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The Akatziri, Akatzirs or Acatiri (, , , ; ) were a tribe that lived north of the Black Sea, though the Crimean city of Cherson seems to have been under their control in the sixth century. Jordanes ( 551) called them a mighty people, not agriculturalists but cattle-breeders and hunters. Their ethnicity is undetermined: the 5th-century historian Priscus describes them as ethnic () Scythians, but they are also referred to as Huns (Akatiri Hunni
Attilid dynasty
- Ellac, r. 448–454
- Dengizich, r. 454–469
- Ernak, r. 454 – after 469
Possible descendants
Akatziri were also hypothesized to be a Turkic tribe, their ethnonym connected to Turkic , 'woodman' or *Aq Qazir "White Khazars". However, Peter B. Golden remarks that: " Neither of these theses has been firmly grounded in anything beyond phonetic resemblance"; and the other hypothesis that Akatziri were ancestors of the Khazars is not backed up by any solid evidence. Omeljan Pritsak links Ak-Katzirs (< ) to the name Khazar, though he explains that the polity was named Khazar simply because the Ashina-ruled Western Turks, after losing their territories to Tang Chinese, took over the territory formerly occupied by the Akatziri.
References
Notes
Sources
- Atwood notes that Jordanes describes how the Crimean city of Cherson, "where the avaricious traders bring in the goods of Asia", was under the control of the Akatziri Huns in the sixth century.