Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Thanks for the link, Renatus

The Khalchayan palace and frieze is supposedly dated between 50 BC and AD 50, which falls in the early Kushan era before the Yuechi "went Greek." Good thing, since the frieze illustrates a hold-over of the "barbarian element" we're looking for. The Yuezhi head illustration posted earlier is actually that of a catphract, and here we have a reconstruction showing more the cataphract (first figure in the background).
   

Another reconstruction shows the Khalchayan archer:
   

And here is another Yuezhi head from the same frieze:
   

At some point, perhaps within this time period, either two factions of Yuezhi fought against each other, or the participants were Yuezhi and Wusun. This brings us to the Orlat belt buckle, extant as two ivory plates once attached by leather ties. The Orlat belt plaques give us a complete picture, one plate having a battle scene, the other showing a hunting scene. I'll save it for a new post on that subject alone, rather than extending this one. Thanks to everyone for making this an interesting thread.