The Khazar Economy: Economic Integration or Disintegration? 187
The nomads used the Black Sea coast mainly for winter grazing, while in
summer particularly suitable were the pastures up north, situated in the south-
ern outskirts of the forest-steppe zone. Between the fifth and the seventh cen-
turies, the steppe and the forest-steppe zones were inhabited by a population
of diverse origins. The steppe area was populated by nomads, whose monu-
ments of the Sivashovka type could perhaps be associated with a population
of Bulgar origin.72
While this issue does not stir controversy in science, the case is quite dif-
ferent with the monuments of the population in the forest-steppe zone—the
Pastyrskoe-Penkovka and the Volyntsevo cultures, as well as the monuments of
the Malaia Pereshchepina type.73 The Pastyrskoe-Penkovka and the Volyntsevo
cultures (traditionally seen as Slavic) contain far too much influence from the
steppes. This gives M. Artamonov grounds to associate these monuments with
the Bulgar tribe Kutrigurs.74
The Volyntsevo archaeological culture existed between the eighth and the
tenth centuries. According to M. Artamonov, its bearers were the Kutrigurs
who had stayed in the forest-steppe zone on the left side of the Dnieper. The
Volyntsevo pottery is regarded as a continuation of the Pastyrskoe-Penkovka
one. At the same time, Volyntsevo pottery patterns can also be traced in the
Saltovo pottery.75 V. Maiko believes that Volyntsevo pottery was spread from the
Bititsa hillfort. According to him, it was a Khazar center in the Slavic lands that
were “in one way or another related to the Proto-Bulgarian world”.76 It is hardly
the khaganate’s policy of strengthening the Kuban area (which also led to the resettle-
ment of Bulgars in this region) after the Abbasid penetration of the Central Caucasus in
the 750s. Thus, the Alanian migration towards the Severski Donets was organized by the
Khazars, who also extended the territories they controlled in a north-western direction.
72 Rashev 2007a, 70–117; the monuments from the initial period of the Saltovo culture in the
Crimea (the mid-seventh century to the first half of the eighth century) are also of this
type. Baranov 1990, 15–103 identifies them as Bulgar. Aibabin 1985 regards some of these
monuments as Khazar. The view of A. Komar and E. Kruglov, who consider all of the mon-
uments to be Khazar, thus rejecting the Bulgar presence in the steppes of the Northern
Black Sea region between the fifth and the seventh centuries, can hardly be accepted. This
subject is discussed in more detail in chapter 5.3.
73 For the main views and literature on this issue, see Rashev 2007a, 119–143.
74 Artamonov 1969, 1973, 1974, and 1990. This theory is also shared by Vaklinov 1977, 31.
75 Artamonov 1969, 3 and 8; Artamonov 1990, 277; Artamonov 1974, 252–253. Pottery, simi-
lar to the Volyntsevo one, can also be found in Danube Bulgaria (Pletneva 1967, 121).
Volyntsevo elements can be seen as well in the Saltovo pottery in the Crimea from the
mid-ninth century, in centers like Sudak/Sugdea (Baranov and Maiko 1995, 78).
76 Maiko 1996, 138; Baranov and Maiko 1996, 80–81.