- Reconstruction of a Maeotian's appearance. 8th century BC.
Maeotians — 1) located along the eastern coast of Maeotis, like the Sindi, the pre-Scythian population of southern Russia. In the 6th-7th centuries BC, some Maeotian tribes (Sindi, Toretae, Dandarii, Psessi) became part of the Bosporan Kingdom. Ancient and medieval authors used the name 'Maeotians' as a collective term for the tribes of the eastern and southeastern coast of Maeotis (modern Sea of Azov); 2) a Sarmatian tribe that occupied the plains of the North Caucasus.
Presumably, by the 5th century BC, some Scythians were assimilated into the Maeotian milieu. In the 4th-3rd centuries BC, many of the Maeotian tribes became part of the Bosporan Kingdom.
The question of the ethno-linguistic affiliation of the Maeotians is debatable. Strabo in Book XI of his Geography lists among the Maeotians the Zikhs (Greek: Ζυγοί), Sindi (Greek: Σινδοὶ), Agri (Greek: Ἄγροι), Toretae (Greek: Τορέται), Dandarii (Greek: Δανδάριοι), Arrhechi (Greek: Ἀρρηχοί), Tarpetes (Greek: Τάρπητες), Dosci (Greek: Δόσκοι), Obidiaceni (Greek: Ὀβιδιακηνοὶ), and Sittaceni (Greek: Σιττακηνοὶ).
According to one version, the Maeotians are relics of the ancient Indo-European population of the Azov region, dating back to the times of the Yamnaya culture. Even in the 19th century, Eduard Eichenwald proclaimed that the Sindi, related to the Maeotians, were a colony of Indians on the Black Sea coast. Indeed, Polyaenus writes that "the Maeotian woman Tirgatao (Ira) married the Greek Hecataeus, who became king of the Sindi, who live a little above the Bosporus." Tirgatao is the only Maeotian name recorded in sources, and it reliably converges with the Indo-Iranian female name Tirgutavia, recorded in the territory of Mitanni, in Hurrian Alalakh. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, on the contrary, indicates that "some of the Maeotians were linguistically related to the Adyghe (Circassians), some were Iranian-speaking." According to some modern archaeologists, the name of the ancient tribes on the outskirts of the Bosporan Kingdom (modern Krasnodar Krai) was a synonym for "swamp dwellers," that is, those living near the Maeotian Lake (swamp). Similar to the Dregovichi — swamp dwellers (people living in swamps, floodplains).
According to Khudaverdyan 2012, craniological and dental studies reveal a direct familial relationship between subjects from the following burial grounds:
• 2000-1500 BC — 99 Volga-Ural region, Spiridonovka II, Rozhdestveno I. Abashevo culture. Figure 2
• 1800-1100 BC — 144 Ukraine, Shirochansky. Thracians, Cimmerians. Srubnaya and Belozerka cultures. Figures 2, 3
• 1100-600 BC — 20 Georgia, Mtskheta, Samtavro, Tserovani. Figures 2, 3
• 600-300 BC — 129 Don Estuary, Beglitsa. Scythians, Maeotians. Figure 2
Judging by the Abkhaz-Adyghe G2a2b, which prevailed in the Northern Black Sea region before the Caucasian War, there are direct grounds to consider G2a2b as one of the main haplogroups of the Maeotians and Scythians of this region.
VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Meoti, Maeotae, Meotae, Meothes, Maeotici, Meotidae, Maietae, Greek. Μαιωται, Μαιδαι, Μαιδοι, Μαΐδοι, Μαιται, Μαιηται, Russian. Meoty, Meotidy, Meotiki.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015