Located near the ancient Greek colony of Phanagoria, the town was built on the ruins of the minor Greek settlement of Germonassa. In the seventh century, the region fell to the Khazars, who built the fortress town of Tamatarkha. Arabic sources refer to it as Samkarsh al-Yahud (i.e., "Samkarsh the Jewish"), probably indicating a Jewish majority.

Fortified with a strong brick wall and boasting a fine harbour, Samkarsh was a large city of merchants. It controlled much of the Northern European trade with the Byzantine Empire and Northern Caucasus. The inhabitants included the Greeks, Armenians, Russians, Jews, Ossetians, Lezgians, Georgians, and Circassians. After the destruction of the Khazar empire by Svyatoslav of Rus in the mid-tenth century, a Jewish Khazar principality became centered on the Taman region, though whether Tmutarakan was its capital or not is unknown.

Mstislav Vladimirovich was the prince of Tmutarakan from 988 to 1036. During his reign, a first stone church was dedicated to the Theotokos, the ruins of it being still visible. In the twelfth century the city was isolated from the Russian mainland by the Cumans and gradually declined. The last recorded mention was in a roll of 1378.

The site of Tmutarakan was discovered in 1792, when a local peasant found a stone with an inscription stating that Prince Gleb had measured the sea from here to Kerch in 1068. The excavations of the site were conducted in the 19th century. In the modern Russian language, Tmutarakan stands for "a distant and obscure province".

Kievan Rus | Khazar towns | Bosporan Kingdom | Archaeological sites in Russia | Ancient Greek cities

Tmutarakan | 트무타라칸 | Тмуторокань | Тмутаракань