Indo-Iranians

The term Indo-Iranian includes all speakers of Indo-Iranian languages, i. e. the Indo-Aryans (including the Mitanni) and the Iranians. Another term for these cultures is Aryan. The most likely candidate for an archaeological identification of the Proto-Indo-Iranian culture is the Bronze Age Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) in what is now northern Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The most probable date for Proto-Indo-Iranian unity is roughly around 2500 BC preceding both the Vedic and Zoroastrian cultures.

The people who lived at the eastern edge of the original Proto-Indo-European homeland, later moved east and south to historical Transoxiana sometimes at the end of the Eneolithic Era. They may have belonged to a branch of Kurgan people who are called the "Andronovo Culture" by archaeologists, after a village near which one of their large cemeteries was found. These people, who possibly called themselves *Arya, spread more to the south, into present day Afghanistan and Eastern Iran sometimes around 2000 BCE. There, they seem to have been split into two branches, the eastern one called Indo-Aryans by historians, and the other Proto-Iranians, on the west. Much of the information we have of the division between these two groups comes from their later epic and religious literature, (the Rig Veda and the Avesta repectively), that implies a fascinating and very similar social structure for both of these groups. They were nomadic and had domesticated horses, probably as early as their time in the Steppes, and they had a complex pantheon of gods and natural forces. It has been suggested that prior to the first phase of their migration, Indo-Iranians had a communal social system, but by the time of their split, they had formed a patriarchal class-system. These changes, along with their complex belief system, lead some to believe that the proto-Indo-Iranian society was not as simple and nomadic based as currently assumed.

The split of Indo-Iranians into Indo-Aryans and Iranians probably happened in the early second millennium BC. The Indo-Aryans appear to have been the more mobile of the two groups, as they appear very early both in the west, as the Mitanni rulers, and in the east, crossing into the Indus Valley.

The advanced Indus Valley civilization gradually disappears at this time. The resulting Vedic civilization is likely an amalgamate of the native with the invading culture, rather than a complete conquest or "invasion", subjugating the Dravidians, or driving them to the south of the Indian peninsula, as was commonly hypothesized in the 19th century. Compare Varna, Aryan invasion theory.

We have even less evidence of such sudden conflict in the Iranian case. Proto-Iranians seem to have been split into branches early in their history, forming the nomadic Saka/Scythian tribes, and the settled populations that inhabited the Iranian plateau and eventually came to be known under the massive and inaccurate names of Parthians, Persians, and Medes. How early this split happened, and how the Iranians came to overpower the established Hurrian and Kassites civilizations, and the civilisations of eastern Iran, is not known. Only their final pressure in replacing the prosperous civilisation of Elam has survived into history. For earlier events, we only have scattered reports from the Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles, and rarely in Elamite reports. Nevertheless, by 1200 BC, we have a remarkable and undeniable Iranian presence in the plateau, and their overwhelming military force posed threats to the established civilisations of Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam. The early Iranian petty kingdoms seem to have established confederacies of all the tribes, Aryan and non-Aryan, and spread their early influence in the areas east of Elam. The earliest of these confederacies to form a coherent kingdom of which we have historical evidence was the kingdom of the Medes.

The route and time of Indo-Iranian migrations is not accurately known, and some even deny any single migration event, and instead propose the gradual push of Indo-Iranians from the northern Caspian regions, via both Caucasus and Central Asia, at a much earlier (e.g. 3000 BC) date.

In Babylonian and Assyrian sources, one of the largest ancient Iranian tribes has been mentioned as Kassi (Kas-Su, Kashi) which in ancient languages and also in the modern language of the people of Gilan means "fair-eyed" and "fair-faced." The name of central city of Kashan (Kassan) is a relic of this ancient Aryan tribe.

Indo-Iranians

See also