Archaeological Evidence on the Taifali People
Vakulenko L. V.
The author tries to find out an archaeological correlation of the Taifali people known from written sources. According to his hypothesis, the cultural munuments of Carpathian burial mounds (kurgans) could be connected with the Taifali. References to the lands of the Taifali, vague as they are, have to do with the territories near the right bank of the Dniester and the Siret, the water arteries of the lands connected with the culture of the Carpathian kurgans. According to the evidence of the ancient authors, Taifali made alliances with the Goths and were especially active in the 4th century AD. The archaeological material finds close parallels to the Chernyakhovskaya material culture, whose bearers were mainly the Goths, which makes it plausible that the two peoples had something in common. The greatest part of the imported goods found in the monuments are of the 4th c. AD, the peak period of the Chernyakhovskaya culture. A relatively small number of bearers of the Carpathian kurgan culture (as compared to those of the Chernyakhovskaya culture) and the cult of horses reflected in the kurgans seem to support the hypothesis.