Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Hi, Michael

That's a very informative post! I can't review all the connections you mentioned, but a few hit the nail and some are "reachers." I can't agree with Lozinski's interpretation that the Yuezhi were Massagetae, the latter being swamp-dwellers and fishermen while the Yuezhi preferred high ground. I will stick with the geographic positioning of this confederation in the Altai and to the southwest down to the bend of the Yellow River and Gansu. Taishan Yu connects their name to Indo-Iranian, if we identify them by using arima (lover) and aspa (horse) = "horse-lovers." Of course, that wasn't their ethnonym, but an informal name applied to them by the Issedones.

Thanks for bringing up the subject of widows marrying a brother or cousin of the deceased. Eastern Iranian tribes appear to be matrilineal, so tribal "power" remained within the family. This appears how outsiders also rose to power-prestige. One of Pazyryk's high nobles (a king?) had Mongoloid features (an "outsider") yet his wife was Caucasian (member of the longstanding "royal" family); in other words, she held the "tribal reins"... sort of speaking.

My stance on the Altai as the Yuezhi "homeland" is based on the specific horses and cultural paraphernalia found in the kurgans. To me, they just "reek" of Yuezhi-Wusun. A number of historians-- Professor Yu and Barry Cunliff among them-- place the Issedones to the southwest. Yu says this, "The Issedones tribe, who originally lived in the Ili and Chu river valleys, migrated to the west, driving the Massagetae to Sogdiana along the southern bank of the Syr Darya. The migration happened between 529 and 521 BC... This shows that the Massagetae had already settled in Sogdiana as early as 521 BC when Darius I came to the throne." (CIAA Newsletter, Issue #16, Dec. 2002)

Where did Yu get that from? What kind of proof could he, or Professor Cunliff, or anybody, have that would place the Issedones in the Ili Valley in 529 BC? This is speculation beyond "possibilities." Anyone who can walk a straight line can follow the Northern Steppe Trade Route from the Bosphorus straight to the Altai on a course of 40 to 50-degrees Latitude. Fifty years ago, Karl Jettmar hit fairly close, writing about the Yuezhi and Wusun, "Their appearance in the borderlands of western China may have [resulted from] repercussions in their native areas, which may be traced in the civilizations of the Sakian north of the Tian-shan and the Altai at Pazyryk V." (Jettmar, Art of the Steppes, 1966, p. 187). Altai findings are the closest match to known Yuezhi artifacts, as is the Chinese Altay Prefecture... directly above the Tian-shan and Takla Makan... right were Jettmar presumed they might have been.

I'm inclined to believe the Yuezhi (and their spin-off culture of the Wusun) were the easternmost extension and inheritors of the Andronovo culture. There is a connectivity from the Karasuk and Tagar cultures, but our closest match is found in the Arzhan and Pazyryk-Ukok kurgans of the Altai. I'll end this post with some illustrations.

     
Arzhan II kurgan, Tuvan Republic, c. 659-622 BC, mortise and tenon chamber construction, occupants-- The "'Tzar" and his wife. The kurgan's diameter was 120 meters. A small herd of horses and two dozen attendants were buried with the king and queen... at the approximate time Aristeas visited the Issedones. (edit, 3/9/16: Aristeas made no contact with Arzhan, but ended his eastward trek near Lake Zayan at the southwestern corner of the Altai.)

   
The "Tzar" as reconstructed using remaining artifacts and clothing. He bow is "Scythian," as were all bows during the 7th century BC.

   
The "Tzarina" with her akinakes hanging from her right hip. Both she and her husband wear short capes, evidently presaging those worn by the Alans.

   
Arshan II kurgan was built from 6,000 larch timbers covered by successive layers of stone, plus a megalithic stone enclosure around its circumference. This is a "bird's-eye" view of the construction's skeleton.

The "Tzar" and "Tzarina" of Arshan are the cultural candidates for Issedone leadership during the 7th century BC. Most likely they dealt in gold and horses; and they were far richer than Wushi Luo, wheeling-dealing minister of the Qin Court.

More to come... as we discover the precise location of the Yuezhi royal tombs.