According to Donald N. Wilber's book Persepolis, The Archaeology of Parsa, Seat of the Persian Kings, the group depicted in this panel is "the Saka tigrakhauda (Pointed-hat Scythians). All are armed and wear the appropriate headgear.
Sakez (Persian: ساکز: Sakez) also known as Sekez, Sekakez and Scyth (Eskit) was a sizable urban settlement and historical ancient city in the first millennium BC in Iran.[1] It was the political and military capital of Scythians in western Iran and one of the few ancient cities that has been the residence of people and the center of civilization and it still is. Archaeologists believe that the present-day city of Saqqez in Kurdistan is the remnant of the city of Sakez, which takes its name from the Scythians and, with a slight change in pronunciation, is still called by the same name.[2]
History
Scythians, also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae, member of a nomadic people, originally of Iranian stock,[3] known from as early as the 9th century BC who migrated westward from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. They were living primarily in the region known as Scythia. Assyrian [4] inscriptions from 700 to 750 BC mention the Scythians. Due to migration, these people settled in large parts of the Central Asian plateau, east and west of the Caspian Sea and the Iranian plateau and were divided into different sects and groups.[5] They were ethnic warriors and attacked the borders of the Medes and other regional governments. Among the earliest peoples to master mounted warfare, the Scythians replaced the Cimmerians as the dominant power on the Pontic steppe in the 8th century BC. The Scythians have migrated to Iran many times. In one of them he invaded the Medes and They ruled it for 27 years, and after taking over the kingdom from the Medes, they helped him to destroy the kingdom of Assyria.[6] In Iran plateau and at the time of Medes emperor, when they ruled the western and Northwestern parts of Iran, they went to war with the Scythians several times. Cyaxares,[7][8] the greatest king of Medes, first defeated the Scythians, who had conquered Media after the death of his father Phraortes. But in the first ten years of his reign, he succeeded in turning his relationship with the Scythian king, Protothis, into an alliance, and in practice the Scythians became part of the Medes. In the time of Cyaxares, after the subjugation of the Scythians in Media, a group of Scythians migrated to the west of the land of Media and this land was called Sakez or Sakzi.[9] Also, during the Parthian dynasty, Arskanian, the Daheh dynasty of Scythians ruled Iran for nearly five hundred years. In ancient times, they migrated to the south of present-day Afghanistan and Iran, and in the Zaranj or Darangianeh region, they were replaced to some extent equal to Helmand province in present-day Afghanistan, Zabul and Kerman, and their territory was from Herat to Zaranj (Zarang) and part of It encompassed Iran and Afghanistan, and that land was called Sakistan (modern-day Sistan).[10][11][12][13]
Excavations and research
Many historical monuments, fragments and antiques and castle hills of Saqqez region have been discovered and recorded. From the relics of the Scythian era, like other civilizations, metal or pottery pieces have been found in the hills of ancient castles. Scythian art, also called Steppe art, decorated objects, mainly arms, jewelry, and trappings for horses, tents, and wagons.[14] One of the most important artifacts discovered is the Ziwiyeh Castle and the great Ziwiye hoard, which was discovered in the 1940s. In addition to Scythian artifacts, artifacts related to Mannaeans and Medes were also discovered, and archaeologists, such as Roman Ghirshman, concluded that the great site of Saqqez was the Capital of many of these civilizations. He writes: [15][16]
«During the occupation of Iran, the Scythians made Saqqez their capital in the region of Kurdistan, which is now, with a history of 3,000 years, one of the oldest cities in the world. As traces of them have been found in the area and it is said that the word "Saqqez" is a derivative of the name "Saka" which is the Persian name of Scythian.»
Gallery
A collection of Scythian antiquities in Iran:
Gold necklaces in Zewiye hoard
A golden plaque
A golden plaque
Xerxes detail Scythian soldier of the Achaemenid army
Ivantchik 2018: "Scythians, a nomadic people of Iranian origin [...]"
Harmatta 1996, p. 181: "[B]oth Cimmerians and Scythians were Iranian peoples."
Sulimirski 1985, pp. 149–153: "During the first half of the first millennium B.C., c. 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, the southern part of Eastern Europe was occupied mainly by peoples of Iranian stock [...] [T]he population of ancient Scythia was far from being homogeneous, nor were the Scyths themselves a homogeneous people. The country called after them was ruled by their principal tribe, the "Royal Scyths" (Her. iv. 20), who were of Iranian stock and called themselves "Skolotoi" [...]"
West 2002, pp. 437–440: "[T]rue Scyths seems to be those whom [Herodotus] calls Royal Scyths, that is, the group who claimed hegemony [...] apparently warrior-pastoralists. It is generally agreed, from what we know of their names, that these were people of Iranian stock [...]"
Rolle 1989, p. 56: "The physical characteristics of the Scythians correspond to their cultural affiliation: their origins place them within the group of Iranian peoples."
Rostovtzeff 1922, p. 13: "The Scythian kingdom [...] was succeeded in the Russian steppes by an ascendancy of various Sarmatian tribes — Iranians, like the Scythians themselves."
Minns 1913, p. 36: "The general view is that both agricultural and nomad Scythians were Iranian."
^Carl Skutsch (2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-135-19388-1.
^Khob Shamhiri, Mojtaba (2008). Political and social situation of northwestern Iran in the seventh century BC (Manichaeans, Uratus, Assyrians, Medes and Scythians). Tehran: Penvis.
^Akbarzadeh, D.; A. Yahyanezhad (2006). The Behistun Inscriptions (Old Persian Texts) (in Persian). Khaneye-Farhikhtagan-e Honarhaye Sonati. p. 87. ISBN 964-8499-05-5.
^Kent, Ronald Grubb (1953). Old Persian: Grammar, Text, Glossary. pp. 177.
^Boardman, John; I. E. S. Edwards; E. Sollberger (1992). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521227179.
^Cernenko, E. V. (2014). The Scythians 700-300 BC. London: Osprey Pub. ISBN 978-1-78096-773-8. OCLC 869302378.
^Herodotus (2014). History of Herodotus: Medes and Achaemenids until the end of Cyrus the Great. Tehran: Parseh Book Translation and Publishing Company. ISBN 9786002530257.
^Talbot Rice, Tamara (1991). Scythians. Tehran: Penvis. ISBN 9789646414891.
^Chernko, E. And. (2013). Scythians (700 to 300 BC). Tehran: Penvis. ISBN 978-9648101553.
^"The city of flowers is an honor for leaving Kurdistan". ISNA agency. 27 March 2014.
^Farooghi, Omar (1990). "A look at the history and culture of Saqez Kurdistan". Mohammadi Publication.
Works cited
Harmatta, János (1996). "10.4.1. The Scythians". In Hermann, Joachim; Zürcher, Erik; Harmatta, János; Litvak, J. K.; Lonis, R. [in French]; Obenga, T.; Thapar, R.; Zhou, Yiliang (eds.). From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Seventh Century A.D. History of Humanity. Vol. 3. London, United Kingdom; New York City, United States; Paris, France: Routledge; UNESCO. ISBN 978-9-231-02812-0.
Ivantchik, Askold (2018). "Scythians". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York City, United States: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
Minns, Ellis Hovell (1913). Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02487-7.
Rolle, Renate [in German] (1989). The World of the Scythians. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06864-5.
Rostovtzeff, Michael (1922). Iranians & Greeks In South Russia. Clarendon Press.
Gold necklaces in Zewiye hoard
A golden plaque
A golden plaque
Xerxes detail Scythian soldier of the Achaemenid army
