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The Massagetae, or Massageteans,^[1] were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic confederation,^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia, north-east of the Caspian Sea in modern Turkmenistan, western Uzbekistan, and southern Kazakhstan.

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.^[7] He several times refers to them as living "beyond the River Araxes", which flows through the Caucasus and into the west Caspian.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

In the 4th century B.C. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire and campaigned in the east. Massagetae adopted new military tactics of armoured cavalry from Macedonians and in the 4th-3rd centuries BC were able to subdue nearly all the nomad tribes north-east of Macedonian frontier including the Xiongnu who roamed the steppes further east up to the Chinese border. Xiongnu had to acknowledge the Massagetan suzerainty for about a century. But eventually Xiongnu defeated Massagetae and in 165 BC drove them westwards out of their lands.^[11]

Possible connections to other ancient peoples

Many scholars have suggested that the Massagetae were related to the Getae of ancient Eastern Europe and/or the Jats of modern South Asia.^[12] A 9th century work by Rabanus Maurus, De Universo, states: "The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae."^[13]^[14] In Central Asian languages such as Middle Persian and Avestan, the prefix massa means "great", "heavy", or "strong".^[15]

Some authors, such as Alexander Cunningham, James P. Mallory, Victor H. Mair B.S. Dahiya and Edgar Knobloch have proposed relating the Massagetae to the Gutians of 2000 BC Mesopotamia, and/or a people known in ancient China as the "Da Yuezhi" or "Great Yuezhi" (who founded the Kushan Empire in South Asia). Mallory and Mair suggest that Da Yuezhi may at one time have been pronounced d'ad-ngiwat-tieg, connecting them to the Massagetae.^[16]^[17]^[18] Dahiya claimed that the Massagetae and Thyssagetae corresponded to the Da Yuezhi and Xiao Yuezhi ("Lesser Yuezhi").^[19] These theories are not widely accepted, however.

According to other authors^[20], the name Massagetae would derive from a previous form Mag-Sagatae and in turn from the Proto-Indo-European *Maga-swag^wau-tas , which would mean "breeders of large (*maga; cf. Gr. μέγας, Lat. magis, mag-nus, ma’-ior, and mag-simus, Sans. maha) herds of cows (*swag^waus)". *Magaswag^wautas, wandering through the large prairies of current Kazakhstan, were distinguished from *Swag^wautas, breeding smaller herds and living in a more limited territory which after them was called *Swag^wautàn or *Swag^wautana, country of *Swag^wautas, whence the historical forms Suguda^[21], Sukhda^[22], Sogdia (Gr. Σόγδια^[23] , Sogdiana (Gr. Σογδιανή^[24]). From the abbreviated form *G^wautas of *Magaswag^wautas and *Swag^wautas the name of Gutians would derive. The name Thyssagetae would instead derive from *Thyr-swag^wau-tas, indicating a tribe of *Swag^wautas living on the border (cfr. gr. θύρα, door) with sinanthropoid populations, which it interbreed changing morphology and Language. From the alternative forms *Thyrswag^wau-nas and *Thyrg^wau-nas the name of Issedones (Altaic for Thyssegonas) and Tyrsini would derive, as well as the name of Fergana Valley.

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.

History

Concerning the death of Cyrus the Great of Persia, Herodotus writes:

[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.

Ammianus Marcellinus considered the Alans to be the former Massagetae.^[25] At the close of the 4th century CE, Claudian (the court poet of Emperor Honorius and Stilicho) wrote of Alans and Massagetae in the same breath: "the Massagetes who cruelly wound their horses that they may drink their blood, the Alans who break the ice and drink the waters of Maeotis' lake" (In Rufinem).

Procopius writes in History of the Wars Book III: The Vandalic War:^[26] "the Massagetae whom they now call Huns" (XI. 37.), "there was a certain man among the Massagetae, well gifted with courage and strength of body, the leader of a few men; this man had the privilege handed down from his fathers and ancestors to be the first in all the Hunnic armies to attack the enemy" (XVIII. 54.).

Evagrius Scholasticus (Ecclesiastical History. Book 3. Ch. II.): "and in Thrace, by the inroads of the Huns, formerly known by the name of Massagetae, who crossed the Ister without opposition".^[27]

Tadeusz Sulimirski notes that the Sacae also invaded parts of Northern India.^[28] Weer Rajendra Rishi, an Indian linguist^[29] has identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sacae influence in Northern India.^[15]^[28]

According to Guive Mirfendereski at the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS), the Massagetae are synonymous with the Sakā haumavargā of South Asian historiography.

References

^ Engels, Donald W. (1978). Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04272-7.
^ Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers Of The Steppe 600 BC-AD 1300 (Elite). Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 184176809X, p. 7.
^ Wilcox, Peter. Rome's Enemies: Parthians and Sassanids. Osprey Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-85045-688-6, p. 9.
^ Gershevitch, Ilya. The Cambridge History of Iran (Volume II). Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-521-20091-1, p. 48.
^ Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8135-1304-9, p. 547.
^ The Cambridge History of Iran: The Median and Achaemenian periods By Ilya Gershevitch
^ Herodotus, The Histories, 1.204.
^ Herodotus, The Histories, 1.202.
^ Herodotus, The Histories, translation by Robin Waterfield, with notes by Carolyn Deward (1998), p. 613, notes on 1.201-16.
^ Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus: Books 11-12, Volume 1, Marcus Junianus Justinus, John Yardley, & Waldemar Heckel
^ Tadeusz Sulimirski - The Sarmatians, p.80-81, https://www.amazon.com/Sarmatians-Ancient-Peoples-Tadeusz-Sulimirski/dp/050002071X
^ Leake, Jane Acomb (1967). The Geats of Beowulf: a study in the geographical mythology of the Middle Ages (illustrated ed.). University of Wisconsin Press. p. 68.
^ Maurus, Rabanus (1864). Migne, Jacques Paul (ed.). De universo. Paris. The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Dhillon, Balbir Singh (1994). History and study of the Jats: with reference to Sikhs, Scythians, Alans, Sarmatians, Goths, and Jutes (illustrated ed.). Canada: Beta Publishers. p. 8. ISBN 1-895603-02-1.
^ ^a ^b Rishi, Weer Rajendra (1982). India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity. Roma. p. 95.
^ Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000), The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson. pages 98-99 https://www.amazon.com/Tarim-Mummies-Ancient-Mystery-Earliest/dp/0500051011
^ Pazyrik - The Valley of the Frozen Tombs, John F. Haskins, https://books.google.com/books?id=GLj7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&lpg=PT10&dq=hun+massagetae&source=bl&ots=rnQDIQk7T-&sig=ZJL6qONogivEakR-hMSdoOBPwTU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF64aS8I_PAhVE1RQKHQXgCusQ6AEIQjAI#v=onepage&q=hun%20massagetae&f=false
^ THE STRONGEST TRIBE, Yu. A. Zuev, page 33: "Massagets of the earliest ancient authors... are the Yuezhis of the Chinese sources"
^ Dahiya 1980, 23, quoted in SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 127 October, 2003, page 22-24, http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp127_getes.pdf
^ Fabbri, Giampietro (2018-02-22). "SUPARSTHAS and SWAGWAUTAS Colonisers of the Ancient World. Part I: Origins and early migrations". JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 4 (4). doi:10.14795/j.v4i4.277. ISSN 2360-266X.
^ Darius, Behistun Inscriptions c. 1, r. 6
^ Avesta, Vendidad, 1
^ Ptolemaeus, Geographia, VI, 12, 2
^ Strabo, Geographia, XI, 8
^ Ammianus Marcellinus: "iuxtaque Massagetae Halani et Sargetae"; "per Albanos et Massagetas, quos Alanos nunc appellamus"; "Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas".
^ Procopius: History of the Wars. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Wars/Book_III
^ Ecclesiastical History. Book 3. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/evagrius_3_book3.htm
^ ^a ^b Sulimirski, Tadeusz (1970). The Sarmatians. Vol. Volume 73 of Ancient peoples and places. New York: Praeger. pp. 113–114. The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
^ Indian Institute of Romani Studies Archived 2013-01-08 at archive.today

External links

[1] Engels, Donald W. (1978). Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04272-7.

[Antony_Karasulas-2] Karasulas, Antony. Mounted Archers Of The Steppe 600 BC-AD 1300 (Elite). Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 184176809X, p. 7.

[rome's_enemies-3] Wilcox, Peter. Rome's Enemies: Parthians and Sassanids. Osprey Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-85045-688-6, p. 9.

[cambridge-4] Gershevitch, Ilya. The Cambridge History of Iran (Volume II). Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-521-20091-1, p. 48.

[Grousset-5] Grousset, René. The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8135-1304-9, p. 547.

[6] The Cambridge History of Iran: The Median and Achaemenian periods By Ilya Gershevitch

[7] Herodotus, The Histories, 1.204.

[8] Herodotus, The Histories, 1.202.

[9] Herodotus, The Histories, translation by Robin Waterfield, with notes by Carolyn Deward (1998), p. 613, notes on 1.201-16.

[10] Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus: Books 11-12, Volume 1, Marcus Junianus Justinus, John Yardley, & Waldemar Heckel

[11] Tadeusz Sulimirski - The Sarmatians, p.80-81, https://www.amazon.com/Sarmatians-Ancient-Peoples-Tadeusz-Sulimirski/dp/050002071X

[12] Leake, Jane Acomb (1967). The Geats of Beowulf: a study in the geographical mythology of the Middle Ages (illustrated ed.). University of Wisconsin Press. p. 68.

[13] Maurus, Rabanus (1864). Migne, Jacques Paul (ed.). De universo. Paris. The Massagetae are in origin from the tribe of the Scythians, and are called Massagetae, as if heavy, that is, strong Getae.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[14] Dhillon, Balbir Singh (1994). History and study of the Jats: with reference to Sikhs, Scythians, Alans, Sarmatians, Goths, and Jutes (illustrated ed.). Canada: Beta Publishers. p. 8. ISBN 1-895603-02-1.

[Rishi_(1982)-15] Rishi, Weer Rajendra (1982). India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity. Roma. p. 95.

[16] Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000), The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson. pages 98-99 https://www.amazon.com/Tarim-Mummies-Ancient-Mystery-Earliest/dp/0500051011

[17] Pazyrik - The Valley of the Frozen Tombs, John F. Haskins, https://books.google.com/books?id=GLj7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&lpg=PT10&dq=hun+massagetae&source=bl&ots=rnQDIQk7T-&sig=ZJL6qONogivEakR-hMSdoOBPwTU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF64aS8I_PAhVE1RQKHQXgCusQ6AEIQjAI#v=onepage&q=hun%20massagetae&f=false

[18] THE STRONGEST TRIBE, Yu. A. Zuev, page 33: "Massagets of the earliest ancient authors... are the Yuezhis of the Chinese sources"

[19] Dahiya 1980, 23, quoted in SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 127 October, 2003, page 22-24, http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp127_getes.pdf

[20] Fabbri, Giampietro (2018-02-22). "SUPARSTHAS and SWAGWAUTAS Colonisers of the Ancient World. Part I: Origins and early migrations". JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 4 (4). doi:10.14795/j.v4i4.277. ISSN 2360-266X.

[21] Darius, Behistun Inscriptions c. 1, r. 6

[22] Avesta, Vendidad, 1

[23] Ptolemaeus, Geographia, VI, 12, 2

[24] Strabo, Geographia, XI, 8

[25] Ammianus Marcellinus: "iuxtaque Massagetae Halani et Sargetae"; "per Albanos et Massagetas, quos Alanos nunc appellamus"; "Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas".

[26] Procopius: History of the Wars. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Wars/Book_III

[27] Ecclesiastical History. Book 3. http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/evagrius_3_book3.htm

[Sulimirski_1970_113–114-28] Sulimirski, Tadeusz (1970). The Sarmatians. Vol. Volume 73 of Ancient peoples and places. New York: Praeger. pp. 113–114. The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)

[29] Indian Institute of Romani Studies Archived 2013-01-08 at archive.today

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 Some authors, such as [[Alexander Cunningham]], [[James P. Mallory]], [[Victor H. Mair]]  B.S. Dahiya and [[Edgar Knobloch]] have proposed relating the Massagetae to the [[Gutians]] of 2000 BC Mesopotamia, and/or a people known in ancient China as the "Da [[Yuezhi]]" or "Great Yuezhi" (who founded the [[Kushan Empire]] in South Asia). Mallory and Mair suggest that ''Da Yuezhi '' may at one time have been pronounced ''d'ad-ngiwat-tieg'', connecting them to the Massagetae.<ref>Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000), The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson. pages 98-99 https://www.amazon.com/Tarim-Mummies-Ancient-Mystery-Earliest/dp/0500051011</ref><ref>Pazyrik - The Valley of the Frozen Tombs,
 John F. Haskins, https://books.google.com/books?id=GLj7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&lpg=PT10&dq=hun+massagetae&source=bl&ots=rnQDIQk7T-&sig=ZJL6qONogivEakR-hMSdoOBPwTU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF64aS8I_PAhVE1RQKHQXgCusQ6AEIQjAI#v=onepage&q=hun%20massagetae&f=false</ref><ref>THE STRONGEST TRIBE, Yu. A. Zuev, page 33: "Massagets of the earliest ancient authors... are the Yuezhis of the Chinese sources"</ref>  Dahiya claimed that the Massagetae and [[Thyssagetae]] corresponded to the Da Yuezhi and Xiao Yuezhi ("Lesser Yuezhi").<ref>Dahiya 1980, 23, quoted in SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, Number 127 October, 2003, page 22-24, http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp127_getes.pdf </ref> These theories are not widely accepted, however.
+According to other authors<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fabbri|first=Giampietro|date=2018-02-22|title=SUPARSTHAS and SWAGWAUTAS Colonisers of the Ancient World. Part I: Origins and early migrations|url=http://jaha.org.ro/index.php/JAHA/article/view/277|journal=JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY|language=en|volume=4|issue=4|doi=10.14795/j.v4i4.277|issn=2360-266X}}</ref>, the name Massagetae would derive from a previous form ''Mag-Sagatae'' and in turn from the Proto-Indo-European ''*Maga-swag<sup>w</sup>au-tas'' , which would mean "breeders of large (*maga; cf. Gr. μέγας, Lat. magis, mag-nus, ma’-ior, and mag-simus, Sans. maha) herds of cows (*swag<sup>w</sup>aus'')".'' ''*Magaswag<sup>w</sup>autas'', wandering  through the large prairies of current Kazakhstan,  were distinguished from ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autas'', breeding smaller herds and living in a more limited territory which after them was called ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autàn'' or ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autana'', country of ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autas'', whence  the historical forms ''Suguda''<ref>Darius, ''Behistun Inscriptions'' c. 1, r. 6</ref>, ''Sukhda''<ref>''Avesta'', ''Vendidad'', 1</ref>, ''[[Sogdia]]'' (Gr. ''Σόγδια''<ref>Ptolemaeus, ''Geographia'', VI, 12, 2</ref> , ''Sogdiana'' (Gr. ''Σογδιανή''<ref>Strabo, ''Geographia'', XI, 8</ref>). From the abbreviated form ''*G<sup>w</sup>autas'' of ''*Magaswag<sup>w</sup>autas'' and ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autas''  the name of Gutians would derive. The name Thyssagetae would instead derive from ''*Thyr-swag<sup>w</sup>au-tas'', indicating a tribe of ''*Swag<sup>w</sup>autas'' living on the border (cfr. gr. ''θύρα'', door) with sinanthropoid populations, which it interbreed changing morphology and Language. From the alternative forms ''*Thyrswag<sup>w</sup>au-nas'' and ''*Thyrg<sup>w</sup>au-nas'' the name of Issedones (Altaic for Thyssegonas) and [[Tyrrhenians|Tyrsini]] would derive, as well as the name of [[Fergana Valley]].
 ==Culture==