List of ancient Iranian peoples


This list of ancient Iranian peoples includes the names of Indo-European peoples speaking Iranian languages or otherwise considered Iranian ethnically or linguistically in sources from the late 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD.

Background

Both ancient and modern Iranian peoples mostly descend from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, common ancestors respectively of the Proto-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Aryans, this people possibly was the same of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. Proto-Iranians separated from the Proto-Indo-Aryans early in the 2nd-millennium BCE. These peoples probably called themselves by the name "Aryans", which was the basis for several ethnonyms of Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples or for the entire group of peoples which shares kin and similar cultures.
Iranian peoples first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BCE. In Classical Antiquity, they were found primarily in Scythia and Persia. They divided into "Western" and "Eastern" branches from an early period, roughly corresponding to the territories of Persia and Scythia, respectively. By the 1st millennium BCE, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, as far as the Great Hungarian Plain in the west. The Saka tribes remained mainly in the far-east, eventually spreading as far east as the Ordos Desert.
Ancient Iranian peoples spoke languages that were the ancestors of modern Iranian languages, these languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of the wider Indo-European languages.
Ancient Iranian peoples lived in many regions and, at about 200 BC, they had as farthest geographical points dwelt by them: to the west the Great Hungarian Plain, east of the Danube river, Ponto-Caspian steppe in today's southern Ukraine, Russia and far western Kazakhstan, and to the east the Altay Mountains western and northwestern foothills and slopes and also western Gansu, Ordos Desert, and western Inner Mongolia, in northwestern China, to the north southern West Siberia and southern Ural Mountains and to the south the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.: The geographical area dwelt by ancient Iranian peoples was therefore vast.
During Late Antiquity, in a process that lasted until Middle Age, the Iranian populations of Scythia and Sarmatia, in the western and central Eurasian Steppe and most of Central Asia, started to be conquered by other non-Iranian peoples and began to be marginalized, assimilated or expelled mainly as result of the Turkic peoples conquests and migrations that resulted in the Turkification of the remaining Iranian ethnic groups in Central Asia and the western Eurasian steppe. Germanic, Slavic and later Mongolian conquests and migrations also contributed to the decline of the Iranian peoples in these regions. By the 10th century, the Eastern Iranian languages were no longer spoken in many of the territories they were once spoken, with the exception of Pashto in Central Asia, Ossetic in the Northern Caucasus and Pamiri languages in Badakhshan. Most of Central Asia and the western Eurasian steppe was almost completely Turkified. However, in most of the southern regions, corresponding to the Iranian Plateau and mountains, more densely populated, Iranian peoples continued to be most of the population and remained so until modern times.
Various Persian empires flourished throughout Antiquity, however, they fell to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century, although other Persian empires formed again later.

Ancestors

Ancient Iranian Peoples

Mentioned in the [Avesta]

Source:

[East Iranians]

Northeast Iranians (Northern East Iranians)

Southeast Iranians (Southern East Iranians)

West Iranians">Western Iranian peoples">West Iranians

[Northwest Iranians] (Northern West Iranians)

[Southwest Iranians] (Southern West Iranians)

Ancient peoples of uncertain origin with possible Iranian background or partially Iranian

Mainly Iranian Background

Iranians mixed with other non-Iranian peoples

Dacian-Iranian

Greek-Iranian

Northwest Caucasian-Iranian

Slavic-Iranian

Slavic-Iranian or Thracian-Iranian

  • Aroteres, a Proto-Slavic or Thracian tribe with an Iranian ruling class living in the forest-steppes from the Dnieper to Vinitsa.

Thracian-Iranian

  • Cimmerians, they could have been a people of Thracian-Dacian origin with an Iranian overlordship, a mixture of Thracians and Iranians or a missing link between Indo-Iranian peoples and Thracians and Dacians.
  • Alazones, a semi-nomadic Scythian-Thracian tribe living between the Ingul and Dniester rivers.
  • Callipidae, a hellenized Scythian-Thracian tribe living from the Dniester estuary to the Southern Bug.
  • Georgoi, Scythian-Thracian tribe living in the country of Gilea around the lower Dnieper and led a sedentary lifestyle.

Mixed peoples that had some Iranian component

Celtic-Germanic-Iranian

Possible Iranian or Non-Iranian peoples

Iranian or other Indo-European peoples

Iranian or Anatolian (Indo-European)
There are different or conflicting views among scholars regarding the ethnic and linguistic kinship of the peoples known by the Han Chinese as Wusun and Yuezhi and also other less known peoples

Iranian, Tocharian or Turkic

Iranian or Non-Indo-European peoples

Iranian or Northeast Caucasian
  • Cadusii, warlike people living just north of Medes with possible Iranian or Caucasian origin.
  • Caspians, were a people of antiquity who dwelt along the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the region known as Caspiane.
    Iranian or Turkic
  • Xiongnu The Xiongnu could also be synonymous with the Huns, that are assumed to be a Turkic people, although there is not certainty or consensus about this matter.
    Iranian or Ugric
  • Iyrcae / Iyrkai, people that lived northeast of the Thyssagetae, they dwelt in far southwestern Siberia, in the upper basins of the Tobol and the Irtysh rivers, possibly they are the ancestors of the Ugrian peoples, Khanty and Mansi and the more distantly related Magyars, they are speakers of Uralic languages and not Iranian. These peoples were collectively called Yugra, where the adjective "Ugric" comes from. They were culturally influenced by ancient Iranian peoples. The name "Iyrcae" sometimes was wrongly spelt as "Tyrcae" "" by ancient authors but there is no connection to the Turkic peoples.

Semi-legendary peoples (inspired by real Iranian peoples)

[Amazons]-[Gargareans]

  • Amazons, a semi-legendary people or tribe of women warriors that Greek authors such as Herodotus and Strabo said to be related to the Scythians and the Sarmatians, however, there could be some historical background for a real people with Iranian etymology that lived in Scythia and Sarmatia, but later became the subject of wild exaggerations and myths. Ancient authors said that they guaranteed their continuity through reproduction with the Gargareans.
  • Gargareans, a semi-legendary people or tribe only formed by men, however, there could be some historical background for a real people, but later became the subject of wild exaggerations and myths. Ancient authors said that they guaranteed their continuity through reproduction with the Amazons.

Arimaspae">Arimaspi">Arimaspae

Literature

  • H. Bailey, "ARYA: Philology of ethnic epithet of Iranian people", in Encyclopædia Iranica, v, pp. 681–683, Online-Edition,
  • A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Iraj: the eponymous hero of the Iranians in their traditional history" in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online-Edition,
  • R. Curzon, "The Iranian Peoples of the Caucasus",
  • Jahanshah Derakhshani, "Die Arier in den nahöstlichen Quellen des 3. und 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr.", 2nd edition, 1999,
  • Richard Frye, "Persia", Zurich, 1963
  • Wei Lan-Hai; Li Hui; Xu Wenkan. "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics" in Research Gate