the centuries, they influenced the development of the Ukrainian lands, on the formation of the material and spiritual culture of the country's population. State formations I Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths existed even before the IV century A.D.

The table provides information about the time of residence of nomadic peoples in the southern Russian steppes and about their state formations

1. Blavatsky V.D. Antique archeology of the Northern Black Sea region. - M., 1961.

2. Gaidukevich V.F. Bosporan cities. - L. - 1981

3. Tsvetaeva G.A. Bosporus and Rome. - M. - 1979

4. Rusyaeva A.S., Zubar V.M. Bosporus Cimmerian: history and culture. - Nikolaev - 1998

5. Ancient states of the Northern Black Sea region. - M. - 1984

6. The most ancient states of the Caucasus and Central Asia. - M. - 1985

7. Terracotta figurines. Ed. MM. Kobylina T.1 - Olvia, T.2 - Chersonesos, T.3 - Panticapaeum // SAI. Issue D.1-11. - M. - 1974

8. Maslennikov A.A. The population of the Bosporus state in the VI-II centuries. BC. - M. - 1981

9. Ancient civilization // Blavatsky V.D. - M. - 1973

10. Kruglikova I.T. Ancient archeology. - M. - 1984

Topic 11. "The Great Migration of Peoples"

in Eastern Europe.

Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture

In the II century. AD Germanic tribe Goths, marching from Scandinavia, appears at the mouth of the river. Vistula. They passed through the land of the Veneti and in the III century. n. NS. appeared in the Black Sea region, destroying Olbia and Tanais. Panticapaeum surrendered and gave them his fleet, but they could not take Chersonesos. On the Bosporan ships, the Goths, Borans and Heruls go out to the Mediterranean Sea and attack Greece. In the Northern Black Sea region, the Gothic Empire was formed, headed by Germanarich. Its capital was located in the mountainous part of the Crimean Peninsula. The Proto-Slavs of the forest-steppe were also subordinate to them. The archaeological equivalent of this power was the mysterious Chernyakhov culture (according to B.A. Rybakov, the first period of flourishing of the Eastern Slavs, according to MB Shchukin, the time of the formation of the Eastern Slavs). In the IV century. AD Gothic king Amal Venitarius lures 50 Slavic leaders to a feast and kills. The Slavs complained to the kagan of the Huns (kagan is the supreme ruler of all the Turks). Under the pretext of protecting the Slavs, the Huns invaded the Northern Black Sea region.

The Huns have been known since the 2nd century. BC. under the name "Sünnu". On the Chinese border, they were defeated, but by the time they appeared in the Black Sea region, they had grown stronger again. There is a point of view that the Huns are either the first wave of Turks or the last wave of Iranians. The northern Black Sea region became part of the Hunnic Kaganate. In addition to the Huns, it included Bulgarians and Alans. At the beginning of the 5th century. the Huns invaded Pannonia, and then, under the leadership of Attila, into Italy. As a result, they were defeated in Gaul by the united troops of the Franks, Burgundians, Visigoths and the remnants of the Roman legions led by Aetius. During the invasion of the Huns, part of the Visigoths was destroyed, while the other part was hiding behind the fortress walls for several centuries. Another part, incl. and the Visigoths, settled on the Danube, in 378 they defeated the emperor Valens near Adrianople. In 410 Rome was taken for the first time. new Bulgarian-Slavic state.

After the Huns, a certain number of Goths remained in the Northern Black Sea region. In the steppes, the Sarmatians were replaced by the Bulgarians, who in the VI century. n. NS. formed their own state - Great Bulgaria, with the capital in the city of Phanagoria. In the middle of the 7th century. n. NS. another wave of nomads comes to this region from Dagestan - the Khazars; they destroyed Great Bulgaria, and the sons of its king (kavkhan) Kubrat lead the hordes of Bulgarians to the Volga and Kama rivers (Volga Bulgaria). Some of them are subordinate to the Khazars - these are Bulgarians-Savirs; another part, together with Khan Asparukh, in 679 passes the Danube, in 681, in alliance with the Slavs, defeats the army of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV. And Byzantium recognizes

Another part of the nomads (Bulgarians and Alans) fled to the upper reaches of the Don to the border of Slavic settlement, where they formed the pastoral and later Volyntsev culture. The Khazars later resettled here the Bulgar-Savirs and in the VIII century. n. NS. They form the Saltovo-Mayatsk archaeological culture. The union of various tribes - carriers of this culture - is the Khazar Kaganate.

In the middle of the 3rd century, Scythian settlements perish under the onslaught of the Goths and Alans. The Scythians as an ethnos cease to exist.

The Goth warrior was armed with a spear, sword or battle ax, dagger. In battle, he covered himself with a wooden shield, in the center of which a metal plaque - an umbon - was fixed. The warrior held the shield by the iron handle. Sheathed swords and daggers were hung from the belt. Gothic women wore a variety of jewelry - brooches, bracelets, earrings, pendants, beads, rings, rings. They used various cosmetics, which were stored in balzamaria - small glass vessels.

In peacetime, the Goths were engaged in agriculture. They grew wheat, bought wine and olive oil in amphorae, red-lacquered and glass dishes, ornaments. The trade was probably bargaining. Some of the coins found in Goth burials have holes drilled - hence, they were used as decorations.

The Germans had developed handicraft production. Blacksmiths made weapons and jewelry from silver, bronze, and iron. Unlike other barbarians, the Goths knew how to use a potter's wheel. They made jugs, bowls and large three-handled vessels - "vases".

The Goths who came to the Crimea were pagans. They worshiped gods who personified the forces of nature. In Germanic mythology, the hammer is the weapon of Thor, the god of thunder and lightning. The Goths believed in the existence of the other world - it was no coincidence that their burials were accompanied by a variety of implements that were supposed to serve the owner in the next world.

The place of the Goths is occupied by the Huns, who came to the Northern Black Sea region in 375. The plain part of the Crimea turned into the nomadic nomads of the Hunnic tribes, and the inhabitants of the valleys moved to the mountains.

The Huns were descendants of the Xiongnu people, warlike nomads who lived north and west of the borders of China.

Anthropological studies have shown that the Huns belonged to the Mongoloid race. They spoke, most likely, in one of the Turkic languages.

The military successes of the Huns are partly due to their more advanced equipment. It was the Huns who brought new types of bows and saddles to Europe. A distinctive feature of the Hunnic bow was its large size (120-160 cm) and asymmetrical shape. It was made from several pieces of wood, sometimes of different species. Bone or horn plates were attached to the wooden base with the help of glue and animal veins, which gave the bow additional rigidity. Arrows fired from new bow designs flew faster and farther than arrows fired from older bows. Thanks to the new bow, the Huns were able to use larger arrowheads, capable of piercing even the most durable armor.

Another invention of the Huns was a new saddle design. In that era, stirrups were not yet known, and therefore it depended on the saddle whether the rider could stay on the horse in the heat of battle. The rigid Hunnic saddle had a wooden base covered with leather and fastened with metal plates. These plates were often decorated with stamped or punched (point) ornaments. The bows of the Hunnic saddles were raised high. It was easier for the rider to fight in such a saddle than in a flat leather saddle.

Cast bronze cauldrons were a feature of the Hunnic culture. Quite a few of these cauldrons have been found in burials. They usually had a funnel-shaped stem, a cylindrical body, the throat was separated from the body by a sharp circular edge, and the U-shaped handles were decorated with mushroom-shaped projections. Some researchers consider the Hunnic cauldrons to be ordinary cauldrons for cooking food, others as ritual vessels in which the meat of sacrificial animals was cooked, and the mushroom-shaped protrusions crowning the handles of the cauldrons are stylized images of the tree of life.

During the excavation of the Hunnic monuments, a lot of original decorations were found, made in red and yellow colors. The surface of gold items was divided into cells, in which there were stones - almandines or carnelian, or inserts of reddish glass. An important element in such things was granulation - an ornament made of tiny gold balls soldered to the surface of the product. This artistic direction was named "Hunnic polychrome style". This is how the handles of swords and daggers, scabbards, buckles, brooches, diadems, earrings, and harness details were designed. Probably, for the manufacture of such things the Huns used gold that came to them from Rome and Byzantium. It is known that they paid off the Huns, paying their leaders huge sums of gold coins - solidi. However, no coins were found in the Hunnic burials. Consequently, gold was melted down and used to make precious jewelry.

Archaeological studies of this and other Hunnic burial monuments confirm the data of written sources - the love of the Huns for gold, the important role of the horse in their life and religious beliefs.

The steppe part of the Belogorsk region experienced a constant change of inhabitants. At the end of the 7th century, the Khazars appear - their settlement Tau-Kipchak (near the village of Zuya) is known. The Khazars were replaced by the Pechenegs. In the middle of the 11th century, they were supplanted by the Polovtsians.

The 13th century brought destruction to the lands of the region: Mongol hordes invaded from the east. Several times they fought on Sugdeya (present-day Sudak), destroying everything in their path. A legend about an oak tree on the outskirts of Belogorsk is connected with these events.

The first mention of the name "Karasubazar" (the old name of Belogorsk) dates back to the 13th century. During these times, a kind of feudal possessions - beyliks - were formed. Most of the region belonged to two clans: Argyn and Shirin. The center of the Argyn beylik was the village of Argyn (present-day Balki). The Shirin clan was the most powerful in the Crimea. The lands of the clan stretched from Perekop to Kerch. At first, the residence of Shirin Bey was in the Old Crimea, but later it was moved to Karasubazar.

At the same time, for the inhabitants, the period from the middle of the 11th century to the 20s of the 13th century was peaceful and favorable. Karasubazar was connected with Sugdeya through a mountain pass. At that time Sugdeya was a large international trade center. Christianity spreads under the influence of Byzantium. The villages of the northern slope of Karabi and along the Belogorsk-Privetnoye road are gradually becoming Christian. Christian villages and cities are expanding, numerous temples are being built.

Later, the mountainous part of the region fell under the influence of the Italians-Genoese. In 1380, they signed an agreement with the Golden Horde governor in the Crimea, according to which the Italians owned Soldaya (Sugdeya, present-day Sudak) and 18 villages in the district. Among them were those that were located along the Belogorsk-Privetnoye road and on the northern slopes of Karabi (for example, the village of Alekseevka).