Supposed vestiges of the Ptolemaic hydronym Τουροῦντоς in the modern toponymy of the middle Western Dvina drainage basin

Abstract

The present paper discusses toponymic premises which prompt some, primarily Russian historians and enthusiasts, to recognize vestiges of a river name Τουροῦντоς (Lat. Turuntus), the Ptolemaic denomination of an eastern tributary of the Baltic Sea, sometimes identified with the Western Dvina, in the contemporary toponymy of the middle drainage basin of the latter river. Among these, incontestable onomastic facts are the oikonyms and hydronyms Tarantovo, Byelorussian Tarantova (including variants in Turunt- and Turant-?), Tarantovka, occurring at present or in the past (their attestations known to us date from the mid-16th century) in at least six mutually distant areas of the neighboring Vitebsk (Byelorussia) and Pskov (Russia) Regions (their localization and identification have now been successfully pinned down). On the basis of modern toponomastics, which is increasingly unwilling to disregard vocalic correspondences, naming structure, etymological environment, structure productivity or geographical context, an identity of the consonantal skeleton alone is largely insufficient to postulate a genetic link between these East Slavic place names and the antique form. Their structure suggests that they may have derived from a person’s name Tarant(a), whose origin and history in that area must become a subject of further research. As far as Τουροῦντоς itself is concerned, it occurs in a context which raises fundamental doubts about its real character (the coordinates of the estuary were determined incorrectly, the context consists solely of other macrohydronyms which similarly were localized wrongly and did not continue into the fully historical period).