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A Resource for Turkic and Jewish History in Russia and Ukraine
Last Updated: January 3, 2020
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The Genetics of the Medieval Khazars is our new page summarizing the results obtained so far from scientific teams around the world that have worked with genuine Khazar DNA and Saltovian DNA. The latest study was led by Tatiana Tatarinova of the University of La Verne and included Y-DNA, mtDNA, and autosomal DNA. Tatarinova's team concluded that the Khazars' DNA doesn't match the Ashkenazic Jews' DNA. They also confirmed that the Khazars included members with a combination of Caucasoid and Mongoloid origins. Both of these findings match statements in the 3rd edition of The Jews of Khazaria, which was written two years earlier. All but one of the bonafide Khazars studied show significant Mongoloid ancestry from the original Turkic homeland in southern Siberia and Central Asia.
"O nakhodke sosuda s graffiti v Mariupole" by Eduard Ye. Kravchenko and V. K. Kul'baka was published in Russian (with an English summary) in the journal Arkheologicheskii al'manakh No. 21 (2010) on pages 386-395.
This article describes Khazar-era artifacts found in the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
They include two Arabic dirhams that were used as pendants, mirror fragments, and a pot (shown on the bottom of page 389) that bears two drawn symbols: a Jewish menorah and a plus sign that's interpreted as a Christian cross. The authors believe the potter was neither a Jew nor a Christian but was a pagan who was familiar with these other religions that were practiced in Khazaria at the time. Was the plus sign really not a tamga? Some other authors disagree with the hypothesis that that plus sign was Christian.
In his article "Iudaizm, khristianstvo, islam v khazarskom kaganate po arkheologicheskim dannym (kratkiy obzor)" ("Judaism, Christianity, Islam
on archaeological data in Khazaria") in volume 8 (2018) of the journal
Prinosi kum bulgarskata arkheologiya on pages 139-145, Valery S. Flyorov
agrees that among artifacts currently unearthed it depicts a unique image
of a Jewish Khazarian menorah (with 7 candles above a rhombus) "S bol'shoy
doley veroyatnosti" (with a high degree of probability) (page 140).
Having said that, Flyorov regards it as Jewishly inappropriate to find a
menorah in a kitchen and thus believes that the pot was made by a
"neophyte" (page 141). He also points out that the pot was found in a
grave together with other artifacts, including a mirror, a copper chain,
and two dirham coins originating from 8th-century Baghdad, and burials
with objects typify paganism rather than standard Judaism (page 140). The
rhombus within the menorah is also unusual and "raises questions" (pages 139).
Flyorov disagrees with the idea that the pot's "small clumsily incised
oblique cross with equal bars" was inspired by Christianity (page 139).
A new book by Mikhail Zhirohov and David Nicolle,
The Khazars: A Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th-11th Centuries AD,
was published by Osprey in January 2019. It includes photographs of artifacts and illustrations by Christa Hook and focuses on the military aspects of Khazaria
including their wars with Arabs and the Rus', their weapons such as spears, battleaxes, and swords, their helmets and armor,
and their fortifications made from stone and timber.
I was startled to see the Jewish symbols - including a clearly-defined menorah - on a Khazar warrior's helmet shown in a photo in this book. If those are authentic instead of a modern forger's etchings, this would be a very significant find. I had first seen the helmet in June of 2015 when it was brought to my attention that it was sold at auction at the Ukrainian online auction site Violity. The authors say it was "recently discovered". But I had a suspicion about its authenticity and asked some other Khazar experts; Gennadiy Afanas'yev, Dan Shapira, and Peter Golden agree with my suspicion and believe it is a modern forgery.
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If you are interested in purchasing the Spanish-language
hardcover book about the Khazars, Jazaria: el imperio olvidado por la
historia by Félix Kitroser, which contains information,
artifact illustrations and
photographs, translated texts (Cambridge Document and the Hasdai-Joseph
correspondence in Spanish), color maps, bibliography, and more, email
with the subject "Jazaria". The price is $16.00 plus shipping. More details are here.
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