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 in 1853. Today, they are kept in the lapidary of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The tablets are considered important in early Croatian history. Significance Three male names are mentioned on the tablets: Horoúathos, Horoáthos, and Horóathos (Χορούαθ[ος], Χοροάθος, Χορόαθος). These names have been interpreted by scholars as anthroponyms of the Croatian ethnonym Hrvat. This ethonym is generally considered to be of Iranian origin, and can be traced to the Tanais Tablets. Tanais Tablet B mentions Horoathos as the son of (or from) Sandarz who was (or had been) the archon of the Tanaisians (one of theory Sandakšatru gens), which is a Scytho-Sarmatian name. Scholars use this to indicate that early Croatians may have, at the time, been Sarmatians or a mixed tribe of Alans and Crimean Goths who became Slavicized in the ensuing centuries. Research history The tablets were discovered by the Russian archeologist in September 1853. Croatian scholars Stjepan Krizin Sakač, Dominik Mandić and Radoslav Katičić have written significantly about the tablets. When Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav scholars avoided discussing them, or in the case of scholars such as Ferdo Šišić, Trpimir Macan, Josip Horvat, Bogo Grafenauer, Jaroslav Šidak, Gordan Ravančić, Ivan Biondić, and Stjepan Pantelić, discussed the tablets in a superficial way and misinterpreted their content. Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža saw the connection as "historical lunacy", while Nada Klaić used them in her criticism of the Iranian-Caucasian theory of the Croatian ethnogenesis. Open debate only followed after Croatian independence in 1991. In 1902, A. L. Pogodin was the first scholar to connect the tablets personal names with Croatian ethonyms. In 1911, Konstantin Josef Jireček was the first to consider these ethonyms to be of Iranian origin. Some scholars use these tablets only to explain the etymology, and not necessarily the ethnogenesis. Theories that early Croats were Slavs who had adopted a name of Iranian origin or were