Sindi people

Not to be confused with Sinti, a modern subgroup of the Romani people, or Sindhis, an ethnolinguistic group in South Asia.

The Sindi (Ancient Greek: Σίνδοι, romanized: Síndoi; Adyghe: Щынджыхэр; Ubykh: Шинджишвё; Latin: Sindi) were an ancient Scythian people who primarily lived in western Ciscaucasia. A portion of the Sindi also lived in Central Europe. Their name is variously written, and Pomponius Mela calls them Sindones, while Lucian calls them Sindianoi.

Sindi
Language	Scythian Maeotian Ancient Greek
Religion	Scythian religion Maeotian religion Ancient Greek religion

Origins

Initially, the linguo-ethnic affiliation of the Sindi was not reliably identified: no Sindian inscriptions have been discovered within the territory of Sindica, and the Sindi were the most heavily Hellenized of the local regional groups. Consequently, the only available research material has been the toponymy of Sindica, which has survived primarily in the form of Scythian glosses preserved within ancient Greek texts. In his study "On the Sindi and Their Language" and later in "Indoarica" (1999), O. N. Trubachyov advanced the hypothesis that the Sindi, like other Maeotian tribes, were "local Proto-Indo-Europeans, distinct from the neighboring Indo-Iranians. The Sindo-Maeotian language is Indo-Aryan, with the characteristics of an independent dialect (or dialects)."

N. V. Anfimov maintained a critical view of Trubachyov's hypothesis, arguing that these conclusions were highly controversial. Anfimov proposed instead that the Sindi belonged to the Caucasian peoples, allowing for the active participation of the Sindi, as part of the wider Maeotian tribal group, in the ethnogenesis of the Adyghe (Circassian) people. Yu. S. Krushkol likewise classified the Sindi among the indigenous Caucasian tribes.

A. M. Novichikhin regarded the Sindi as a syncretic ethnic formation that over a relatively long historical period seamlessly combined not only the cultural but also the linguistic traditions of both the migratory Caucasian populations and the native, local inhabitants.

History

Ciscaucasia

Sindi warrior statue. Limestone, I A.D. Kerch Archaeology Museum.

Ancient terracotta vessels unearthed at the Sindian necropolis near Phanagoria. The photograph by Prokudin-Gorskii (c. 1912).

The Sindi were a tribe who established themselves on the Taman peninsula, where they formed a ruling class over the indigenous North Caucasian Maeotians. Archaeologically, the Sindi belonged to the Scythian culture, and they progressively became Hellenised due to contact with the Bosporan Kingdom.

In the 6th century BC, the Sindi were mentioned for the first time in a brief account by Pseudo-Scylax, who specifically wrote:

The Sindi. After the Maeotians live the Sindi; but they also extend to the areas outside the gulf; and within their territory exist the following Greek poleis: the polis of Phanagoria, Kepoi, Sindian Harbour, Pityous.

Of all the Black Sea tribes, the Sindi were the most heavily Hellenized: they adopted the Greek language and script, names and customs, trade and financial instruments from the Greeks, participated in Greek athletic competitions and religious cults, and wore Greek jewelry. However, this influence was evidently mutual. The Sindo-Maeotians integrated freely into Hellenic cities and were represented across all strata of the population—from the ruling class to slaves.

As the Scythians lost more territory in Ciscaucasia to the Sauromatians over the course of the late 6th century BC, the Sindi remained the only Scythian group still present in the region, in the area called Sindica (Ancient Greek: Σινδική, romanized: Sindikḗ; Latin: Sindica) by the Greeks and which corresponded to the area west of present-day Krasnodar, in the Taman peninsula.

Strabo, a 1st-century BC author, mentions Gorgippia as the capital of Sindica:

"In the Sindian region there is a place called Gorgippia, the royal capital of the Sindi, not far from the sea, and also Aboraka."

"Sindika, The Promised Land." by Vladimir Kosov. Displayed in Anapa Art Museum.

Sindian cities are known archaeologically, such as the Semibratneye hillfort near the Kuban River and the Rayevskoye hillfort near Anapa. Many kurgans (burial mounds) of the Taman Peninsula and the Kuban region (Karagodeuashkh kurgan, Bolshaya Bliznitsa, Merdzhany, and others) represent the burials of the Sindian nobility.

The kingdom of Sindica existed for only a brief time, and it was soon annexed by the Bosporan Kingdom. Leucon I appointed his brother Gorgippus as his governor in Sindica. Later, the maritime Sindian Harbour was renamed Gorgippia in his honor. According to scholars, the precise location of ancient Sindian Harbour (Gorgippia) was the Bugazskoye hillfort, which was situated on a cape formed by the Black Sea and Lake Solonoye, currently separated from the Kiziltash Liman but formerly part of it.

Central Europe

Unlike the majority of the Sindi, who remained in the northern Caucasus, a smaller section of the Sindi migrated westwards and settled into the Hungarian Plain as part of the expansion of the Scythian into Central Europe during the 7th to 6th centuries BC, and they soon lost contact with the Scythians who remained in the Pontic Steppe. The 3rd century BC Greek author Apollonius of Rhodes located a population of the Sindi living alongside the Sigynnae and the otherwise unknown Grauci in the "plain of Laurion", which is likely the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin.

Last mentions of the Sindi

One of the final mentions of the Sindi dates back to the 4th century AD, made by Rufus Festus Avienus in his work "Description of the Earth" (Descriptio orbis terrae), where he wrote:

Learn, finally, which peoples surround the Taurus. The Maeotians are the first to surround the salty marsh. The fierce Sarmat is also encountered... The nearest areas are inhabited by the Cimmerians and the Sindi. Nearby lives the Kerketian tribe and the lineage of the Torets.

Customs and traditions

Nicolaus of Damascus (64 BC – 4 AD) wrote:

"The Sindi cast upon a grave as many fish as the number of enemies the deceased had slain."

Archaeology

North Caucasus

The Scythian ruling class in the Maeotian country initially buried their dead in kurgans while the native Maeotian populace were buried in flat cemeteries. Burials in Sindica continued this tradition, and members of the Sindi ruling class continued being buried in kurgans while the Maeotians continued to be buried in flat graves.

After earlier Scythian earthworks built in the 6th century BC along the right bank of the Kuban river were abandoned in the 4th century BC, when the Sauromatians took over most of Ciscaucasia, the Sindi built a new series of earthworks on their eastern borders. One of the Sindi earthworks was located at Yelizavetinskaya, where was located a c. 400 BC kurgan in which several humans were buried and which contained the skeletons of 200 horses.

Coins

A coin of the Sindi tribe in the Cimmerian Bosporus region. 5th century BC.

State of Sindica, silver coin. Diobol. 5th century BC.

Isolated specimens of Sindian coins have been discovered on the Taman Peninsula (Hermonassa) or on the coast of the Taman Bay without precise indication of the provenance.

The most recent find is a silver Sindian coin (featuring the head of Heracles), uncovered during the excavations of Mirmekion within a cultural layer dating to the final quarter of the 5th century BC, a dating that aligns with the generally accepted timeline. The coin is currently held in the Hermitage Museum.

According to the conclusions of numismatists who compared these specimens with Panticapaeum coins from the final quarter of the 5th century BC, all three series of Sindian coins also belong to the last quarter of the 5th century BC, perhaps extending into the first few years of the following 4th century BC. This is evidenced by the complete stylistic and technical similarity in their production methods.

Two silver coins of Sindica (preserved in excellent condition) are currently on display at the Odessa Museum of Numismatics.

The denomination of the coin is presumably a light-weight diobol based on the reduced Aeginetan standard.

In neighboring Phanagoria, the initial independent coinage appears slightly later.

Genetics

Autosomal DNA of Hungarian Sindi

The Hungarian Sindi had almost equal proportions of Neolithic origin and steppe, associated with the Yamnaya culture; there is also a minor contribution of Western Hunter-Gatherers.

References

Sources

• Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2000). "Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations". Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka. pp. 105–107. ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8.
• Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths". In Gershevitch, I. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149–199. ISBN 978-1-139-05493-5.
• Sulimirski, Tadeusz; Taylor, T. F. (1991). "The Scythians". In Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E.; Walker, C. B. F. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 3.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 560–590. ISBN 978-1-139-05429-4.
• Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.