Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος

1. Location

Cimmericon is a settlement which has been studied to a limited extent, as the entire area on Mount Opuk was under the direct control of the Ministry of Defence of the USSR during the period 1952 - 1991. The remains of the ancient settlement have been discovered on Mount Opuk (one of the highest locations of the Crimean peninsula, rising up to 184 m), in South-East Crimea, approximately 50 km. to the south of Panticapaeum-Kerch.¹ The identification of ancient Cimmericon with the settlement revealed on that particular site is now confirmed and complies with the evidence provided by Arrian’s work, The Periplus of the Euxine Sea. The writer specifies the exact location of the ancient settlement in 60 stadia (8 miles) from the ancient city of Cytaea, 300 stadia (40 miles) from the entrance to the Cimmerian isthmus and 240 stadia (32 miles) from Panticapaeum, the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom.²

2. Etymology

The etymology of the toponym derives from the Cimmerians, who exerted great power over the area of Bosporus; hence the epithet Cimmerios was applied not only to Bosporus but also to other place-names in Cimmerian Bosporus.³ According to ancient tradition, the Cimmerians were expelled from the region by the nomadic Scythians as they were advancing into those areas coming from the steppes of Central Asia. Then, the latter were forced to leave by the ancient Greeks from Ionia ⁴ during the late phase of colonisation.

3. Origins of the Greek presence – Relations with Athens

The first Greek settlement on Mount Opuk was established on the west slope, between the coast and the brackish Lake Koyash (Elken in the Crimean Tatar language), on a site where there is evidence for a previous settlement by the culture of Belozerskaya dated in the Late Bronze Age.⁵ Although the date of the initial establishment of the first settlement has not yet been defined archaeologically (due to the lack of ancient written sources), there are some archaeological indications, such as sherds of black-ware pottery, which support the argument that the early Greek presence here is dated to the transition between the 6th and the 5th century BC, and definitely prior to the outbreak of the Ionian Revolt ⁶ (494 BC) against the Persians.⁷

According to some scholars, Cimmericon was one of the many Greek towns of the Black Sea that participated in the First Athenian League (as a result of the well-known campaign of Pericles in the area around 437 BC),⁸ paying a specific tax.⁹ This is deduced by a decree of 425/424 BC found in the Athenian Agora;¹⁰ amongst other Greek cities of the Black Sea, the beginning of name place ΚΙΜ [---] is preserved. Around the Black Sea there are two towns with names starting with ΚΙΜ [---]: Cimmericon and Cimmeris. The second one is located in the Asian Cimmerian Bosporus. Some scholars believe that this inscription (resolution) does not refer to Cimmericon, but most probably to Cimmeris.¹¹

4. The impact of the geological conditions

At the beginning of the 4th century BC, the settlement of Cimmericon temporarily disappears , apparently due to seismic activity in this region of Crimea or even due to political reasons. Moreover, it is believed that the war which broke out between Theodosia and the Bosporan Kingdom led to the destruction of Cimmericon.¹² Recent archaeological research seems to support the first view.¹³ It is obvious that the very disturbed surface of the Mount Opuk confirms the suggestion that the region must have been hit several times by earthquakes and landslides in Antiquity, which destroyed what was built on the hill. This is one of the main reasons why the settlement of Cimmericon had not reached a high level of urbanization. An additional reason is the lack of drinking water on the hill, since a landslide could destroy any source of drinking water. Therefore, it is rather obvious that the geological conditions prevented the creation of a settlement with the features of a Greek city,¹⁴ although the population was predominantly Greek.

5. Fortification

The hill of the settlement offered a significant advantage to the inhabitants who exploited it immediately: its top was flat but precipitous. Thus, they initially built a shelter there (during the 5th century BC) and then a rectangle fortress over a pre-existing fortification. The presence of the fortress might explain the lack of a large fortification wall surrounding the settlement, as the population could find shelter inside the fortress in times of danger. The fortress was completely destroyed in the 1st third of the 6th century AD, when life in the settlement was gradually declining.¹⁵ The Byzantine Emperor Justinian, after the annexation of the territories of Cimmerian Bosporus, did not restore the fortress, which seems to have already lost its role as a guardian of the borders in that period.

1. Кошеленко, Г.А. – Кругликова, И.Т. – Долгоруков, В.С. (eds.), Античные Государства Северного Причерноморья (Москва 1994), p. 71.

2. Кошеленко, Г.А. – Кругликова, И.Т. – Долгоруков В.С. (eds.), Античные Государства Северного Причерноморья ( Москва 1994), pp. 76‑77.

3. Hdt. 4.11‑12, 45 and 7.20∙ Abramov, A.P. – Zavoykin, A.A., “Patraeus‑Cimmeris‑Achilleion”, in Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (ed.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea (Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece 4.1, Thessaloniki 2003), p. 1.135.

4. Strabo 11.2.5.

5. Алексеев, А.Ю. – Качалова, Н.К. – Тохтасьев, С.Р., Киммерийцы: этнокультурная принадлежность (Москва 1993), p. 35.

6. Golenko, Vl.K., “Kimmerikon”, στο Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1675.2, Oxford 2007), p. 1.060.

7. Cf. Herman‑Hansen, M. – Heine‑Nielsen, T. (eds.), An Inventory of Archaic Classical Poleis. An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation (Oxford University Press 2004), no. 700, pp. 946‑947.

8. Καλογεροπούλου, Α., «Οι Αθηναίοι στη Θράκη και στον Εύξεινο Πόντο», Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους Γ1: ΚλασικόςΕλληνισμός (Athens 1970), p. 124.

9. Усачева, О.Н. – Кошеленко, Г.А., “Об одной загадке боспорской историографии”, in Российская Археология 3 (1994), pp. 65-70.

10. Meritt, B.D. – Wade‑Gery, H.T. – MacGregor, M.F., The Athenian Tribute Lists (Cambridge 1939). Also in IG I3 71.IV.166.

11. Завойкин, А.А., “Киммерида-Полис на Киммерийском Боспоре”, in Пробдемы Истории, Филологии, культуры (1997), p. 133; Abramov, A.P. – Zavoykin, A.A., “Patraeus-Cimmeris-Achilleion”, in Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea (Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece, 4.1, Thessaloniki 2003), pp. 1.134-1.135 (cf. earlier bibliography on the subject).

12. Кругликова, И.Т., Киммерик в свете археологических исследований 1947‑1951 гг., in the series Материалы и Исследования по Археологии СССР 85 (Москва 1958), p. 234.

13. Golenko, Vl.K., “Kimmerikon”, in Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1675.2, Oxford 2007), pp. 1.061‑1.062.

14. Golenko, Vl.K., “Kimmerikon”, in Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1675.2, Oxford 2007), pp. 1.062‑1.063.

15. Golenko, Vl.K., “Kimmerikon”, in Grammenos, D.V. – Petropoulos, E.K. (eds.), Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1675.2, Oxford 2007), pp. 1066‑1.067.