The current state of the Cimmerian problem

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia

Volumn 7, Issue 3-4, 2001, Pages 307-339

  Ivantchik, A I ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 62449156255     PISSN: 0929077X     EISSN: 15700577     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/15700570152758043     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. E. A. Grantovskii, M. N. Pogrebova, D. S. Raevskii, "The Cimmerians in the Near East (about the monograph, A. I. Ivantchik, Les Cimmériens au Proche-Orient (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 127), Fribourg Suisse, Göttingen, 1993.
2. th centuries BC, Moscow, 1996
3. VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1997, No. 4, pp. 69-85. My work constitutes a re-worked version of my Ph. D. Dissertation, written under the supervision of E. A. Grantovskii and defended at the beginning of 1990 (the Russian edition is dedicated to his memory). Working under the supervision of E. A. Grantovskii was not only very useful and interesting, but also extremely pleasant. He always shared his knowledge and ideas with me most generously. Despite the difference in our ages and indeed erudition, he never attempted to overwhelm me in discussion. If our views differed, and this happened on a number of occasions, he would try to bring me round to his point of view with his line of argument, but, if he failed, he would never foist his point of view upon me. He liked to view the relations between us as different from the traditional ones between teacher and pupil, rather as those between friends and colleagues, who were able to discuss matters as equals. This gave rise to a situation in which disputes between us sometimes took place in situations, which usually rule out public discussion between a post-graduate and his supervisor: for example, during the discussion of my dissertation and even when it was being defended. For this reason I was not at all surprised, when I learnt that my teacher had taken part in writing an article containing a critical analysis of a book written under his supervision. Unfortunately, Grantovskii's co-authors had to prepare the final version of this article, when he was no longer there to participatein its preparation, and it would seem they were not always able adequately to give expression to his views. From page 85 of the published text for instance the reader might conclude that our views on the formation of Herodotus' chronology for Median and Lydian history coincided. In actual fact this was one of the points on which our ideas differed. Naturally, like all specialists who have turned to this question ever since the end of the 19th century, we both accepted that Herodotus' chronology was unhistorical and contrived. Yet we suggested different interpretations of the way in which it had taken shape and the nature of its sources, which was a subject we had argued about in public (in particular, in the presence of Grantovskii's coauthors).
4. For E. A. Grantovskii's ideas on this subject see: E. A. Grantovskii, "On the Chronology of the Period spent by the Cimmerians and the Scythians in the Near East", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1994, No. 3, pp. 31-37, with references to the previous literature on the subject starting with Ed. Mayer. On the other hand, the article by these three authors attacks some of the ideas contained in my book, which E. A. Grantovskii used to support.
5. This circumstance is often ignored, particularly in works by archaeologists, who, while relying only on translations, take the "land of Gamir" for a real country, securely occupied by the Cimmerians. It is precisely on such an understanding that the siting of the "land of Gamir" in the Northern Caucasus is based, which is proposed in one of the articles making up this discussion: S. V. Makhortykh, "The Cimmerians and the Ancient East", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1998, No. 2, pp. 92f. The author finds it possible even to speak of "the Cimmerians' own permanent administrative-territorial possessions", although the term Garnir from the Akkadian texts does not of course imply anything of the kind.
6. Makhortykh, op. cit. , p. 97) are, in my opinion, groundless. If the region occupied by the Cimmerians had in fact not bordered on Guriania, the author of the letter would have found a way of designating its location more precisely.
7. G. B. Lanfranchi, I Cimmeri. Emergenza delle élites militari iraniche nel Vicino Oriento (VIII-VII sec. A. C. ) Padua, 1990, pp. 26f.
8. The reconstruction I proposed was also supported by I. M. Diakonoff in his review of my book: I. M. Diakonoff, "Two Recent Studies of Indo-Iranian Origins", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 115, p. 476.
9. A number of other authors also attach special importance to this definition, including S. V. Makhortykh (op. cit. , p. 97), who considers that it contains an allusion to the Northern Caucasus
10. and also S. L. Dudarev ("On the Question as to the Place of the 'Cimmerian' complexes from Western Asia in the system of Chronological and Cultural Links between the North Pontic region, the Caucasus and eastern parts of Eurasia", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1998, No. 4, p. 79).
11. -uqu(m).
12. It is strange that the authors of the article did not turn their attention to the examples of such alternative readings cited in the book, which they were discussing. In it cases are also mentioned, when the name of the Scythians is accompanied by the determinative URU. In keeping with the logic of their line of argument, they should then have written not only about "Teušpa (king) of the land of the Cimmerians", but also about "Išpakia (the ruler) of the city of the Scythians". I do not think, however, that they would have begun seriously to assume that not only the land of the Cimmerians existed in the Near East, but also the city of the Scythians. Cf. The many examples of the free variation of determinatives with various ethnonyms in the texts from the period of Esarhaddon: R. Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien, (AfO. Bhft. 9), Graz, 1956, pp. 129-133.
13. Cf. W. von Soden, Grundriß der akkadischen Grammatik (Analecta Orientalia, 33), Rome, 1952, pp. 69f.
14. I. M. Dyakonov, Istoriya Midii (A History of Media), Moscow-Leningrad, 1956, p. 265
15. I. M. Diakonoff, "The Cimmerians", Acta Iranica, 21, 1981, pp. 118f.
16. Cf. also the convincing arguments of I. N. Medvedskaya against the idea of the interchangeability of the terms 'Cimmerians' and 'Scythians' in the cuneiform texts: I. N. Medvedskaya, "Conclusion of a discussion", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1994, No. 1, pp. 129-130.
17. I. M. Dyakonov, "The Cimmerians and the Scythians in the Ancient East", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1994, No. 1, p. 109.
18. S. V. Makhortykh (op. cit. , pp. 101f. ), however, agrees with the etymology suggested by I. M. Diakonoff, without, however, providing serious arguments in its favour and without examining my counter-arguments.
19. S. R. Tokhtasiev, "The Classical Literary Tradition concerning the Cimmerians", in A. Y. Alexeev, N. K. Kachalova, S. R. Tokhtasiev, Kimmeriitsy: etnokulturnaya prinadlezhnost' (The Cimmerians: their Ethnic and Cultural Roots), Saint Petersburg, 1993, pp. 9-50
20. S. R. Tokhtas'jev, "Die Kimmerier in der antiken Überlieferung", Hyperboreus, 1996, 2
21. M. N. Pogrebova, D. S. Raevskii, I. V. Yatsenko, "The Cimmerian Problem
22. About the book: A. Y. Alexeev, N. K. Kachalova, S. R. Tokhasiev, Kimmeriitsy: etnokulturnayaprinadlezhnost', Saint Petersburg, 1993)
23. VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1998, No. 3, pp. 69-87.
24. V. Parker, "What Herodotus withheld. Notes on the transmission of information about the Cimmerians in the writings of Greek authors other than Herodotus", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1998, No. 4.
25. For more details see: A. I. Ivantchik, Kimmeriitsy (The Cimmerians) Moscow, 1996, pp. 126f.
26. See for more details: A. I. Ivantchik, "Die Gründung von Sinope und die Probleme der Anfangsetappe der griechischen Kolonisation des Schwarzmeergebietes", The Greek Colonization of the Black Sea: Historical Interpretation of Archaeology, ed. G. R. Tsetskhladze (Historia, Einzelschriften, 121), Stuttgart, 1998.
27. G. Kossack, "TIi Grab 85.
28. Bemerkungen zum Beginn des skythenzeitlichen Formenkreises im Kaukasus", BAVA, 1983, 5
29. idem, "Von den Anfängen des skytho-iranischenTierstils", Skythika. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil. -hist. Klasse, N. R 98
30. A. Y. Alexeev, Skifskaya khronika (The Chronicles of the Scythians), Saint Petersburg, 1992, pp. 30-91
31. I. N. Medvedskaya, "Periodization of the Early Scythian Culture and the Ancient East", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1992, No. 3
32. N. K. Kachalova, A. Y. Alexeev, "Archaeological Aspects of the Cimmerian Problem", in A. Y. Alexeev, N. K. Kachalova, S. R. Tokhtasiev, Kimmeriitsy: etnokulturnaya prinadlezhnost (The Cimmerians: their ethnic and cultural roots), Saint Petersburg, 1993
33. S. R. Tokhtasiev, "On the Chronology and Ethnic Identification of Scythian-type Sites in the Near East and in Asia Minor", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1993, No. 2
34. I. M. Dyakonov, "The Cimmerians and the Scythians. . . "; A. I. Ivantchik, "On the Question as to the Ethnic Attribution and Archaeological Culture of the Cimmerians. I. Cimmerian Monuments in the Near East", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1994, No. 3
35. "II. 'Early-Scythian' Finds in Asia Minor", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1995, No. 1.
36. N. A. Gavrilyuk, "Native and Borrowed Components of Cimmerian Culture (on the Basis of Ceramic Materials)", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1999, No. 1, pp. 85-97 = ACSS, 2000, 6, pp. 235-353.
37. E. A. Grantovskii, "The Problems involved in the study of the Social Structures of the Scythians", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1980, No. 4, p. 135.
38. A similar point of view is held by Pogrebova, Raevskii and Yatsenko (op. cit. , p. 82).
39. th centuries BC", Arkheologiya, 1966, 20, pp. 177f.
40. A. I. Terenozhkin, Kimmerittsy (The Cimmerians), Kiev, 1976, pp. 159, 205
41. A. M. Leskov, Kurgany: nakhodki, problemy (Burial-mounds: Finds and Questions), Leningrad, 1981, pp. 95, 98f.
42. S. A. Skoryi, "On the Question of the 'cultural attribution' of antiquities of the type of Novocherkassk hoard. 1939", Arkheologiya, Kiev, 1991, No. 3, p. 24
43. M. N. Pogrebova, D. S. Raevskii, Ronnie skify i drevnii vostok (The Early Scythians and the Ancient East), Moscow, 1992, p. 184
44. D. S. Raevskii, "On the Logic of the Construction of an Early Scythian Chronology", RA (RussianArchaeology),1993,No. 2, p. 81
45. V. R. Erlikh, U istokov ranneskifskog o kompleksa (The Origins of an Early Scythian Complex), Moscow, 1994, pp. 83, 89
46. Cf. V. I. Klochko, V. Y. Murzin, "On the Chronology of Antiquities of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk Type", Problems of Archaeology in the Dnieper Region, Dniepropetrovsk, 1989, p. 68.
47. M. de Schauensee, R. H. Dyson, "Hasanlu Horse Trappings and Assyrian Reliefs", Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honour of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson, New York, 1983, pp. 63f. , fig. 6
48. cf. pp. 70f. , fig. 18, 3
49. O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron. Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp. 70f, figs. 106, 107, 109, 110
50. de Schauensee, "Horse Gear from Hasanlu", Expedition, 1989, 31, Nos. 2-3, p. 48, fig. 19; The plates found in Hasanlu would appear to have been used in sets for the decoration of bridle straps and not on cheststraps.
51. A. Y. Alexeev, op. cit. , pp. 80f.
52. S. L. Dudarev, op. cit. , p. 78.
53. C. H. E. Haspels, La cité de Midas. Céramique et trouvailles diverses (Phrygie. Exploration archéologique faite et publiée sous la direction de M. Albert Gabriel), vol. III, Paris, 1951, pp. 3-5 (dating), 97, plate 42, a-b.
54. Cf. his more detailed statement on the subject: S. V. Makhortykh, Kimmeriitsy na Severnom Kavkaze (The Cimmerians in the Northern Caucasus), Kiev, 1994, pp. 22, 29f.
55. Cf. A. I. Terenozhkin, op. cit. , pp. 80, 135, fig. 45, 9.
56. H. Samadi, Découvertes fortuites. Klardasht, Garmabak, Emam et Tomadjan (Mazandéran et Guilan), Teheran, 1959, p. 40
57. idem, "Les découvertes fortuites", Arts Asiatiques, 1959, 6, p. 190, fig. 26.
58. S. L. Dudarev, op. cit.
59. S. Parpola, "Assyrian Royal Inscriptions and Neo-Assyrian Letters", Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: New Horizons, ed. F. M. Fales, Rome, 1981, p. 136.
60. S. L. Dudarev, op. cit. , pp. 80-82.
61. See, for example: S. V. Makhortykh, "The Cimmerians and the Ancient East", p. 102.
62. H. Parzinger, "Steppe Nomads in the East of Central Europe. Finds and Monuments in the Light of Comparative Archaeology", VDI (Journal of Ancient History), 1998, No. 2, pp. 104-115.
63. th century BC were the Cimmerians. Therefore these sites can only be attributed to the Cimmerians of the cuneiform texts.
64. th century BC.
65. S. L. Dudarev, op. cit. , p. 77, cf. , however, p. 86, where the date 660-640 BC is suggested.
66. M. N. Pogrebova, "On the Principles for dating Early Scythian Culture", RA (Russian Archaeology), 1993, No. 2, p. 85.
67. I have already had the opportunity to refer to this briefly (Ivantchik, On the Question. . . , I, p. 165)
68. yet I am obliged here to outline my objections in greater detail, since the legitimacy of this reasoning is also defended in the article by M. N. Pogrebova, D. S. Raevskii and I. V. Yatsenko (op. cit. , p. 85).