Zoroastrianism among the Kushans

Anabasis, 2021

This paper is devoted to a comparative analysis of the elite burial complexes of the Lower Volga-Don region in different periods of the Sarmatian era, and to interpretation of the changes occurring in their distribution and composition. An overview of the changes in the rite, composition of burial goods, and spatial distribution of the “Barbarian” elite graves of the Volga-Don region demonstrates the social structure of nomadic societies becoming more complex over time and becoming orientated towards the settled centers of the Northern Black Sea region, especially to the city of Tanais. An additional source of information is the composition and origin of the “prestige items” found in these graves. According to their analysis, cultural groups with different thanatological doctrines, in otherwords culturally varying societies, participated in the process. It seems that the observed changes were largely not due to the “regular migratory waves of nomads from East to West,” but to foreign political factors, in particular the development of relations between the major political powers of the era – Parthia and Rome. An important strategic role in their struggle was played by the Caucasus and the countries adjacent to it to the north, where the Bosporan Kingdom occupied a pivotal position: Its Asian part directly bordered numerous warlike “Barbarian” tribes of the North Caucasus and the Eastern Azov areas. Steppe peoples of the North Caucasus exerted a strong influence on the political affairs in southern Caucasia, including Iberia, Albania, Armenia, and in Media Atropatene and Parthia as well. The nomadic chiefdoms of the Volga-Don region, with their significant military potential, were obviously involved in internal and foreign political conflicts in the territories of the Bosporan Kingdom and the Caucasus. Evidently, the booty and gifts obtained in the course of military actions and conclusions of treaties and agreements were partially demonstrated in the funeral ceremonies of the “Barbarian” nobility, reinforcing their claims to leadership. These artifacts, discovered at necropolises in burial complexes, show different aspects of the culture and policies which involved the Sarmatian elites.

Journal of Archaeology of the Turkish Academy of Sciences/Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Arkeoloji Dergisi 13: 143–157, 2010

From the perspective of Anatolia, the Transcaucasus (or the southern Caucasus) has always been viewed as a region of primary significance. Yet for a variety of reasons the archaeology of this region has remained elusive, accessible for the most part by syntheses in Western languages. This paper outlines the major trends in archaeological thought in the Transcaucasus before and after glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructure). It concludes that contemporary archaeology in the region, sampled by the papers in this issue, has much to offer Near Eastern and Eurasian archaeology in general, and Anatolian archaeology in particular.

1998

Núria Olaya / Agustí Alemany (ed.), Sources on the Northern Borders of the Sasanian Empire: a Survey, Antiquité Tardive 30, 2022 (publ. 2023), p. 119-136 – pre-review version under a Creative Commons CC 4.0 : BY-NC license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (not suitable for quotation)

edited by Agustí Alemany Sources for the history of the Sasanian empire originate in different literary traditions. Even though Classical (Greek and Latin) authors take the lion's share, there is also evidence written in Middle and Classical Modern Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Bactrian, Chinese, Ethiopian, Georgian, Old Turkic, Sogdian, and Syriac, among other languages. Some events, like military exploits of great kings, often popularized by later tradition, are widely attested by a plethora of sources, while other pieces of news rely on a single minor authority and therefore are frequently overshadowed by a curtain of darkness. More than a decade ago I suggested the sources on the Northern borders of the Sasanian empire as a PhD topic to my student Nuria Olaya. Linking with my own research on the Alans, I thought that it would be sound to collect available evidence on the relations between the Sasanians and the various steppe nomads-such as Alans, Huns, Sabirs and Turks-which from time to time poured out of the Caucasian barrier and the Central Asian heartlands into the northernmost provinces of Ērānšahr. On many occassions the result was protracted warfare, since their goal was to laid waste the country for profit or to wage war as mercenaries on behalf of others; but there were also times of peace favouring commercial and cultural exchanges which no doubt benefited both sides. Nevertheless, the 'nomadic menace' led to the construction of the so-called Limes Sasanicus, a series of bulwarks and fortifications protecting Eastern Transcaucasia and the fringes of the present-day Turkmen steppe. Unfortunately, as usual with ancient nomads, there is hardly any record left for this period in vernacular languages and we are constrained to depend almost completely on sedentary chroniclers, who are usually biased and exhibit a negative attitude against these long-time enemies from the North. The aforesaid research lasted for some seven years and bore fruit in a PhD, * which was warmly praised and earned the highest degree before a jury formed by Alberto Cantera, Philip Huyse and Éric Pirart. However, the work has remained unpublished and is not expected to go to press, at least in the near future, insofar Dr. Olaya has given up her career for the time being due to personal reasons. That's how we conceived the idea of this paper-after the invitation to contribute to this volume on the Sasanian empire-to spread the results of her work: it is essentially a revised and corrected English version of the concluding chapter of Dr. Olaya's PhD, now furnished with a complete source apparatus lacking in the original work. Its goal is to provide scholars with a chronological table of the main events and facts related to the Northern borders of the Sasanian empire as attested by both Western and Eastern sources. Each entry gives a brief description of the event in question, preceded by its approximate date, and followed by a footnote mark referring to the relevant passages in the sources. The paper is intended to serve as a basic sourcebook and therefore no discussion of the problems posed by the collected passages is presented here; however, since the aforesaid PhD contains an extensive realia commentary, a brief quotation [O] of the relevant paragraph [ §] therein is added at the end of each footnote for further reference. In a similar way, anachronisms and archaisms-most often in ethnic names-have been kept for the sake of being true to the sources-but are labeled with an asterisk [*] to show up their being unreliable. Embassies to Chinese emperors of the Tuoba Wei 拓跋魏 (386-534), Liang 梁 (502-557), Xi Wei 西魏 (535-557), Sui 隋 (581-618) and Tang 唐 (619-907) dynasties have been included, though not directly related to the Northern borders of the * Nuria Olaya (2017). Las fuentes clásicas y orientales relativas a las fronteras septentrionales del Imperio sasánida (in Spanish). Autonomous University of Barcelona.

FEZANA Journal, 2014

The fi rst appearance of the Kurgan funerary tradition in the Northern Caucasus (Majkop-Novosvobodnaya), dates to the second half of the fourth millennium and records an impressive display and accumulation of wealth in the grave goods (mainly metal objects) which stress the emergence of radical social transformations in the communities of the region. But kurgans also signal a new approach to territory and a different conception of the landscape. The Arslantepe Royal Tomb (in the Upper Euphrates Valley, Eastern Anatolia), which is dated to 3100-2900 B.C., shows that far-reaching infl uences from the Northern Caucasus were already crossing the Greater Caucasus range and that they were being assimilated by the Anatolian power groups. The set of traits that the Arslantepe Royal Tomb shares with the funerary representations of the Northern Caucasian Kurgans (ritual, grave goods and eventually the location chosen for the burial) was the result of a symbolic and ideological selection performed by a local community and which was aimed at legitimising and justifying the current historical and political contingencies and the emergence of new images and power rules. What can be grasped of the general sense and cultural values of the phenomenon of the northern Caucasian Kurgans by means of an interpretation performed by an external (and distant) community?

2017

The article considers the geography of studied archaeological sites dating back to the first half of the 1st Millennium A.D. located in the steppes of the Southern Urals and the Lower Volga region. According to the author, the localization of these sites follows a specific pattern. Barrows of late Sarmatians (or ‘Huns-Sarmatians’) are mostly located in the forest-steppe area or along the left bank of the Volga river, which was accounted for by the deterioration of the steppe climate (aridization) which began in the first centuries A.D. A small number of barrows of late Sarmatians have been discovered in the Trans-Urals and the Volga region. Large burial mounds consisting of several dozen barrows - Salikhovo, Akhmerovo, Derbenevo - have only been traced in the Cis-Urals. There is no reliable evidence of the ethnic-cultural interactions of the Sarmatians with the local Finno-Ugric population. Therefore, the Turbasly culture with its sites represented by two compact groups have been discovered in the basin of the middle reaches of the Belaya river and near the mouth of the Kama river and apparently appeared in the region in an established form. At the same time, small groups (military detachments) of the population of a different ethnic and cultural origin were introduced in the western regions of the area populated by the carriers of the late Mazunino culture - barrows at Turaevo and Staraya Mushta burial mounds. Due to their scarcity, these detachments quickly dissolved in the local Finno-Perm (Mazunino) population. The archaeological map of the Southern Urals and Trans-Volga region demonstrates that the steppes of the region were very poorly populated in the first half of the 1st Millennium A.D. The ethnic-cultural groups represented by a large number of archaeological sites have only been discovered in the forest-steppe area – these are the Late Mazunino (Bakhmutino) and Imenkovo cultures, whose carriers, according to the author, did not belong to the Sarmatian or ‘Hun-Sarmatian’ world.

Cultural interactions have prevailed among the human societies from very ancient times up to the present and have constituted a major element of their behavior. These interactions are still prevalent in particular among the nomadic tribes so that one can see this behavior in the modern Bakhtiyari nomadic societies living in the two Iranian provinces of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiyari and Khuzestan. The present work deals with comparative analysis of the pottery sample from the site of Haji Jalil 2 (Site KD.043) excavated as part of the salvage excavation program in the area of Kuhrang Dam and its third tunnel in Birgan located in the Kuhrang region and material from key sites of Khuzestan and Fars to gain an insight into the cultural ties between Bakhtiyari highland settlements and the two cultural horizons of Fars and Susiana. Thus, the comparison of Haji Jalil 2 assemblage with material from adjacent and central Zagros cultures suggests cultural interactions between this region and the key adjacent cultures in particular from Khuzestan and Fars during the late Susiana 1 (LS1) period (pl.1). The present paper also includes a brief description of the excavation strategy and stratigraphy and preliminary chronology of Haji Jalil 2. It is noteworthy that the salvage excavation program at the construction site of the Kuhrang Dam and its reservoir and third tunnel involved diggings at five different areas that were conducted by M.E. Esmaeili Jelodar in 2009 for the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research and Isfahan Regional Water Company (Esmaeili Jelodar 1388/2009) following a reconnaissance and survey program by Kourosh Roustaei (1386/2007) in 2007.