Taman Peninsula

Taman Peninsula
Taman Peninsula
Peninsula
	A typical mud volcano near the village of Taman
	Taman Peninsula Taman Peninsula
	Coordinates: 45°11′8″N 36°47′28″E / 45.18556°N 36.79111°E
Location	Krasnodar Krai, Russia

The Taman Peninsula (Russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, romanized: Tamanskiy poluostrov) is a peninsula in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the north, the Kerch Strait to the west and the Black Sea to the south.

Toponym

One version of the origin of the name "Taman" claims its Circassian origin from "temen", a swamp that corresponds to the nature of the area.

History

The area has evolved over the past two millennia from a chain of islands into today's peninsula. In ancient times the peninsula was known to the

Hermonassa and Phanagoria stood on the peninsula, as did the later city of Tmutarakan.^[1]

The

Gazaria in Crimea

, in 1419.

For most of the 15th century the

Russo-Turkish War (1787–92), it passed into the control of the Russian Empire. Russia ceded it back to the Ottomans in 1792. It finally passed to Russia in 1828.^[2] For much of the succeeding century, the area was sparsely populated. The largest settlement was the Cossack town (later a stanitsa) of Taman, succeeded by the port town of Temryuk

in modern times.

The peninsula contains small mud volcanoes and deposits of natural gas and petroleum. Shallow desalinated lakes and local estuaries inhabited by fish and game, overgrown with thick reeds of the shore, create a swampy, impassable area.

Mikhail Lermontov disparagingly describes the town of Taman in his novel, A Hero of Our Time.

The German Wehrmacht and the Romanian Army occupied the Taman Peninsula in 1942; the Soviet Red Army recovered it in 1943.^[3] The story of the motion picture Cross of Iron revolves around conflicts that arise within the leadership of a Wehrmacht regiment during the German retreat from the Kuban bridgehead.

In 2018, archaeologists discovered the remains of ancient Greek musical instruments, a harp and a lyre. The instruments were discovered while examining an ancient necropolis located near the Volna settlement. Archaeologists say that a Greek polis existed there from the second quarter of the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, which belonged to the Bosporan Kingdom.^[4]

References

^ "Greek colonization in the northern Black Sea area". German Archaeological Institute. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
^ Tsutsiev, Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus, 2004
^ Robert Forczyk, The Caucasus 1942–43: Kleist’s race for oil
^ Russian archaeologists discover ancient Greek musical instruments near Crimea

[German_Archaeological_Institute-1] "Greek colonization in the northern Black Sea area". German Archaeological Institute. Retrieved 4 April 2010.

[2] Tsutsiev, Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus, 2004

[3] Robert Forczyk, The Caucasus 1942–43: Kleist’s race for oil

[4] Russian archaeologists discover ancient Greek musical instruments near Crimea

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