page_title: Tmutarakan
hierarchical_section_title: Tmutarakan
caption_attribution_description: Excavation of Hermonassa
context_page_description: Tmutarakan was a medieval Kievan Rus' principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, between the late 10th and 11th centuries. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa founded in the mid 6th century BCE, by Mytilene, situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, roughly opposite Kerch. The Khazar fortress of Tamantarkhan was built on the site in the 7th century, and became known as Tmutarakan when it came under Kievan Rus control.
context_section_description: Tmutarakan (Russian: Тмутарака́нь, IPA: [tmʊtərɐˈkanʲ]) was a medieval Kievan Rus' principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, between the late 10th and 11th centuries. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμώνασσα) founded in the mid 6th century BCE, by Mytilene (Lesbos), situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, roughly opposite Kerch.  The Khazar fortress of Tamantarkhan (from which the Byzantine name for the city, Tamatarcha, is derived) was built on the site in the 7th century, and became known as Tmutarakan when it came under Kievan Rus control.
caption: Excavation at the site, September 2008
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