Maeotae or Mæotæ or Maeotici (Greek: Μαιῶται) were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis (to which they lent their name) in antiquity.[1][2] It is not clear whether they spoke an Iranian language or were related to the modern-day Adyghe. The best attested tribe among them was the Sindi.
The earliest reference may be the logographer Hellanicus.[3] Strabo describes them as living among the Dandarii, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others.[4] According to him they lived partly on fish, and partly tilled the land, but were no less warlike than their nomad neighbors. These wild hordes were sometimes tributary to the factory at the Tanais (modern Don River), and at other times to the Bosporani, revolting from one to the other. In later times, especially under Pharnaces II of Pontus, Asander and Polemon I of Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom extended as far as the Tanais.
There are speculations that the Maeotes and the Sindes may have been Indo-Aryans, connected with the Mitanni rulers of Assyria one millennium before Herodotus.[5]
One princess of the Maeotes, a wife of a Sindic king, from the tribe of Ixomates, was called Tirgatao by Polyaenus [6] comparable to Tirgutawiya, a name from a tablet found in Hurrian Alalakh.[7] Karl Eichwald[8] even proclaimed them to have been a Hindu colony, but this view was rejected by the vast majority of scholars.[9]
Russian scientists, archeologists, historians and ethnographers in the Soviet period it was concluded - Maeotae this is one of the names of the tribes норода Adyghe people (Circassians). In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in article Adyghe people) written[10]:
«The cuban tribes (Adyghe people) are usually referred to by the ancient writers under the collective name Maeotae».
In Russia in 1998 published a book with the title "Maeotae, the ancestors of the Adyghe (Circassians)"[11]. In the beginning of this book Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist Boris Piotrovsky wrote the following :
«The study of language, toponymy and onomastics of the north-Western Caucasus gives the grounds referred ancient Maeotae population to the Adyghe- Kassogians ethnic array, which is also in line with archeological monuments Maeotae culture and its links with the subsequent cultures medieval Adyghe (Circassians)».