The Khazar Khaganate was the dominant power in the steppes between the rivers Dnieper and Volga after around 650. Archaeological finds show that the Khagans controlled a multi-ethnic empire. The "Saltovo-Mayaki culture", which flourished in the same region around 750 and 900, had at least seven variants. In the Hungarian chronicles, the legend of the wondrous hind seems to have preserved the memory of the Magyars' "close symbiosis, intermarriages, and incipient fusion" with various ethnic groupsAlans, Bulgars, and Onogursof this large region.
