The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 257
peninsula. At the same time Bulgars and Alans settled along the Don and the
Severski Donets, while other Bulgar groups settled in various parts of the North
Caucasus. Perhaps this was an intentional ethnic displacement, directed by
the nobility of the khaganate. It is not entirely clear whether the newcom-
ers forced the Bulgars they encountered in the Crimea to move westwards by
burning down their settlements or they intermingled with them.158 There are
no records of the relations between the Bulgars and the Alans in the Crimea.
Quite interesting is one of the necropoles (on the Tepsen Hill), where the
male burials are Bulgar, while the female ones are most probably Alanian.
Perhaps this group of Bulgars was made up of Khazar soldiers, who, while set-
tling down, sought women among the local population. In the other Bulgar
necropoles in the Crimea, the buried men and women have the same ethnic
background.159 According to I. Baranov, the Bulgars were the mainstay of the
Khazar Khaganate in the Crimea.160
Again during the eighth century, Bulgars settled in various areas of the
North Caucasus that were inhabited by Alans (the Caucasian Mineral Waters
Region, the Kislovodsk basin and the upper reaches of the Kuban River, on the
territory of the Piatigor’e, in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol Upland).161
This process was accompanied by the displacement of some parts of the Alans,
especially from the vicinity of Kislovodsk, where the Bulgars most probably
became the main population during the ninth and tenth centuries.162 That
is the location of large fortified settlements such as the Khumar hillfort and
158 The theory about the ravaging of the Bulgar settlements by the first migration wave and
their subsequent ousting from their lands by the second wave belongs to I. Baranov
(Baranov 1990, 151; Maiko 1996, 139). In recent times it is being rejected, since no evidence
of clashes between the two groups has been found, as well as layers from fires; the widely
accepted theory instead being of their gradual mutual assimilation (Maiko 2007, 162–163;
Romashov 2002–2003, 140). According to Aibabin 2003, 57, the Bulgars from the second
wave peacefully settled down on vacant lands. In Baranov’s opinion, the Bulgars from
the first migration wave were part of the Unogundur tribe, while those from the second
wave belonged to some Bulgaro-Ugrian community that was formed in the Volga area. He
bases his assertions on the wooden constructions of their burial monuments (Baranov
1990, 115–117 and 141–145). Similar burials have also been found among the Bulgars in the
Don Region. Aksenov 2002 finds Baranov’s theory unacceptable. The historian sees this
practice as the result of the individual development of the Bulgar burial rites.
159 Baranov 1990, 121.
160 Baranov 1990, 153.
161 Kuznetsov 1962, 30, 76, and 87–88; Fedorov and Fedorov 1978, 77–84; Kovalevskaia 1984,
150 and 155–156; Pletneva 1999, 190–191; Arzhantseva 2007b, 60–63.
162 Kuznetsov 1962, 30; Fedorov and Fedorov 1978, 79–80; Pletneva 1999, 188–189; Arzhantseva
2007a, 84.