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TANAIS AND PHANAGORIA

Issue 3 from 01.07.2010

The wide-spread opinion about specific relations between Tanais and Phanagoria was first put forward by D.B. Shelov in the 1970s. Analysing collections of stamps in Tanais and Phanagoria he came to the conclusion that the cities of Asian and European Bosporus had different economical and political orientation and that Tanais' trade was connected mainly with Phanagoria. The line was logically continued by V.G. Zhitnikov, who considered it possible that Tanais might have been founded by a group of migrants from Phanagoria. However, accumulation and reconsideration ofthe new material does not support such opinions. As far as one can see, the Bosporan State of the Hellenistic period was a single economical space. Moreover, as the material chosen for analysis was not equally representative for Tanais and Phanagoria, D.B. Shelov's hypothesis about specific relations between Tanais and Phanagoria does not seem to be true. Even more groundless would it be to assert that the emporium in the mouth of the Don river was founded by Phanagorians.

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