Editing Don (river) (section)

==History==
The name ''Don'' could stem from the [[Avestan]] word ''dānu-'' ("river, stream").{{sfn|Vasmer|1950|ps=none|loc=p.362: "Die Quelle ist avest. ''dānu-'' f. Fluß, Strom"}} According to the [[Kurgan hypothesis]], the Volga-Don river region was the homeland of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]] around 4,000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.{{sfn|Piazza|Cavalli-Sforza|2006}} The east Slavic tribe of the [[Antes (people)|Antes]] inhabited the Don and other areas of [[Southern Russia|Southern]] and [[Central Russia]].{{sfn|Yilmaz|2015|loc=p. 228}}{{sfn|Hamilton|1983|ps=none|loc=p. 2: "During the eighth and ninth centuries the Khazar state reached its greatest extent and power, and the Antes and Slavs of the lower Don and Azov region, the old As or Rus tribes, participated in the first of the empires to be established on Russian soil."}} The area around the Don was influenced by the [[Byzantine Empire]] because the river was important for traders from Byzantium.{{sfn|Tellier|2009|ps=none|loc=p. 251: "In 1261, the Genoese concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Empire of Nicaea and succeeded to establish trading posts at two terminals of the Silk Road on the Black Sea: Kaffa, in Crimea, and Tana, on the Don River, which runs towards the Black Sea."}}

In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers.{{sfn|Davies|1996|loc= p.8}}{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 183: "Asia is adjacent to Europe, bordering thereon along the Tanaïs River."}}{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 185: "...Tanaïs River, which I have taken as the boundary between Europe and Asia."}} In the [[Book of Jubilees]], it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of the [[sons of Noah]], that of [[Japheth]] to the north and that of [[Shem]] to the south.{{sfn|Jubilees}}{{efn|Later works, as the 7th-century [[T and O map]], also depicts the Don as the border between Europe and Asia|group=note}} During the times of the old [[Scythia]]ns it was known in [[Greek language|Greek]] as the ''Tanaïs'' ({{lang|el|Τάναϊς}}) and has been a major trading route ever since. ''[[Tanais]]'' appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in the [[Maeotian Swamp|Maeotian marshes]].{{efn|e.g. [[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]''{{sfn|Jones|1924|ps=none|loc=p. 191: "On the river and the lake is an inhabited city bearing the same name, Tanaïs."}}|group=note}} Greeks also called the river ''Iazartes'' ({{lang|el|Ἰαζάρτης}}).{{sfn|Suda}}
Pliny gives the Scythian name of the Tanais as ''Silys''.{{sfn|Rackham|1952|loc=section 20}}

According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed to [[Plutarch]], the Don was home to the legendary [[Amazons]] of [[Greek mythology]].{{sfn|Goodwin|1874|loc=chapter 14}}

The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of the [[Black Death]] in the mid-14th century.{{sfn|Benedictow|2005}}

While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before the gradual conquest of the area by the [[Tsardom of Russia]] in the 16th century.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The [[Don Cossacks]], who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river.{{sfn|Chenchevyk|2013}}

The fort of ''Donkov'' was founded by the princes of [[Principality of Ryazan|Ryazan]] in the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about {{convert|34|km}} from the modern town of [[Dankov]], until 1568, when it was destroyed by the [[Crimean Tatars]], but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown as ''Donko'' in [[Gerardus Mercator|Mercator]]'s ''Atlas'' (1596).{{sfn|Mercator|1595}} 
Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing as ''Donkagorod''  in [[Joan Blaeu]]'s map of 1645.{{sfn|Massa|1645}}

Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeled ''Resanskoy ozera'' by Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing a waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeled ''Ioanis Lago'', by Mercator ''Odoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro'') to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator shows [[Mtsensk]] (''Msczene'') as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with the [[Zusha River|Zusha]] (''Schat'')  and [[Upa River|Upa]] (''Uppa'') centered on a settlement ''Odoium'', reported 
as ''Odoium lacum'' (''Juanow ozero''){{sfn|Ostromęcka-Frączak|1976|loc=p. 108}} in the map made by Baron [[Augustin von Mayerberg]], leader of an embassy to the Tsardom of Russia in 1661.

In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the work ''[[And Quiet Flows the Don]]'' by [[Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov]], a Nobel-prize winning writer from the [[stanitsa]] of [[Veshenskaya]].{{sfn|Litus|2003}}