Wounded Parthian - 2nd c AD
The battle between the Romans and the Parthians
A large part of the reliefs from the Parthian monument was found by Austrian archaeologists in Ephesus Turkey from 1897 to 1901.
Is in Ephesus Museum-Vienna
If we ask what the ancient writers have left on record with respect to the Parthian nationality, we shall find, in the first place a general consensus that they were Scyths. "The Parthians" says Justin, in his "Epitome of Trogus Pompeius" "were a race of Scyths, who at a remote date separated themselves from the rest of the nation, and occupied the southern portion of the Chorasmian desert, whence they gradually made themselves masters of the mountain region adjoining it.""
Strabo adds to this that the particular Scyhtic tribe whereot they belonged was that of the Dahae; that their own proper and original name was Parni or Aparni; and that they had migrated at a remote period from the country to the north of the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov) , where they left the great mass of their fellowtribesmen.
Some time after this the theory was started that they were Scyths whom Sesostris , on his return from his supposes Scyhtian expedition, brought into asia and settled in the mountain tract sout-east of the Caspian.
We cannot put much faith in the details of any of these various statements, since in the first place, they are contradictory, and in the second they are most of them highly improbable. Sesostris, for instance, if there wver was such a king no more made an expedition into Scythia than into Lapland or Kamskatka. No Egyptian monarch ever penetrated further north than the mountain chains of Taurus and Niphates.
Arrian's story is a mere variant of the tale told to Herodotus and Diodorus, and believed by them of the planting of Scyhtian colonists in Colchis by the hypothetical Sesostris; and it is even more improbable since it makes the returning conqueror depart from his natural course and go a thousand miles out of his way, to plant for no purpose a colony in a region which he was never likely to visit again.
Strabo's migration tale is less incredible, since the tribes to the north of the Euxine and Caspian lived in a constant state of unrest and migratory movements on their part, far exceeding the supposed Parthian movement in the distance traversed, are among the most certain facts of ancient history. But it is diffucult to see what trustworthy authority Strabo could even suppose that he had for his assertions, since the migration of which he speaks must have taken place at least six hundred years before his own time, and migratory races rarely retain any tradition of their origin for so much as a century. Strabo , moreover admits it to be doubtful whether there ever were any Dahae among the Scyths of the Maeotis , and thus seems to cut the ground from under his own feet.
The utmost that can be safely gathered from these numerous and discrepant notices is the conculion that the Parthians were felt by the Greeks and Romans who first came into contact with them to be an alien nation, intruded among the Arian races of these parts, having their congeners in the great steppe country which lay north of the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Oxus river.
These nations wre nomadic, uncivilises, coarse, not to any brutal, in their habits; of a type very much inferior to that of the races which inhabited the more southern regions, felt by them to be barbarians, and feared as a continual menace to their prosperity and civilisation. There is always an underlying idea of dispraise and disparagement whenever a Greek or a Roman calls any race , or people, or custom "Scythic" - the term connotes rudenss, grossness, absence of culture and refinement - it is not perhaps strictly ethnic, since it designates a life rather than a descent, habits rather than blood - but it points to such a life and such habits as have from the remotest antiquity prevailed, and as still prevail, in the vast plain country which extend from the Caucasus, the Caspian and the mountain chains of the Central Asian regions to the shores of the great Arctic Sea.
It is certain that the inhabitants of this tract have belonged , from a remote antiquity, to the ethnic family generally known as Turanian. In the south they are of the Tatar or Turkish type; in the north of the Finnish or Samoeidic.
Their language is agglutinate and wanting in inflections; their physique is weak, languid, anaemic, unmuccular ; they have large fleshy bodies, loose joints, soft swollen bellies, and scanthy hair. They live chiefly on horseback or in wagons. Still as enemies, they are far from contemptible. Admirable horseman, often skilled archers, accustomed to a severe climate and to exposure in all weathers; they have proved formidable foes to many warlike nations, and still give serious trouble to their Russian masters.
The Scythian character of the Parthians , vouched for on all hands, and their derivation from Upper Asia, or the regions beyond the Oxus, furnish a strong presumption of their belonging to the Turanian family of nations.
This presumption is strengthened by the little that we know of their language. Their names, when not distinctly Persian, which they would often naturally be from conscious and intentional imitation, are decidedly non-Arian and have certain Turanian characteristics.
page 32
Ethnographical-Turanian Character of the Parthian People
PARTHIA - Prof.George RAWLINSON / e-book
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"the Parthians were a Scythian people, is accepted by everybody today, cf. Colledge (1967) and was shown on Sumerian background by Badiny (1998, 1999). ... From all these identifications it follows together with our proof presented here in EDH-5 that there is a genetical linguistic relationships of Sumerians, Huns, Avars, Scythians, Medes, Parthians and probably more people and a geographical continuity of Sumerians, Huns, Scythians and Avars in the Carpathian basin."
Hun - Hungarian Etymological Word List
Prof.Dr.Alfred Toth /pdf
+ "Prehistorically, the Sumerians were not aboriginal to Mesopotamia. Their native hearth is unknown. Speaking an agglutinative tongue showing affinities, on one hand, with the Uralo-Altaic languages such as Balto-Finnish, Hungarian, Volgaic, Uralien, Samoyuedic, Turkish, Mongolian, and Eskimo, and, on the other hand, with the Dravidian tounges of India, the Pelasgian of pre-Homeric Greece, Georgian of the Caucasus, and Basque of the Pyrenes, they had arrived apparently c.3500 BC to find the river lands already occupied by an advanced Neolithic, farming and cattle-raising population known to science as the Ubaidian (also, Proto-Euphratean) who as Kramer tells, were "the first important civilizing force in ancient Sumer, its first farmers, cultivators, cattle-raisers, and fishermen: its first weavers, leather-workers, carpenters, smiths, potters and masons." - page 122. Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Dimension.
+ "The Sumerians were a non-Semitic, non-IndoEuropean people" - Samuel N.Kramer
+ Professor Osman Nedim Tuna, matched 165 Sumerian words with modern Turkish words based on meaning and phonetics. He presented this thesis in a congress in America, it was accepted by the Sumerologists and Turkologists that attented to it without a debate. Olcas Suleyman (Az i ya), a Kazak Turk, found 60 words, and say " Old world doesn't begins with İndo-European language, begins with Turkish language". F.Hommel compared Sumerian-Turkish language, and consider as Altaic language. Begmyrat Gerey, a Turkmen Turk, show us that Sumerians motherland is Anau, and spoke Turkish, like the Parthians, who is the ancestor of Turkmenistan people, in his book "5000 years Sumer-Turkmen connection".
"Our Ancestors Who Build the Great Parthia Turkish State"
(247 BC-224 AD)
Begmyrat Gerey - Turkmenistan / e-book
"The Parthians are known as "excluded Scythians""
Prof.Dr.Firudin Ağasıoğlu - Azerbaijan / link
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Well-known sinologist Yu.A.Zuev pays particular attention to the influence of the Turkish factor in the history of China. For instance, Han dynasty (Early Chzhao, 304-328 A.D.) was founded by Huns, and Late Chzhao dynasty (319-325) by Kangly (Abulgazi, the 17 century historian and author of the Genealogy of Turkmens, lists Kangly among Oghuz-Turkmen tribes), the Western Qin dynasty (388-431) by early Turks, the Late Tang dynasty (923-956) by the Oghuz tribe Shato. With the help of Turkic tribes, a Chinese Turk, Li Yuan, ascended the Chinese throne. He founded the Tang dynasty in 618 A.D. (during the court ceremonies the Oghuz ambassadors were sitting next to the Emperor).
Under Li Yuan the Chinese-Turkic dictionary was compiled. Unfortunately, it hasn't reached our times. Over 10 thousand Oghuz families resettled in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). Under the influence of Oghuz and Kipchak tribes the fashion on everything Turkic music, clothing and weapons emerged in the 7 century. It is also known that in the mid 8 century An Lushan from the Oghuz Ashin family commanded the Chinese regular army. In 756-757, he even ruled the country. It is not by chance that Gok-Turk Empire (the 6-8 centuries) maintained wide diplomatic relations with China. When in 545 Bumyn Khan declared the birth of an independent state, the Chinese were the first to send the embassy to the ancient Turks, having recognized the early medieval Turkmen state. The following year, Bumyn's embassy arrived in Chang'an and the union was formed. The ancient Chinese sources play the most important role in restoration of the history of Turkmens. Such Chinese authors as Ban Gu, Phan E, Li Yanshow, Sima Qian, who was dubbed "Herodotus of the East", and many others provided us the truly invaluable information on the history of Turkmen ancestors Parthians, Khorezmians, Massagets, Ephtalites and Kushans".
Indeed, the Chinese historical literature contains lots of factual information on the history of Turkmens and other Turkic nations, since China was also developing together with them during dozens of centuries. The Chinese ancient and medieval sources help recreate the whole picture of the historical development of Turkmens, depict their life in the different stages of development. In a number of cases, nothing can compensate these sources. There are so many historical chronicles written in complicated hieroglyphs and containing valuable data on the history of Turkmens that the Turkmen scholars have to study. The information taken from Chinese encyclopedia "Tun-dian" (the 8 century), where the name of the country "to-ku-mong" (i.e. Turkmenistan) located in the lands of ancient Turanians Massagets was written down for the first time, is extremely precious.
These visits marked the beginning of the Silk Road, in the formation of which the Parthians, ancestors of Turkmens, and the Chinese played the most important role. Academician V.V. Bartold wrote: "The Parthians were the best ones to make advantage of the caravan route from China to the Front Asia opened in II century BC. They benefited from mediating in the trade between China and the Roman Empire... Mithridates II of Parthia (124-87 BC) was the first king in the world history who maintained good relations with both the great power of the Far East [China] and the global empire of the West [the Roman Empire]".
"WE SHARE COMMON HISTORY..."
TURKMEN-CHINESE LINKS: A LOOK THROUGH MILLENNIA
Prof.Ovez GUNDOGDIEV
Turkmenistan,2006: more:
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Ovez GUNDOGDIEV, Head of the department of archeology and ethnography of the State Institute of Cultural Heritage of Turkmenistan, Central Asia and East at the Turkmen President, told "Turkmenistan" magazine of the results of the two month expedition "Akdepe, a big hill (depe), is located at Bikrova settlement, in the south-west of Ashgabat. The lower layers of this unique memorial date back to the fifth millennium B.C., and the upper ones to the late middle ages. In the past, it was believed that people deserted the main center of Akdepe as early as in Bronze Age, i.e. in the second millennia BC, and the medieval city emerged to the north and north-west of the hill. However, the excavations have proved that in the X-XI centuries, i.e. thousand years ago, the life still went on here.
There are all grounds to assert that the town in the location of contemporary Ashgabat and its outskirts was founded during the emergence of the Parthian Empire. It was a chain of fortresses (about 20 settlements) connected with the single system of defense and administration. Akdepe is one of such settlements situated at the Ashgabat stream. This "White hill" attracted our attention by the fact that all cultural layers, from the V millennium BC to the XVII century AD can be found there. In fact, the whole history of Ashgabat can be "read" in Akdepe.
A KEY TO ASHGABAT HISTORY
Turkmenistan,2006 , more:
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Last summer, the Special Committee that met for several days during the XXXI session of the World Heritage Commission held in Christchurch (New Zealand) announced Nisa, an ancient Parthian city in outskirts of Ashgabat, an object of "the outstanding world importance and universal value".
The press release disseminated by the Committee says that Nisa's archeological remains vividly illustrate the high level of interaction of cultures of Central Asia and the Mediterranean world in once mighty Parthia. In the heyday of its glory the state was an insurmountable obstacle for the Ancient Rome's expansion and at the same time served as an important trade center between the East and the West, the North and the South.
ARSAK DYNASTY'S HOLY CITY BECOMES FAMOUS AGAIN
Ruslan MURADOV,2007, more:
"Partis easdem leges et consvetudines habebant: Multitudo populorum innumerata, et quae cum Parthis ex aequo degat. Celeberrimi eorum Sacae, Massagetae, Dahae"
"We must view the Parthians as the congeners of the Comans" - Cuman/Kipchak Turks