DOC5/466c - T-O map with the Sea of Azov
Map with the Motides Paludes, Sea of Azov. Diameter of original 11.1 cm. From Isidore of Seville 'Etymologiae' (Koln, 1478). The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. (HEH 89025).
HARLEY, J.B. & WOODWARD, D. (1987). The History of Cartography. Vol. I. Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London. ISBN 0-226-31633-5.
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The Sea of Azov (Russian: Азо́вское мо́ре, tr. Azovskoye more, IPA: [ɐˈzofskəjə ˈmorʲə]; Ukrainian: Азо́вське мо́ре, Azovs'ke more; Crimean Tatar: Azaq deñizi), known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis (Μαιώτις in Ancient Greek), Meotida in numerous European languages, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow (about 4 km) Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded in the north by mainland Ukraine, in the east by Russia, and in the west by Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The Don and Kuban are the major rivers that flow into it. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, with the depth varying between 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) and 14 metres (46 ft). There is a constant outflow of water from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
The sea is largely affected by the inflow of numerous rivers, which bring sand, silt, and shells, which in turn form numerous bays, limans, and narrow spits. Because of these deposits, the sea bottom is relatively smooth and flat with the depth gradually increasing toward the sea centre. Also, due to the river inflow, water in the sea has low salinity and a high content of biological matter, such as green algae that affects the water colour. Abundant plankton results in unusually high fish productivity. The sea shores and spits are low; they are rich in vegetation and bird colonies.
The Black Sea deluge theory dates the genesis of the Sea of Azov to 5600 BC, and there are traces of Neolithic settlement in the area it now covers. In antiquity, it was known as Lake Mæotis, the Maeotian Lake or the Maeotian Sea (Greek ἡ Μαιῶτις λίμνη and Latin Palus Maeotis), after the tribe of Maeotae which inhabited the Maeotian marshes east of the sea. In the antique epoch local inhabitants called the sea Temerinds. In medieval times, Russians named it the Sea of Surozh, after the Crimean city of Surozh (now Sudak).
The current name is popularly said to come from a Polovtsian prince named Azum or Asuf, who was killed defending a town in this region in 1067. Alternatively, it may originate from Turkish "asak" which means "low".
In 1997, William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University published a theory that a massive flood through the Bosporus occurred in ancient times. They claim that the Black and Caspian Seas were vast freshwater lakes, but in about 5600 BC the Mediterranean spilled over a rocky sill at the Bosporus, creating the current link between the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Subsequent work has been done both to support and to discredit this theory, and archaeologists still debate it. This has led some to associate this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.
DOC5/466c - T-O map with the Sea of Azov
Map with the Motides Paludes, Sea of Azov. Diameter of original 11.1 cm. From Isidore of Seville 'Etymologiae' (Koln, 1478). The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. (HEH 89025).
HARLEY, J.B. & WOODWARD, D. (1987). The History of Cartography. Vol. I. Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London. ISBN 0-226-31633-5.
--
The Sea of Azov (Russian: Азо́вское мо́ре, tr. Azovskoye more, IPA: [ɐˈzofskəjə ˈmorʲə]; Ukrainian: Азо́вське мо́ре, Azovs'ke more; Crimean Tatar: Azaq deñizi), known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis (Μαιώτις in Ancient Greek), Meotida in numerous European languages, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow (about 4 km) Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded in the north by mainland Ukraine, in the east by Russia, and in the west by Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The Don and Kuban are the major rivers that flow into it. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, with the depth varying between 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) and 14 metres (46 ft). There is a constant outflow of water from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
The sea is largely affected by the inflow of numerous rivers, which bring sand, silt, and shells, which in turn form numerous bays, limans, and narrow spits. Because of these deposits, the sea bottom is relatively smooth and flat with the depth gradually increasing toward the sea centre. Also, due to the river inflow, water in the sea has low salinity and a high content of biological matter, such as green algae that affects the water colour. Abundant plankton results in unusually high fish productivity. The sea shores and spits are low; they are rich in vegetation and bird colonies.
The Black Sea deluge theory dates the genesis of the Sea of Azov to 5600 BC, and there are traces of Neolithic settlement in the area it now covers. In antiquity, it was known as Lake Mæotis, the Maeotian Lake or the Maeotian Sea (Greek ἡ Μαιῶτις λίμνη and Latin Palus Maeotis), after the tribe of Maeotae which inhabited the Maeotian marshes east of the sea. In the antique epoch local inhabitants called the sea Temerinds. In medieval times, Russians named it the Sea of Surozh, after the Crimean city of Surozh (now Sudak).
The current name is popularly said to come from a Polovtsian prince named Azum or Asuf, who was killed defending a town in this region in 1067. Alternatively, it may originate from Turkish "asak" which means "low".
In 1997, William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University published a theory that a massive flood through the Bosporus occurred in ancient times. They claim that the Black and Caspian Seas were vast freshwater lakes, but in about 5600 BC the Mediterranean spilled over a rocky sill at the Bosporus, creating the current link between the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Subsequent work has been done both to support and to discredit this theory, and archaeologists still debate it. This has led some to associate this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.