The Tanais Museum is situated on the outskirts of the township of Nedvigovka in the Miasnikovsky District of Rostov Region. It displays reconstructions of antique buildings and a lapidarium, a group of large discoveries, mainly stone slabs with texts cut on them. Themed and permanent exhibitions are arranged in the Museum’s outdoor halls: antique and painted glazed ceramics, a historical costume museum, Tanais and Nizhny Don in art. A unique hall with amphora samples is the special pride of the Tanais, and it is the only site of outdoor amphorae storage in Europe. Among the most interesting items contained in the Museum’s stock is a 2nd century slab featuring a relief symbol of Bosporus Tsar Rimetalk. Researchers believe that it was built in the defensive walls of the town and bears the tsar’s personal symbol. A marble altarpiece decorated with a bulls head from one side and a female bust from the other one is another unique exhibit. A silver perfume bottle discovered in Tanais is unusually magnificent. Its surface is decorated with inserts of garnet from golden wire. The place where Tanais would initally be excavated first drew the attention of colonel Ivan Alekseevich Stempkovsky, an associate member of the Paris Academy of Science. He is known in history as the founder of the museum of ancient culture in Odessa and Kerch. In 1823, he discovered strange trenches in the wilderness near the village of Nedvigovka, which proved not to be trenches at all, but rather the vestiges of ancient fortifications. Pieces of broken dishes, Greek amphorae, and Bosporus coins supported this theory. The first regular excavations were launched 30 years later and were supervised by Moscow University professor Pavel Mikhailovich Leontiev and famous numismatist Baron Vladimir Gustavovich Tizengauzen. They confirmed the outstanding archeologist’s thesis. Walls and an approximate town plan were discovered. However, in the 1870s, excavations were suspended and were only resumed in the Soviet era. They have continued until today. As a result of these efforts, we can see a touching and dramatic history of a large town that disappeared from the Earths surface. In ancient times, Tanais was considered to be a large trade center in the Northern Black Sea area and Meotida (the Azov Sea was called the Meotida Lake by Greeks). In the Roman era, it was believed that a border between the civilized world and the steppe populated by nomadic barbarians laid there. Pliny the Younger wrote: “For a person entering this place, Europe is to their left and Asia is to their right.” The town name originates from the name of the large river Tanais. In Hellenic geography, this was Northern Donets and Don (in the lower course). However, the coast line has changed considerably over the last two thousand years. The Dead Donets, one of the Don’s branches, now flows in that area. The first settlements were founded there by Greeks from the Bosporus in the 3rd century B.C. No later than the early 2nd century B.C, the residential quarters were fortified by a wall. However, between 14 and 8 B. C., the town was destroyed by Bosporus Tsar Polemon. Greek geographer Strabo wrote about this event as a rumor from a distant area: It had been recently destroyed by Tsar Polemon because of its disobedience. The western part of the town was damaged to the greatest extent and was never rebuilt. The remaining territory was reconstructed quite quickly by its inhabitants, and they celebrate Tanais Day every year to commemorate this event. Tanais greatest period of prosperity was recorded between the 1st -3rd centuries. Local inhabitants were involved in trade, fishing, arts and crafts. Tanais had the only glass production facility in the Northern Black Sea area. Probably, valuable fish such as sturgeon or sterlet were supplied from there to Rome. And they were transported alive; Roman aristocrats could afford this pleasure. The town was populated by representatives of various peoples: Greeks, Jews, Sarmatians, Meotida were counted amongst the inhabitants. However, the archeological materials show that the town quickly shed any ethnic diversity. It formed its own Tanais lifestyle, as proved by the cult of the Supreme God practiced by the town inhabitants. This God resembled Zeus, the Jewish God Yahweh, and the Thracian God Sabazios simultaneously. In addition, the local elite representatives, i.e. merchants, aristocrats, and officials, were members of religious and communal unions. Today, from the far ancient times we know only the names of people that were members of such unions as they are cut on the marble slabs. At the end of the 3rd century, Tanais suffered a new disaster. This time it was almost completely destroyed, and women and children were taken away as slaves. Inhabitants came back to this place almost one hundred years later and lived there for a short time period. They were quite different people and had no command of the fine arts or any idea of architecture. They did not even remove the rubble from the streets and lived among ruins. No written evidence of that time has survived. The last town dwellers left in the early 5th century. Tanais became completely empty. Perhaps the reason behind this is quite simple: the sea retreated and the towns location lost its strategic advantage. This perished town from antiquity has been a landmark and legendary monument among the national archeologists that specialize in antique monuments for many years. Many famous scientists started their scientific careers at the excavation sites of Tanais. One has to be a historian to understand and measure the place, but one has only to visit this place and see the results of several generations of archeologists in order to feel it. Five things to do in Tanais 1. Walk among the excavations of the settlement and try to imagine the way the town used to look during the period of its prosperity. 2. Visit the historical museum and see its collections. Visit the unique hall of amphora samples. Dont miss the many interesting things such as the exhibition of antique ceramics or the marble slab featuring the image of a Roman warrior. 3. Make a tour of the Tsar Mound, a large necropolis near the town, and listen to the tour guide’s story about the burial traditions of steppe peoples as told by Herodotus. 4. See the exhibits of the Historical Costume Museum and imagine being surrounded by people from various epochs. 5. Visit the reserve on September 15 and plunge into the Day of Tanais atmosphere. Tanais, a cultural center Over the many years of its existence, the Tanais Reserve Museum has become one of the centers of unofficial culture in the south of Russia. In the period from 1973 to 2002, when V. F. Chesnok was the Museum’s director, many poets, artists, writers, and musicians took shelter under its shades. Each summer, poetry recitals, festivals of author’s songs and theatrical performances were held, and films were made there. The Tanais festivities gathered large audiences from Rostov, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. The Nizhny Don archeological expedition became the heart of the Lake Poetical School: Gennady Zhukov, Vitaly Kalashnikov, Alexander Brunko, and Igor Bondarevsky dedicated their poems and songs to Tanais. Other Tanais P. M. Leontiev, the first researcher of this significant site, was not completely convinced that Tanais was restored on the same place it inhabited prior to its destruction. He attempted to find the first Tanais near the township of Yelisavetskaya, as well as in other places of the Nizhny Don Area. Alas, he was unable to find anything. However, the other Tanais did exist, but in the middle ages. In the 7th century, Venetians gave the name of Tanais to the trading station on the altered estuary of the Don (today the Old Don). In the 10th century, this territory was taken over by Genoa. Obviously, Genoese built the Genoa stronghold. But in 1395, Tamerlan tore the town to pieces. A century later, the Genoa colony was restored at the place of today’s Azov. But Turks soon came (in 1475) … Tanais River Ptolemy, a famous Greek geographer and mathematician, gave the coordinates of the source and mouth of the Tanais River, which proves that the Tanais River was definitely the name of today’s Northern Donets in Roman times, flowing in the old current (Dead Donets) to the Azov Sea. Therefore, Girgis or Don today was a branch of the Tanais River in ancient times. Academician B. A. Rybakov has astutely concluded that this was related to the fact that the Northern Donets is in the westerly direction, i.e. closer to the then civilized world and so it was considered to be the main river. Legend of Tanais, the son of Beros and Lizippa ...The young man Tanais was the son of the Babylonian priest Beros and Amazon Lizippa. He grew up with his father, but the Amazons hid nothing from him: both as regards the art of love and war. In addition, his father taught him all the wisdom known on the earth at that time. The young man knew the map of the night sky and could steer ships, understood human nature and was able to govern people. The only thing his doting parents failed to give him was obedience. One day Tanais started to mock the Amazons. Purportedly, they held their bows in a comic way and did not sit in the saddle like men. They were too preoccupied with the beauty of their faces and were afraid of getting older. And then the infuriated Artemis, the hunting goddess and the patroness of the brave female warrior tribe, imbued Tanais with love for his own mother. The unhappy young man, who failed to cope with his passion and did not want to dishonor those close to him, dashed into the river from a high hill. It has been called the Tanais River since then. The real origins of the name of the Tanais River (Tan, Ton, Don) is more prosaic: tan (ton) means water, river in Sarmatian.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 12:39:21 +0000
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