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 theGreeks asSindikè chersònesus (Greek: Σινδική χερσόνησος, peninsula of theSindi) andPontic Greek colonies ofHermonassa andPhanagoria stood on the peninsula, as did the later city ofTmutarakan.[1]
TheMaeotae andSindi settled in the area from ancient times. In theclassical period it became part of theBosporan kingdom; its inhabitants includedSarmatians,Greeks,Anatolian settlers fromPontus, andJews. In the 4th century CE the area fell to theHuns; it was later the capital ofGreat Bulgaria and fell to theKhazars in the mid-7th century. Following the breakup of the KhazarKhaganate in c. 969, the peninsula formed part of a Khazar Jewishsuccessor state under a ruler namedDavid. By the late 980s, it came largely into the possession of theKievan Rus and of theRussian Principality of Tmutarakan before falling to theKipchaks c. 1100. TheMongols seized the area in 1239 and it became a possession ofGenoa, along withGazaria inCrimea, in 1419.
For most of the 15th century, theGuizolfi (Ghisolfi) family, founded by the Genoese Jew Simeone de Guizolfi, ruled the peninsula on behalf of Gazaria. The rulership of the region by Jewishconsuls, commissioners or princes has sparked much debate over the extent to which Khazar Judaism survived in southern Russia during this period. TheKhanate of Crimea seized the Taman Peninsula in 1483. It fell to theOttoman Empire in 1783 and became an Ottoman Sanjak under the Eyalet of Kaffa. In 1791, during theRusso-Turkish War (1787–92), it passed into the control of theRussian 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 theCossack town (later astanitsa) ofTaman, succeeded by the port town ofTemryuk in modern times.
The peninsula contains smallmud volcanoes and deposits ofnatural gas andpetroleum. Shallow desalinated lakes and local estuaries inhabited by fish and game, overgrown with thick reeds of the shore, create a swampy, impassable area.
The GermanWehrmacht and theRomanian Army occupied the Taman Peninsula in 1942; the SovietRed Army recovered it in 1943.[3] The story of the 1977 filmCross of Iron revolves around conflicts that arise within the leadership of a Wehrmacht regiment during the German retreat from theKuban bridgehead.
In 2018, archaeologists discovered the remains of ancientGreek musical instruments, aharp and alyre. 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 theBosporan Kingdom.[4]
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