The Khazar Economy: Economic Integration or Disintegration? 173
of the Khazars and other peoples that led a nomadic or sedentary life in these
fertile and rich lands”.12
Even though only a small part of the research on the Saltovo monuments
has been released so far, the published material gives a general idea of the
Khazar economy. It is sufficient for drawing the necessary conclusions, espe-
cially since there are no significant differences between the western areas of
the khaganate (the Crimea, the coastal area of the Sea of Azov and the Don
Valley) and the remotely situated Dagestan. The study of the Khazar Saltovo
monuments (i.e. from the Khazar Khaganate) makes use of data from Danube
Bulgaria and Volga Bulgaria, as well as from Alania. This is usually done to show
the ethnic similarity between the population of certain areas of Khazaria and
the people of these countries, though not to look for common traits in their
economic development, despite their cultures being close and in many ways
similar to one another. The northwest Cis-Caucasian Region, inhabited by the
Kasogs (Zikhs), remains entirely outside the scope of the research on Khazaria,
although data on two necropoles in this territory (Dyurso and Borisovo) indi-
cates the presence of a population, related to the Saltovians.13
Practically the same can be said about the Slavic and Finno-Ugrian popula-
tion in the forest-steppe zone. There is almost no archaeological data on the
Finno-Ugrians in the Khazar Khaganate. Written sources, referring to the Burtas
(most often seen as the ancestors of today’s Mordovians), could be used in this
direction. Slavic monuments in the forest-steppe zone (the Romny-Borshevo
culture) and especially the settlements, situated in the immediate vicinity of
the Saltovo ones, are of particular interest due to the presence of Saltovo popu-
lation in them. The monographs of A. Vinnikov and A. Moskalenko make it
possible to trace the development and the relationship between the Saltovo
and Slavic population in the Don Valley.14 There is no detailed information
regarding the area west of the Severski Donets, among the Romny monu-
ments and especially in the valleys of the rivers Vorskla, Psel (where the Bititsa
hillfort, regarded as the administrative center of the khaganate, is situated)
12 Pletneva 1999, 83.
13 Pletneva 1999, 15 and 48; Gadlo 1989; of particular interest is the dual ritualism of the
necropoles (the presence of both inhumation and cremation burials). Similar burials and
inventory (adornments) have been found on the upper reaches of the Severski Donets
and in the Volga Cis-Ural forest-steppe region (see for instance Mikheev 1982; Aksenov
1998, 2004b, 2007, and 2008; Aksenova 2007). It is important to bear in mind that the dual
ritualism necropoles in Dyurso and Borisovo have a parallel in Danube Bulgaria (Dimitrov
1987, 84–86); see also Dmitriev 2003; Gavritukhin and P’iankov 2003.
14 Moskalenko 1981; Vinnikov 1995.