The Pechenegs In Khazar History 131
be borne in mind that for various settlements life went on until the second half
of the tenth century, and in some places, even until its end”,19 after which she
goes on to mention several such settlements. Probably in order not to leave a
“wrong” impression, she specifies that in the mid-tenth century the Pechenegs
“took control over the whole steppe, ravaged all the sedentary settlements and
many Khazar cities in the steppe and forest-steppe zones. The size of Khazaria
shrunk to that of a small [.. .] khanate, situated between the Don, Volga, Terek
and the Manich, i.e. more or less to the territory of today’s Stavropol Krai”.20
It is obvious that the scope of the Khazar influence during the tenth century
should not be regarded as big (according to the requirements, imposed upon
official Soviet science). It is also obvious that the territory between the men-
tioned rivers is considerably larger than “the Stavropol Krai”.
S. Pletneva’s study of the Dmitrievka archaeological complex (located in
the outermost northwestern reaches of the Saltovo culture) from 1989 is quite
interesting. The essential thing about this complex is that it was not plundered,
but was abandoned voluntarily. S. Pletneva assumes that this was a result from
the Pecheneg invasion. “However, the date of the Pecheneg invasion was quite
“prolonged” over time. The Pechenegs invaded the Don steppes, according
to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, during the 890s, and the destruction of the
steppe settlements and their abandonment by the population lasted consid-
erably longer—throughout the whole first quarter of the tenth century, and
along the Lower Don—even until the second half of the tenth century”.21
Ten years later S. Pletneva and A. Vinnikov published a joint study on the
Maiaki settlement (located on the other, northeastern end of the Saltovo cul-
ture). It was inhabited for a longer period of time than the Dmitrievka one
and its economic boom lasted until the second half of the ninth century and
even during the first half of the tenth century.22 In the study it is generalized
that the settlements in the forest-steppe zone existed some unknown time
after the Pecheneg invasion, even though they were cut off from the central
khaganate lands which also deteriorated, left without a commercial and cul-
tural exchange.23
In 1997, S. Pletneva writes that “after the invasion of the Pechenegs, who
swept through the steppes like a hurricane, life was still preserved in different
regions of the vast territory of the Khazar Khaganate. The Khazars themselves,
19 Pletneva 1981b, 64.
20 Pletneva 1981b, 65.
21 Pletneva 1989, 172.
22 Vinnikov and Pletneva 1998, 201.
23 Vinnikov and Pletneva 1998, 212.