The Semibratny Site is an ancient Maeotae settlement located on the banks of the Kuban River (about 12 km to the west of the Varenikovskaya Station) in the Crimean District of the Krasnodar Territory. It was a big centre of the ancient Sindike Kingdom. 

The Semibratny Site of the ancient settlement owes its name to seven huge barrows next to which it was found. Massive defensive walls (6 meters and over 2.5 meters thick) with towers and curtain walls date back to the early 5th century BC. The ancient settlement was built by the late 6th century BC and existed for at least 300 years.

 

* Sindike Kingdom was located in the southern part of the modern Taman Peninsula, as well as on the adjoining coast of the Black Sea up to Novorossiysk; the Kuban River marked its northern boundary. Sindika State was mentioned by the antique researchers Herodotus, Pseudo Skylax, Pseudo-Scymnus, and Strabo. The State of Sindika was apparently founded to protect the Maeotae tribe from frequent military incursions of nomad tribes. In the 4th century BC Sindike lost its political independence and became part of the Bosporus Kingdom, and its nobility joined the ruling Bosporus aristocracy.

 

5. GORGIPPIA was an ancient city, a part of the Bosporus Kingdom on the Black Sea coast in the 4th century BC — the 3rd century AD as.

 

It was founded on the place of an ancient city, the center for the Maeotae tribe. The city was named after the imperial deputy Gorgipp, a brother of Leukon I of Bosporus (389 - 349 BC). The city with the area of over 40 hectares was fortified with massive walls. In the early 1st – 2nd centuries BC the city minted its own coins. It prospered in the 1st – 2nd centuries AD as a large trade and craft center of the Bosporus Kingdom. Gorgippia was destroyed by attacks of invading barbarous tribes in 240. The archeological site of the ancient city of Gorgippia can be seen in the center of the modern city of Anapa.

 

6. RODEN was an Old Russian town located to the south of Kanev next to the inflow of Ros into Dnieper. Archaeological researchers date the first settlements on the so-called Prince Mountain to the 7th – 8th centuries. Prince Yaropolk took cover here during the feudal war for the Kiev throne in 980, however after a continuous siege was killed by Varangian mercenaries.

 

Roden reached its highest cultural and economic development in the 11th – 12th centuries. It was not only a defensive fortress against incursions of nomads, but also a significant craft and trading center. The historian B. A. Rybakov assumed that Roden was the mysterious city of Artaniya, which ancient oriental authors wrote about.

 

Roden was destroyed by invasion of Baty Khan and it was never reconstructed.
 

* Arsaniya or Artaniya, according to Arab sources of the 10th century, was one of the three major centers of Old Rus, along with Kuyaba (presently Kiev) and Slavia (Novgorod of nowadays).