Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part i | civilisations
The migration of Iranian tribes
The question of when Iranian-speaking tribes appeared in Central Asia is a matter
of debate. Some scholars believe this to have taken place during the second half of
the 2nd millennium BC when tribes of the Bronze Age Andronovo culture, whose
ethnicity has been defined as Iranian, also arrived here (traces of these peoples have
even been found in sites in northern Afghanistan). Another assumption is that the
Andronovo tribes were Turkic-speaking.
However, these views, although interesting, remain unproven, as there is no
evidence relating to the language spoken by the Andronovo tribes. It would be just
as reasonable to suggest that they spoke a Finno-Ugric language, or some other
unknown and dead language that was absorbed by the languages of other ethnic
groups in the process of assimilation.
A much more likely hypothesis is that Yaz I Culture is of Iranian origin. This
culture dates back to the 9th–early 7th centuries BC and was dispersed across almost
all of southern Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea to the Pamirs, including northern
Afghanistan.
Objects of material culture found at Yaz I sites are significantly different from
those associated with the Late Bronze Age Namazga VI and Dashly-Sapalli cultures.
If we follow the logic of historical science, this would suggest either a distortion
and regeneration of the preceding culture in the process of culturogenesis/cultural
genesis or a change in ethnosphere. The latter seems more likely, since, according
to textual sources, the areas where Yaz culture had been widespread were somewhat
later settled by East Iranian tribes.
According to information in the Avesta and the accounts of ancient Greek
authors (Herodotus, Ctesias of Cnidus, Pseudo Scylax and others), as well as in
the inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, many regions had emerged in Central Asia
between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, i.e. Bactria, Parthia, Margiana, Sogdia and
Khorezm, and were inhabited by Bactrians, Parthians, Sogdians and Khorezmians
respectively.
Texts found in these regions dating back to the last centuries BC and first
centuries AD (further details are listed below) provide conclusive evidence that
the language of these peoples belonged mainly to the East Iranian language group
as opposed to the Parthian language, which is considered a West Iranian language.
The Ch’ien Han Shu – The History of the Former Han Dynasty – describes events
that took place up to AD 25. According to this account the languages spoken from
Dayuan (Ferghana) to Anxi (Parthia) were very similar and mutually intelligible,
although there were many differences between dialects. There are useful parallels
between the information given in the Ch’ien Han Shu, about the commonality of
32