Vol. 2 (2025)
Articles

Terra, acqua, oro: interazioni economiche e culturali tra nomadi e sedentari nel bacino del Kuban tra VII e V sec. a.C.

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  • Manuel Castelluccia
Manuel Castelluccia
Università degli studi di Napoli l’Orientale, Italy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/asiac-3480

Published 2025-11-10

Keywords

  • economic and cultural interactions,
  • kurgans,
  • Koban,
  • nomadism,
  • Scythians,
  • Meotians
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Castelluccia, M. (2025). Terra, acqua, oro: interazioni economiche e culturali tra nomadi e sedentari nel bacino del Kuban tra VII e V sec. a.C. ASIAC – Studies on Central Asia and the Caucasus (SCC), 2, 63–89. https://doi.org/10.36253/asiac-3480

Copyright (c) 2025 Manuel Castelluccia

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Starting in the 7th century BCE, north-western Caucasia - centred on the basin of the Kuban River - witnessed the nearly simultaneous arrival of two distinct migratory movements. The first consisted of Greek colonists, who established a series of important coastal settlements; the second of nomadic Scythian groups, who, returning from their Mesopotamian campaigns, occupied the hinterland along the middle and upper reaches of the Kuban. Both came into contact with the native sedentary population, the Meotians. By exploiting the region’s abundant resources - chiefly cereals, but also commodities from the Eurasian hinterland such as slaves and metals - nomads and sedentary peoples developed not only a profitable economic relationship but also a remarkable cultural and artistic symbiosis, most clearly reflected in the rich assemblages of elite Meotian and Scythian tombs.

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