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Tanais Tablets
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Tanais Tablets
The Tanais Tablets are two tablets from the city of Tanais near modern Rostov-on-Don, Russia. They are written in Greek and are dated to the late 2nd–3rd century AD. At the time, Tanais had a mixed Greek, Gothic and Sarmatian population. The tablets are public inscriptions which commemorate renovation works in the city. One of the tablets, Tanais Tablet A, is damaged and not fully reconstructed. The other, Tanais Tablet B, is fully preserved and is dated to 220 AD.
The tablets were discovered by Russian archaeologist Pavel Leontiev in 1853. Today, they are kept in the lapidary of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The tablets are considered important for the early Croatian history and etymology of their ethnonym.
Two male names are mentioned on the tablets: Horoúathos and Horóathos (Χορούαθ[ος], Χορόαθος). Tanais Tablet B mentions Horoathos as the son of (or from) Sandarz who was (or had been) the archon of the Tanaisians (one of theory Sandakšatru gens), which is a Scytho-Sarmatian name. These names have been interpreted by scholars as anthroponyms of the Croatian ethnonym Hrvat. The ethonym is generally considered to be of Iranian origin, and can be traced to the Tanais Tablets.
The tablets were discovered by the Russian archaeologist Pavel Leontiev in September 1853. In 1902, A. L. Pogodin was the first scholar to connect the tablets' Iranian personal names with Croatian ethonyms, and as stated by Francis Dvornik (who also related them), "this theory was accepted by the German Slavist M. Wasmer, A. Sobolewski, the French linguists A. Meillet and A. Vaillant as well as by several south Slavonic philologists". Marija Gimbutas also considered them to be related.
Croatian scholars Stjepan Krizin Sakač, Dominik Mandić, and Radoslav Katičić have written significantly about the tablets. When Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav scholars avoided discussing them, or in the case of scholars such as Ferdo Šišić, Trpimir Macan, Josip Horvat, Bogo Grafenauer, Jaroslav Šidak, Gordan Ravančić, Ivan Biondić, and Stjepan Pantelić, discussed the tablets in a superficial way and misinterpreted their content. Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža saw the connection as "historical lunacy", while Nada Klaić used them in her criticism of the Iranian-Caucasian theory of the Croatian ethnogenesis. Open debate only followed after Croatian independence in 1991.
Today, scholars use these tablets only to explain the etymology, and not necessarily the origin and ethnogenesis of the Croats. Theories that early Croats were Slavs who had adopted a name of Iranian origin or were ruled by a Sarmatian elite caste, or that early Croats were Slavicized Sarmatians, cannot dismiss the remote Irano-Sarmatian elements or influence on the early Croatian ethnogenesis. Katičić considered that "to identify this personal name as an indirect trace of the name for the Croats is a serious and fundamentally convincing thesis", still, some like Danijel Džino consider that the secure connection of those three personal names with the Croatian ethnonym, or ethnic identity, is rather difficult without more evidence, Neven Budak that "there is no real evidence, in spite of the great similarity, that they are of the same linguistic origin", and Ranko Matasović as "coincidental similarities".
Tablet A is the larger and older inscription, dated to 175–211 AD, and which originates from the time when the king Tiberius Julius Sauromates II (175–211 AD) ruled the Bosporan Kingdom. The marble tablet, measuring 0.92 m × 0.73 m × 0.09 m (36.2 in × 28.7 in × 3.5 in), probably sustained heavy damage even before the excavation. Thirty-two lines from thirty fragments were saved from the inscription. The public inscription mentions the king, the synod, or devotional assembly, the leadership of the devotional assembly, and its regular members, which were slightly less than forty. The fourth line ends by mentioning the father of the devotional assembly, Horoúathos (Χορούαθος), who is referred to by name in the fifth line, and amongst others, an unknown male who is said to be the son of Horoáthos (Χοροάθου) is also cited. The inscription ends with the date, from which is saved only the appellation of the Greek-Macedonian month, which corresponds to either July or August.
Greek original:
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Tanais Tablets
The Tanais Tablets are two tablets from the city of Tanais near modern Rostov-on-Don, Russia. They are written in Greek and are dated to the late 2nd–3rd century AD. At the time, Tanais had a mixed Greek, Gothic and Sarmatian population. The tablets are public inscriptions which commemorate renovation works in the city. One of the tablets, Tanais Tablet A, is damaged and not fully reconstructed. The other, Tanais Tablet B, is fully preserved and is dated to 220 AD.
The tablets were discovered by Russian archaeologist Pavel Leontiev in 1853. Today, they are kept in the lapidary of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The tablets are considered important for the early Croatian history and etymology of their ethnonym.
Two male names are mentioned on the tablets: Horoúathos and Horóathos (Χορούαθ[ος], Χορόαθος). Tanais Tablet B mentions Horoathos as the son of (or from) Sandarz who was (or had been) the archon of the Tanaisians (one of theory Sandakšatru gens), which is a Scytho-Sarmatian name. These names have been interpreted by scholars as anthroponyms of the Croatian ethnonym Hrvat. The ethonym is generally considered to be of Iranian origin, and can be traced to the Tanais Tablets.
The tablets were discovered by the Russian archaeologist Pavel Leontiev in September 1853. In 1902, A. L. Pogodin was the first scholar to connect the tablets' Iranian personal names with Croatian ethonyms, and as stated by Francis Dvornik (who also related them), "this theory was accepted by the German Slavist M. Wasmer, A. Sobolewski, the French linguists A. Meillet and A. Vaillant as well as by several south Slavonic philologists". Marija Gimbutas also considered them to be related.
Croatian scholars Stjepan Krizin Sakač, Dominik Mandić, and Radoslav Katičić have written significantly about the tablets. When Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav scholars avoided discussing them, or in the case of scholars such as Ferdo Šišić, Trpimir Macan, Josip Horvat, Bogo Grafenauer, Jaroslav Šidak, Gordan Ravančić, Ivan Biondić, and Stjepan Pantelić, discussed the tablets in a superficial way and misinterpreted their content. Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža saw the connection as "historical lunacy", while Nada Klaić used them in her criticism of the Iranian-Caucasian theory of the Croatian ethnogenesis. Open debate only followed after Croatian independence in 1991.
Today, scholars use these tablets only to explain the etymology, and not necessarily the origin and ethnogenesis of the Croats. Theories that early Croats were Slavs who had adopted a name of Iranian origin or were ruled by a Sarmatian elite caste, or that early Croats were Slavicized Sarmatians, cannot dismiss the remote Irano-Sarmatian elements or influence on the early Croatian ethnogenesis. Katičić considered that "to identify this personal name as an indirect trace of the name for the Croats is a serious and fundamentally convincing thesis", still, some like Danijel Džino consider that the secure connection of those three personal names with the Croatian ethnonym, or ethnic identity, is rather difficult without more evidence, Neven Budak that "there is no real evidence, in spite of the great similarity, that they are of the same linguistic origin", and Ranko Matasović as "coincidental similarities".
Tablet A is the larger and older inscription, dated to 175–211 AD, and which originates from the time when the king Tiberius Julius Sauromates II (175–211 AD) ruled the Bosporan Kingdom. The marble tablet, measuring 0.92 m × 0.73 m × 0.09 m (36.2 in × 28.7 in × 3.5 in), probably sustained heavy damage even before the excavation. Thirty-two lines from thirty fragments were saved from the inscription. The public inscription mentions the king, the synod, or devotional assembly, the leadership of the devotional assembly, and its regular members, which were slightly less than forty. The fourth line ends by mentioning the father of the devotional assembly, Horoúathos (Χορούαθος), who is referred to by name in the fifth line, and amongst others, an unknown male who is said to be the son of Horoáthos (Χοροάθου) is also cited. The inscription ends with the date, from which is saved only the appellation of the Greek-Macedonian month, which corresponds to either July or August.
Greek original:
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