Tauri

(or Taurians), the most ancient tribes—known from classical sources—that inhabited the southern part of the Crimea, which was named Taurica after them.

The Tauri engaged in land cultivation and livestock raising, as well as hunting and fishing. Weaving and the casting of bronze were known to them. They were at the stage of the primitive communal system. The Tauri succeeded in preserving their independence in a struggle against Tauric Chersonesus and the Bosporan State, but later they fell under the rule of the Kingdom of Pontus.

After the mid-first century A.D., the Romans gained a foothold on the southern Crimean coast, and the romanization of the Tauri began. The terms “Scythotauri” and “Tauroscythians” also appear in ancient sources, apparently reflecting an intermixing of the ethnic groups. Evidently the Tauri were subsequently assimilated by the Alani, Goths, and other tribes that settled in the mountainous Crimea. Written sources confirm the existence of the Tauri until the fourth century A.D.