Anapa: mud cabins and a medley of peoples
Editorial contextAnapa, the first Russian fortress on the Circassian coast, is described from notes by the expedition's historiographer: most houses were cabins of wood and mud thatched with maize leaves or reeds, and its 2,000 people included Circassians, Nogai Tatars, Kalmyks, Kumyks, Kabardians, 'Kazannes', Dagestanis and Bukharans. Spencer admits he did not land there himself.
The greater number of the houses of the town are mere cabins, constructed of wood and mud, thatched with the leaves of Indian corn or reeds. The inhabitants, consisting of Circassians, Nogay Tartars, Kalmucks, Komouks, Kabartis, Kazannes, Demikarponis, Daghistanes, Boukhares, with a few Greeks, Armenians, and Russians, speaking a medley of tongues
About Nogai Tatars, Kalmyks, Kumyks, Kazan Tatars and others
Keep in mind
Second-hand, as Spencer says.
Kurgans raised by each mourner's handful of earth
Editorial contextAfter watching a kurgan being opened at Kerch, Spencer reflects on the countless mounds of the region. He reports the tradition of 'descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants' in the Crimean mountains: when a great warrior or king died, every admirer carried a portion of earth and threw it on his grave. On the next page he calls this 'the tradition of the Tartars' and compares it to Scottish cairns.
these tumuli were voluntarily erected by the people ; as when any of their great warriors or kings expired, his ashes were placed in the tomb, and every man who admired his virtues carried a portion of earth and threw it over his grave.
About Crimean Tatars and older mountain peoples (as tradition-keepers)
Keep in mind
A local tradition; the Kerch kurgans are mostly Greek and Scythian burials many centuries older than the Tatars. Spencer credits the builders to 'a great and powerful people' of antiquity, not to the Tatars.
Tatar cottages and little mosques among the vineyards
Editorial contextSailing along the south coast of Crimea past Alupka, where Vorontsov's palace stood, Spencer saw terraced vineyards on the slopes and, in the small valleys below, clustered Tatar cottages with their little mosques and slender minarets. It is a brief glimpse of Tatar villages surviving beside the new estates of Russian nobles.
the whole space between the towering cliffs and the sea, forming a splendid panorama, presented one mass of the richest foliage ; terraced vineyards adorned the hills, mingling their lighter green with the dark cold pine of the mountain; while the miniature valleys beneath glowed with the clustering cots of the Tartars, and their pretty little mosques and slender minarets.
About Crimean Tatars
Keep in mind
Seen from the steamer.
Altyn Obo, the Tatars' 'hill of gold'
Editorial contextAt Kerch's museum Spencer saw finds from a mound opened in 1830 that the Tatars called Altyn Obo, 'hill of gold', and which was claimed to be the tomb of Mithridates. The gold vases and ornaments justified the name, he says, though the best had gone to St Petersburg. The Tatars named the mound; the treasures were Greek work.
we then extended our promenade to the Museum, the collection of which has been considerably augmented since the opening of a tumulus in 1830, called by the Tartars, Altyn Obo, or the hill of gold ; pretended to have been the tomb of Mithridates.
About Crimean Tatars (as name-givers)
Keep in mind
The 1830 excavation was of the Kul-Oba kurgan; Spencer's 'Altyn Obo' may conflate names. He himself says the finds were 'unquestionably of Grecian workmanship'.