Tanais Tablets

The Tanais Tablets are two tablets from the city of Tanais near modern Rostov-on-Don, Russia. They are written in Greek and are dated to the late 2nd–3rd century AD. At the time, Tanais had a mixed Greek, Gothic and Sarmatian population. The tablets are public inscriptions which commemorate renovation works in the city. One of the tablets, Tanais Tablet A, is damaged and not fully reconstructed. The other, Tanais Tablet B, is fully preserved and is dated to 220 AD.

The tablets were discovered by Russian archaeologist Pavel Leontiev in 1853. Today, they are kept in the lapidary of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The tablets are considered important for the early Croatian history and etymology of their ethnonym.