Data of Late Antique Historians on Land Use in the North and North-East of the Black Sea

The study aims to observe land use in the Azov-Crimea region and the lower courses of the Don-Dnieper rivers during the IVth-VIth centuries through Greek and Latin historiographical data. The study is guided by two problems. First, it questions the notion that Greek and Latin sources from this period lack original historical value. Second, it questions the prevailing view that the region, as part of the Eurasian Steppes, was primarily characterized by a culture centered on animal husbandry. By critically analyzing these sources, the study evaluates their potential to provide insights into the land use practices and lifestyles of the region's inhabitants. These historiographical data indicate that the agricultural potential and agricultural activity of the region overtook animal husbandry. On the other hand, the study's findings question how societies that lived in the same region and at the same time are defined in the modern literature, and seek to point to the problem of compatibility with historical data in the conceptualization of the Huns and other Turkic communities as steppe peoples and nomadic peoples.