Etnik yapı başlıca dil birliği ve küme kimliği üzerine kurulur.
Göçebe kabilenin yeri yurdu yoktur, kentte değil çadırda yaşar.
Göçebe kabile ya da klan yaşamı sağ kalma üzerinde odaklanır.
Onun için başka her kabile kendinde bir gözdağıdır.
Göçebe kümelerin ‘tarih-öncesi’ karakterleri tarih yapmadıklarını belirtir.
Tarih-öncesi göçebelerin tarihsel eylemleri Tarihi yok etmektir.
Göçebe kümeler yerleşik uygarlıklardan aldıkları teknolojiler yoluyla uygarlıkları yok edicidirler.
Uygar kent yaşamının bilgisizi olan göçebe hak ve mülkiyet kavramlarının bilincinden yoksun olduğu için tecim ilişkisini de bilmez. Bildiği yalnızca zor yoluyla almaktır. Yağmacılık göçebe kültürün karakteristiğidir.
‘Kadim zamanlar’ barbarlık ve acımasızlık zamanlarıdır. Tarih-öncesi etnik gruplar etik karakter taşımazlar ve moral yargı yetenekleri gelişmemiştir. Bu ilkellik aşamasında hak ve haksızlık sorunları zor ve şiddet yoluyla çözüme bağlanır ve henüz "yasa" kavramının bir bilinci yoktur. O kadim zamanlarda güç haktır, ve “kadim gerçeklik’ zor ve şiddetin insan ilişkilerinde birincil bileşeni oluşturması anlamına gelir. Kabile ulus değildir, çünkü henüz bir istençten yoksun olarak başlıca sağ kalma dürtüsü ile davranır. Kabile yaşamak için savaşır ve savaşmak için yaşar. Atçılık ve okçuluk step göçebelerinin başlıca becerileridir. Bu kültürde doğal olarak acımasızlık bir erdem ve üstünlük düzeyine yükseltilir.
Tarihsel etnik karakter kendini etnik karakter olarak tanımaz. Etnik karakter ancak modern ulus karakteri onu ortadan kaldıracağı zaman kendini ayrımsar ve henüz etnik kimliğin ötesine ve üzerine geçmemiş bilinç varlığı ile bir olan etnik karakterinde diretir.
Eknik karakterde evrensel insanlık duygusu yoktur ve etnik ilişkilerde hak sorunlarının çözümü zor ve şiddet aracılığıyla olur. Bu nedenledir ki etnik yabanıllığı yasaklayan imparatorluklar "pax" dönemleri olarak kabul edilir. Etnik karakter insanlığın bütününü dışlar ve etnik İsrail kabilelerinin tikelciliği tüm insanlığı reddeden ‘etnik bir ulus’ ve ‘etnik bir din’ olarak anlatım bulduğu zaman başka etnik gruplar açısından anti-semitizm için zemin hazırdır. Çinliler, Hintliler ve Japonlar başta olmak üzere bütün bir Asya hiçbir zaman etnik niteliğin ötesinde bir ulus karakterini tanımadı, çünkü ulus özgürdür, egemendir, ve başlıca karakterini insan haklarını tanımasında bulur. Asya için özgürlük bugün de bir özlemden daha çoğu değildir. Özgürlük ve egemenlik karakteri ile, ulus etnik karakterin olumsuzlanmasıdır. Çin, Japonya vb. bugün de başlıca etnik gruplardır, uluslar değil. Çağdaş etnik karakter çağdaş despozitmin zeminidir ve demokrasiyi ve özgürlüğü düşman olarak görüp reddeder. Ulusun özgürlük karakteri onu evrensel insan haklarınının bilincine ve duyunç özgürlüğünü tanımaya götürür. Ve ulusun kendini yönetme istenci olarak egemenlik karakteri onu politik özgürlük bilincine, demokrasiye, yasalarını kendi istenci ve duyuncu ile belirlemeye götürür. Ulus da ondan önceki imparatorluk gibi etnik tikelciliği yadsır. Ama ek olarak, ve imparatorluğun tersine, insanları düşman kümelere bölen kültürel çoğulculuğu da yadsıyarak insanlığı hak eşitliği, duyunç özgürlüğü ve yasa egemenliği terimlerinde etik türdeşleşme sürecine sokar.
Roma İmparatorluğu ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu etnik karakterin saltık olumsuzlanması idiler, ve Hıristiyanlık ve Müslümanlık etnik tikelcilikleri olumsuzlayan monoteistik dinler olarak insanlığı evrensel eşitlik bilincini geliştirme sürecine doğru güdülediler. Aralarındaki başlıca ayrım Müslümanlık insanları Tanrının kulları olarak eşitlerken, Hıristiyanlığın insanları özgür bireysellikler olarak eşitlemesi idi.
Pontic-Caspian Steppe (an area of 994,000 square kilometres) extends roughly from the Dniepr to the Ural Rivers.
The area corresponds to Cimmeria, Scythia, and Sarmatia of classical antiquity. Across several millennia the steppe was used by numerous tribes of nomadic horsemen, many of which went on to conquer lands in the settled regions of Europe and in western and southern Asia. (W)
Historical peoples and nations / Prehistoric cultures
eighth-third centuries BCE Sakas occupy eastern steppes,
Tien Shan, and Altai Mountains
late eighth century BCE Scythians move into Caucasus region
around 678 BCE Scythian king Ishpakai attacks Assyrian Empire
around 674 BCE Scythian king Bartatua marries Assyrian
princess
around 610 BCE Scythians and Medes conquer Nineveh; Medes
then push Scythians back to north of Caucasus
late seventh century BCE founding of Belsk on a tributary of
the Dnieper
sixth-fifth centuries BCE Sauromatians occupy steppes
between Don and Volga rivers
and south of Urals
530 BCE Massagetae led by Tomyris
defeat Cyrus the Great
520 BCE Darius I’s victory over the “pointed-hat” Sakas
513 BCE Darius I’s expedition against Scythians
north of Black Sea
around 450 BCE Herodotus’s visit to Black Sea town
of Olbia
fourth century BCE Sarmatians move into Sauromatian territory
339 BCE Philip II of Macedonia defeats Scythian king Ateas
331 BCE Scythians destroy Macedonian army north of the
Black Sea
329 BCE Alexander the Great fights Sakas in Central Asia
late third century BCE Scythian center of power shifts to Crimea
by 200 BCE Sarmatians dominate Black Sea steppe
78-76 BCE Roman expedition against Iazyges north of
the Danube
6 CE Iazyges raid Roman territory south of the Danube
8 CE Roman poet Ovid banished to Tomis on the
Black Sea
49 CE Sarmatians involved on both sides of civil war
in Crimea
60s CE Alans living north of Caucasus and around Don River and Sea of Azov
69 CE Roxolani invade Moesia; Iazyges leaders recruited in Roman
civil war
72 CE Alans raid south of the Caucasus
85-92 CE Sarmatians fight with Dacians against Domitian
101-102, 105-106 CE Trajan’s Dacian wars
117-119 CE uprising of Iazyges and Roxolani
166-180 CE Marcomannic Wars
175 CE peace treaty requires 8,000 Iazyges to serve in Roman army
200s CE Sarmatians north of Black Sea displaced by Goths
323 CE Constantine campaigns against the Sarmatians
around 330 CE Constantine campaigns against Goths in
Sarmatian territory
around 370 CE Huns conquer Alans, who become
Hun allies
406 CE Alans, Vandals, and other barbarians invade
what is now France
439 CE Alans and Vandals conquer North Africa
Genetic origins and legacy of the Scythians and Sarmatians
Genetic origins and legacy of the Scythians and Sarmatians (LINK)
Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
Abstract
During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochondrial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling suggests independent origins for eastern and western groups with ongoing gene-flow between them, plausibly explaining the striking uniformity of their material culture. We also find evidence that significant gene-flow from east to west Eurasia must have occurred early during the Iron Age.
Introduction
During the first millennium BCE, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin1. The classical Scythians, who had lived in the North Pontic region since the seventh century BCE, are the most famous among them due to the early reports in the Histories of Herodotus (490/480–424 BCE)2. Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BCE chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive ‘Animal Style’ artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture and referred to as ‘Scythians’. For simplification we will use ‘Scythian’ in the following text for all groups of Iron Age steppe nomads commonly associated with the Scythian culture.
The origin of the widespread Scythian culture has long been debated in Eurasian archaeology. The northern Black Sea steppe was originally considered the homeland and centre of the Scythians3 until Terenozhkin formulated the hypothesis of a Central Asian origin4. On the other hand, evidence supporting an east Eurasian origin includes the kurgan Arzhan 1 in Tuva5, which is considered the earliest Scythian kurgan5. Dating of additional burial sites situated in east and west Eurasia confirmed eastern kurgans as older than their western counterparts6,7. Additionally, elements of the characteristic ‘Animal Style’ dated to the tenth century BCE1,4 were found in the region of the Yenisei river and modern-day China, supporting the early presence of Scythian culture in the East. Artefacts of the Scythian culture spread over a large territory shortly after its emergence, but the underlying population dynamics that may have driven the cultural diffusion are poorly understood.
Genetic studies on Central Asian populations based on both ancient8 and modern mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)9,10,11,12 agree that Central Asia has historically been a crossroad for population movements from east to west and vice versa. It has been claimed that gene flow occurred from east to west Eurasia as early as the Palaeolithic13,14 and the Mesolithic15, and from west to east Eurasia during the Bronze Age16. A recent genomic study17 has emphasized the role of eastward migrations of people associated with the Yamnaya and Andronovo culture during the Bronze Age, followed by substantial admixture with East Asians. Most genetic studies on the later Iron Age nomads, however, have been limited by small sample size, restricted to a single cultural group, or based on the analysis of mtDNA alone18,19,20,21,22.
Figure 1: Reconstruction of a Scythian.
Found in the kurgan Olon-Kurin-Gol 10, Altai Mountains, Mongolia (reconstruction by Dimitri Pozdniakov).
In this study, mtDNA data from 96 individuals associated with the Scythian culture in different geographical regions and time periods have been sequenced and analysed; additionally, genomic data from eight of these individuals was obtained and analysed (Supplementary Table 1). From the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, samples discovered in the North Caucasus dating to the initial Scythian period (eighth to sixth century BCE), classical Scythians from the Don-Volga region (third century BCE), and Early Sarmatians from Pokrovka, southwest of the Ural (fifth to second century BCE), were included. From the eastern part of the Eurasian Steppe, we analysed samples from East Kazakhstan dating to the Zevakino-Chilikta phase (ninth to seventh century BCE); from the site Arzhan 2, assigned to the Aldy Bel culture in Tuva (seventh to sixth century BCE); and from the Tagar culture of the Minusinsk Basin (fifth century BCE). The majority of the samples generated by this study or retrieved from the literature date to the fourth to third century BCE and were discovered at archaeological sites situated in the Kazakh, Russian and Mongolian parts of the Altai Mountains. These findings were all assigned to the Pazyryk culture, which is named after the first discoveries by Gryaznov in 1927 and 1929 in the Pazyryk Valley and famous for its rich frost-conserved graves, where human bodies, tapestry and clothing remained well-preserved23,24,25 (Fig. 1).
While the eastern and western populations investigated here are separated by a distance of 2,000–3,500 km, archaeological evidence indicates that they were strikingly similar regarding their lifestyle and culture. The aims of this study are to investigate the extent to which these groups are genetically related to each other and whether they have a common origin, and to elucidate their demographic history and genetic relationships to modern living populations. We therefore divided the Iron Age steppe nomad data generated by this study and from the literature (n=147, Supplementary Table 1) into seven sample groups (see Fig. 2) based on geographical and chronological criteria, and analysed these ancient individuals together with an extensive sample of modern individuals from 86 populations (n=3,410, Supplementary Fig. 11 and Supplementary Table 19) from all parts of Eurasia. Our analysis included an array of statistical methods as well as a series of population genetic inference approaches, including explicit demographic modelling.
Figure 2 : Distribution of the sample sites analysed for this study (yellow) including data from the literature (green).
Numbers refer to the defined groups (#): WEST: #1 initial Scythian period eighth to sixth century BCE (n=4); #2 classic Scythian phase sixth to second century BCE (n=19); #3 Early Sarmatians fifth to second century BCE (n=11); EAST: #4 Zevakino-Chilikta phase ninth to seventh century BCE (n=11); #5 Aldy Bel culture seventh to sixth century BCE (n=15); #6 Pazyryk culture fourth to third century BCE (n=71); #7 Tagar/Tes culture eighth century BCE—first century CE (n=16); arrows with a G indicate samples for which genomic data was obtained, black for capture data and grey for shotgun data. Source of the map: cartomedia-Karlsruhe.
Results
Samples and sequence data
We generated genome-wide capture data on a target set of 1,233,553 SNPs26,27 for six individuals: two Early Sarmatians from the southern Ural region (PR9, PR3, group #3 in Fig. 2; fifth to second century BCE), two individuals from Berel’ in East Kazakhstan (Be9, Be11, #6) dating to the Pazyryk period (fourth to third century BCE), and two individuals found in kurgan Arzhan 2 (A10, A17, #5) assigned to the Aldy Bel culture in Tuva (seventh to sixth century BCE). For Be9 and two additional individuals from east Kazakhstan (Is2 and Ze6, #4) dating to the Zevakino-Chilikta phase (ninth to seventh century BCE), we generated low coverage (<0.3x) whole genome datasets by shotgun NGS (Table 1, Supplementary Tables 20 and 21).
Table 1: List of all ancient individuals from which nuclear data were obtained in this study.
We additionally obtained unambiguous and reproducible mtDNA sequences of the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1; bp 16,013–16,410) for 96 samples (out of 110 samples for which the analysis was attempted) (Supplementary Table 5). For 90/96 samples additional coding region SNPs were typed (Supplementary Table 6).
Genetic relationship and origin of the Scythian groups
The eastern sample group (n=113) can be divided in four cultural subgroups chronologically dispersed over the 1st millennium BCE (Fig. 2). Analysing mtDNA, we found no significant genetic distance between those groups (Supplementary Table 8). We then used approximate Bayesian computation (ABC)28 to test for continuity between the earlier (#4: Zevakino-Chilikta and #5: Aldy Bel; n=26) and the later (#6: Pazyryk; n=71) Scythian period in the East. The Tagar/Tes group (#7) had to be excluded because of their imprecise dating. These analyses revealed that they were most likely derived from one single population that was expanding over the time period considered here, that is, the two samples are unlikely to represent two independent populations that diverged earlier than 108 generations before present (g BP) or ∼2.7 ky BP. This scenario was highly supported in our model selection procedure (Supplementary Table 9, logistic regression, P=0.995, neural networks P=0.568, cf. confidence in model choice in Supplementary Table 10, model parameter posteriors in Supplementary Table 11), whereas two scenarios that assumed that the eastern Scythian sample groups were derived from two previously diverged populations received very little statistical support (cumulative posterior probabilities: logistic regression, P<0.001, neural networks, P=0.001).
Since the genetic distance between the combined Scythian groups of the east versus those of the west is relatively low (FST=0.01733; P-value=0.02148±0.0045), we used ABC to further assess if the eastern and western Scythians might share a common origin (Fig. 3). For these analyses we included contemporary samples representative of genetic diversity on the extremes of Eurasia (Supplementary Note 1). According to our model selection algorithm, a multiregional model provided the best fit to the empirically observed diversity patterns (Supplementary Table 12, 0.5% closest simulations, posterior probability P=0.708 for logistic regression, P=0.715 for neural networks method), while a model of western origin also received some support (Supplementary Table 12, 0.5% closest simulations, posterior probability P=0.286 for logistic regression, P=0.267 for neural networks method). Therefore, in contrast to the eastern origin model, a western origin cannot be fully discounted by our analysis. In addition, a pairwise comparison through the computation of Bayes factors reveals a substantial to strong (logistic regression) or weak to substantial (neural network) support for the multiregional origin over the western origin model (see Supplementary Note 1, Supplementary Table 14 and Supplementary Fig. 5b). These results suggest that western and eastern Scythian groups arose independently—perhaps in their respective geographic regions—and thereafter experienced significant population expansions (during the 1st millennium BCE). Importantly, our simulations support a continuous gene flow between the Iron Age Scythian groups, with indications of asymmetrical gene flow from western to eastern groups, rather than the reverse (see Supplementary Tables 13 and 15 for details).
Figure 3 : Candidate scenarios for the origin of Scythian populations.
W-Eu=West Eurasians; WS=western Scythian groups; ES=eastern Scythian groups; N-Han=Han Chinese. Numbers on the left refer to generations before present.
Because population movements across Central Asia during the Bronze Age are often archaeologically associated with the spread of the Andronovo culture29, we used ABC to fit a sample of Middle Bronze Age nomadic groups from western Siberia, most of them associated with the Andronovo culture, onto the preferred demographic model for the origin of Scythians. For this purpose—and based on low FST values between these groups—we combined 40 samples related to the Andronovo culture in the west Siberian forest steppe30 and nine samples from the same culture in the Krasnoyarsk region31, all of which were dated to the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The results provided very strong support for a linkage between these Middle Bronze Age groups and eastern Scythians (Supplementary Tables 16 and 17). However, these simulations were not able to fully capture the patterns of genetic diversity observed in the Bronze Age populations, suggesting that the true demographic history of the ancestry of Iron Age populations may have been more complex than considered here (see Supplementary Note 1 and 32 for details).
Genetic diversity and ancestry of the Scythian groups
Haplogroups found in the Iron Age nomads are predominant in modern populations in both west (HV, N1, J, T, U, K, W, I, X) and east Eurasia (A, C, D, F, G, M, Y, Z). The mitochondrial haplotype diversity in our sample set ranges from 0.958±0.036 in the Tagar/Tes sample (group #7 in Fig. 2) up to 1.000±0.039 in the Early Sarmatians (#3; Supplementary Table 7).
Using nuclear SNP data, we performed a principal component analysis33 (PCA) of 777 present-day west Eurasians26,34,35 onto which we projected the eight newly reported Iron Age Scythian samples as well as 167 other ancient samples from Europe, the Caucasus and Siberia from the literature17,34,36 (Fig. 4). The two Early Sarmatian samples from the West (group #3 in Fig. 2) fall close to an Iron Age sample from the Samara district34 and are generally close to the Early Bronze Age Yamnaya samples from Samara34 and Kalmykia17 and the Middle Bronze Age Poltavka samples from Samara34. The eastern samples from Pazyryk (#6), Aldy Bel (#5) and Zevakino-Chilikta (#4) are part of a loose cluster with other samples from Central Asia17, including those from Okunevo, Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Russia, and Karasuk. These samples contrast with earlier samples from the Eurasian Steppe belonging to the Andronovo17, Sintashta17 and Srubnaya34 groups, which overlap Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals from mainland Europe34,35 and are shifted downwards in the PCA plot towards the early farmers of Europe and Anatolia34.
Discussion
Our results show that the Iron Age groups—long believed to be connected through shared cultural artefacts associated with the classical Scythians of the North Pontic region—also share a genetic connection. This is supported by our ABC analyses revealing population continuity over the 1st millennium BCE in the eastern Scythians and low FST values between eastern and western Scythian groups. However, ABC analyses that evaluated different models for the origins of Scythian populations provided the strongest support for a multiregional origin, with eastern and western groups arising independently within their own regions. Despite separate origins and the enormous geographic separation, demographic modelling infers ongoing and substantial gene flow between eastern and western groups, which provides a plausible demographic mechanism to explain the low FST values and the general uniformity of the material culture of Scythians right across the Eurasian Steppe zone.
Our genomic analyses reveal that western and eastern steppe inhabitants possess east Eurasian ancestry to varying degrees. In our ADMIXTURE analyses we find an East Asian ancestry component at K=15 in all Iron Age samples that has not been detected in preceding Bronze Age populations in either western or eastern parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Another ancestral component that is maximized in the north Siberian Nganasan population becomes visible from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards in the eastern steppe (Okunevo, Karasuk, Mezhovskaya). This component appears later in all Iron Age populations but with significantly higher levels in the eastern steppe zone than in the West. These findings are consistent with the appearance of east Eurasian mitochondrial lineages in the western Scythians during the Iron Age, and imply gene-flow or migration over the Eurasian Steppe belt carrying East Asian/North Siberian ancestry from the East to the West as far as the Don-Volga region in southern Russia. In general, gene-flow between eastern and western Eurasia seems to have been more intense during the Iron Age than in modern times, which is congruent with the view of the Iron Age populations of the Eurasian Steppe being highly mobile semi-nomadic horse-riding groups.
In the East, we find a balanced mixture of mitochondrial lineages found today predominantly in west Eurasians, including a significant proportion of prehistoric hunter-gatherer lineages, and lineages that are at high frequency in modern Central and East Asians already in the earliest Iron Age individuals dating to the ninth to seventh century BCE and an even earlier mtDNA sample from Bronze Age Mongolia49. Typical west Eurasian mtDNA lineages are also present in the Tarim Basin16 and Kazakhstan8 and were even predominant in the Krasnoyarsk area during the 2nd millennium BCE31. This pattern points to an admixture process between west and east Eurasian populations that began in earlier periods, certainly before the 1st millennium BCE13,50, a finding consistent with a recent study suggesting the carriers of the Yamnaya culture are genetically indistinguishable from the Afanasievo culture peoples of the Altai-Sayan region. This further implies that carriers of the Yamnaya culture migrated not only into Europe26 but also eastward, carrying west Eurasian genes—and potentially also Indo-European languages—to this region17. All of these observations provide evidence that the prevalent genetic pattern does not simply follow an isolation-by-distance model but involves significant gene flow over large distances.
All Iron Age individuals investigated in this study show genomic evidence for Caucasus hunter-gatherer and Eastern European hunter-gatherer ancestry. This is consistent with the idea that the blend of EHG and Caucasian elements in carriers of the Yamnaya culture was formed on the European steppe and exported into Central Asia and Siberia26. All of our analyses support the hypothesis that the genetic composition of the Scythians can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and East Asian/north Siberian elements.
Concerning the legacy of the Iron Age nomads, we find that modern human populations with a close genetic relationship to the Scythian groups are predominantly located in close geographic proximity to the sampled burial sites, suggesting a degree of population continuity through historical times. Contemporary descendants of western Scythian groups are found among various groups in the Caucasus and Central Asia, while similarities to eastern Scythian are found to be more widespread, but almost exclusively among Turkic language speaking (formerly) nomadic groups, particularly from the Kipchak branch of Turkic languages (Supplementary Note 1). The genealogical link between eastern Scythians and Turkic language speakers requires further investigation, particularly as the expansion of Turkic languages was thought to be much more recent—that is, sixth century CE onwards—and to have occurred through an elite expansion process. There are potentially many more demographic factors involved in the origins of Turkic language speakers, such as migration waves associated with Xiongnu, ancient Turkic or early Mongolian populations. The extent to which the eastern Scythians were involved in the early formation of Turkic speaking populations can be elucidated by future genomic studies on the historic periods following the Scythian times.
“Warriors who drank their enemies’ blood: They were one of history’s most barbaric tribes, but a British Museum exhibition reveals the Scythians also produced great art.’ (L)
“They were one of the most bloodthirsty tribes on Earth. When the Scythians took to the battlefield, it was claimed the air was so thick with bronze-tipped arrows that the sun was blotted out.
“Mounted on their lightning-quick horses, they fired volley after volley at their terrified enemies, before leaping to the ground to plunge axes into their opponents’ skulls, slicing them through the pelvis with their spears for good measure.
“And when they had wiped out the men, they started butchering the women and the horses, before gruesomely drinking the blood of those they had slain.”
Scythian warriors.
📹 Scythians 1 — History, Geography, and Romanticism (VİDEO)
Scythians 1 — History, Geography, and Romanticism (LINK)
This video was written, prepared, and narrated by David Peterson for non-commercial educational use only,
The Battle of Jaxartes was a battle fought in 329 BC by Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army against the Scythians at the River Jaxartes, now known as the Syr Darya River. The site of the battle straddles the modern borders of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, just south-west of the ancient city of Tashkent (the modern capital of Uzbekistan) and north-east of Khujand (a city in Tajikistan).
Date October 329 BC Location Syr Darya Result Macedonian victory over Scythians
During the latter two battles Alexander had been determined to capture Darius. However, Darius had been able to escape in each of these battles. Had Alexander been able to capture Darius, it would have been extremely useful in securing the submission of the majority of the empire. Many of the Achaemenid provinces beyond Mesopotamia were prosperous and well populated.
After Gaugamela, the Macedonians were obliged to leave the battlefield where they had been victorious almost immediately. The pestilence that the corpses would have wrought on his army could have destroyed it. Alexander marched on Babylon to secure his communications. His intention was to make this the administrative capital of his empire.
The Scythians had occupied the northern bank of the Jaxartes, confident that they could beat Alexander’s men as they disembarked, but the Scythians underestimated how the collaborative abilities of the Macedonian artillery, fleet, cavalry, and infantry. Firstly Alexander ordered that the crossing would take place all at once, so that the mounted enemy archers would be faced with more targets than they could strike at; and he ordered his artillery to cover the soldiers in the ships. (Catapults have a longer range than bows.) This is the first recorded incident of the use of such an approach.
Aftermath and consequences
About 1200 Scythians were surrounded and killed, including their commander, Satraces. Over 150 prisoners were taken and 1800 horses were captured. As far as the Macedonians and Greeks knew, no commander had ever been able to pin down and destroy a nomad army besides Alexander's father, Philip II. Philip had defeated the Scythian king Atheas in 340 BC. This was a boost for morale, and a psychological blow for the nomads north of the Jaxartes. Alexander’s main aim, however, had never been to subdue the nomads; he wanted to go to the south, where a far more serious crisis demanded his attention. He could do so now without loss of face; and in order to make the outcome acceptable to the Scythians, he released the prisoners of war without ransom. This policy was successful: the northern frontier of Alexander’s empire no longer faced an immediate threat from the Scythians.
In one of the biggest challenges to Alexander's campaign following the death of Darius, he and his army encountered the Scythians (nomad army) at the northern banks of the Jaxartes river in 329 B.C.E. Alexander used a battalion of spearmen to bait the Scythians into an inescapable position, sandwiching them between the spearmen and Macedonian infantry. In addition to claiming over 1,000 horses from the Scythians, the victory also gave a much needed moral boost to the Macedonian armyIn one of the biggest challenges to Alexander's campaign following the death of Darius, he and his army encountered the Scythians (nomad army) at the northern banks of the Jaxartes river in 329 B.C.E. Alexander used a battalion of spearmen to bait the Scythians into an inescapable position, sandwiching them between the spearmen and Macedonian infantry. In addition to claiming over 1,000 horses from the Scythians, the victory also gave a much needed moral boost to the Macedonian army.
1) Scythian King; 2) Urartian nobleman (early 6th century BC).
The Scythians (from GreekΣκύθης, Σκύθοι), also known as Scyth, Saka, Sakae, Sai, Iskuzai, or Askuzai, were Eurasian nomads, probably mostly using Eastern Iranian languages, who were mentioned by the literate peoples to their south as inhabiting large areas of the western and central Eurasian Steppe from about the 9th century BC up until the 4th century AD.The "classical Scythians" known to ancient Greek historians, agreed to be mainly Iranian in origin, were located in the northern Black Sea and fore-Caucasus region. Other Scythian groups documented by Assyrian, Achaemenid and Chinese sources show that they also existed in Central Asia, where they were referred to as the Iskuzai/Askuzai, Saka(Old Persian: Sakā; New Persian/Pashto: ساکا; Sanskrit: शकŚaka; Greek: Σάκαι; Latin: Sacae), and Sai (Chinese: 塞; Old Chinese: *sˤək), respectively.
Owing to their reputation as established by Greek historians, the Scythians long served as the epitome of savagery and barbarism.
In the New Testament, in a letter ascribed to Paul "Scythian" is used as an example of people whom some label pejoratively, but who are, in Christ, acceptable to God.
Scythians lived in confederated tribes, a political form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organised a common defence against encroaching neighbours for the pastoral tribes of mostly equestrian herdsmen.
Herodotus relates that three main tribes of the Scythians descended from three brothers, Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais:
A warlike people, the Scythians were particularly known for their equestrian skills, and their early use of composite bows shot from horseback. With great mobility, the Scythians could absorb the attacks of more cumbersome footsoldiers and cavalry, just retreating into the steppes. Such tactics wore down their enemies, making them easier to defeat. The Scythians were notoriously aggressive warriors. They “fought to live and lived to fight” and “drank the blood of their enemies and used the scalps as napkins.”
The religious beliefs of the Scythians was a type of Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion and differed from the post-Zoroastrian Iranian thoughts. Foremost in the Scythian pantheon stood Tabiti, who was later replaced by Atar, the fire-pantheon of Iranian tribes, and Agni, the fire deity of Indo-Aryans. The Scythian belief was a more archaic stage than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems. The use of cannabis to induce trance and divination by soothsayers was a characteristic of the Scythian belief system. A class of priests, the Enarei, worshipped the goddess Argimpasa and assumed feminine identities.
Scythians (or Skythians or Scolotoi): The old story is that they called themselves the "Scythians" after the name of their legendary first king, Scythês. A spelling variation on "Scythês" is "Skoloxaïs." The current theory is that the word "Scythian" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European word "skeud-o," meaning "shooter" or "archer." (LINK)
The generic title encompasses the varied ethnic groups who have at times inhabited the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia, and what is now Russia. They domesticated the horse around 3500 BC, vastly increasing the possibilities of nomadic life, and subsequently their economy and culture emphasised horse breeding, horse riding and nomadic pastoralism; this usually involved trading with settled peoples around the steppe edges. They developed the chariot,wagon, cavalry and horse archery and introduced innovations such as the bridle, bit and stirrup, and the very rapid rate at which innovations crossed the steppelands spread these widely, to be copied by settled peoples bordering the steppes.
The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BC), Middle Iranian (400 BC-900 AD), and New Iranian (since 900 AD). The two directly attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from the Achaemenid Empire) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta). Of the Middle Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Middle Persian (from the Sasanian Empire), Parthian (from the Parthian Empire), and Bactrian (from the Kushan and Hephthalite empires).
Scythians and Gold (W)
Gold Scythian pectoral, or neckpiece, from a royal kurgan in Towsta Mohila, Pokrov, dated to the 2nd half of the 4th century BC. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins. (W)
Scythian, also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae, member of a nomadic people, originally of Iranian stock, known from as early as the 9th century BCE who migrated westward from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. The Scythians founded a rich, powerful empire centred on what is now Crimea. The empire survived for several centuries before succumbing to the Sarmatians during the period from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE.
Until the 20th century, most of what was known of the history of the Scythians came from the account of them by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who visited their territory. In modern times that record has been expanded chiefly by Russian and other anthropologists excavating kurgans in such places as Tyva and Kazakhstan.
The Scythians were feared and admired for their prowess in war and, in particular, for their horsemanship. They were among the earliest people to master the art of riding, and their mobility astonished their neighbours. The migration of the Scythians from Asia eventually brought them into the territory of the Cimmerians, who had traditionally controlled the Caucasus and the plains north of the Black Sea. In a war that lasted 30 years, the Scythians destroyed the Cimmerians and set themselves up as rulers of an empire stretching from west Persia through Syria and Judaea to the borders of Egypt. The Medes, who ruled Persia, attacked them and drove them out of Anatolia, leaving them finally in control of lands which stretched from the Persian border north through the Kuban and into southern Russia.
Scythian gold belt buckle with turquoise inlay, from Siberia; in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg(W)
The Scythians were remarkable not only for their fighting ability but also for the complex culture they produced. They developed a class of wealthy aristocrats who left elaborate graves — such as the kurgans in the Valley of the Tsars (or Kings) near Arzhan, 40 miles (60 km) from Kyzyl, Tyva — filled with richly worked articles of gold, as well as beads of turquoise, carnelian, and amber, and many other valuable objects. This class of chieftains, the Royal Scyths, finally established themselves as rulers of the southern Russian and Crimean territories. It is there that the richest, oldest, and most-numerous relics of Scythian civilization have been found. Their power was sufficient to repel an invasion by the Persian king Darius I about 513 BCE.
The Royal Scyths were headed by a sovereign whose authority was transmitted to his son. Eventually, about the time of Herodotus, the royal family intermarried with Greeks. In 339 the ruler Ateas was killed at age 90 while fighting Philip II of Macedonia. The community was eventually destroyed in the 2nd century BCE, Palakus being the last sovereign whose name is preserved in history.
The Scythian army was made up of freemen who received no wage other than food and clothing but who could share in booty on presentation of the head of a slain enemy. Many warriors wore Greek-style bronze helmets and chain-mail jerkins. Their principal weapon was a double-curved bow and trefoil-shaped arrows; their swords were of the Persian type. Every Scythian had at least one personal mount, but the wealthy owned large herds of horses, chiefly Mongolian ponies. Burial customs were elaborate and called for the sacrifice of members of the dead man’s household, including wife, servants, and a number of horses.
Despite these characteristics, their many and exquisite grave goods, notably the animal-style gold artifacts, reveal that the Scythians were also culturally advanced. Further, some gold ornaments thought to have been created by Greeks for the Scythians were shown to have predated their contact with Greek civilization.
Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the Kul'Oba kurgan burial near Kerch. The warrior on the right is stringing his bow, bracing it behind his knee; note the typical pointed hood, long jacket with fur or fleece trimming at the edges, decorated trousers, and short boots tied at the ankle. The hair seems normally to have been worn long and loose, and beards were apparently worn by all adult men. The other two warriors on the left are conversing, both holding spears or javelins. The quiver is clearly indicated on the left hip of the man on the left, who is wearing a diadem and therefore is likely to be the Scythian king. (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) (W)
According to Herodotus, the Scythians worshipped a pantheon of seven gods and goddesses (heptad), which he equates with Greek divinities of Classical Antiquity following the interpretatio graeca. He mentions eight deities in particular, the eighth being worshipped by the Royal Scythians, and gives the Scythian names for seven of them as follows:
Tabiti (Ταβιτί) – Hestia (Tabiti is thought to be a hellenized version of a name similar to HinduTapati and related verb tapayati ("burns"/"is hot"), as well as Avestantapaiti, Latintepeo and several other Indo-European terms for heat. Tabiti was presented as “Queen of the gods” around 450 BCE by King Idanthyrsos, a political guardian,she was considered the goddess of the home ensuring prosperity to a well-functioning household.
Archaeological context
The primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notably chariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from the Eneolithic well into historical times. Herodotus describes the execution of horses at the burial of a Scythian king, and Iron Age kurgan graves known to contain horses number in the hundreds.
The Scythians had some reverence for the stag, which is one of the most common motifs in their artwork, especially at funeral sites (see, for example, the Pazyryk burials).
Scythians and Sarmatians
Kathryn Hinds (2010)
The Scythians may have originated somewhere around the Ural River, in what is now western Kazakhstan. During the eighth century BCE, they migrated westward
to the region north of the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea. This
was the territory of a people known as the Cimmerians, but the Scythians drove them out. Some Cimmerians moved into Asia Minor, while
the Scythians pursued others across the Caucasus and into the Assyrian Empire based in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). →
Assyrian records referred to the Scythians as the Ishkuza or
Ashkuzai, mentioning them for the first time in the late seventh century BCE. Led by a chief named Ishpakai, around 678 they allied with
the Medes (from Media, a kingdom in what is now northern Iran) and
waged war against the Assyrians. Only a few years later, though, a
group of Scythians became allies of Assyria, and their chief, Bartatua,
married an Assyrian princess. Bartatua’s Scythians then proceeded to
go after the Cimmerians in Asia Minor, who had been harassing
Assyria’s borders. Several decades later Bartatua’s son, Madyes, came
to the Assyrians’ aid again, this time against the Medes. The Scythians
took control of Media themselves and around 610 they and the Medes
conquered Nineveh, the Assyrian Empire’s capital. →
Scythian warriors apparently raided many areas of the Middle East
during this period, striking even as far south as Egypt. The
fifth-century BCE Greek historian Herodotus wrote that for twenty-eight
years the Scythians ruled west Asia “and the whole land was ruined
because of their violence and their pride, for, besides exacting tribute
... they rode about the land carrying off everyone’s possessions.”
“A Scythian drinks the blood of the first man whom he has taken
down. He carries the heads of all whom he has slain in the battle to his king; for if he brings a head, he receives a share of the
booty taken, but not otherwise. He scalps the head. ... He keeps
[the scalp] for a hand towel, fastening it to the bridle of [his] horse
... and taking pride in it; for he who has most scalps ... is judged
the best man. ... The heads themselves, not all of them but those
of their bitterest enemies, they treat this way. Each saws off all
the part beneath the eyebrows, and cleans the rest. If he is a poor
man, then he covers the outside with a piece of raw hide, and so
makes use of it; but if he is rich, he covers the [skull] with the raw
hide, and gilds the inside of it and uses it for a drinking-cup.”
Archaeologists have found evidence to support Herodotus’s story at
a site now known as Belsk, on a tributary of the Dnieper River. →
To many readers, in both ancient
and more recent times, Herodotus’s
description of a Scythian royal
funeral seemed even more incredible than his story of Scythian
head collecting. He wrote, “They
take the king’s corpse and, having opened the belly and cleaned out
the inside, fill it with a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense,
parsley seed, and aniseed, after which they sew up the opening,
enclose the body in wax and, placing it on a wagon, carry it through
all the different tribes.” This funeral procession through the dead
king’s lands took forty days, then arrived at the traditional burial site
for Scythian rulers.
→
“There the body of the dead king is laid in the grave prepared for
it, stretched upon a mattress. ... In the open space around the
king they bury one of his [wives or servant girls], first killing her
by strangling, and also his cupbearer, his cook, his groom, his
lackey, his messenger, his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions and some golden cups. ... After this they set to work
and raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with
each other and seeking to make it as tall as possible.”
The final ceremonies came a year later, when “they take the most
trusted of the rest of the king’s servants ... and strangle fifty of these
and fifty of their best horses and empty and clean the bellies of them
all, fill them with chaff, and sew them up again.” Then they set the dead
men on the dead horses, arranged upright in a circle around the
mound, looking just as if the late king’s servants had mounted guard
on his grave.
The Indo-Scythian Sakas were nomadic Central Asian tribes which inhabited the region around the River Jaxartes and Lake Issykkul (or Issyk Kul — located in the Tian Shan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan). They seem to have beenIndo-European in terms of their ancestry, part of a large group of peoples who had formerly lived around the north shores of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Migration between the fourth and second millennia BC had sent them far and wide, mostly into Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, but it also later saw them in Iran and India, and even Han dynasty China.
The Sakas eventually found themselves situated to the north and east of the Indo-European Oxus Civilisation of late-third millennium BC Transoxiana, although it is impossible to say whether they were involved at all. They could instead have been part of the Kazakhstan steppe-living 'spiral city' builders who may have traded with the Oxus dwellers but who did not achieve quite the same level of sophistication. Probably related to the Massagetae, their subsequent fate between around 1700-550 BC can only be guessed at. It probably involved a return to a typical Indo-European nomadic existence, which is supported by their adventures with the Yeuh Chi,Achaemenids, and others. They may also have influenced or provided elements of the later Göktürks, who have been linked by some scholars with an Indo-European ancestry.
The Amyrgian subset of Sakas in particular were fairly well attested, after coming into contact with both the Achaemenids (who called them Sakaibish) and the Greeks under Alexander. They were apparently centred on the Amyrgian plain which equates to all of Ferghanaand also the Alai valley - well to the east of most of the Sakas. They accompanied Alexander on campaign, under their 'King Omarg' and later entered India along with the Kambojas to found a kingdom in Gandhara (now in northern Pakistan), displacing the ailing Indo-Greekkings.
The Tigraxauda name is commonly translated as 'pointed caps' thanks to the headdress worn by members of this group. They appear to have been nearest the Persian border during the eastern campaigns of Darius the Great, fleeing from his advance. Then Darius crossed a river which was probably the Syr Darya - the Jaxartes or River Tanais - after crossing Suguda, and 'smote the Saka exceedingly', slaying their chief. This would be the Haumavarga. The origin of their name is taken to mean that they practiced haoma-drinking. Haoma - the soma of Rigveda - is a medicinal and health-giving extract from plants which is associated with ancient Zoroastrian healing practices. The shift between soma and haoma is another example of the 's' to 'sh' to 's' shift that can be seen between Indo-Aryans and Indo-Iranians. More than just medicinal, haoma appears to have been psychotropic in nature if the Rigveda is read correctly. The third of the early Saka 'nations' was that of the Paradraya. This name breaks down into 'para' and 'draya', the first part meaning 'across' and the latter almost certainly being 'darya' or 'river'. When Darius boasted of the limits of his empire he gave as the north-eastern corner the 'Sakaibish tyaiy para Sugdam' - the Sakas across/beyond Suguda, on the other side of the Syr Darya, which forms the boundary between Suguda and Scythia.
Later groups were noted in the fifth century by Xerxes and others. The region known as Daha was added to the empire, the name coming from 'daai' or 'daae', meaning 'men', perhaps in the sense of brigands. Daha or Dahae would appear to be the region on the eastern flank of the Caspian Sea, bordered by the Tigraxauda to the north. This contained a confederation of three tribes, the Parni, the Pissuri, and the Xanthii. With the latter, the 'x' in Xanthii has a 'ks' sound which is interchangeable with 'sk' in place of the 'x', possibly providing 'skanth' which can also be seen in the region name 'Skudra'. It turns out that the Xanthii may have been a branch of the Sakas and Scythians.
In the 320s BC, the Amyrgian plain saw the Saka Haumavarga neighbouring the Saka Tigraxauda. Guive Mirfendereski at the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies equates the Massagetae with the Haumavarga (but not the Tigraxauda?), suggesting that Herodotus had produced 'Massagetae' as his own Greek pronunciation of Haumavarga and Amyrgian to describe a specific group of Haumavarga, while the Tigraxauda seem to have become the Orthocorybantes.
In the 280s BC, the Greek explorer and satrap, Demodamas, undertook military expeditions across the Syr Darya to explore the lands of the Sakas, repopulating Alexandria Eschate (modern Khojend) in the process following its earlier destruction by barbarians. From his material, and that recorded by Megasthenes around a generation before, another group of Sakas could be perceived at this time, known as the Homodotes (Pliny's Homodoti, which is based originally on Demodamas, and who are one of a list of regionally neighbouring tribes called the Astacae, Rumnici, and Pestici). The Homodotes were located in the (northern) Emod and at the headwaters of the Oxus (the Amu Darya).
(Information by Peter Kessler and Abhijit Rajadhyaksha, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from Ancient India, R C Majumdar (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Ltd, 1987), from Studies in Indian History, L Prasad (Cosmos Bookhive, Gurgaon, 2000), from the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies in a theory proposed by Guive Mirfendereski, from Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus: Books 11-12, Volume 1, Marcus Junianus Justinus, John Yardley, & Waldemar Heckel, from Foreign Impact on Indian Life and Culture (c.326 BC to c.300 AD), Satyendra Nath Naskar, from Indian Numismatic Studies, K D Bajpai, from A Comprehensive History Of Ancient India, P N Chopra & B N Puri, from The Persian Empire, J M Cook (1983), from The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, René Grousset (1970), and from External Links: Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples, and Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, J Pokorny, and The Ethnic [Background] of [the] Sakas (Scythians), I P'iankov, presented by the Iran Chamber Society, and the Ancient History Encyclopaedia, and Zoroastrian Heritage, K E Eduljee, and Talessman's Atlas (World History Maps).)
Sarmatians
Sarmatian people
Pomponius Mela’s Description of the World (W) 115. The Tanais itself, falling from the Riphaean Mountains, rushes
so precipitously that it alone endures both summery heat and wintry
cold in close proximity, yet it runs down always the same, unchanged
and fast-moving, even when neighboring rivers, the Maeotis, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and certain parts of the Pontus are all frozen by
winter's cold.83 116. The Sauromatae occupy its banks and the places
that are contiguous with them. They are one nation but have as many
peoples as they have names. First, the Maeotid Gynaecocratumenoe
[Grk., Ruled By Women]—the kingdoms of the Amazons—occupy
plains that are rich in pasture but barren and bare for other things. The Budini inhabit the city of Gelonos. Next to them the Thyssagetae and
Turcae occupy endless forests and feed themselves by hunting.117. The
next region is deserted and rough, with uninterrupted cliffs over a wide
stretch; it extends all the way to the Aremphaei. These people enjoy
customs that are very much based on fair treatment; they have sacred
groves for homes and berries as food; and both men and women keep
their heads bare. Therefore these people are regarded as consecrated,
and no one from nations as savage as those here profanes these people,
which results in the custom that other people flee to them for asylum.
Farther on, the Riphaean Mountains rise up, and beyond them lies the
shore that faces Ocean.
Detail of the front panel of the roman sarcophagus adorned with a relief representing the submission of the Sarmatians. (W)
Sarmatian, member of a people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains between the 6th and 4th century BC and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans.
Like the Scythians to whom they were closely related, the Sarmatians were highly developed in horsemanship and warfare. Their administrative capability and political astuteness contributed to their gaining widespread influence. By the 5th century BC the Sarmatians held control of the land between the Urals and the Don River. In the 4th century they crossed the Don and conquered the Scythians, replacing them as rulers of almost all of southern Russia by the 2nd century. The Roman province of Lower Moesia (Bulgaria) was penetrated during the time of Nero’s rule, and an alliance which the Sarmatians formed with Germanic tribes posed a formidable threat to the Romans in the West as late as the lst century ad. In the final centuries of their existence the Sarmatians invaded Dacia (Romania) and the lower Danube region, only to be overwhelmed by the Goths during the 3rd century ad, though many of them joined their conquerors in the Gothic invasion of western Europe. Sarmatia perished when hordes of Huns migrated after ad 370 into southern Russia. Those surviving became assimilated or escaped to the West to fight the Huns and the last of the Goths. By the 6th century their descendants had disappeared from the historical record.
When the Sarmatians penetrated into southeastern Europe, they were already accomplished horsemen. They were nomadic, devoting themselves to hunting and to pastoral occupations. Owing to their common nomadic and Central Asian heritage, Sarmatian society paralleled, at first, that of the Scythians, but there were many differences. The Scythian gods were those of nature, while the Sarmatians venerated a god of fire to whom they offered horses in sacrifice. In contrast to the reclusive, domestic role of Scythian women, unmarried Sarmatian females, especially in the society’s early years, took arms alongside men. Sarmatian female warriors may have inspired the Greek tales of the Amazons.
An early matriarchal form of society was later replaced by a system of male chieftains and eventually by a male monarchy. This transition may well have stemmed from the rapid development of horsemanship and a male cavalry corps, attributable to the invention of the metal stirrup and the spur. These innovations contributed greatly to success in military campaigns and even influenced the Roman style of combat.
Evolving burial customs offer an insight into the progress of the Sarmatian social structure. Early graves held only the remains of the deceased. The somewhat later inclusion of personal objects with the body followed the emergence of class differences. As society became more complex and affluent, more treasures were included with the corpse, until in the final period burial costumes and even jewelry were added to the ritual. The Kuban region is the site of the most elaborate tombs, which in general resemble those of the Scythians, although they are less elaborate in form and decoration. Horse trappings and weapons of the Sarmatians were also less elaborate than those of the Scythians, but they nonetheless evidenced great skill. Sarmatian spears were longer, but knives and daggers were just as varied in style. An outstanding specialty was the Sarmatian long sword, which featured a hilt of wood with gold lacing, topped with an agate or onyx knob. Sarmatian art was strongly geometric, floral, and richly coloured. Jewelry was a major craft, expressed in rings, bracelets, diadems, brooches, gold plaques, buckles, buttons, and mounts. Exceptional metalwork was found in the tombs, including bronze bracelets, spears, swords, gold-handled knives, and gold jewelry and cups.
Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-138 AD), showing the location of the Sarmatae in the Ukrainian steppe region. (W)
Sarmatians (W) The Sarmatians (Latin: Sarmatae, Sauromatae; Greek: Σαρμάται, Σαυρομάται) were a large Iranianconfederation that existed in classical antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD.
Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe, the Sarmatians started migrating westward around the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by 200 BC. At their greatest reported extent, around 1st century AD, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south. Their territory, which was known as Sarmatia to Greco-Roman ethnographers, corresponded to the western part of greater Scythia (it included today's Central Ukraine, South-Eastern Ukraine, Southern Russia, Russian Volga and South-Ural regions, also to a smaller extent north-eastern Balkans and around Moldova). In the 1st century AD, the Sarmatians began encroaching upon the Roman Empire in alliance with Germanic tribes. In the 3rd century AD, their dominance of the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Germanic Goths. With the Hunnic invasions of the 4th century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes (Vandals) in the settlement of the Western Roman Empire. Since large parts of today's Russia, specifically the land between the Ural Mountains and the Don River, were controlled in the 5th century BC by the Sarmatians, the Volga-Don and Ural steppes sometimes are also called "Sarmatian Motherland".
The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe.
A Sarmatian-Parthian gold necklace and amulet, 2nd century AD. Located in Tamoikin Art Fund.
Ethnology (W) The Sarmatians were part of the Indo-Iranian steppe peoples, among whom were also Scythians and Saka. These are also grouped together as "East Iranians".Archaeology has established the connection 'between the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sarmatians and Saka and the earlier Timber-grave and Andronovo cultures'. Based on building construction, these three peoples were the likely descendants of those earlier archaeological cultures.The Sarmatians and Saka used the same stone construction methods as the earlier Andronovo culture. The Timber-grave and Andronovo house building traditions were further developed by these three peoples.Andronovo pottery was continued by the Saka and Sarmatians. Archaeologists describe the Andronovo culture people as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid features.
Language (W) The Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language, derived from 'Old Iranian', that was heterogenous. By the 1st century BC, the Iranian tribes in what is today South Russia spoke different languages or dialects, clearly distinguishable. According to a group of Iranologists writing in 1968, the numerous Iranian personal names in Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea coast indicated that the Sarmatians spoke a North-Eastern Iranian dialect ancestral to Alanian-Ossetian.However, Harmatta (1970) argued that "the language of the Sarmatians or that of the Alans as a whole cannot be simply regarded as being Old Ossetian".
Massagetae — Thyssagetae — Tauri
Massagetae
Herodotus wrote that the wide plain east of the Caspian Sea was home
“to the Massagetae, who were
“like the Scythians in their dress and way of life. They are both
cavalry and infantry (having some of each kind), and spearmen
and archers; and it is their custom to carry battle-axes. They
always use gold and bronze; all their spear-points and arrowheads and battle-axes are bronze and the adornment of their headgear and belts ... is gold.
They equip their horses similarly, protecting
their chests with bronze breastplates and putting gold on reins, bits, and cheekplates.”
The Massagetae are known primarily from the writings of Herodotus who described the Massagetae as living on a sizeable portion of the great plain east of the Caspian Sea. He several times refers to them as living "beyond the River Araxes", which flows through the Caucasus and into the west Caspian.Scholars have offered various explanations for this anomaly. For example, Herodotus may have confused two or more rivers, as he had limited and frequently indirect knowledge of geography.
According to Greek and Roman scholars, the Massagetae were neighboured by the Aspasioi (possibly the Aśvaka) to the north, the Scythians and the Dahae to the west, and the Issedones (possibly the Wusun) to the east. Sogdia (Khorasan) lay to the south.
Tomyris, Cyrus
Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae, receiving the head of Cyrus the Great, circa 530 BCE (18th century painting).
At that time, according to Herodotus, the Massagetae were ruled
by a widowed queen, Tomyris. Cyrus sent her a message saying he
wanted to marry her, but she refused, knowing that what he really
wanted was her people’s lands. Since he couldn’t get them through
marriage, he prepared to invade.
Now Tomyris sent him a message:
“Stop hurrying on what you are hurrying on, for you cannot know
whether the completion of this work will be
for your advantage. Stop, and be king of
your own country; and endure seeing us
ruling those whom we rule.”
Cyrus did not stop. In the summer of 530
BCE he led his army into the nomads’ territory. The Persians met with success early on,
killing a large number of Massagetae warriors and capturing Tomyris’s son. When
Tomyris heard of this, she sent another message to Cyrus: “Do not be elated by what you
have done. ... Take a word of good advice
from me: give me back my son and leave
this country. ... But if you will not, then I
swear to you by the sun ... that I shall give
even you who can never get enough of it
your fill of blood.”
Cyrus ignored this threat, and Tomyris’s
son killed himself rather than endure captivity. Herodotus continues the story:
“
Tomyris, when Cyrus would not listen to
her, collected all her forces and engaged
him. This fight I judge to have been the
fiercest ever fought by men that were not
Greek. ... For first (it is said) they shot arrows at each other from
a distance; then, when their arrows were all spent, they rushed
at each other and fought with their spears and swords; and for
a long time they stood fighting and neither would give ground;
but at last the Massagetae got the upper hand. The greater part
of the Persian army was destroyed there on the spot, and Cyrus
himself fell there. ... Tomyris filled a skin with human blood,
and searched among the Persian dead for Cyrus’ body; and when
she found it, she pushed his head into the skin, and insulted the
dead man in these words: “Though I am alive and have defeated
you in battle, you have destroyed me, taking my son by guile; but
just as I threatened, I give you your fill of blood.”
Culture
The original language of the Massagetae is little-known. While it appears to have had similarities to the Eastern Iranian languages, these may have resulted from interactions with neighbouring peoples, such as language contact or sprachbund-type assimilation.
According to Herodotus:
“
[1.215] In their dress and mode of living the Massagetae resemble the Scythians. They fight both on horseback and on foot, neither method is strange to them: they use bows and lances, but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe. Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For their spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for their battle-axes, they make use of brass; for head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too with the caparison of their horses, they give them breastplates of brass, but employ gold about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. They use neither iron nor silver, having none in their country; but they have brass and gold in abundance.
”
“
[1.216] The following are some of their customs; – Each man has but one wife, yet all the wives are held in common; for this is a custom of the Massagetae and not of the Scythians, as the Greeks wrongly say. Human life does not come to its natural close with this people; but when a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk collect together and offer him up in sacrifice; offering at the same time some cattle also. After the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on it; and those who thus end their days are reckoned the happiest. If a man dies of disease they do not eat him, but bury him in the ground, bewailing his ill-fortune that he did not come to be sacrificed. They sow no grain, but live on their herds, and on fish, of which there is great plenty in the Araxes River. Milk is what they chiefly drink. The only god they worship is the sun, and to him they offer the horse in sacrifice; under the notion of giving to the swiftest of the gods the swiftest of all mortal creatures.
[1.201] When Cyrus had achieved the conquest of the Babylonians, he conceived the desire of bringing the Massagetae under his dominion. Now the Massagetae are said to be a great and warlike nation, dwelling eastward, toward the rising of the sun, beyond the river Araxes, and opposite the Issedones. By many they are regarded as a Scythian race.
”
“
[1.211] Cyrus advanced a day's journey into Massagetan territory from the Araxes... Many of the Massagetae were killed, but even more taken prisoner, including Queen Tomyris's son, who was commander of the army and whose name was Spargapises.
”
“
[1.214] Tomyris mustered all her forces and engaged Cyrus in battle. I consider this to have been the fiercest battle between non-Greeks that there has ever been.... They fought at close quarters for a long time, and neither side would give way, until eventually the Massagetae gained the upper hand. Most of the Persian army was wiped out there, and Cyrus himself died too.
Map depicting the world as described by Herodotus, with the Thyssagetae on the northern banks of the 'Palus Maeotis'
The Thyssagetae (Ancient Greek: Θυσσαγέται) were an ancient tribe described by Herodotus as occupying a district to the north-east of Scythia, separated from the Budini by a "desert" that took seven days to cross. The Thyssagetae therefore seem to have occupied the southern end of the Ural Mountains, north of the Caspian Sea.
According to the 19th Century archaeologist Sir Ellis Minns, the form of their name suggests that the Thyssagetae spoke an Iranian language, such as Scythian or Sarmatian, like the neighbouring Massagetae (on the north-east shores of the Caspian).
The 15th Century chronicler Giacomo Filippo Foresti (a.k.a. Jacobus Philippus Foresti da Bergamo) mentioned a river in the area named the Thisageta, and Minns suggested that the name of the Chusovaya (or Chussovaja) River in the Urals may be linked to the Thyssagetae.
While Herodotus claimed that four rivers from the land of the Thyssagetae flowed into the Maeotis (Sea of Azov), he appears to have been mistaken. He may have confused the Caspian Sea with the Maeotis, as one of the rivers, named the "Oarus", was almost certainly the Volga.
The Tauri (Ταῦροι in Ancient Greek), also Scythotauri, Tauri Scythae, Tauroscythae (Pliny, H. N. 4.85) were a people settled on the southern coast of the Crimea peninsula, inhabiting the Crimean Mountains and the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the Black Sea. They gave their name to the peninsula, which was known in ancient times as Taurica, Taurida and Tauris.
Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-38 AD), showing the location of the Chersonnesos Taurike (Crimean peninsula), the home of the Tauri(LINK)
In his Histories, Herodotus describes the Tauri as living "by plundering and war". They became famous for their worship of a virgin goddess, to whom they sacrificed shipwrecked travellers and waylaid Greeks.(Not 1) He makes a point of them living in Scythia geographically without themselves being Scythians. .(Not 2) In Geographica, Strabo refers to the Tauri as a Scythian tribe.(Not 3)
According to Herodotus, the manner of their sacrifice was to beat the head with a club and remove the head; then they either buried the body or threw it off a cliff, and lastly nailed the head to a cross. Prisoners of war likewise had their heads removed, and the head was then put onto a tall pole and placed at their house "in order that the whole house may be under their protection".
Although the Crimean coast eventually came to be dominated by Greek (and subsequently Roman) colonies, notably the one at Chersonesos, the Tauri remained a major threat to Greek power in the region. They engaged in piracy against ships on the Black Sea, mounting raids from their base at Symbolon (today's Balaklava). By the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian king Scilurus.
(NOT 1) Hdt. 4.103 "the Tauri have the following customs: all ship-wrecked men, and any Greeks whom they capture in their sea-raids, they sacrifice to the Virgin goddess as I will describe: after the first rites of sacrifice, they strike the victim on the head with a club; according to some, they then place the head on a pole and throw the body off the cliff on which their temple stands; others agree as to the head, but say that the body is buried, not thrown off the cliff. The Tauri themselves say that this deity to whom they sacrifice is Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. As for enemies whom they defeat, each cuts his enemy's head off and carries it away to his house, where he places it on a tall pole and stands it high above the dwelling, above the smoke-vent for the most part. These heads, they say, are set up to guard the whole house. The Tauri live by plundering and war. " (trans. Godley)
(NOT 2) 4.99 "Beyond this place [Carcinitis on the Ister], the country fronting the same sea is hilly and projects into the Pontus; it is inhabited by the Tauric nation as far as what is called the Rough Peninsula; and this ends in the eastern sea. For the sea to the south and the sea to the east are two of the four boundary lines of Scythia, just as seas are boundaries of Attica; and the Tauri inhabit a part of Scythia like Attica, as though some other people, not Attic, were to inhabit the heights of Sunium from Thoricus to the town of Anaphlystus, if Sunium jutted farther out into the sea. I mean, so to speak, to compare small things with great. Such a land is the Tauric country. But those who have not sailed along that part of Attica may understand from this other analogy: it is as though in Calabria some other people, not Calabrian, were to live on the promontory within a line drawn from the harbor of Brundisium to Tarentum. I am speaking of these two countries, but there are many others of a similar kind that Tauris resembles." (trans. A. D. Godley)
Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea in the 5th century BCE.(LINK)
Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Several colonies were established in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait, then known as the Cimmerian Bosporus. The density of colonies around the Cimmerian Bosporus was unusual for Greek colonization and reflected the importance of the area. The majority of these colonies were established by Ionians from the city of Miletus in Asia Minor. By the mid-1st century BC the Bosporan Kingdom became a client state of the late Roman Republic, ushering in the era of Roman Crimea during the Roman Empire.
Taurica, Tauric Chersonese, and Tauris were names by which the Crimean Peninsula was known in classical antiquity and well into the early modern period. The Greeks named the region after its inhabitants, the Tauri: Ταυρικὴ Χερσόνησος (Taurikē Khersonesos) or Χερσόνησος Ταυρική (Khersonesos Taurikē), "Tauric peninsula" ("khersonesos" literally means "peninsula"). Chersonesus Taurica is the Latin version of the Greek name.
The Cimmerians (also Kimmerians; Greek: Κιμμέριοι, Kimmérioi) were an Indo-European people, who appeared about 1000 BC and are mentioned later in 8th century BC in Assyrian records.
Probably originating in the Pontic steppe and invading by means of the Caucasus, they are likely to be those who in c. 714 BC assaulted Urartu, a state in north eastern Anatolia subject to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. They were defeated by Assyrian forces under Sargon II in 705 and turned towards Anatolia, conquering Phrygia in 696/5. They reached the height of their power in 652 after taking Sardis, the capital of Lydia; however an invasion of Assyrian-controlled Anshan was thwarted. Soon after 619, Alyattes of Lydia defeated them. There are no further mentions of them in historical sources, but it is likely that they settled in Cappadocia.
Origins
The origin of the Cimmerians is unclear. They are mostly supposed to have been related to either Iranian or Thracian speaking groups which migrated under pressure of the Scythian expansion of the 9th to 8th century BC.
According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC (i.e. what is now Ukraine and Russia) although they have not been identified with any specific archaeological culture in the region.
Assyrian records
Sir Henry Layard's discoveries in the royal archives at Nineveh and Calah included Assyrian primary records of the Cimmerian invasion. These records appear to place the Cimmerian homeland, Gamir, south rather than north of the Black Sea.
The first record of the Cimmerians appears in Assyrian annals in the year 714 BC. These describe how a people termed the Gimirri helped the forces of Sargon II to defeat the kingdom of Urartu. Their original homeland, called Gamir or Uishdish, seems to have been located within the buffer state of Mannae. The later geographerPtolemy placed the Cimmerian city of Gomara in this region. The Assyrians recorded the migrations of the Cimmerians, as the former people's king Sargon II was killed in battle against them while driving them from Persia in 705 BC.
The Cimmerians were subsequently recorded as having conquered Phrygia in 696-695 BC, prompting the Phrygian king Midas to take poison rather than face capture. In 679 BC, during the reign of Esarhaddon of Assyria (r. 681-669 BC), they attacked the Assyrian colonies Cilicia and Tabal under their new ruler Teushpa. Esarhaddon defeated them near Hubushna (Hupisna), and they also met defeat at the hands of his successor Ashurbanipal.
Language
Only a few personal names in the Cimmerian language have survived in Assyrian inscriptions:
Te-ush-pa-a; according to the Hungarian linguist János Harmatta, it goes back to Old IranianTavis-paya "swelling with strength".
Dug-dam-mei (Dugdammê) king of the Ummân-Manda (nomads) appears in a prayer of Ashurbanipal to Marduk, on a fragment at the British Museum. According to professor Harmatta, it goes back to Old Iranian Duγda-maya "giving happiness".
Sandaksatru, son of Dugdamme. This is an Iranian reading of the name, and Manfred Mayrhofer (1981) points out that the name may also be read as Sandakurru. Mayrhofer likewise rejects the interpretation of "with pure regency" as a mixing of Iranian and Indo-Aryan. Ivancik suggests an association with the Anatolian deity Sanda. According to Professor J. Harmatta, it goes back to Old IranianSanda-Kuru "Splendid Son".Kur/Kuru is still used as "son" in the Kurdish languages, and in modified form in Persian as korr, for the male offspring of horses.
Some researchers have attempted to trace various place names to Cimmerian origins. It has been suggested that Cimmerium gave rise to the Turkic toponym Qırım(which in turn gave rise to the name “Crimea”).
Genetics
A recent DNA analysis of three Cimmerians indicate "the appearance of East Asian haplogroups in the steppe populations might be associated with the Iron Age nomads, starting with the Cimmerians."The authors found it "noteworthy that the oldest of the Cimmerians studied here (cim357) carried almost equal proportions of Asian and West Eurasian components, resembling the Pazyryks, Aldy-Bel, and Iron Age individuals from Russia and Kazakhstan. The second oldest Cimmerian (cim358) was also the only one with both uniparental markers pointing toward East Asia. The Q1* Y chromosome sublineage of Q-M242 is widespread among Asians and Native Americans and is thought to have originated in the Altai Mountains. It has previously been identified in numerous ancient samples from Siberia, the Americas, and in representatives of the Siberian Bronze Age and nomadic populations. This is the first indication that Cimmerians did not originate in the PCS region but were nomads tracing their origin to the Far East."
Timeline
721-715 BC – Sargon II mentions a land of Gamirr near to Urartu.
714 – suicide of Rusas I of Urartu, after defeat by both the Assyrians and Cimmerians.
705 – Sargon II of Assyria dies on an expedition against the Kulummu.
695 – Cimmerians destroy Phrygia. Death of king Midas.
679/678 – Gimirri under a ruler called Teushpa invade Assyria from Hubuschna (Cappadocia?). Esarhaddon of Assyria defeats them in battle.
676-674 – Cimmerians invade and destroy Phrygia, and reach Paphlagonia.
654 or 652 – Gyges of Lydia dies in battle against the Cimmerians. Sack of Sardis; Cimmerians and Treres plunder Ionian colonies.
644 – Cimmerians occupy Sardis, but withdraw soon afterwards
637-626 – Cimmerians defeated by Alyattes.
Cimmerian invasions of Colchis, Urartu and Assyria 715-713 BC.
(B) Kingdom of the Bosporus, also called Cimmerian Bosporus, ancient Greek state situated on Kerch Strait in present-day southern Ukraine. It reached its peak of power in the 4th century BC.
The kingdom’s major city, Panticapaeum (modern Kerch), was ruled by the Archaeanactid dynasty (480-438 BC), then by the Spartocid dynasty (438-110 BC), which annexed to Panticapaeum other Greek colonies—e.g., Nymphaeum, which had been founded in the region in the 7th and 6th centuries. After the second half of the 5th century, Athenian influence was strong among the Bosporus cities; Athens controlled local trade until 404 BC and remained the chief customer of the Bosporus’ food and other exports throughout the 4th century. The Spartocids suppressed piracy in the Black Sea, and through their management of the trade in grain, fish, and slaves, the Bosporus state prospered. The kingdom’s dynastic and financial decline began in the middle of the 3rd century, and after 110 BC the kings of Pontus controlled the region. A new dynasty, established in the 1st century AD, ruled for 300 years under the protection of the Roman Empire. After AD 342 the country was alternately under barbarian and Byzantine control.
The Yaz culture (named after the type siteYaz-depe, Yaz Depe, or Yaz Tepe, near Baýramaly, Turkmenistan) was an early Iron Age culture of Margiana, Bactria and Sogdia (ca. 1500-500 BC). It emerges at the top of late Bronze Age sites (BMAC), sometimes as stone towers and sizeable houses associated with irrigation systems. Ceramics were mostly hand-made, but there was increasing use of wheel-thrown ware. There have been found bronze or iron arrowheads, also iron sickles or carpet knives among other artifacts.
With the farming citadels, steppe-derived metallurgy and ceramics, and absence of burials it has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of early East Iranian culture as described in the Avesta.So far, no burials related to the culture have been found, and this is taken as possible evidence of the Zoroastrian practice of exposure or sky burial.
The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (short BMAC), also known as the Oxus civilization, is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Agecivilization of Central Asia, dated to c. 2300-1700 BC, located in present-day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). Its sites were discovered and named by the Sovietarchaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Marguš, the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan.
Sarianidi's excavations from the late 1970s onward revealed numerous monumental structures in many sites, fortified by impressive walls and gates. Reports on the BMAC were mostly confined to Soviet journals until the last years of the Soviet Union, so the findings were largely unknown to the West until Sarianidi's work began to be translated in the 1990s.
The inhabitants of the BMAC were sedentary people who practised irrigation farming of wheat and barley. With their impressive material culture including monumental architecture, bronze tools, ceramics, and jewellery of semiprecious stones, the complex exhibits many of the hallmarks of civilisation. The complex can be compared to proto-urban settlements in the Helmand basin at Mundigak in western Afghanistan and Shahr-e Sukhteh in eastern Iran, or at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley.
Models of two-wheeled carts from c. 3000 BC found at Altyn-Depe are the earliest complete evidence of wheeled transport in Central Asia, though model wheels have come from contexts possibly somewhat earlier. Judging by the type of harness, carts were initially pulled by oxen, or a bull. However camels were domesticated within the BMAC. A model of a cart drawn by a camel of c. 2200 BC was found at Altyn-Depe.
Geographical range Eurasian steppe Period Bronze Age Dates c. 2000 BC – 900 BC Preceded by Corded Ware culture, Sintashta culture, Okunev culture Followed by Karasuk culture
The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished c. 2000-900 BC in western Siberia and the central Eurasian Steppe. Some researchers have preferred to term it an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The older Sintashta culture (2100-1800 BC), formerly included within the Andronovo culture, is now considered separately, but regarded as its predecessor, and accepted as part of the wider Andronovo horizon.
Most researchers associate the Andronovo horizon with early Indo-Iranian languages, though it may have overlapped the early Uralic-speaking area at its northern fringe.
According to genetic study conducted by Allentoft et al. (2015), the Andronovo culture and the preceding Sintashta culture are partially derived from the Corded Ware culture, given the higher proportion of ancestry matching the earlier farmers of Europe, similar to the admixture found in the genomes of the Corded Ware population.
The Andronovo culture consisted of both communities that were largely mobile as well as those settled in small villages. Settlements are especially pronounced in its Central Asian parts. Fortifications include ditches, earthen banks as well as timber palisades, of which an estimated twenty have been discovered. Andronovo villages typically contain around two to twenty houses, but settlements containing as much as a hundred houses have been discovered. Andronovo houses were generally constructed from pine, cedar, or birch, and were usually aligned overlooking the banks of rivers. Larger homes range in the size from 80 to 300 sqm, and probably belonged to extended families, a typical feature among early Indo-Iranians.
A large group of scholars associate the Andronovo culture with the Indo-Iranians; it was furthermore credited with the invention of the spoke-wheeled chariot around 2000 BC. The association between the Andronovo culture and the Indo-Iranians is corroborated by the distribution of Iranian place-names across the Andronovo horizon and by the historical evidence of dominance by various Iranian peoples, including Saka (Scythians), Sarmatians and Alans, throughout the Andronovo horizon during the 1st millennium BC.
Sintashta on the upper Ural River, noted for its chariot burials and kurgans containing horse burials, is considered the type site of the Sintashta culture, forming one of the earliest parts of the "Andronovo horizon". It is conjectured that the language spoken was still in the Proto-Indo-Iranian stage.
Comparisons between the archaeological evidence of the Andronovo and textual evidence of Indo-Iranians (i. e. the Vedas and the Avesta) are frequently made to support the Indo-Iranian identity of the Andronovo. The modern explanations for the Indo-Iranianization of Greater Iran and the Indian subcontinent rely heavily on the supposition that the Andronovo expanded southwards into Central Asia or at least achieved linguistic dominance across the Bronze Age urban centres of the region, such as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex. While the earliest phases of the Andronovo culture are regarded as co-ordinate with the late period of Indo-Iranian linguistic unity, it is likely that in the later period they constituted a branch of the Iranians.
The identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian has been challenged by scholars who point to the absence of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe south of the Oxus River. Sarianidi states that "direct archaeological data from Bactria and Margiana show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases".
Based on its use by Indo-Aryans in Mitanni and Vedic India, its prior absence in the Near East and Harappan India, and its 16th/17th century BC attestation at the Andronovo site of Sintashta, Kuzmina (1994) argues that the chariot corroborates the identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian. Klejn (1974) and Brentjes (1981) find the Andronovo culture much too late for an Indo-Iranian identification since chariot-using Aryans appear in Mitanni by the 15th to 16th century BC. However, Anthony & Vinogradov (1995) dated a chariot burial at Krivoye Lake to around 2000 BC.
Eugene Helimski has suggested that the Andronovo people spoke a separate branch of the Indo-Iranian group of languages. He claims that borrowings in the Finno-Ugric languages support this view. Vladimir Napolskikh has proposed that borrowings in Finno-Ugric indicate that the language was specifically of the Indo-Aryan type.
Since older forms of Indo-Iranian words have been taken over in Uralic and Proto-Yeniseian, occupation by some other languages (also lost ones) cannot be ruled out altogether, at least for part of the Andronovo area, i. e., Uralic and Yeniseian.
The name Alan is an Iranian dialectical form of Aryan. Possibly related to the Massagetae, the Alans have been connected by modern historians with the Central AsianYancai and Aorsi of Chinese and Roman sources, respectively. Having migrated westwards and become dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic Steppe, they are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century AD. At the time, they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire.From 215-250 AD, their power on the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Goths.
“Nearly all the Alani are men of great stature and beauty; their hair is somewhat yellow, their eyes are terribly fierce.”
The first mentions of names that historians link with the Alani appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.
In the 1st century AD, the Alans migrated westwards from Central Asia, achieving a dominant position among the Sarmatians living between the Don River and the Caspian Sea. The Alans are mentioned in the Vologeses inscription which reads that Vologeses I, the Parthian king between around 51 and 78 AD, in the 11th year of his reign, battled Kuluk, king of the Alani. The 1st century AD Jewish historian Josephus supplements this inscription. Josephus reports in the Jewish Wars (book 7, ch. 7.4) how Alans (whom he calls a “Scythian” tribe) living near the Sea of Azov crossed the Iron Gates for plunder (72 AD) and defeated the armies of Pacorus, king of Media, and Tiridates, King of Armenia, two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom the above-mentioned inscription was made):
...
The fact that the Alans invaded Parthiathrough Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea.
...
In 135 AD, the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia.
...
From 215-250 AD, the GermanicGothsexpanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe. The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on Gothic culture, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art.
,,,
After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns. Ammianus writes that the Alans were "somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage."
...
Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with the survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion.
In 418 (or 426 according to some authors), the Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Asding Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. The separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved. Although some of these Alans are thought to have remained in Iberia, most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later the rulers of the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa styled themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum ("King of the Vandals and Alans").
Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa (526 AD).
Religion
Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian polytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understood Scythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form of Zoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals.
In the 4th-5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the Arian church. In the 13th century, invading Mongol hordes pushed the eastern Alans further south into the Caucasus, where they mixed with native Caucasian groups and successively formed three territorial entities each with different developments. Around 1395 Timur's army invaded the Northern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population.
Map showing Chechnya's geographic relationship to the Caucasus region.
The Avars (Avar: аварал / магIарулал, awaral / maⱨarulal; "mountaineers") are a Northeast Caucasian native ethnic group who are the predominant of several ethnic groups living in the Russian republic of Dagestan.The term Avar is used for more than 15 different ethnic groups. The Avars reside in a region known as the North Caucasus between the Black and Caspian Seas. Alongside other ethnic groups in the North Caucasus region, the Caucasian Avars live in ancient villages located approximately 2,000 m above sea level.The Avar language spoken by the Caucasian Avars belongs to the family of Northeast Caucasian languages and is also known as Nakh–Dagestanian. Islam has been the prevailing religion of the Avars since the 13th century because they have connections to the Arabian Peninsula.
The peoples and languages of the Avar state
The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, 1994 (s. 221).
It is still not known for certain what the language of the Avars was. Connection with the language of the Avars now living in Daghestan in the Caucasus
would be tempting if it could be shown that this people is indeed a remnant of
the Avars who migrated to the Danube, and if the possibility of a subsequent
change of language could be ruled out. However, this is not the case, and on
the basis of evidence provided by Avar words embedded in Greek and Latin
texts most experts rightly think that the language of the Danubian Avars
belonged to the Altaic group. Indecision, however, remains whether it was
closer to Mongol or to Turkic.
...
All of the Avar titles and designations of
rank — kaghan, khan?, yugurus, kapkhan, tudun, tarkhan, katun — can be
shown to have been used by one or several Altaic peoples, such as the Turks,
the Uighurs, the Mongols the Proto-Bulghars. Some of these titles have
convincing Altaic etymologies.
Portrait of a woman wearing festive Dagestani national clothing, by H. Mussayassul (artist and political emigrant), 1939.
Avar Khanate (W)
The Avar Khanate (Avar: Awarazul Nutsallhi; Russian: Аварское ханство), also known as Khundzia was a long-lived Muslim state, which controlled mountainous parts of Dagestan (in the North Caucasus) from the early 13th century to the 19th century.
 including data from the literature (green).jpg)
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Scythian defence line 339 BC reconstruction in 
World in 500 BC. 
Scythian gold belt buckle with turquoise inlay, from Siberia; in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg 
A royal crown from Tillia tepe. Musee Guimet. 
. Buddhist triratna symbol in the left field on the reverse--AzesIITriratna.jpg)
Silver coin of Indo-Scythian King 
Detail of the front panel of the roman sarcophagus adorned with a relief representing the submission of the Sarmatians. 
Map of the Roman empire under .jpg)
A Sarmatian 
A Sarmatian-Parthian gold necklace and amulet, 2nd century AD. Located in Tamoikin Art Fund.
 in the 5th c BC.png)
World in 1000 BC.
Distribution of "Thraco-Cimmerian" finds. From map in Археология Украинской ССР vol. 2, Kiev (1986).
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Kingdom of the Alans in Hispania (409-426 AD).--1024px-Vandal_alan_kingdom_526.png)
Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa (526 AD).
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