TO BE AN ARYAN, OR NOT TO BE, CONTINUED...

 

To the south of the steppe-based Yamna Culture, the indigenous Maykop Culture (north Caucasus) and Catacomb Culture (the northeastern Black Sea littoral) both gave way to the Srubna Culture (2200-900 BCE)—in this case, we know that the Maykop and Catacomb cultures assimilated many features of the Yamna Culture, but the Srubna Culture also maintained some continuity with Maykop-Catacomb practices (e.g., the peoples of the Srubna Culture were agro-pastoralists, not nomads). The Hittites are believed to have been a sub-group of the Srubna Culture that migrated across the Caucasus Mountains (or around the western end of the Black Sea) and into Anatolia (ca. 2000-1600 BCE), where they founded the Hittite Empire (1600-1178 BCE). Those elements of the Srubna Culture that remained north of the Caucasus/Black Sea are believed to have evolved into the Kimmerian/Cimmerian civilization (ca. 900-619 BCE). To the southwest of the Yamna Culture, there were a series of indigenous Neolithic cultures (often called the Danubian, Linear Pottery, Stroked Pottery, and/or Rössen cultures) strung along the Danube River (a.k.a., the Istros or Danuvius), from its delta on the western Black Sea coast through the northern Balkans and into southern Germany. Between about 3000 and 2000 BCE, there was a migration (or series of migrations) of Aryan peoples along the Danube corridor, who settled among the indigenous groups, and this gave rise to a series of Aryanized cultures in central and western Europe (e.g., the Hinkelstein, Lengyel, and Boian-Maritza cultures). These cultures in turn interacted with neighboring Neolithic peoples throughout central and western Europe to give rise to a series of historically reconized groups (ca. 2000-1000 BCE). A group known as the Dorians moved from the region of the lower Danube into the southern Balkans, where they toppled the Mycenaean Civilization (ca. 1100 BCE) and contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Greeks. Other groups originating in the vicinity of modern Hungary made a series of migrations into the western Balkans, where they played a role in the ethnogenesis of the Illyrian peoples, and into Italy, where they played a role in the ethnogenesis of the Italic peoples. Still more groups spread out into Germany, Poland, and France, playing a role in the ethnogenesis of the Celtic peoples, and some of these groups continued on into northern Germany, Denmark, southern Sweden, and the Baltic Islands, ultimately playing a role in the ethnogenesis of the Germanic peoples. The Celts later moved into the British Isles, northern Italy, and northern Spain, while the Germanic peoples spread throughout Scandinavia and south along the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the north and northwest of the Yamna Culture, the Narva Culture of the Baltics, Belarus, eastern Poland, and parts of northern Russia gave way to the Battle Axe Culture (ca. 3300-2500 BCE), the ancestral culture of the Balto-Slavic peoples. Together, the early Aryanized Danubian, proto-Celtic, proto-Germanic, and proto-Balto-Slavic peoples are sometimes lumped together as the Corded Ware Culture (ca. 3000-2000 BCE), but the cultural horizon of the Corded Ware Culture is extremely broad, and does not include some groups that we are fairly certain were Aryanized or Aryan-influenced (e.g., the Dorians/Greeks, Illyrians, and Italics), and so at best it could be said only to represent a transitory phase in the development of the Aryanized European cultures. Modern genetic studies have shown that there must have been a significant migration of Yamnaya/Aryan peoples into central and western Europe at this time—75% of excavated skeletons in Germany from this period have DNA markers that match those from the Yamna Culture, and the numbers are 40-54% in Poland, Denmark, southern Sweden, northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and 20-32% in the Balkans and Italy). This could be seen as a rough representation of the migration pattern—an apparently large group may have moved along the Danube into southern Germany, shedding various sub-groups along the way, then expanded throughout much of Germany. This was followed by smaller-scale migrations of sub-groups into adjacent areas (Poland, Scandinavia, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Although the Battle Axe Culture of the Baltics, eastern Poland, and northern Russia is sometimes included in the Corded Ware Cultural horizon, its early development and close proximity to the Yamnaya/Aryan homeland has led many scholars to see it as a separate cultural horizon (although still Aryanized). The Yamna Culture and/or Yamnaya/Aryan cultural influence did not only expand to encompass much of Europe. Indeed, the expansion into central, western, and southern Europe arguably led to the ultimate absorption of the Aryans there by indigenous peoples—although the proto-Indo-European language was highly influential, and there were a number of other cultural elements contributed by the Aryans to the ethnogesis of various peoples in central, southern, and western Europe, none of these cultures developed into nomad societies, and their composition ultimately proved to be very different from those that continued to evolve on the steppes of eastern Europe, central Asia, southern Siberia, and northern Asia. This was of course due to the limitations imposed by the topography of the areas of Europe into which the Aryans interposed themselves, and the indigenous Neolithic groups that had evolved to best take advantage of the resources of these environments also played a role in the ethnogenesis of the Bronze Age cultures of Europe.

 

There was a very early migration of Aryan peoples across the Baraba Steppe/southern Siberia (ca. 3000-3300 BCE) into the Minusinsk Hollow, a plain in a geologic depression to the northwest of modern Mongolia (to the west of the Sayan Mountains). Here they established the Afanasevo Culture (ca. 3300-2500 BCE), but this first outpost of Aryan culture in Asia was displaced by a southward migration of Paleo-Siberian forest dwellers, who formed the Okunev Culture (2500-1500 BCE) in the Minusinsk Hollow, while the Afanasevo Aryans were forced to migrate southwards into what is today western China (ca. 2500-600 BCE). The first historically recognized group to emerge from the Afanasevo Culture was the Yuezhi (600 BCE-525 CE). The Yuezhi initially settled in Zungharia (northern modern Xinjiang), although there was a sub-group that broke off from the Yuezhi and settled in Dunhuang (modern northwestern Gansu) who became known as the Wusun (200 BCE-436 CE). The Afanasevo Culture seems to have influenced the development of the proto-Tibetan Tokharian Culture (2000-177 BCE) in the Tarim Basin (southern modern Xinjiang) and the proto-Mongolic Slab Grave Culture (ca. 1300-300 BCE) in modern Mongolia—unlike the Aryan migrations in Europe, these influences do not seem to have been accompanied by any kind of invasion or occupation (other than in Zungharia and Dunhuang), but were achieved through cultural transmission (the domestication of the horse would prove particularly revolutionary to the Slab Grave peoples, ancestors of the Mongolic peoples). The Tokharians were once believed to be synonymous with the Yuezhi, but modern genetic and linguistic studies indicate that they were an indigenous Neolithic culture related to those that arose in Tibet (directly to the south of the Tarim Basin), and that they did not begin to show signs of Aryan influence until the Yuezhi moved into western China (ca. 600-177 BCE). There is currently no evidence indicating that the Aryans settled in significant numbers on the Kazakh Steppe until the dawn of the Sintashta Culture (2100-1800 BCE), which then expanded across Kazakhstan, resulting in the development of the Andronovo Culture (2000-900 BCE). The Sintashta Culture is the most direct descendant of the Yamna Culture, encompassing much the same area across the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, although by that time the Yamnayas/Aryans had expanded into the West Kazakhstan, Atyrau, and Aktobe regions of what is today Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, not much definitive work has been done on Neolithic Kazakhstan—it is fairly certain that there were indigenous Neolithic groups encountered by the Aryans as they spread throughout Kazakhstan, but as far as I know there is really only one group (the Botai Culture of northern Kazakhstan/southern Siberia) that has received significant attention. Nevertheless, the population density of these Neolithic groups would have been even more sparse than in Neolithic Europe, and the Aryans seem to have pretty quickly emerged as the most populous group. The open steppes of Kazakhstan would also have been more well-suited to Yamnaya/Sintashtaya horse-based nomadism than central, southern, and western Europe, and the historical cultures that emerged from the Andronovo Culture were initially all ones in which the domesticated horse played a major role, particularly in warfare.

 

To the south of the Andronovo Culture, in what is today northern Afghanistan (Bactria), eastern Turkmenistan (Chorasmia), Uzbekistan (Transoxania), western Tajikistan (Sogdia), and western Kyrgyzstan (Ferghana) there were a number of Neolithic peoples who are generally treated collectively as part of the Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex (BMAC)(ca. 2300-1500 BCE). From about 1500 BCE, a series of Aryan invasions from the Andronovo Culture moved through and into the BMAC. The Yaz Culture (ca. 1500-1000 BCE) is the name of the resulting Aryanized culture of the BMAC. The Avesta, a collection of religious texts that would form the basis of Persian Zoroastrianism, are believed to be based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, who lived and preached in the BMAC/Yaz region—probably some time between 1500 and 1000 BCE, although some historians suggest much later dates (between 650 and 500 BCE)—and it is largely due to this that many later Persian authors identify Aeryanem Vaejah with the BMAC. As we have seen, however, the Yamna Culture is the most likely candidate for the location of the legendary Aryan homeland, but the Yaz Culture might be considered the place where Persian culture first took shape. There were two waves of Andronovo Aryans that passed through the BMAC on their way to settlement in other regions—the first wave (ca. 1500 BCE) consisted of those who would become known as the Indo-Aryans, and the second wave (ca. 1000 BCE) consisted of those who would become known as the Iranian peoples. The first group seems to have migrated through the BMAC and southern Afghanistan into Pakistan and northern India, where they likely toppled the Indus Valley Civilization (a.k.a., the Harappan Culture) and conquered and assimilated the native Dravidian peoples. This group established the Vedic Civilization (1500-600 BCE), which spanned Pakistan and northern India. It is believed that the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic first written down during the Early Classical Indian Period (600-30 BCE), was based on oral histories and legends that preserved, in mythologized form, stories gleaned from this epic migration and settlement. The second wave that migrated through the BMAC passed onto the Iranian Plateau, where they overthrew the indigenous Elamite Empire. Two main historical groups emerged from this wave of migration—the Medes in northern and eastern Iran (Khorazmia/Chorasmia and Khorasan/Chorasan) and southern Afghanistan (Haraxaiti/Arachosia), and the Persians in southern Iran (the Central Plateau and the Khuzestan Plain). The Medes were the first of these peoples to establish an historically attested state—the Median Empire (678-549 BCE)—and after its eclipse by the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BCE), several Iranian groups emerged that were descended from the Medes and the Aryanized Yaz Culture—the Parthians in northern Iran (modern Semnan and northwestern Khurasan) and Turkmenistan, the Sagartians to the south of the Parthians (modern Isfahan and western Khurasan), the Sarangians/Drangians to the east of the Sagartians (Drangiana, modern southern Khurasan), the Baloch/Baluch in southeastern Iran (Gedrosia, modern Sistan) and southwestern Pakistan (Baluchistan), and the Arachosians/Paktyans (ancestors of the Pashtuns) in southern Afghanistan (i.e., Arachosia). The Median Empire also encompassed the territories of the Yaz Culture, and even after the fall of the Medes this region had a strong Median element. These Medio-Aryan groups included the Chorasmians/Khwarezmians, who inhabited an oasis region to the south of the Aral Sea, in the area around the Oxus River delta (ca. 1000-530 BCE), the Dahae (ca. 900 BCE-450 CE) who inhabited the steppes between the Aral and Caspian seas (roughly modern Turkmenistan), the Bactrians who inhabited northern Afghanistan (ca. 1000-135 BCE), and the Sogdians who inhabited Transoxania and Ferghana (ca. 1000 BCE-710 CE).

 

In the north, on the Kazakh Steppe, the Andronovo cultural horizon eventually gave way to the Karasuk Culture (ca. 1500-800 BCE) in eastern Kazakhstan (roughly from the Tengiz Lake and the Aral Sea in the west to the Yenisei River, Altai Mountains, and Tian Shan Mountains in the east). Four historical groups emerged from the Karasuk Culture—the Saka (800 BCE-130 CE), the Issedones (900-750 BCE), the Massagetae (900-200 BCE), and the Tashtyks (900 BCE-400 CE). The Tashtyks were the most northerly group, migrating into the Yenisei River region of southern Siberia (ca. 900-100 BCE), where they resided until the coming of the Turks. The Sakas inhabited the Zhetysu ("Seven-rivers") region in southeastern Kazakhstan, between Lake Balkhash in the west and the Tian Shan Mountains in the east. The Massagetae (a.k.a., the Saka Haumavarga) lived to the west of the Sakas, between the Aral Sea in the west and Lake Balkhash in the east. The Issedones lived on the steppes to the north of the Massagetae and northwest of the Sakas (modern Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan). In western Kazakhstan, the Andronovo Culture persisted until the dawn of the historical era, and two historical groups arose there—the Thyssagetae (900-750 BCE) and the Skythians (ca. 900-100 BCE). The Thyssagetae inhabited the Baraba Steppe east of the Ural Mountains. Finally, arguably the largest and most powerful group to emerge from the Andronovo Culture was the Skythians/Scythians, who initially seem to have inhabited a large swathe of steppe from the Dniester River in the west to the Tengiz Lake in the east (on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, this would have placed them in-between the Kimmerians to the south along the northern Caucasus and Black Sea littoral and the proto-Ugrian tribes in the boreal forests to the north). However, by about 750 BCE the Skythians expanded to the south and conquered the Kimmerians. Some groups of Kimmerians fled this conquest, via the Caucasus Mountains, and ravaged the kingdoms of Mesopotamia and Anatolia before they were destroyed by the Lydian Kingdom in western Anatolia. In the east, we are less sure. The Issedones and Thyssagetae both seem to disappear from the historical record by the mid-eighth century BCE, about the same time as the Skythian conquest of the Kimmerians, and it certainly seems plausible that they too fell to Skythian conquest. However, ancient Persian, Sanskrit, and Chinese historians never refer to the Skythians, and always refer to the Saka (in Chinese, Sai) as the primary Aryan nomad group on the Kazakh Steppe. Due to the physical description given for the Sakas by these writers, which describes people with Europoid features (like all the Aryan groups), and the similarity of their archeological, cultural, and linguistic footprint to that of the Skythians, historians have long theorized that "Saka" was just a different name for the same people described as "Skythians" in Europe. I'm not totally on board with this. While the Skythians and the Saka were closely related, both ultimately deriving from the Andronovo Culture, there is evidence that the tribes in eastern Kazakhstan had evolved a slightly different material culture (the Karasuk), no doubt due to the fact that they were in contact with non-Aryan peoples very different from those encountered by their western kin (e.g., the Samoyed forest dwellers, the proto-Mongolic peoples, and the proto-Tibetan peoples). As far as the possibility that the Skythians may have expanded throughout the Kazakh Steppe, there really isn't great evidence for this. The primary sources never specifically mention any kind of socio-political Skythian dominance over the Saka, Massagetae, Tashtyks, or Dahae, and those sources that suggest Skythian dominion extended beyond the Volga do not specify how far beyond the Volga. As such, I think it is prudent to treat the Saka, Tashtyks, Massagetae, and Dahae as distinct socio-political groups that inhabited the steppes around the fringes of Kazakhstan (and Turkmenistan, in the case of the Dahae), while the Skythians continued to dominate the central and northwestern steppes of Kazakhstan, as well as the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. To reiterate, the only groups I think we can be fairly certain to have fallen under Skythian dominion were the Issidones, Thyssagetae, and Kimmerians.

 

As it turned out, when the Yuezhi were driven from western China by the Xiongnu (an early Mongolic people), they fled west through the Tarim Basin and the Zhetysu Region (ca. 200-30 BCE). Some Sakas seem to have joined the Yuezhi, while others fled before them south into Afghanistan, where they destabilized the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (a Hellenized state established in Afghanistan soon after the eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great). The Sakas were eventually driven from Afghanistan, however, and then migrated into Pakistan and western India, where they established a number of petty states—the Indo-Saka Kingdoms (ca. 200 BCE-400 CE). The Massagetae also seem to have been displaced by the migration of the Yuezhi, some groups joining the Yuezhi or the Saka, but others possibly migrating to the northwest, where they settled in the lands between the Volga and Ural rivers (ca. 200 BCE-100 CE). Here, they became known as the Alans (100-600 CE). The name, "Alans," is derived from "Aryans," although why the tribal federation would have changed its name along with its geographical home is unknown. Later, some Alans migrated into western Europe with the Huns, while others retreated into the northeastern Caucasus, where their descendants remain to this day (the Ossetians). The Yuezhi eventually also migrated into Afghanistan, conquered the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and then created an empire (the Kushan Empire) that included the Tarim Basin, Ferghana, Transoxania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and most of northern India (30-225 CE). This empire was eventually toppled by the Xionite Huns. The Dahae remained on the steppes between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea until they too were conquered by the Xionites (ca. 450 CE). The Skythians were ultimately overthrown by a sub-group known as the Sarmatians (600 BCE-500 CE), who originated in the region of the Samara Bend. They may have been related to the Alans, although they spoke a language closer to Skythian than to Alan, so their origin is a bit of a mystery. The Sarmatians gradually displaced (or absorbed) the Skythians (ca. 300-200 BCE), and then dominated the Pontic-Caspian Steppe until driven westward by the Huns (ca. 375-500 CE). Those groups of steppe-based Aryans that remained on the Kazakh Steppe seem to have played a role in the ethnogenesis of the Huns and the early Turkic peoples—indeed, the various Hunnic groups (Xionites, Hephthalites, Black Huns) are now believed to have been heterogenous polyethnic groups composed of Aryan, Samoyed, Ugrian, and Mongolic sub-groups.  

 

As I think should be quite apparent from this discussion, the idea of an Aryan Race as a distinct human taxa is completely unfounded, and certainly the idea that there could be any "pure" descendants of the Aryans is even less probable. Indeed, the Aryans themselves were the product of assimilation between several Neolithic groups, and the idea of purity in human descent requires one to ignore the evidence. The idea that the Germanic or Nordic peoples have any claim on a direct line of descent from the Aryans is simply absurd. If anything, amongst the European peoples, the Central European Celts would have been able to lay claim to this title, but even here the DNA evidence makes it clear that Celtic culture was developed by a mix of indigeous Neolithic peoples and Yamnaya/Aryan migrants. The ancient homeland of the Yamnaya/Aryans, on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, has seen several major waves of invasion/migration, and the ethnic composition of this region today—even among peoples like the Ossetians—is a typically modern aggregate. Nevertheless, there is an identifiable group—or series of groups—that I think can and should be identified as "Aryan" through a synthesis of modern genetic, linguistic, archeological, and historical techniques. Many of these peoples self-identified as Aryans, and to eschew this term denies them their historical identity. After all, Mussolini saw his fascist empire as "the New Roman Empire," but we do not feel the need to change the name of the historical Roman Empire to something we perceive as less offensive to our modern sensibilities. Other examples abound. I realize that I am probably tilting at windmills with this argument, and I myself have grown accustomed to using terms like "Indo-European languages,"  "Indo-Iranian languages," or "Iranian steppe nomads," but for the reasons I've stated I would like to revive the use of the term "Aryans" in its proper historical context (if nowhere else, at least on this website). Therefore, on this website, I prefer to use the term "Western Aryan Nomads" when referring to Aryan groups that inhabited the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, as well as the northwestern and central Kazakh Steppe (including the Issedones, Thyssagetae, Skythians, Sarmatians, and Alans); the term "Northern Aryan Nomads" when referring to the Aryan groups that inhabited the southern and southeastern Kazakh Steppe, as well as Turkmenistan (including the Sakas, Dahae, and Massagetae); the term "Eastern Aryan Nomads" when speaking of those Aryan groups that settled in western China (the Yuezhi and the Wusun); I use the term "Iranians" when speaking of the groups that emerged from the BMAC/Yaz culture and cam to dominate the Iranian Plateau and adjacent areas (including the Medes, Chorasmians, Bactrians, Sogdians, Persians, Parthians, Sagartians, Baloch/Baluch, Cadusians, Cyrtians, and Arachosians/Paktyans); and I use the term "Indo-Aryans" when referring to those Aryan groups that migrated into Pakistan and India (i.e., the Vedic tribes and their descendants).