Iranian-speaking nomads — Saka

Sakas

The ancient herders who inhabited Central Asia left no historical writings. The ancient Greeks wrote more about the Central Asian herders than anyone else. However, few of the ancient Greek authors actually visited such remote areas, so their information is not only sparse and fragmented but also contradictory and vague. Generations of scholars have analyzed this information, yet there remains no consensus on many questions regarding the history of the ancient herders of the Eurasian steppes.

There is no doubt that Central Asia was inhabited from the 8th century BC by a numerous people known as Scythians, or, equivalently, Sakas. They were divided into several tribes (or, more accurately, tribal unions). The most well-known among them were the Massagetae, Dai, Issedones, and Arimaspians. In the 8th century BC, the steppe "came to life," with the Arimaspians pushing the Issedones, who in turn displaced the Massagetae, and the Massagetae, in turn, pushed the Scythians, and the Scythians pushed the Cimmerians.

The latter, in a desperate attempt to escape, swept everything in their path and, in the 20s of the 8th century BC, invaded the states of the Near East and Asia Minor. Here, the ancient Greeks first encountered the nomadic conquerors. The great Homer mentioned them several times in his "Iliad" under the name "the horse-breeders." About 50 years later, following the Cimmerians, the Scythians also rushed there. They defeated the descendants of the fugitives, establishing nearly 100 years of Scythian hegemony in the Near and Asia Minor. Subsequently, the Scythians were defeated but did not return to Central Asia. They passed through the Caucasus Mountains, first occupying the interfluve of the Kuban and Don rivers, and then conquering all of the Northern Black Sea region.

It was these Scythians who, in the 6th century BC, brought their unique culture, formed in Central Asia and already with a noticeable Near Eastern influence, to the southern Russian steppes.

And what about the remaining Scythian tribes in Central Asia, which, unlike their Black Sea counterparts, were referred to as Sakas? Let us recall the "father of history," Herodotus: "Sakas... they are Scythians..., Persians call all Scythians Sakas."

It is difficult to determine exactly what territory the ancient authors meant by the "land of the Sakas." However, it is likely that in their view, it encompassed the mountain ranges of Pamir-Alai, Tian Shan, Fergana, and the Tashkent oasis.

So, some part of the Sakas, having occupied the mountains and oases of Central Asia after migration, began to lead a settled lifestyle, while others continued to roam. The Sakas long stubbornly and successfully resisted the onslaught of the Persian kings from the Achaemenid dynasty, whose expansion reached as far as the Syr Darya. They did not allow the Persians to advance further. Beyond the Syr Darya, in the foothills and mountain valleys of Tian Shan, including the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, lived the Sakas, who in the 5th-4th centuries BC were called "river Sakas" or "Sakas beyond Sogdiana." The river became an insurmountable frontier for conquerors, even those considered invincible, such as Alexander the Great. In the eyes of the scholarly world of Ancient Greece, the river was also a geographical boundary. There existed a persistent erroneous tradition in ancient literature, whereby the Syr Darya was identified with the Don River (Tanais). According to the geographical understanding of that time, the Don River (and thus the Syr Darya) was viewed as a boundary separating two continents—Europe and Asia. Thus, the Sakas inhabiting the territory north of the Syr Darya and actually residing in the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan were considered "European." This geographical paradox should be kept in mind when reading the works of ancient authors. The Sakas themselves referred to the Syr Darya as Silis, and the Tian Shan mountains, from which it originates, as Kroukasis, meaning "white from snow." The Greeks called the Syr Darya Jaxartes or Tanais, and the mountains that gave rise to it—Parnassus.

What specific tribes of the Sak ethnic community are hidden under the general name "Sakas beyond Sogdiana" or "river Sakas"? Who occupied the steppes and mountains north of the border Silis—Jaxartes?

Archaeological research in the valleys of the Ili, Talas, Chu, Issyk-Kul rivers, in Central Tian Shan, in Ketmen-Tube and Fergana revealed a distinctive, vividly expressed Sak culture. Accidental finds and excavations of burial mounds in Eastern Turkestan have led to the conclusion that in the west, north, and central parts of this region, that is, in areas adjacent to Tian Shan and Pamir-Alai, from the 8th-7th centuries BC and almost until the turn of the new era, Iranian-speaking nomadic herders—the Sakas—were an organic component of the extensive Central Asian grouping of Sak tribes.

Here, beyond the Syr Darya, those formidable forces of herders matured, which in the 2nd century BC overthrew the once-powerful Greco-Bactria—the most eastern fragment of Alexander the Great's world empire. The ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo wrote: "Among these nomads, especially those who took Bactria from the Greeks became well-known, namely the Assians, Pasians, Tocharians, and Sakarauli, who migrated from the area on the other side of the Jaxartes, near the territory of the Sakas and Sogdian occupied by the Sakas."

Much more detailed information about some tribes of nomads, particularly the Assians and Tocharians, is provided by ancient Chinese historical chronicles, where they are referred to as Usuns and Yuezhi. The treasures of invaluable and diverse information about the ancient peoples of Central Asia contained in ancient Chinese historical writings were revealed to the world by the Russian scholar Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin.

Secrets of Issyk-Kul Lake