Saks: political history, economy and culture

According to information of ancient Greek historians all nomadic and settled tribes were called the Scythians. It was a general collective name of those tribes lived in the European part of Russia, in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia to the bound with Altai. Different Greek authors told that the Scythians (named sakies in Persian sources), living on the different parts of territory named variously and spoke different languages.

Massageties settled all Transcaspian plain. Sakies settled to the east of massageties. Settled- agricultural population usually named according to the territory where they settled: Horezm, Sogdiana, inhabitants of Baktra, and so on .

The Scythians (Sakies) and the other population spoke the languages of the Iranian group.

Ahemidian incriptions named three tribe group of saki:
1)"Saka-haumavarka" were identified with "scythians-amyuriya" by Herodot,

2)"Saka-tigrahauda". This name was usually translated "Saki are in sharp hats”, who lived in Zhetysu-Seven Rivers.
3)"Sara-tiai-tara-daraya"- "over sea" or "on the other side of a river saks”

Tribes carrying a collective name “Saki”, inhabited the territory of Kazakhstan in the first millennium B.C. Saki tribes were contemporaries of the Scythians, who lived in the northern Black Sea coast, and Savromat — in the lower Volga and the south of Ural regions. They were contemporaries of the Persian of Cyrus era, the Greek of Alexander of Macedon era.

It is known about the attempts of Achaemenian kings to subdue the Saki, who were not successful. It is well-known names of Saki Queen Tamaris, herdsman Chirac, who led the Persian army in the desert.

They were great riders who learned how to use a bow while galloping at full speed. These were Scythian riders who became the prototype for fearless half-man and half horse centaurs.

At the end of the VI — the beginning of V century B.C. in the ancient East there are major political events associated with the Greek-Persian wars. Individual Saki tribes participated in these wars on the side of the Persians as allies and mercenaries. Easy Saki cavalry participated, for example, at the Battle of Gaugamela.

In the 30’s. of IV century B.C. Greek-Macedonians led by Alexander of Macedon defeated the army of Darius III , the last Achaemenid, and invaded Central Asia.

These are huge constructions that compare with the Egyptian pyramids, reaching a height of 20 m and a diameter of 120-150 m.

There are mass of mounds of various sizes in the range of these parameters. Large mounds called “royal.” This is true because under them are buried members of the ruling dynasties and military elite of ancient tribes.

Mounds and burial mounds are found everywhere in Kazakhstan — in the steppes and semi-deserts, valleys between mountains, the mountains and foothills, river valleys. Especially numerous of them in Zhetysu, the foothills of the Junggar and Zailiysky Alatau .

Saki for centuries came to worship, brought large numbers of victims, made funeral feast and various religious ceremonies, and organized a wake on the area, where there are vast royal burial Besshatyr mounds. Places of religious celebrations and ceremonies were marked by grandiose construction of fences from menhirs and boulders.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1153