Saltovo-Mayaki culture

The Khazars () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who established a major commercial empire in the late 6th century CE spanning the south of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, and western Kazakhstan. It was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Astride a major artery of commerce between Eastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, Khazaria became one of the foremost trading empires of the early medieval world, commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Kievan

The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled in the region north of

thumb|right|300px|Bulgars led by Khan (title)|Khan [[Krum pursue the Byzantines at the Battle of Versinikia (813)]]

Atil, also Itil, was the capital of the Khazar Khaganate from the mid-8th century to the late 10th century. It is known historically to have been situated along the Silk Road, on the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, in the Volga Delta region of what is now southern Russia. Its precise location has long been unknown.

thumb|200px|Hungarian Prehistory|Migration of Hungarians thumb|200px|Turkic Tamgas on some of the bricks from Sarkel

thumb|200px|European territory inhabited by East Slavic tribes in 8th and 9th century. The Severians, also Severyans, Siverians, or Siverianians (; ; ; ) were a tribe or tribal confederation of early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper River and southeast of the Danube River. They are mentioned by the Bavarian Geographer (9th century), Emperor Constantine VII (956–959), the Khazar ruler Joseph (c. 955), and in the Primary Chronicle (1113).

right|thumb|The range of Saltovo-Mayaki culture marked in green. thumb|Saltovo-Mayaki belt decorations. thumb|Saltovo-Mayaki pottery. Saltovo-Mayaki, also known as Saltovo-Majaki or simply Saltiv, is the name given by archaeologists to the early medieval culture of the Pontic steppe region roughly between the Don and the Dnieper Rivers, flourishing roughly between the years of 700 and 950. The culture's type sites are Mayatskoye (aka Mayaki) near the Don and Verkhnii Saltiv by the Donets.

Magyar history (c. 800 BC–c. 895 AD)

early medieval Khazar fortification

thumb|255x255px|Fortifications of the Khumarin settlement by Bidjiev H. H.Khumarinskoye gorodishche (Russian: Хумаринское городище) or Khumar is a ruined medieval fortress on the top of Mount Kalezh above the Kuban Gorge in the Greater Caucasus, near Khumara village, Karachaevsky district, Karachay–Cherkessia, Russia.

human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup