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Iranian Peoples

Iranian peoples

Iranian people are those who speak an Iranian language. There are an estimated 150 million native speakers of Iranian languages. Iranian people in history included:
- Persians
- Medes (speaking an ancient Median tongue)
- Parthians
- Parni
- Cimmerians (ethnicity as Iranians specifically unknown)
- Sigynnae (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
- Scythians
- Sarmatians, including the Rhoxolani, Iazyges, Siraces, and some regard the Alans as a subset of the Sarmatians as well
- Bactrians
- Khwarezmians
- Alans
- Saka
- Sogdians
- Massagetae
- Kambojas
- Pallavas, descended from Persian invaders of India
- Indo-Scythians Iranian peoples in modern times include:
- Persians
- Tajiks
- Pashtuns, one of the Afghan peoples
- Kurds
- Baluchis
- Gilanis
- Mazandaranis
- Bakhtiaris
- Lur
- Tati
- Talyshi
- Zaza
- Ossetes The Iranian peoples are the ethno-linguistic descendants of one of the branches of the ancient Indo-Iranian Aryans. The name Iran – in full Iran Shahr – itself means territory of the Aryans. Besides Iranian the Aryan or Indo-Iranian group includes Indo-Aryan, Nuristani, and the Dardic sub-groups. The Indo-Iranian group is itself a sub-branch of the Indo-European family, which was formerly, although inaccurately, also referred to as Aryan – a usage academically discredited. Most of the Iranian peoples live today in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, western and northern Pakistan, the northern Caucasus, western China and the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
See also

- Indo-Iranians
External links

- [http://home.btconnect.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/Oric.Basirov/origin_of_the_iranians.htm The Origin of the Pre-Imperial Iranian Peoples]
- [http://www.parstimes.com/Iranians.html The Iranian people around the world] Category:Iranian society Category:Iranian peoples Category:Ethnic groups of the Middle East

Iranian Language
The Indo-Iranian languages are the eastern-most group of the living Indo-European languages. Indo-Iranian refers to India & Iran. The term Aryan is often used to refer to the Indo-Iranian languages. According to some Aryan migration theories, speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, who referred to themselves as Aryans, settled east and south of the Caspian Sea in Northern India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Their expansion is believed to have been connected with the invention of the chariot. Indo-Aryan languages:
- Sanskrit
- Assamese language
- Bengali language
- Gujarati language
- Hindi language
- Maithili language
- Marathi language
- Nepali language
- Oriya language
- Pali
- Punjabi language
- Romany language - the language of Gypsies
- Sindhi language
- Singhalese language
- Urdu Dardic languages:
- Dameli language
- Domaaki language
- Gawar-Bati language
- Kalasha language
- Kashmiri language
- Khowar language
- Kohistani language
- Ningalami language
- Pashayi language
- Phalura language
- Shina language
- Shumashti language Nuristani languages:
- Ashkun language
- Kamviri language
- Kati language (Bashgali)
- Prasuni language (Wasi-Weri)
- Tregami language
- Waigali language (Kalasha-Ala) Iranian languages:
- Eastern Iranian
- Northeastern
- Avestan language (extinct)
- Ossetian language
- Sogdian, Yagnobi
- Bactrian
- Southeastern
- Pashto language
- Pamiri
- Western Iranian
- Northwestern
- Dari language of Zoroastrians
- Balochi language
- Talysh language
- Kurdish language
- Southwestern ("Persid")
- Old Persian, Pahlavi, Persian language (including Dari, Tajik)
- Tat language
See also

- Language families and languages
- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Indo-Iranian_Swadesh_lists Indo-Iranian Swadesh list]
- Category:Iranian peoples ja:インド・イラン語派

Persians

:This article is about the ethnic Persians (Iranians) of Iran. For information about Central Asian Persians see Tajiks. For the ancient empire, see Persian Empire. The Persians of Iran (officially named "Persia" by West until 1935 while still referred to as Persia by some) are an Iranian people who speak Persian (locally named Fârsi by native speakers) and often refer to themselves as ethnic Iranians as well. Religiously, most of the Persians in Iran follow the Shia sect of Islam, while small minorities of Sunni Muslims, Persian Jews, Persian Christians, Zoroastrians, and Bahá'ís remain. The ancient Persians from the province of Pars (Fars) became the rulers of a large empire under the Achaemenid dynasty (The Persian pronunciation is Ha-Khuh-Manesh-ee-yun) in the sixth century BC. Over the centuries Persia was ruled by various dynasties; some of them were ethnic Persians (the Sassanids, Buwayhids, Samanids, Safavids and others), and some of them were not (the Seleucids, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, and others). The Persian civilization spawned three major religions: Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and Manichaeanism. All of these reflect the extreme dualism of Persian culture which has also significantly influenced Judeo-Christianity and Western civilization. In addition, Persian civilization has affected its neighbors through culture, religion, and language. According to the 2004 CIA World Factbook, 51% of Iran's current population is ethnically Persian. Other estimates put the figure as high as 60%. A number of other ethnic groups are represented in Iran, including the non-Persian Aryan group Kurds; the Turkic Azerbaijanis and Turkmen; and a few Arabs (approximately 3%), Baluchis, and other minorities. See Demographics of Iran for more detail. Significant numbers of Persians reside outside of Iran with the largest communities found in the United States, Turkey, and Iraq. Smaller communities are also found in surrounding countries and the Arabian Peninsula.

Origins and roots

The Persians of Iran are mainly descended from the Indo-Iranian branch of the Aryans, an Indo-European people that migrated to the region between 2000-1000 BCE as well as indigenous populations such as the Elamites and Dravidians. The Persians have been, over time, genetically and/or socially modified and impacted by various groups including the Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, ancient Hebrews, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and various other Eurasian invaders. The Persian Jews are a good example of a Hebrew population that moved to Iran about 2,700 years ago and assimilated and mixed with the Persians so that today they speak Persian and are virtually identical to other Persians except for religion. The Persian language and other Iranian tongues all arrived with the Aryans. The first record of the Persians comes from an Assyrian inscription from the 800s BCE which calls them the Parsu and mentions them alongside another Aryan group, the Madai (Medes). See also Persian Empire and History of Iran.

Related sub-groups

Ethnic Persians can also be found outside of Iran and include the Tajiks and Parsiwan (also known as the Farsiwan) who can be found in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, while another group called the Tats lives mainly in the Caucasus region concentrated in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russian Dagestan. The Parsis of India and eastern Pakistan are also largely descended from Persian Zoroastrian refugees who fled from Persia following the Arab conquests. In addition, a group called the Hazara are a Persianized Turkic-Mongol ethnic group.

Persian language

Main article: Persian language. The Persian language is one of the world's oldest languages still in use today. It is called Farsi in Iran and Dari or Tajiki east of Iran. It is part of the Iranian sub-section of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Persian-speakers are today in the majority in Iran, Tajikistan, and possibly Afghanistan[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3717092.stm], and form a large minority in Uzbekistan as well. Smaller groups of Persian speakers are found in western Pakistan and western China, as well as in Bahrain and Iraq and Azerbaijan.

Persian Art

Azerbaijan

Persian Music

Main article: Music of Iran. The music of Persia goes back to the days of Barbod in the royal Sassanid courts, and even earlier.

Persian Architecture

Main article: Iranian architecture. Architecture is one of the areas where Persians have made outstanding contributions.
Persian rugs
Main article: Persian rug. Gottfried Semper called rugs "the original means of separating space". Rug weaving was thus developed by ancient civilizations as a basis of architecture. Persian rugs have a history as old as humanity itself.

Persian Gardens

Main article: Persian Gardens. The Persian Garden was designed as a reflection of paradise on earth; the word "garden" itself coming from Persian roots.

Persian Women

Main article: Persian Woman. She is the star of 1001 Nights. She is the source of color and life in Persia. Who is the Persian woman? Oriental, yet markedly distinguishable.

Persian contributions to humanity

Main article: Culture of Iran. From the humble brick, to the windmill. Persians have strived to create a better world by mixing creativity with art.

External links

- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pes Ethnologue information for Western Persians]
- [http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?rop3=107987 Statistics on geographic distribution of Persians worldwide]
- Category:Ethnic groups of Iran
- Category:Iranian peoples
- Category:Ethnic groups of Asia
- Category:Ethnic groups of the Middle East

Parni

The Central Asian steppe has been the home of Iranian nomadic tribes for centuries. Being nomads, they roamed across the plains, incidentally attacking the urbanized countries to the south, east and west. They are known under many names in BC times: Cimmerians, Scythians, Parni, Saka, Sarmatians, etc. One of these tribes was the Parni. They are unknown before the 3rd century BC. The country where they lived, along the river Syr Darya (Jaxartes), was occupied by the tribe that the Persians knew as the Dahae or Dahâ (literally 'robber Scythians'). It is likely that this tribe disintegrated after the fall of the Persian empire; the new rulers, the kings of the Seleucid dynasty, were never able to control the country of what is now Mazandaran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Perhaps the Parni came into being in this period. The first Parthian king, Arsaces, is said to have been of Parnian origin. Armenian chronicles identify this nation as White Huns. In any case, nomads started to move to the south, to the countries known as Bactria, Aria and Parthia. The Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (280-261) was the first to take measures. It is certain that he re-founded a city in Margiana; up til then it had been known as Alexandria, because it was founded by Alexander the Great in 328), but from now on it was to be called Antiochia. This military settlement was intended to guard Iran against incursions from nomad tribes, such as the Parni. It was insufficient, however. In 245, the satrap of Parthia, a man named Andragoras, revolted from the young Seleucid king Seleucus II, who had just succeeded to the throne. In the confusion, the Parni attacked and seized the northern part of Parthia, a district known as Astavene, probably in 238. About 235, a Parnian prince with the name Tiridates (Modern Persian Tirdad, meaning 'Great archer') ventured further south and seized the rest of Parthia. A counter-offensive by king Seleucus ended in disaster, and Hyrcania was also subdued by the Parni. From then on, the Parni were known as Parthians. In the years that followed, their kings recognized the Seleucid king as their superiors, but under Mithradates I (171-138) they conquered Media, Babylonia, and Elam from the Seleucids. The Parthian empire was to last until AD 224, when it was succeeded by the Sassanid empire. Parnian is originally a persian name, with various meanings; one of which is "silk" or any other soft silky fabric that is derived from plants and insects. The other meaning of the name "Parnian" is said to have been a very strong wine or an acute sword. The name has been used in Shahnameh of Ferdowsi intending the latter (acute sword).

External link

- [http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/arsacid_dynasty.htm Arsacid (Parthian) Dynasty]
- [http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/arsacids_origin.htm The origin of Arsacids (parthians)] Category:Iranian peoples Category:Parthian empire

Cimmerians

:See Cimmeria, Cimmeria (Poem) for the fiction of Robert E. Howard. The Cimmerians (Greek Kimmerioi) were ancient equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Russia and Ukraine, in the 8th and 7th century BC. Assyrian records, however, first place them in the region of Azerbaijan in 714 BC.

Origins

Their origins are obscure, but they are believed to have been Indo-European. Their language is regarded as being related to either Thracian or Iranian. The Thracian theory is based on the fact that the Greek author Strabo ascribes the "Treri" in one passage to the Thracians (13.1.8) and in another to the Cimmerians (14.1.40). The Iranian theory, on the other hand, argues that the material culture of the Cimmerians in Asia Minor is indistinguishable from that of the contemporary Scythians; furthermore, Assyrian Gimirri and Persian Saka are used synonymously in ancient Near eastern sources, most notably on the famous Behistun inscription. Thus many scholars, including the Russian scholar Askold Ivančik, assume they were closely related to the Scythians. At any rate, even if the Cimmerians were Thracians, or belonged to some unknown Indo-European or non-Indo-European branch, they may well have had an Iranian ruling class, as did the Scythians. In the early twentieth century they were associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans ("Aryans" or "Japhetites"). Very little is known archaeologically of the Cimmerians of the Northern Black Sea Coast. It has been suggested they may have comprised the so-called "Catacomb culture" of southern Russia, which appears to have been ousted by the "Srubna culture" that advanced from farther east. This parallels the Greek account of how the Cimmerians were displaced by the Scythians. However, the ouster of the Catacomb culture is carbon-dated to the 2nd millennium BC, several hundred years before the Scythians are recorded as having appeared in Asia; the conflicting timeframes are difficult to reconcile. A few stone stelae found in the Ukraine and the northern Caucasus have been connected with the Cimmerians. They are in a style clearly different from both the later Scythian and the earlier Yamna/Kemi-Oba stelae.

Historical accounts

The first historical 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 geographer Ptolemy placed the Cimmerian city of Gomara in this region. Some modern authors assert that the Cimmerians included mercenaries, whom the Assyrians knew as Khumri, who had been resettled there by Sargon. However, later Greek accounts describe the Cimmerians as having previously lived on the steppes, between the Tyras (Dniester) and Tanais (Don) rivers. They are described in Book 11 of Homer's Odyssey as living in a land of fog and darkness at the edge of the world, on the shores of Oceanus. Several kings of the Cimmerians are mentioned in Greek and Mesopotamian sources, including Tugdamme (Lygdamis in Greek; mid-7th century BC), and Sandakhshatra (late-7th century). According to the Histories of Herodotus (c. 440 BC), the Cimmerians had been expelled from the steppes at some point in the past by the Scythians. To ensure burial in their ancestral homeland, the men of the Cimmerian royal family divided into groups and fought each other to the death. The Cimmerian commoners buried the bodies along the river Tyras and fled from the Scythian advance, across the Caucasus and into Anatolia and the Near East. Their range seems to have extended from Mannae eastward through the Mede settlements of the Zagros Mountains, and south of there as far as Elam. The migrations of the Cimmerians were recorded by the Assyrians, whose king Sargon II died in battle against them in 705 BC. They are subsequently recorded as having conquered Phrygia in 696 BC-695 BC, prompting the Phrygian king Midas to take poison rather than face capture. In 679 BC, during the reign of Esarhaddon of Assyria, they attacked Cilicia and Tabal under their new ruler Teushpa. Esarhaddon defeated them near Hubushna (tentatively identified with modern Cappadocia). In 654 BC or 652 BC – the exact date is unclear – the Cimmerians attacked the kingdom of Lydia, killing the Lydian king Gyges and causing great destruction to the Lydian capital, Sardis. They returned ten years later during the reign of Gyges' son Ardys II and this time captured the city, with the exception of the citadel. The fall of Sardis was a major shock to the powers of the region; the Greek poets Callinus and Archilochus recorded the fear that it inspired in the Greek colonies of Ionia, some of which were attacked by Cimmerian and Treres raiders. The Cimmerian occupation of Lydia was brief, however -- possibly due to an outbreak of plague. Between 637 BC and 626 BC they were beaten back by Alyattes II of Lydia. This defeat marked the effective end of Cimmerian power. The term "Gimirri" was used about a century later in the Behistun inscription (ca. 515 BC) as a Babylonian equivalent of Persian Saka (Scythians), but otherwise Cimmerians are not heard of again in Asia, and their ultimate fate is uncertain. It has been speculated that they settled in Cappadocia, known in Armenian as Gamir (the same name as the original Cimmerian homeland in Mannae). However, certain Frankish traditions would locate them at the mouth of the Danube (see Sicambri). A reference to the Cimmerians is preserved in Gomer גמר of the Hebrew Bible (Standard Hebrew Gómer, Tiberian Hebrew Gōmer, Genesis 10:2, Ezekiel 38:6). As the eldest son of Japheth and the father of Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah, his descendants thus represent one of the major branches of the Japhethic race.

Timeline

- 721-715 BC – Sennacherib mentions a land of Gamirr near to Urartu.
- 714 – suicide of Rusa I of Urartu, after defeat by both the Assyrians and Cimmerians.
- 705 – Sargon II of Assyria dies on an expedition against the Kulummu.
- 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 II.
- ca. 515 – Last historical record of Cimmerians, in the Behistun inscription of Darius.

Language

Of the language of the Cimmerians, only a few personal names have survived in Assyrian inscriptions:
- Te-ush-pa, mentioned in the annals of Esarhaddon, has been compared to the Hurrian war deity Teshub; others interpret it as Iranian, comparing the Achaemenid name Teispes (Herodotus 7.11.2)
- Dug-dam-me (Dugdammê) king of the Ummân-Manda (nomads) appears in a prayer of Ashurbanipal to Marduk, on a fragment at the British Museum. Other spellings include Dugdammi, and Tugdammê. The name appears corrupted to Lygdamis in Strabo I.3.21.
- Sandaksatru, son of Dugdamme. This is an Iranian reading of the name, and 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. Some researchers have attempted to trace various place names to Cimmerian origins. It has been suggested that the Crimea is named after the Cimmerians. This, however, seems to be a faulty premise. The name "Crimea" is traceable to the Turkic word qyrym, "fortress", and the peninsula was known as the Tauric Chersonese ("peninsula of the Tauri") in antiquity (Strabo 7.4.1; Herodotus 4.99.3, Amm. Marc. 22.8.32). The Cimmerians are now usually classified as an Iranian people, but based on ancient Greek historical sources, a Thracian or (less commonly) a Celtic association is sometimes assumed. According to C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, the language of the Cimmerians could have been a "missing link" between Thracian and Iranian.

Possible offshoots

The Cimmerians are thought to have had a number of offshoots. The Thracians have been identified as a possible western branch of the Cimmerians. If Herodotus is to be believed, both peoples originally inhabited the northern shore of the Black Sea, and both were displaced around the same time by invaders from further east. Whereas the Cimmerians would have departed this ancestral homeland by heading east and south across the Caucasus, the Thracians migrated west and south into the Balkans, where they established a successful and long-lived culture. The Tauri, the original inhabitants of the Crimea, are sometimes identified as a people related to the Thracians. Although the Cimmerians of historical record only appear on the stage of world history for a brief time (during the 7th century BC), numerous Celtic and Germanic peoples have traditions of being descended from the Cimmerians or Scythians, and some of their ethnic names seem to bear out this belief (e.g. Cymru, Cwmry or Cumbria, Cimbri). It is unlikely that either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Germanic entered Europe as late as the 7th century BC, their formation being commonly associated with the Bronze Age Urnfield and Nordic Bronze Age cultures, respectively. It is, however, conceivable that a small-scale (in terms of population) 8th century "Thraco-Cimmerian" migration triggered cultural changes that contributed to the transformation of the Urnfield culture into the Hallstatt C culture, ushering in the European Iron Age. The etymology of Cymru (i.e. Wales) and Cwmry (i.e. Cumbria), said in Welsh tradition to derive directly from the "Cimmerians", is instead considered by detractors of this theory as being Celtic kom-broges meaning "fellow countrymen". As for the Cimbri tribe, it is not known for certain whether they were Celtic, Germanic, or even, as a third alternative, from an earlier Western Indo-European grouping connected with the Ligurians. In addition, the Merovingian kings of the Franks traditionally traced their lineage, through a pre-Frankish tribe called the Sicambri, to a group of "Cimmerians" who lived near the mouth of the Danube river. If the Scythians are assumed to be related to the Cimmerians, as has often been claimed, many other peoples claiming possible Scythian descent could also be added to this list. The association of the Cimmerians with one of the Lost Tribes of Israel plays a certain role in British Israelism.

Archaeology

- Koban culture (Northern Caucasus, 12th to 4th centuries BC)
- Cernogorovka culture (9th to 8th centuries)
- Novocerkassk culture (8th to 7th century, between Danube and Volga)

External links

- [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Cimmerians Wiki Classical Dictionary: Cimmerians]
- [http://members.tripod.com/great-bulgaria/Central-Asian-Nomads-Unite/cimmeria/ Cimmeria]
- [http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/W.Europe/W.Europe4.html Cimmerians on Stevequayle.com]
- [http://www.hostkingdom.net/siberia.html#Cimmerians Cimmerians on Regnal Chronologies]
- [http://www.kimmerier.de/Abbildungen/abb004.jpg map of the distribution of "Cimmerian" bronze finds in Europe]
- [http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/cimmerians/cimmerians.html Cimmerians] by Jona Lendering Category:Ancient peoples Category:Eurasian nomads Category:Crimea ja:キンメリア

Sigynnae

The Sigynnae were an obscure people of antiquity. They are variously located by ancient authors. According to Herodotus (v. 9), they dwelt beyond the Danube, and their frontiers extended almost as far as the Eneti on the Adriatic. Their horses (or rather, ponies) were small and flat-nosed with shaggy long hair, five fingers in length. They were not strong enough to bear men on their backs, but when yoked to chariots, they were among the swiftest known, which is the reason why the people of that country preferred that mode of transportation. The people themselves wore a Medic costume, and, according to their own account, were a colony of the Medes, a claim regarded as doubtful by Herodotus. In Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 320) they inhabit the shores of the Euxine, not far from the mouth of the Danube, while Strabo (xi. p. 520), also speaking of their ponies, and attributing to them Persian customs, places them near the Caspian. They could indeed have been a part of the Iranian expansion, together with the Scythians and Sarmatians migrating west into the Ukraine in the early Iron Age context of the "Thraco-Cimmerian" migrations. RW Macan (on Herod. v. 9) suggested that the "Medic" connection may be due to a confusion with the Thracian Maedi. According to Herodotus, the Ligyes who lived above Massilia called traders "Sigynnae". In this case the Sigynnae would be a Thracian rather than an Iranian tribe. According to J. L. Myres, the Sigynnae of Herodotus were "a people widely spread in the Danubic basin in the 5th century BC," probably identical with the Sequani, and connected with the iron-working culture of Hallstatt, which produced a narrow-bladed throwing spear, the sigynna spear (see notice of "Anthropological Essays" in Classical Review, November 1908). Rawlinson speculates that "the Sigynnae retained a better recollection than other European tribes of their migrations westward and Aryan origin", apparently using the term "Aryan" with a meaning somewhere between Indo-Iranian and Indo-European.

References

- Category:Ancient peoples Category:Iranian peoples

Scythians

. 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 gorytos is clearly indicated on the left hip of the bare-headed spearman; his companion's shield is interesting, perhaps representing a plain leather covering over a wooden or wicker base. (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)]] Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by a group of Iranian people speaking Indo-Iranian languages, known as the Scythians. The location and extent of Scythia varied over time, from the Altai region where Mongolia, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan come together, across South of Ukraine to the lower Danube river area, Bulgaria and Georgia. The Saka were Asian Scythians and were known as Sai (Ch: 塞, Old Sinitic
- sək) to the Chinese. The Scythians first appear in Assyrian annals as Ishkuzai, who are reported as pouring in from the north some time around 700 BC, settling in Ascania and modern Azerbaijan as far as to the southeast of Lake Urmia. The Scythians were possibly a branch of the Gimirru mentioned in Assyrian annals at approximately the same time, (Ivančik), even though the ancient Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus describes the Kimmerioi, or Cimmerians, as a distinct tribe, the autochthonous population of the Northern Black Sea Coast, which was expelled by the Scythians (Hist. 4.11-12). The most significant Scythian tribes mentioned in Greek sources resided in the steppe between the Dnipro and Don rivers. There are no extant texts in Scythian, but the personal names of the Greek literary and epigraphic texts suggest that the language of the Scythians and the Sarmatians (who spoke a dialect of Scythian according to Herodotus, Hist. 4.117), has strong similarities to well-attested Eastern Iranian dialects like Sogdian and Modern Ossetic. The subject peoples in the periphery steppes were also commonly referred as "Scythians", but that does not necessarily mean that they spoke Iranian languages as did the Scythians proper. Priscus, the Byzantine emissary to Attila, referred to Attila's followers repeatedly as "Scythians". Some of the Huns may have had Scythian ancestry. Archaeological remains of the Scythians include elaborate tombs containing gold, silk, horses and human sacrifices. Mummification techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains.

Etymology

Etymologically, "Old Iranian Saka, Greek Scythai and Sogdian Sughde (also the very name for the Sogdians), as well as the biblical Hebrew Ashkenaz (via Syrian Askuzai) appear all to derive from
- skuza-, a hypothetical early Iranian term for archer, ultimately to be derived from the Proto-Indo-European root
- skeud-, 'to shoot, throw', cf. English shoot." (L. Torday 1993)

Scythian society

The Scythians formed a loose network of nomadic tribes of equestrian herdsmen and raiders. They invaded many areas in the steppes of Eurasia, including areas in present-day Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and southern Ukraine and Russia. Ruled by small numbers of closely allied elites, Scythians had a reputation for their archers, and many gained employment as mercenaries. Scythian elite were buried in kurgans, high barrows heaped over chamber-tombs of larch-wood — a deciduous conifer that may have had special significance as a tree of life-renewal, for it stands bare in winter. Burials at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains have included some spectacularly preserved Scythians of the "Pazyryk culture" — including the "Ice Maiden" of the 5th century BC. Scythian women dressed in much the same fashion as the men, and at times fought alongside them in battle. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s confirms this. It contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. "The woman was dressed exactly like a man. This shows that certain women, probably young and unmarried, could be warriors, literally Amazons. It didn't offend the principles of nomadic society", according to one of the archaeologists interviewed for the 1998 NOVA documentary "The Ice Mummies". Scythian warrior-women are a popular contender for having inspired tales Greek myths of the Amazons. The Scythians were not known to have had any writing system, so until recent archaeological developments, most of our information about them came from the Greeks. The Ziwiye hoard, a treasure of gold and silver metalwork and ivory found near the town of Sakiz south of Lake Urmia, dated to between 680 and 625 BC, includes objects with Scythian "animal style" features. One silver dish from this find bears some inscriptions that are as yet undeciphered and so possibly a form of Scythian writing. Homer called them "the mare-milkers". Herodotus described them in detail: their costume consisted of padded and quilted leather trousers tucked into boots, and open tunics. They rode with no stirrups or saddles, just saddlecloths. Herodotus reports that Scythians used marijuana (Hist. 4.73-75). The Scythian philosopher Anacharsis visited Athens in the 6th century BC and became a legendary sage. Scythians were also known for their usage of barbed and poisoned arrows of several types, a nomadic life centered around horses — "fed from horse-blood" according to Herodotus— and skill in guerilla warfare. The Scythians are thought to have been the first to tame the horse and use it in combat as well.

History

Overview

guerilla. British Museum.]] To date, no widely accepted explanation exists for the origin of the Scythians, nor how they migrated to the Caucasus and Ukraine; but many scholars conjecture that they migrated westward from Central Asia between 800 BC and 600 BC. Herodotus says that the land where the Scythians originated was called Gerrhos. They would prepare their dead and travel with them long distances to bring them for burial in Gerrhos. Assyrian records are the first to mention the Iskuzai, from around the end of the 8th century BC. Herodotus even confirms that their king Partatua was allied with Assyria, and recognized by Mannai. In 653 BC, Partatua's son Madius (Madyes), at the request of Ashurbanipal of Assyria, defeated the king of the Medes, Phraortes (Kshathrita), assuming control over the Medes until 625 BC. By the end of his reign, he had led the Scythians, and the Cimmerians, who seem to have been close relatives, on a pillaging spree, overrunning and plundering Assyria, Anatolia, Northern Syria, Phoenicia, Damascus and Palestine. They plundered the Temple of Venus in Ashkelon, and Jeremiah 4:7-13 mentioned them as "a destroyer of nations… [whose] chariots shall be as the whirlwind." After 625, however, the Scythians left the Median Empire — whether they did so voluntarily, or were expelled, is debated. At any rate, following the Mede sack of Assur in 614 BC, they were compelled to switch sides and ally themselves with the Medes. They comprised part of the force that sacked Nineveh 612 BC. Some time afterwards, the Scythians returned to the steppes. In 512 BC, when the Scythians were attacked by king Darius the Great of Persia, they were apparently reached by crossing the Danube. Herodotus relates that being nomads, they were able to frustrate the designs of the Persian army by letting them march through the entire country without an engagement. If he is to be believed, Darius in this manner reached as far as the Volga river. During the 5th to 3rd centuries BC the Scythians evidently prospered. When Herodotus wrote his Histories in the 5th century BC, Greeks distinguished a 'Greater Scythia' that extended a 20-day ride from the Danube River in the west, across the steppes of today's Ukraine to the lower Don basin, from 'Scythia Minor'. The Don, then known as Tanaïs, has been a major trading route ever since. The Scythians apparently obtained their wealth from their control over the slave trade from the north to Greece, through the Greek Black Sea colonial ports. They also grew grain, and shipped wheat, flocks, and cheese to Greece. The Crimean Scythians created a kingdom extending from the lower Dnipro river to the Crimea. Their capital city, Scythian Neapol, existed on the outskirts of modern Simferopol. It was destroyed much later, in the 5th century AD, by the Goths. Goths Solokha royal burial mound.]] In the southeasternmost corner of the plains, north of the woods of Thrace, Philip II of Macedon settled Macedonian trading towns along routes as far north as the Danube during the 330s BC (Fox 1973). Greek craftsmen from the colonies north of the Black Sea, made spectacular Scythian gold ornaments (see below), applying Greek realism to depict Scythian motifs of lions, antlered reindeer and griffons. The centerpoint of Hellenic-Scythian contact was focused on the Hellenistic cities and small kingdoms of the Cimmerian Bosporus and the Crimea. Shortly after 300 BC, the Celts seem to have displaced the Scythians from the Balkans, while in south Russia, they were gradually overwhelmed by a kindred tribe, the Sarmatians.

Scythians in Classical sources

In the 1st century BCE, the Greek geographer Strabo gives an extensive description of eastern Scythians, whom he located in northeastern Asia beyond Bactria and Sogdiana: :"Then comes Bactriana, and Sogdiana, and finally the Scythian nomads." (Strabo, Geography, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.8.1 11.8.1]) He goes on describing the names of the various tribes among the Scythians, probably making an amalgam with some of the tribes of eastern Central Asia (such as the Tochari): :"Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called Dahae, but those who are situated more to the east than these are named Massagetae and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They are all for the most part nomads. :But the best known of the nomads are those who took away Bactriana from the Greeks (i.e. Greco-Bactrians), I mean the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who originally came from the country on the other side of the Jaxartes River that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. :And as for the Däae, some of them are called Aparni, some Xanthii, and some Pissuri. Now of these the Aparni are situated closest to Hyrcania and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to Aria." (Strabo, Geography, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.8.1 11.8.1])
Scythians in the Bible
The people mentioned briefly as "Ashkenaz" — perhaps as a result of a long-ago Hebrew alphabet misreading: אשכנז instead of correct אשכוז (= Ashkūz), in Genesis x. 3 and I Chronicles i. 6 — are traced through Gomer to Noah's third son, Japheth. In Jeremiah li. 27, 28, Ashkenaz is mentioned, in connection with the kingdoms of Ararat and Minni (in the Taurus Mountains), together with the Medes — all as being hostile to Babylon. In the Middle Ages Jewish communities revived the name Ashkenaz to mean, first the Teutons, then the Ashkenazi Jews. Biblical connections with Scythians are based on a number of assumptions.
Peoples claimed to be Scythian
Although the Scythians had allegedly disappeared in the 1st century BC, Eastern Romans continued to speak conventionally of "Scythians" to designate mounted Eurasian nomadic barbarians in general: in 448 AD the emissary Priscus is led to Attila's encampment in Pannonia by two mounted "Scythians" — distinguished from the Goths and Huns who also followed Attila. The Sarmatians, the Alans, and finally the Ossetes were Scythians in the broadest sense of the word — as speakers of Northeast Iranian languages — but were nevertheless distinct from the Scythians proper. The Ossetes, the only Iranian people presently resident in Europe, call their country Ironiston or Iron, though North Ossetia is now officially designated Alania. They speak an North-Eastern Iranian language, Ossetic, the more widely-spoken dialect being called Iron or Ironig (i.e. Iranian), that preserves some similarities with the Gathic Avestan language, another Iranian language of the Eastern branch. At the same time, it has a number of words remarkably similar to their modern German equivalents, such as THAU (tauen, to thaw, as snow) and GAU (district, region). Traditions of the Kazakhs and Yakuts of Asia; the Picts; the Celtic Scots, and Irish; the Hungarians; Serbs and Croats; to name a few, also include mention of Scythian origins. It cannot be said with certainty that all of those variously referred to as Scythians or Saka spoke Iranian languages, or that they were genetically related to the stock of Iranian's original speakers. They may have only had an Iranian speaking elite, and the mother tongues of the peoples they dominated might have been Proto-Germanic, Proto-Slavic, Indo-Aryan, and/or even Tocharian (this could explain the presence of Tocharian in the east). See Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages and [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/94/13/6585.pdf Mathematical approaches to comparative linguistics].
- FOX, Robin Lane, 1973. Alexander the Great. ISBN 0-14-008878-4.
"Pazyryk culture"
Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages :Further information is at Pazyryk. One of the first Bronze Age Scythian burials documented by a modern archaeologist were the kurgans at Pazyryk, Ulagan district of the Gorno-Altai Republic, south of Novosibirsk in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. The name Pazyryk culture was attached to the finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archeologist Sergei Rudenko. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch logs covered over by large cairns of boulders and stones. It flourished between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC in a mountain fastness known to be held by a group of Scythians that may have called themselves Sacae. It was the seat of the larger of two related Scythian groups. All the things a Scythian might use or need in this life were placed in the tomb as grave goods for use in the next. Among the rich or powerful, horses were sacrificed and buried with them. With the ordinary Pazyryks were only ordinary utensils, but in one, among other treasures was found the famous Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest surviving wool pile oriental rug. Rudenko summed up the cultural context at one point: :All that is known to us at the present time about the culture of the population of the High Altai, who have left behind them the large cairns, permits us to refer them to the Scythian period, and the Pazyryk group in particular to the fifth century BC. This is supported by radiocarbon dating. In the Soviet climate of 'science' used as propaganda, Rudenko could not stress the cultural similarities between Pazyryk and the Scythians from the Kuban and lower Dneiper Valley in European Russia. Even in modern times, the blond hair and white skin on the frozen "Ice Maiden" and other burials may be seen, but are not mentioned in the Nova segment devoted to these burials. That the ancient culture he studied was quite likely the ethnic stock ancestral to many nomadic tribes of today, including modern Altaians, Kirgiz, and Kazakhs, has become a source of considerable pride today for the Gorno-Altai Republic.
Scythian Gelonus (Belsk)
Recent digs in Belsk, Ukraine uncovered a vast city believed to be the Scythian capital Gelonus described by Herodotus. The city's commanding ramparts and vast 40 square kilometers exceeded even the outlandish size reported by Herodotus. Its location at the northern edge of Ukraine's steppe would have allowed strategic control of the north-south trade route. Judging by the finds dated to the 5th and 4th centuries BC, craft workshops and Greek pottery abounded, as well as slaves perhaps destined for Greece.
The Ryzhanovka kurgan
A kurgan or burial mound near the village of Ryzhanovka in Ukraine, 75 miles south of Kyiv, has revealed one of the few unlooted tombs of a Scythian chieftain, one who was ruling in the forest-steppe area on the western fringe of Scythian lands. There, at a date late in Scythian culture (ca. 250 - 225 BC), a recently nomadic aristocracy was gradually adopting the agricultural lifestyle of their subjects: the tomb contained a mock hearth, the first ever found in a Scythian context, symbolic of the warmth and comfort of a farmhouse.
"Scythian gold"
Scythian contacts with craftsmen in Greek colonies along the northern shores of the Black Sea resulted in the famous Scythian gold adornments that are among the most glamorous prestige artifacts of world museums. Ethnographically extremely useful as well, the gold depicts Scythian men as bearded, long-haired Caucasoids. "Greco-Scythian" works depicting Scythians within a much more Hellenic style date from a much later period, when Scythians had already been greatly mixed with Greeks, clouding the issue of their origins. Scythians had a taste for elaborate personal jewelry, weapon ornaments and horse trappings. They executed Central Asian animal motifs with Greek realism: winged griffins attacking horses, battling stags, deer, and eagles, combined with everyday motifs like milking ewes. In 2000 the touring exhibition 'Scythian Gold' introduced North Americans to the objects made for Scythian nomads by Greek craftsmen north of the Black Sea, and buried with their Scythian owners under burial mounds on the flat plains of what is now Ukraine, most of them unearthed after 1980. In 2001, the discovery of an undisturbed royal Scythian burial barrow illustrated for the first time Scythian animal-style gold that lacks the direct influence of Greek styles. Forty-four pounds of gold weighed down the royal couple in this burial, discovered near Kyzyl, capital of the Siberian republic of Tuva.
Sakas
Main article: Sakas
Sakas was the name given to Scythians in Asia, especially by Persians. The Indo-Scythians were named "Shaka" in India, an extension on the name "Saka". Herodotus describes them as Scythians, called by a different name: :"The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians." (Herodotus VII. 64) Shakas receive numerous mentions in texts like the Puranas, the Manusmriti, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Mahabhasiya of Patanjali, the Brhat Samhita of Vraha Mihira, the Kavyamimamsa, the Brihat-Katha-Manjari, the Katha-Saritsagara and several other old texts. They are typically described as part of an amalgam of other war-like tribes from the northwest.
Indo-Scythians
Saritsagara (r.c. 35-12 BC).]] Main article: Indo-Scythians The Indo-Scythians were a branch of the Scythians who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir, Gandhara, and finally, into Arachosia and the northwest Indian subcontinent, from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC. They were displaced from Central Asia by the migrations in 175-125 BC of the Indo-European Yuezhi tribes, who originally lived in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang and Kansu areas) before themselves being expelled by the Xiongnu (Huns) tribes. The Indo-Scythians, led by their king Maues, ultimately settled in modern day Pakistan from around 85 BC, where they replaced the kingdom of the Indo-Greeks by the time of Azes II. They were again overrun by the Yuezhi (this time, federated under the name of Kushan) in the 1st century, but their rule persisted in some areas of Central India until the 5th century.
Scythians and China
5th century plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th-3rd century BC. British Museum.]] Ancient influences from Central Asia have been identified in China, following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories from the 8th century BC. Gold was introduced from Central Asia between the 8th and the 7th century, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitations of the designs of the steppes. The Chinese adopted the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat), particularly the rectangular belt plaques made of gold or bronze, and created their own versions in jade and steatite. Some Scythians may also have migrated to the area of Yunnan in southern China, following their exodus from by the Yuezhi. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the Dian civilization of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing (Mallory and Mair, "The Tarim Mummies")
The genetic argument
Genetic research in modern populations reveals that the same Y chromosome haplogroup (R1a) represents a genetic lineage currently found in central, western and south Asia, and in Slavic populations of Eastern Europe. The simplest explanation of this distribution is that this Y-chromosome mutation originated in people of the kurgan-building culture of traditional Scythia (see link). However haplogroups H, J2, R1b and L are also found in populations of Iran, Pakistan, Central Asia and India, and the idea that R1a1 originates from Kurgan Culture is questionable, since there seem to be a complete absence of haplogroup I and E in India (although it is common in Europe, particularly Ukraine).
The idea of Scythia
Owing to their reputation as promulgated by Greek historians, the Scythians served as the epitome of savagery and barbarism in the early modern period. Specifically, early modern English discourse on Ireland frequently resorted to comparisons with this people in order to confirm that the indigenous population of Ireland were descendants of these ancient "bogeymen", and as barbaric as their alleged ancestors. Edmund Spenser wrote that "the Chiefest [nation that settled in Ireland] I Suppose to be Scithians ... which firste inhabitinge and afterwarde stretchinge themselves forthe into the lande as theire numbers increased named it all of themselues Scuttenlande which more brieflye is Called Scuttlande or Scotlande" (A View of the Present State of Ireland, c. 1596). Among the proofs Spenser cites for this origin are the alleged Irish customs of blood-drinking, nomadic lifestyle, the wearing of mantles and certain haircuts and "Cryes [or wailings] allsoe vsed amongeste the Irishe which savor greatlye of the Scythyan Barbarisme". William Camden, one of Spenser's main sources, comments on this legend of origin that "to derive descent from a Scythian stock, cannot be thought any waies dishonourable, seeing that the Scythians, as they are most ancient, so they have been the Conquerours of most Nations, themselves alwaies invincible, and never subject to the Empire of others" (Britannia, 1586 etc., Engl. transl. 1610). In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Arbroath, Scythia is claimed as a former homeland of the Scots. In the 19th century, the "barbarian" Scyths of literature were transformed into the wild and free, hardy and democratic ancestors of all blond Indo-Europeans. Aside from the findings of modern archaeology and genetics, most of what subsequent generations "knew" of Scythia and Scythians was second hand, a series of literary conventions. Some modern groups still claim to be descended from the Scythians. The Scythians feature in the national origin legends of the Celts; they are also claimed by some romantic nationalist writers to have figured in the formation of the empire of the Medes and likewise of Caucasian Albania, the precursor in Antiquity of the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic. Most famously of all, the Russians were called Scythians in the 18th-century poetry, as some contemporary scholars sought to demonstrate their descent from ancient warriors described by Herodotus. Alexander Blok drew on this tradition in his last major poem, Yes, We Are the Scyths (1920).
References

- Torday, Laszlo (1998). Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History. Durham Academic Press. ISBN 1-90-083803-6.
- Davis-Kimball, Jeannine. 2002. Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines. Warner Books, New York. 1st Trade printing, 2003. ISBN 0-446-67983-6 (pbk).
External links and notes

- [http://www.lost-civilizations.net/scythians.html Scythians overview] by Chris Bennet.
- [http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/scythians/scythians.html Livius articles on ancient history, entry on Scythians/Sacae].
- [http://www.fotuva.org/history/archaeology.html The early burial in Tuva].
- [http://www.silk-road.com/artl/scythian.shtml Scythian myth and culture; map].
- [http://www.pitt.edu/~haskins/ Color illustrations of Scythian gold].
- [http://antiquity.ac.uk/reviews/taylor.html Published excavations of royal Scythian kurgan (barrow) at Chertomlyk reviewed].
- [http://herodot.georgehinge.com/hdt4.html Herodotus, Histories, Book IV - translated by Rawlinson, the 1942 edition].
- [http://www.metrum.org/mapping/scythia.htm Livio Stecchini, "The Mapping of the Earth: Scythia"]: reconstructing the map of Scythia according to the conceptual geography of Herodotus
- [http://www.metrum.org/mapping/gerrhos.htm Livio Stecchini, "The Mapping of the Earth: Gerrhos"]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2517siberian.html 1998 NOVA documentary: "Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden"] Transcript.
- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jat_%28people%29 Jats]
- [http://www.nbz.or.jp/eng/pdffiles/hallandyablonsky1998.pdf on Sarmatian (a related Iranian group) trade and ethnic connections]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scythia/ Scythia Group (a yahoo group for discussing the Scythians)]
Ryzhanovka links

- [http://www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=9709/abstracts/scythians Archaeology abstract of 1997 article]
- [http://www2.uj.edu.pl/IRO/NEWSLET/IRC9/Chochorowski.html the Ryzhanovka Kurgan in Ukraine]
Genetic links

- [http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003b.pdf PDF file]
- [http://www.roperld.com/YBiallelicHaplogroups.htm Y-Chromosome Biallelic Haplogroups] Category:Ancient peoples Category:Scythians Category:Altai Category:Iron Age category:Iranian peoples ko:스키타이 ja:スキタイ

Rhoxolani

Rhoxolani were Sarmatian tribes that migrated in the 3rd and 4th century BC from the territories north of Azov Sea toward the Danube, in what is now the Baragan steppes in Romania. Their original homeland lay between the Don and Dnieper rivers. They are believed to be an off-shoot of Alans. The Greco-Roman historian Strabo (late first century BC-early first century AD) described them as "wagon-dwellers" (i.e. nomads) (Geographika, Book VII). Around 100 BC they invaded the Crimea under their king Tasius in support of the Scythian warlord Palacus but were defeated in the Crimea by Diophantus, general of Mithradates VI. In the mid-first century AD, during the Dacian crisis, the Rhoxolani begun to settle on the lower reaches of the Danube, but this was impeded by the Legio III Gallica, who attacked and destroyed a force of 9,000 Roxolanian heavy cavalry carrying baggage in 68/69. Tacitus (Hist.Bk1.79) describes the weight of the armor worn by the 'princes and most distinguished persons' made 'it difficult for such as have been overthrown by the charge of the enemy to regain their feet' The long two-handed kontos lance, the primary melee weapon of the Sarmatians, was unusable in these conditions. The Rhoxolani avenged themselves on the Romans in c.92, when they joined the Dacians in destroying the Roman Legio XXI Rapax. Trajan subdued the Rhoxolani, along with the Iazyges, during his conquest of Dacia. The Rhoxolani regained their independence upon his death. The Emperor Hadrian reinforced a series of pre-existing fortifications (and built numerous new forts) along the Danube to contain the Rhoxolani threat. Marcus Aurelius also campaigned against them along the Danubian frontier. They are known to have attacked the Roman Province of Pannonia in 260; shortly afterwards contingents of Roxolani troops enter service in the Roman military. Like other Sarmatian peoples, the Rhoxolani were conquered by the Huns in the mid fourth century.

Resources

- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7C
- .html Strabo's Geographika
- [http://ellone-loire.net/obsidian/siberia.html#Sarmatia Rhoxolani rulers on Bruce Gordon's Regnal Chronologies] Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Iranian peoples Category:Sarmatians

Iazyges

The Iazyges (Jazyges is an orthographic variant) were a nomadic tribe. Speaking an Iranian language, they were a branch of the Sarmatian people who, c. 200 BC, swept westward from central Asia onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine.

Antiquity

The Iazyges first make their appearance along the Sea of Azov, known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans as the Maeotis. For this reason they are referred to by the geographer Ptolemy as the Iazyges Metanastae. From there, the Jazyges moved west along the shores of the Black Sea to what is now Moldova and the southwestern Ukraine. They served as allies of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (in what is now western Turkey), in his wars against the Romans (c. 88-84 BC). In 78-76 BC, the Romans sent a punitive expedition over the Danube in an attempt to overawe the Jazyges. The prime enemy of Rome along the lower Danube at this time were the Dacians, in what is now Romania. In 7 BC the Dacian kingdom built up by Burebista began to collapse into one of the bouts of anarchy that plagued many nomadic kingdoms. The Romans took advantage of this to encourage the Jazyges to settle in the Pannonian plain, between the Danube and the Tisza (Theiss) Rivers.

Roman times

They were divided into freemen and serfs (Sarmatae Limigantes). These serfs had a different manner of life and were probably an older settled population, enslaved by nomadic masters. They rose against them in 34 AD, but were repressed by foreign aid. The Romans wanted to finish off Dacia, but the Jazyges would not cooperate. The Jazyges remained nomads, herding their cattle across what is now southern Romania every summer to water them along the Black Sea. A Roman conquest of Dacia would cut that route. The Roman emperor Domitian became so concerned with the Jazyges that he interrupted a campaign against Dacia to harass them and the Suebi, a Germanic tribe also dwelling along the Danube. In early 92, the Jazyges, in alliance with the Sarmatians proper and the Germanic Quadi, crossed the Danube into the Roman province of Pannonia (mod. Croatia, northern Serbia, and western Hungary). In May, the Jazyges shattered the Roman legio 21 Rapax, soon afterwards disbanded in disgrace. The fighting continued until Domitian’s death in 96. In the years 101-105, the warlike Roman Emperor Trajan finally conquered the Dacians, reducing it to a Roman province. In 107, Trajan sent his general, Hadrian, to force the Jazyges to submit. In 117, Trajan died, and was succeeded as emperor by Hadrian, who moved to consolidate and protect the gains Trajan had made. While the Romans kept Dacia, the Jazyges stayed independent, accepting a client relationship with Rome. As long as Rome remained powerful, the situation could be maintained, but in the late second century, the Roman Empire found itself increasingly overstretched. In the summer of 167, while the Romans were tied down in a war with Parthia, the nomadic peoples north of the Danube, the Marcomanni, the Varistae, the Vandals, the Hermanduri, the Suebi and the Quadi all swept south over the Danube to invade and plunder the exposed Roman provinces. The Jazyges joined in this general onslaught. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius spent the rest of his life trying to restore the situation. In 170, the Jazyges defeated and killed Claudius Fronto, Roman governor of Dacia and Lower Moesia. Operating from Sirmium (today Sremska Mitrovica in Vojvodina, in today's Serbia and Montenegro) on the Sava river, Marcus Aurelius moved against the Jazyges personally. After hard fighting, the Jazyges were pressed to their limits. But in 175, Avidus Cassius led a revolt in the East, interrupting the campaign. At this point, the leading king among the Jazyges, Zanticus, made peace with Marcus Aurelius, yielding up, it is said, 100,000 Roman captives. The Jazyges were also forced to provide the Romans with 8,000 cavalry to serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries. Some 5,500 of these were shipped off to Britain, where, it is theorized, they played a part in the development of the Arthurian legend. Marcus' victory was decisive in that the Jazyges did not again appear as a major threat to Rome. Around 230, the Asding Vandals pushed in to the north of the Jazyges. The Vandals, and new Germanic tribal coalitions like the Alamanni and the Franks now became the Roman’s primary security concerns. But as late as 371, the Romans saw fit to build a fortified trading center, Commercium, to control the trade with the Jazyges.

Late Antiquity

In Late Antiquity, records become much spottier, and the Jazyges generally cease to be mentioned as a tribe. But in 1238, the Jazyges are mentioned again, fighting alongside the Cumans against the Mongols on the Volga River. Defeated, the Jazyges and the Cumans were granted asylum by Béla IV, king of Hungary, where they were ultimately absorbed. In other words, the Jazyges either migrated back east onto the steppes in the confusion of the Hun and Avar invasions of the 5th-7th centuries, or a fresh branch of the Jazyges that had never moved west before remained throughout this period in what is now southern Russia.

Sources

Bennett, Julian: Trajan: Optimus Princeps (1997) Indianapolis University Press, Bloomington Birley, Anthony: Marcus Aurelius: A Biography (1987) Yale University Press, New Haven. Bunson, Matthew: Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire (1994) Facts on File Inc., NY Kerr, William George: A Chronological Study of the Marcomannic Wars of Marcus Aurelius (1995) Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, 295 p. Macartney, C.A.: Hungary: A Short History (1962) Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. Maenchen-Helfen, J. Otto: The World of the Huns (1973) University of California Press, Berkeley. Strayer, Joseph R., Editor in Chief: A Dictionary of the Middle Ages (1987), Charles Scribner’s Sons, NY

References

- Category:Ancient Roman enemies and allies Category:Iranian peoples Category:History of Vojvodina Category:Bačka Category:Sarmatians

Alans

The Alans or Alani were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of mixed backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and shared, in a broad sense, a common culture.

Early Alans

The first mentions of names that historians link with "Alani" appear almost at the same time in Greco-Roman geography and somewhat later Chinese dynastic chronicles of the 1st century BCE. The Geography (book 23, ch.XI.v) of Strabo, who was born in Pontus on the Black Sea, but was also working with Persian sources, to judge from the forms he gives to tribal names, mentions Aorsi that he links with Siraces and claims that a Spadines, king of the Aorsi, could assemble two hundred thousand mounted archers in the mid-1st century BCE. But the "upper Aorsi" from whom they had split as fugitives, could send many more, for they dominated the coastal region of the Caspian Sea :"and consequently they could import on camels the Indian and Babylonian merchandise, receiving it in their turn from the Armenians and the Medes, and also, owing to their wealth, could wear golden ornaments. Now the Aorsi live along the Tanaïs, but the Siraces live along the Achardeüs, which flows from the Caucasus and empties into Lake Maeotis." Secure identifications of names and places in the ancient Chinese chronicles are even more speculative, but some centuries later, the Later Han Dynasty Chinese chronicle, the Hou Han Shu (covering the period from 25 - 220), mentioned a report that the steppe land Yen-ts’ai was now known as Alan-liao. (阿蘭聊): :"The Kingdom of Yancai (Yen-ts'ai, "Vast Steppe") has changed its name to the kingdom of Alanliao. Its capital is the town of Di. It is a dependency of Kangju (centered on Tashkent). The climate is mild. Wax trees, pines, and ‘white grass’ (aconite) are plentiful. Their way of life and dress are the same as those of Kangju." In another section the Hou Han Shu reported : :“It is said : “Some 2000 li (832 km) to the north-west from K’ang-chü is the state of Yen-ts’ai. The trained bowmen number 100,000. It has the same way of life as K’ang-chü. It is situated on the Great Marsh, which has no [further] shore [and which is presumably the Northern Sea].” The "Great Marsh" may be the wetlands at the delta of the Danube, which were a formidable obstacle that slowed the westward drift of many nomads or even more impressive marshes of present day Belarus and north Ukraine. Thus at the beginning of the 1st century, the Alans had occupied lands in the northeast Azov Sea area, along the Don. The written sources suggest that from the second half of the 1st to 4th century the Alans had supremacy over the tribal union and created a powerful confederation of Sarmatian tribes. The Alans made trouble for the Roman Empire, with incursions into both the Danubian and the Caucasian provinces in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Herodotus describes Alans as tall, blond with men cutting their hair short unlike the Scythians. . Ammianus Marcellinus considered the Alans to be the former Massagetae : "iuxtaque Massagetae Halani et Sargetae", "per Albanos et Massagetas, quos Alanos nunc appellamus", "Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas". Archaeological finds support the written sources. Late Sarmatian sites were first identified with the historical Alans by P.D. Rau. Based on the archaeological material, they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes that began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd century. The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. In the Vologeses inscription [http://www.lostlanguages.com/parthian.htm] one can read that Vologeses, the Parthian king, in the 11th year of his reign, battled Kuluk, king of the Alani. This inscription is supplemented by the contemporary Jewish historian, Josephus (37–100), who reports in the Jewish Wars (book 7, ch. 8.4) how Alans, (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the Sea of Azov, crossed the Iron Gates for plunder and defeated the armies of Pacorus, king of Media, and Tiridates, King of Armenia, two brothers of Vologeses I for whom the inscription was made: :"4.Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and inhabiting at the Lake Meotis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody durst make any resistance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up everything he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving them a hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying all waste before them. Now Tiridates was king of that country, who met them, and fought them, but had like to have been taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a net over him from a great distance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless he had immediately cut the cord with his sword, and ran away, and prevented it. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other prey they had gotten out of both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back to their own country." Flavius Arrianus ('Arrian') marched against the Alani in the 1st century and left a detailed report (Ektaxis kata Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics, but doesn't reveal much about the Alans.

The 'western' Alans and Vandals

About 370 the Alans were overwhelmed by the Huns. They were divided into two groups. One group fled westward. These 'western' Alani joined the Germanic nations of Vandals and Sueves in their invasion of Roman Gaul. Gregory of Tours mentions that their king Respendial saved the day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine (c. 407). Following the fortunes of the Vandals into the Iberian peninsula (Hispania) in 409, the separate ethnic identity of the western Alans dissolved. Although some of the Alani settled in Iberia and Gaul-notably around Orléans and Valance- , most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. In 426, the western Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. Later Vandal kings in North Africa styled themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum (King of the Vandals and Alans). In Hispania, the Alans were famous in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting dogs, which they apparently introduced to Europe. A giant breed of dog still called Alano survives in the Basque Country. The dogs, which are traditionally used in boar hunting and cattle herding, are associated with the massive dogs that Alans and Vandals brought into Iberia.

Alans and Slavs

Alan tribes living north of the Black Sea may have moved northwest into what is now Poland, merging with Slavic peoples there to become the precursors of historic Slav nations (notably Serbs and Croats). Third-century inscriptions from Tanais, a town on the Don River in modern Ukraine, mention a nearby Alan tribe called the Choroatos or Chorouatos. The historian Ptolemy identifies the 'Serboi' as a Sarmatian tribe who lived north of the Caucasus, and other sources identify the Serboi as an Alan tribe in the Volga-Don steppe in the third century. Accounts of these names reappear in the fifth century, with the Serboi, or Serbs, established east of the river Elbe in what is now western Poland, and the Croats in what is now Polish Galicia. The Alan tribes likely moved northeast and settled among the Slavs, dominating and mobilizing the Slavic tribes they encountered and later assimilating into the Slav population. In 620 the Croats and Serbs were invited into the Balkans by Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius to drive away the Turkic Avars, and settled there among earlier Slavic migrants to become ancestors of the modern Serbs and Croats. Some Serbs remained on the Elbe, and their descendants are the modern Sorbs. Tenth-century Byzantine and Arab accounts describe a people called the Belochrobati (White Croats) living on the upper Vistula, an area later called Chrobatia.

The 'eastern' Alans and Huns

Some of the other Alani, who remained under the rule of the Huns, were among the federates at the Battle of the Halys River, in Anatolia, 430. These 'eastern' Alans are said to be ancestors of the modern Ossetians of the Caucasus. Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by fresh invading hordes into the Caucasus, where they re