The Alans, the origin and acquisition of the Caucasus by them briefly. There was such a people - the Alans. II-VIII century. Why was the elongated skull needed?
V. n. e. (according to Roman and Byzantine writers) in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov and Ciscaucasia, from where they made devastating campaigns to the Crimea, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, Media.
According to the generally accepted hypothesis of V. I. Abaev, this name goes back to ancient Iranian. aryana - the ancient self-name of the Indo-Iranians. peoples (Aryans). It first occurs in - centuries. BC. in the name of the Sarmatian tribe Roxolana. K ser. V. n. e. Alans appear in the places of settlement of the Sarmatian tribes (in particular, the Siraks and Aorses, who lived in the North Caucasus and in the Ciscaucasian steppes). The close succession of the Alans with the Sarmatians is indicated by compound terms - “Alanors” (“Alano-Aorses”) by Ptolemy (c.), “Alano-Sarmatians” by Markian of Heraclius (c.), as well as archaeological materials.
On the pages of the chronicles, the Alans people appear in c. AD when near the north-east. the borders of the Roman Empire, on the plains of the North. The Black Sea region, where the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes used to roam, a new powerful military-political association arose. Nomadic Alans repeatedly shocked with their raids neighboring countries, while simultaneously encountering and communicating with dozens of other ancient peoples and tribes in good neighborliness and alliance or on the battlefields in Europe, Asia and even Africa. The history of the Alans is closely intertwined with the history of many peoples, primarily the South-East. Europe, including the peoples who lived in cf. century in southern Russia.
The basis of the economy of the Alans in the early period of their history was cattle breeding.
Western Alania (upper reaches of the Kuban) was in the zone of influence of Byzantium, while possessing significant independence. In the VIII - centuries. through the "lands of the Alans" (the upper tributaries of the Kuban and Laba) passed a segment of the "Great Silk Road", which significantly strengthened the ties of the Caucasus. Alans with the Byzantine Empire. Under the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty, Byzantium's interest in the Western Alanian state, which had developed by this time in the North-East, increased. Caucasus in the upper reaches of the river. Kuban.
Religion
Culture and art
The development of productive forces and trade leads to the emergence of feudal cities, the remains of which are settlements: Nizhne-Arkhyz on the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River, Upper and Lower Dzhudat on the Terek River, Akhalkalinsky on the Sunzha River and others. The famous catacomb burial grounds and settlements on the Northern Donets (Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture) and the North Caucasus give an idea of the rich Alanian culture. Ground tombs, dolmen-shaped crypts (in the upper reaches of the Kuban), ground stone crypts with false vaults, catacombs, usually consisting of a dromos and an elliptical chamber, are widespread. Some of the Alans' settlements were surrounded by walls built dry of hewn stone slabs, on which carved geometric ornaments were applied, sometimes schematic images of animals and people. The applied art of the Alans in the 4th-5th centuries is represented mainly jewelry from gold and silver with semi-precious, mostly red, stones or glass (the so-called polychrome style). Later, pendants and other ornaments trimmed with bird heads appeared. V Vaneev 3. N., Medieval Alania, Staliniri, 1959
Used materials
- Big soviet encyclopedia, Art. "Alans".
- L. A. Perfilieva. "Alan diocese". Orthodox Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 440-444
plin. Hist. nat. IV 80; possible translation - "bright Alans"
Joseph Fl. Jude. ancient VII 244
Agusti Aleman "Alans in ancient and medieval written sources". Georgian sources Ch. 9, p. 409. Footnote states: Q 42 (RCH 359); At 28 (HG 61). Late insertion into text (load, c "anart" i "interpolation"). In gives the name of the city as P "ostap" ori da Bosp "ori.
IN AND. Abaev - "Selected works" chapter Nart epos of Ossetians p.142
The Huns did not put an end to the Roman Empire. She fell under the hooves of the Alanian cavalry. An Eastern people with long skulls brought a new cult of war to Europe, laying the foundations for medieval chivalry.
Invincible Warriors
The Roman Empire throughout its history has repeatedly faced the invasion of nomadic tribes. Long before the Alans, the borders of the ancient world shook under the hooves of the Sarmatians and Huns. But unlike their predecessors, the Alans became the first and last "non-Germanic" people who managed to establish significant settlements in Western Europe.
For a long time they existed next to the empire, periodically making neighborly visits to them. Many Roman commanders spoke about them in their memoirs, describing them as invincible warriors. According to Roman sources, the Alans lived on both sides of the Don, that is, in Asia and Europe, since, according to the geographer Claudius Ptolemy, the border passed along this river.
Those that inhabited the western bank of the Don, Ptolemy called the Scythian Alans, and their territory "European Sarmatia". Those who lived in the East were called Scythians in some sources (according to Ptolemy) and Alans in others (according to Suetonius).
In 337, Constantine the Great accepted the Alans into the Roman Empire as federates and settled them in Pannonia (Central Europe). From a threat, they at once turned into defenders of the empire's borders, for the right to settle and pay. True, not for long.
Almost a hundred years later, dissatisfied with the conditions of life in Pannonia, the Alans entered into an alliance with the German tribes of the Vandals. It was these two peoples, acting together, who gained fame for themselves as the destroyers of Rome, after having plundered for two weeks The eternal City. The Roman Empire never recovered from this blow. Twenty-one years later, the German leader Odoacer formally "declared" the fall of Rome, forcing the last of the Roman emperors to abdicate. The name of the vandals, to this day, remains a household name.
Fashion for "Alanian"
Imagine the citizens of Rome who began to imitate the barbarians. It seems absurd to think that a Roman, dressed in Sarmatian trousers, has grown a beard and rides on a short but fast horse, trying to conform to the barbarian way of life. For Rome in the 5th century AD, this was not uncommon.
The Eternal City was literally “covered” by the fashion for everything “Alanian”. They adopted everything: military and equestrian equipment, weapons; Alanian dogs and horses were especially valued. The latter were not distinguished by either beauty or height, but were famous for their endurance, to which they attributed an almost supernatural character.
Satiated with material goods, the Roman patricians sought an outlet in everything simple, natural, primitive and, as it seemed to them, close to nature. The barbarian village was opposed to the noisy Rome, the ancient metropolis, and the representatives of the barbarian tribes themselves were idealized so much that traces of this “fashion” formed the basis of subsequent medieval legends about courtly knights. The moral and physical advantages of the barbarians were a favorite theme of novels and short stories of that time.
For the Alans, as well as for the rest of the federates in general, the opposite process was characteristic. The barbarians preferred to use the achievements of a large civilization, on the periphery of which they found themselves. During this period, there was a complete exchange of values - the Alans were Romanized, the Romans were "Alanized".
Deformed skulls
But not all the customs of the Alans were to the liking of the Romans. So, they ignored the fashion for an elongated head and artificial deformation of the skull, which was common among the Alans. Today, a similar feature of the Alans and Sarmatians greatly facilitates the work of historians, making it possible to determine the distribution of the latter, thanks to the long skulls found in burials.
So, it was possible to localize the habitat of the Alans on the Loire, in Western France. According to Sergei Savenko, director of the Pyatigorsk Museum of Local Lore, up to 70% of the skulls dating back to the Alans era have an elongated shape.
In order to achieve an unusual head shape, a newborn whose cranial bones had not yet grown strong was tightly bandaged with a ritual leather bandage decorated with beads, threads, and pendants. They wore it until the bones were strengthened. The elongation of the skull had a ritual character. There is a version that the deformation affected the brain and allowed the Alanian priests to go into a trance faster. Subsequently, representatives of the local aristocracy intercepted the tradition, and then it came into wide use along with fashion.
Ancestors of King Arthur
According to Flavius Arrian, the Alans and Sarmatians were mounted spearmen powerfully and quickly attacking the enemy. He emphasizes that an infantry phalanx equipped with projectiles is the most effective remedy repulse the attack of the Alans. The main thing after that is not to buy into the famous tactical move of all the steppes: the “false retreat”, which they often turned into a victory.
When the infantry, with whom they had just stood face to face, pursued the fleeing and disordered enemy, the latter turned his horses and overturned the foot soldiers. Obviously, their manner of fighting later influenced the Roman way of warfare.
At least, later telling about the actions of his army, Arrian noted that "the Roman cavalry holds its spears and beats the enemy in the same manner as the Alans and Sarmatians." This, as well as Arrian's considerations regarding the combat capabilities of the Alans, confirms the prevailing opinion that in the West they seriously considered the military merits of the Alans. Their fighting spirit was elevated to a cult. As ancient authors write, death in battle was considered not only honorable, but joyful: the Alans considered the “happy dead” to be the one who died in battle while serving God. The same "unfortunates" who happened to live to old age and die in their bed were despised as cowards and became a shameful stain in the family.
The Alans had a significant influence on the development of military affairs in Europe. With their legacy, historians associate a whole range of both military-technical and spiritual-ethical achievements, which formed the basis of medieval chivalry. According to the research of Howard Reid, the military culture of the Alans played a significant role in the formation of the legend of King Arthur.
It is based on the testimonies of ancient authors, according to which Emperor Marcus Aurelius recruited 8,000 experienced horsemen - Alans and Sarmatians. Most of them were sent to Hadrian's Wall in Britain. They fought under banners in the form of dragons, and worshiped the god of war - a naked sword stuck in the ground.
The idea of looking for an Alanian basis in the Arthurian legend is not new. So American researchers, Littleton and Malkor, draw a parallel between the Holy Grail and the sacred cup from the Nart (Ossetian) epic, Nartamonga.
Kingdom of Vandals and Alans
It is not surprising that the Alans, distinguished by such militancy, in alliance with the no less militant tribe of the Vandals, represented a terrible misfortune. Distinguished by their particular savagery and aggressiveness, they did not enter into an agreement with the empire and did not settle in any locality, preferring nomadic robbery and the seizure of more and more new territories.
By 422-425, they approached Eastern Spain, took possession of the ships located there, and, under the leadership of the leader Gaiseric, landed in North Africa. At that time, the African colonies of Rome experienced not better times: they suffered from Berber raids and internal rebellions against the central government, in general, they represented a tasty morsel for the united barbarian army of Vandals and Alans.
In just a few years, they conquered the vast African territories that belonged to Rome, led by Carthage. A powerful fleet passed into their hands, with the help of which they repeatedly visited the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy.
In 442, Rome was forced to recognize their complete independence, and thirteen years later, its complete defeat.
Alanian blood
Alans for all the time of their existence managed to visit many territories and leave their mark in many countries. Their migration stretched from Ciscaucasia, through most of Europe, and into Africa. It is not surprising that today many peoples living in these territories claim to be considered the descendants of this famous tribe.
Perhaps the most likely descendants of the Alans are modern Ossetians, who consider themselves the successors of the great Alania. Today, there are even movements among Ossetians who advocate the return of Ossetia to its supposedly historical name. It is worth noting that the Ossetians have reason to claim the status of the descendants of the Alans: the common territory, the common language, which is considered a direct descendant of the Alanian, the commonality of the folk epos (Nart epos), where the core is supposedly the ancient Alanian cycle.
The main opponents of this position are the Ingush, who also stand up for their right to be called descendants of the great Alans. According to another version, the Alans in ancient sources were a collective name for all hunting and nomadic peoples located north of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.
According to the most common opinion, only a part of the Alans became the ancestors of the Ossetians, while other parts merged or dissolved into other ethnic groups. Among the latter are Berbers, Franks and even Celts.
So, according to one version, the Celtic name Alan comes from the patronymic "Alans", who settled at the beginning of the 5th century in the Loire, where they mixed with the Bretons.
In the 1st century BC. and I c. AD on the territory of modern Ukraine appeared representatives of the Eastern Sarmatians - the Aors and Alans. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder and the philosopher Seneca mention them as inhabitants of the lands “north of Istra” (i.e. the Danube).
In the 1st century BC. and I c. AD on the territory of modern Ukraine appeared representatives of the Eastern Sarmatians - the Aors and Alans. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder and the philosopher Seneca mention them as inhabitants of the lands “north of Istra” (i.e. the Danube). The migration of the Alans significantly changed the historical and ethnic picture of European Sarmatia. Under their pressure, the Yazygs went west, between the Tisza and the Danube, and the newcomers created a military-political association near the Roman borders, known in science as the "kingdom of Farzoy and Inismey." The names of these Sarmatian kings are placed on the coins of Olbia, which for a certain time was either under the protectorate of the Sarmatians, or in alliance with them. The existence of an association of Alans in the neighborhood of Olbia and some connections between the Olviopolites and Sarmatians is evidenced by a recently found fragment of the Olbian decree, which speaks of an embassy of the Olviopolites to "Umabius ... the greatest kings of Aorsia." It is possible that the unsurviving names of these kings were the names of Farzoy and Inismey.
The etymology of the ethnonym "Alans" is considered by modern science as an equivalent of the term "arya", which corresponds to the common name of the ancient Indo-Iranian peoples, which, apparently, served as a kind of national idea in the new tribal association. This ethnic association was based on a common cultural, economic and ideological platform. It is no coincidence that already in the 2nd century, that is, immediately after the creation of the Alanian union, a single late Sarmatian (or Alanian) archaeological culture arose, distinguished by striking uniformity over wide areas from the Caucasus to the Ukraine and the Volga region. The Alanian era begins in the northern Iranian world.
Pushed back by the Alans to the west and south, the vanguard of the Sarmatian tribes collided with the zone of influence of the Roman Empire, which entailed not only a military confrontation with the latter, but in the future, and cooperation with it (Fig. 26). Under the influence of Sarmatian military technology, advanced for its time, there is a complete change not only in weapons, but also in combat tactics in the Roman army. Sarmatian cataphracts - horsemen and horses clad in armor, later will be the prototype of medieval knights (Fig. 27). Already from the end of the II century. AD Roxolan cavalry carries border service in the British Isles, defending the borders of the empire from the recalcitrant Rome of the Celtic tribes. The influence of the military art and culture of the Sarmatian-Alans was also felt by the neighboring Germanic tribes. Researchers have repeatedly drawn attention to the striking similarity between the Scythian-Sarmatian heritage, the British legend of King Arthur and the Ossetian epic, which is one of the last ethnic fragments of the Scythian-Sarmatian-Alans.
By the 2nd century AD in the far east of Asia, some serious movements of nomadic tribes took place, which were the beginning of the "Great Migration of Peoples". The stable ethnic array of the Northern Iranians begins to be crowded by the young union of the Turkic tribes, which have displaced many peoples from their homes. In the III century. AD The Sarmatian-Alans of the Northern Black Sea region faced the Ostrogothic union of the Germanic tribes, and already at the end of the 4th century. AD hordes of Hun Turks, led by the formidable Attila, crossing the Volga, smash the Goth-Alanian alliance, dragging most of it to Western Europe (Fig. 28). So, on the wave of the “Great Migration of Nations”, the Alans get to the north of Italy, to the territory of France and Spain. Pressed by the Huns, in alliance with the Visigoths and Vandals, they subsequently penetrate into North Africa, into Carthage, where by the 6th century. their traces are lost (Fig. 29). But the memory remains. The ethnonym "Alan" became widespread in Europe not only in the form of a personal name, but also in toponymy. The rich spiritual heritage of the Northern Iranians has been preserved in the folklore and ethnic culture of those peoples with whom the Alans were brought together by historical fate.
The part of the Alan ethnic mass that remained in the south of Russia was located in the foothills and mountain gorges of the Central Caucasus, at that time constituting a significant military-political force (Fig. 30). They begin to take shape early medieval statehood. Scientists noted that the simultaneous appearance in different parts of the Central Caucasus of the same type of burial structures can be considered as evidence of the formation within the borders of Alania of the 6th-9th centuries. united cultural and ethnic community. It occupied most of the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages.
A significant group of North Caucasian Alans, through the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait) and the territory of the Bosporus kingdom, moved to the Crimea, where by the 4th century. n. e. Alanian crypts become the dominant type of burial structures in the foothills of the Crimean burial grounds, excavated near the villages of Druzhnoye in the Simferopol region, Balanovo in the Belogorsk region and in other places. Some information about the resettlement of the Alans in the Crimea can be extracted from written sources. So, in an anonymous description of the Black Sea coast, compiled in the VI century. n. e., another name is given for Theodosius, which was empty by that time - Ardabda (“seven gods”), which belongs to the “Alanian, that is, the Taurian language”. Many researchers believe that the name of the Crimean medieval city of Sugdeya (modern Sudak) in the Alanian language meant "pure, holy." According to church tradition, recorded in the 13th century, this city was founded in 212 AD.
In the North Caucasus, the settlements of the Alans, for the most part based on places previously inhabited back in the Koban, Scythian, Sarmatian times, developed rapidly. One of these settlements, which has no domestic analogues in terms of the power of defensive structures, was discovered by archaeologists in the territory of the village of Zilga, not far from Vladikavkaz. Scientists have established that the Zilga settlement existed in the 2nd - 5th centuries AD. e.
Gradually, Alanya is gaining a solid international weight. This was greatly facilitated by its military power and advantageous geographical position. Important trade routes, as well as roads of military strategic importance, passed through its territory. In the VI century, the route of the Great Silk Road was laid through the territory of Alanya. Thanks to international trade, the treasury of Alania received a considerable income and, in addition, she was able to establish close ties with many states. Contemporaries considered Alania a country full of "all sorts of blessings", in which there is "a lot of gold and magnificent robes, noble horses and steel weapons, hardened by the blood of reptiles, chain mail and noble stones" (Fig. 31).
The Alans were engaged in cattle breeding, did not change the traditions of horse breeding. The country was also very rich in bread. Archaeologists have identified pits for storing grain, as well as sickles, grain grinders and mortars with pestles. The Alans, like the Scythians in their time, were good beekeepers. From honey they made an intoxicating drink - rong, which is widely mentioned in the Ossetian epos about Narts.
The turbulent history of those years accelerated the early state processes that had begun. Participation in the Arab-Khazar wars, diplomatic and military cooperation with Byzantium and Georgia rallied the Alanian military aristocracy, pushing it to socio-economic changes in society. At the beginning of the X century. Alanya officially accepts Christianity. Byzantine, Georgian and Arabic chronicles note that the Alans had a strong royal power, an extensive network of cities and fortresses, castles and churches (Fig. 32, 33). The description of medieval Alania differs little from the description of contemporary Rus', Georgia, and Bulgaria.
Powerful medieval states sought a political alliance with her, and their rulers considered it an honor to intermarry with the kings of Alania. The latter were related to the Byzantine emperors, Khazar, Georgian, Armenian, Abkhazian kings, ancient Russian princes. In the prestigious list of states with which Byzantium maintained diplomatic relations, Alania was located above Khazaria and Rus'. If the Georgian, Abkhaz and other Caucasian rulers received orders from the Byzantine emperor, then the king of Alania was recognized as an independent sovereign and was called his “spiritual son” (Fig. 33a, b).
At the same time, Alania maintains stable ties with the kindred population of the Northern Black Sea region, noted by ancient Russian chronicles under the ethnonym Yasy (Alans). At the same time, scientists fix the final formation of the Nart epic of the Alan-Ossetians.
The Ossetian Nart epic is an outstanding cultural monument of Scythian antiquity and the Alanian Middle Ages (Fig. 34). In the form of myths, depicting the history of the ancient people, starting from the tribal system and ending with the tragedy that befell him as a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, he is rooted in the era of the Aryans. Tales about the Narts, under whose name the creators of the epic themselves act, in figurative form reflect the model of the world, worldview, way of life and social structure of the ancestors of the Ossetians. The images of Nart heroes evoke associations with real-life historical heroes who followed the same code of honor. A real man is a valiant warrior, temperate in food and respecting a woman. A warrior possessing these qualities is placed by the Narts on the highest rung of the social ladder. They do not forgive insults and keep their word.
In the historical chronicles of the V-VII centuries. Alans are often mentioned among the "written" peoples. Information has been preserved that suggests that the church service was held in the Alanian language, and, consequently, there were translations of theological literature. In particular, this is prompted by the words of the creator of the Slavonic writing Constantine the Philosopher (in monasticism Cyril) dating back to the 9th century, who mentions the Alans among the peoples "having a written language and glorifying God in their native language."
Research in the 20th century led to the discovery of a curious pattern. In the period from 800 to 1200 years. AD the peoples of Europe are experiencing intensive state building. During the same period, abnormal global warming, an increase in grain yields and a general economic take-off are noted, which once again confirms the connection between the history of mankind and the surrounding space. But good times in history are always followed by years of trials. And in this sometimes you want to see a holding hand.
Mongol-Tatar invasion of the XIII-XIV centuries. completely undermined the statehood of the Alans. The Alans were the first to fall under the wheel of formidable conquerors, the first clash with which occurred in 1222. It ended in the defeat of the Alans (deceived by their allies - the Polovtsian khans), but not in their subjugation. After his death, the myriad army of Genghis Khan was led by his grandson Batu, who in 1238 set about conquering Alania. For three months he besieged its capital in 1239, and in the end the city of Magas fell (Fig. 35, a). However, this sad event did not bring the Alanian princes to their senses, did not prompt them to leave their feuds and stand as a wall for their country. As a result, despite the desperate resistance of its inhabitants, Alanya was defeated in parts. On its territory, the Mongol-Tatar state of the Golden Horde was created, which included the conquered Alan principalities.
One part of the Alans, fortified in the narrow gorges of mountainous Alania, tirelessly disturbed the conquerors, raiding their settlements, the other left their homeland forever. This exodus owes its origin, for example, to the Hungarian jars. Scientists have also noted that since the XIII century. Crimean Alans or Ases are repeatedly mentioned in written sources. The last ethnonym (the name of the people) is justifiably compared with the Yases (as the Alans were called in the Russian chronicles) and therefore identified with the Alans. The sudden discovery by the authors of medieval writings of the Crimean Alans against the background of the previous long silence is hardly accidental. It seems that to the Crimea from the North Caucasus approximately early XIII V. moved some group of Alans. Purely hypothetically, based only on the coincidence of dates, it can be assumed that this migration occurred as a result of or in connection with the threat of the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
In the first half of the XIII century. The Christian missionary Bishop Theodore, on his way to North Caucasian Alania, arrived by sea in Kherson (this was the name of ancient Chersonesus in the Middle Ages, the ruins of which are located near modern Sevastopol). Pursued by enemies, he fled and found shelter in an Alanian village not far from the city. “Alans live near Kherson, as much by their own will as by the desire of the Kherson people, like a kind of fence and protection of the city,” writes Theodore. A little higher, he calls these Alans "small". Theodore's information seems especially reliable in light of the fact that he eventually reached the Caucasian Alania and, therefore, was able to compare the inhabitants of the Crimea and the Caucasus. Probably, as a result of such a comparison, he called the Crimean Alans "small", in contrast to the much more numerous, but kindred inhabitants of the North Caucasus. Thanks to the testimony of Theodore, it becomes clear that the Alans were concentrated in the South-Western Crimea, where they guarded the approaches to Kherson.
The most important evidence about the Crimean Alans belongs to the Arab geographer of the XIV century. Abu al-Fide (Abulfeda). “Kerker or Kerkri ... is ... in the country of Ases, his name means forty people in Turkish; it is a fortified castle, difficult to access; he rests on a mountain that cannot be climbed. At the top of the mountain there is a square where the inhabitants of the country (in a moment of danger) find refuge. This castle is at some distance from the sea; the inhabitants belong to the Ases tribe... Kerker is located to the north of Sary-Kermen; between these two places one day's journey. Thanks to fairly accurate topographic indications, none of the researchers doubts that Kerker (often referred to by other authors as Kyrk-Or) is the famous "cave city" of Chufut-Kale, located not far from modern Bakhchisaray. Some late medieval Arabic and Turkic-speaking authors called Kherson Sary-Kermen. Thus, it turns out that the Alans, as in the 13th century, inhabited the South-Western Crimea and possessed one of the most powerful fortresses on the peninsula.
The same was written at the beginning of the 15th century. Arab geographer Al-Kashkaidi, and in the XVIII century. - Turkish historian Aali-Efeidi.
In the Caucasus, the fate of the Alans developed tragically. Having stormed the capital of Alania, the Mongols occupied its foothill territories. After them, devastation and civil strife began, which are well known to us by analogy with Russian history. The Mongols skillfully poisoned one people against another, dividing them and dominating them. But the Alans tried more than once to free themselves from Mongolian yoke raising uprisings. The center of one of them was the large Alanian city of Dedyakov. However, all performances ended in failure.
At the end of the 14th century, a grandiose battle took place on the Alanian lands between the Golden Horde and the Central Asian conqueror Timur. Timur defeated Tokhtamysh - Khan of the Golden Horde - and then turned his sword against the Alans, completing the process of genocide of a huge people, finally undermining the Alanian statehood. Unheard of disaster befell ancient people with a developed civilization (Fig. 36). It has lost its former level of economic and social development. As if he did not have populous cities and lively trade. As if he only dreamed of his single mighty state, and the vast expanses of mountains and plains, their untold riches. Driven out of the familiar circle of the advanced countries of that time and isolated from them, he was limited at the same time in his internal communications. Locked in mountain gorges and forgotten by everyone, he had to start all over again. A gloomy period of survival and hard struggle for existence dragged on. The remnants of the once strong people, entrenched in their last territory - in the mountain gorges of the Central Caucasus, are recorded by Georgian chronicles as "axes", and since the 18th century. Russians as "Ossetians" they have preserved to our times their unique northern Iranian language, and their unique thousand-year-old culture (Fig. 37, a).
It should be noted that the Alanian diaspora of Hungary retains its language and culture until the 18th century, and the Crimean Alans survive until late medieval, inhabiting two regions of the Crimea. One of them - densely populated with a center in Kyrk-Ora - Chufut-Kale - is localized in the South-Western Crimea, the other, less significant - in the south-eastern part of the peninsula. Separate groups Alans settled in the Crimean steppe. In the 16th century, after the capture of Crimea by the Turks, the Alans, apparently, take part in the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Greeks and Crimean Tatars (mountain ethnographic group), lose their ethnic characteristics and cease to exist as an ethnic group.
An old Ossetian song dedicated to the sad events of the past has brought to our days the amazing image of Nana Zadaleski, who saved orphaned children from the "agile Timur's army". Exhausted from adversity, a hunched old woman gathered them together, hid them in a cave and, “protecting them from beasts and from the enemy,” raised them. The song calls her the Mother from Zadalesk, but she sees in her the Great Mother Ossetia-Alania, which was bled to death by the blows of fate, but whose spirit remained unbroken.
From the book by V. Tsagaraev "The Golden Apple Tree of the Narts")
www.anaharsis. en
In January 1995, North Ossetia received its current name "Republic of North Ossetia-Alania". In this form, the name of the region is included in Article 65 of the Constitution Russian Federation, as the official name of one of the subjects of the federation. The constitution was adopted in 1993; in 1995, it had to be amended accordingly. The Ossetian lobby even pushed through a change in the country's Constitution to please its pseudo-historical fantasies. And Moscow went for it, by the inertia of the phrase "take as much sovereignty as you can swallow." Since sovereignty can be swallowed, then history can be rewritten and call yourself whatever you like. The Kremlin leadership did not pay attention to these "trifles": the main thing was to maintain power and the ability to rob people's wealth. If you don’t interfere, then call yourself at least a scarecrow, at least Alans, at least Martians. Not yielding "in the main thing" - in money and power, the Yeltsin administration easily handed out symbolic rights, privileges and magnificent names. Thus, the false Ossetian-Alanian hypothesis received, as it were, state recognition, the status of official history and ideology.
I am very rude with the Ossetian-Alanian falsification, but only because it has become "official", or rather semi-official. As one of the debatable hypotheses, the version that Ossetians are the closest heirs of the ancient and medieval Alans among the modern peoples of the Caucasus is quite worthy of existence in science and literature. This hypothesis has a number of justifications and its own set of more or less convincing evidence; like several other hypotheses, there are justifications and evidence. However, real, serious, unbiased historical science has not come to a firm and unambiguous conclusion regarding the Alans and the continuity from the Alans among modern ethnic groups. It has not yet come and, perhaps, it will not come, since the evidence of past centuries is very limited and we can only invent new interpretations of existing sources. In such a situation, to proclaim Ossetians "Alans", Ossetia "Alania" is the height of incorrectness, rudeness, populism, falsification and "administration" of history. Thus, all scientific doubts, objections, all other theories and a balanced academic view of history are swept aside. Instead of history, we get the Alania football club and the republic of the same name.
In addition, the Ossetian-Alanian falsification is nothing more than inciting ethnic hatred. No, I'm not instigating hatred, "denying" the Ossetians the right to be called "Alans". And the implementers of falsification plant enmity. Failing to convince their opponents, serious scientists, not only neighboring peoples, but also Russian and world-famous, who defend different views and continue scrupulous studies of linguistic and archaeological data, the falsifiers took advantage of the “administrative resource” and passed their version through the legislature.
The North Caucasus has been home to a great many peoples for centuries. In their constant historical joint existence, a common North Caucasian culture was formed, a significant part of the distinctive features of which is the common heritage and common property of all the peoples of the North Caucasus. And privatization, the usurpation of the most important epochs of historical life by the nationalist circles of one of the regions does not at all contribute to friendship and mutual understanding between all the peoples inhabiting the lands of the North Caucasus.
As always, like all seemingly abstract historical falsifications, this one has its own very specific political and territorial background. In 1992, there was a bloody Ossetian-Ingush conflict. I do not want to support any of the parties to the conflict, such events are always a tragedy for both sides. However, it is obvious that the federal authorities took the Ossetian position, squeezing out the Ingush population and leaving the disputed territories behind North Ossetia. This problem cannot be considered solved to this day. As long as one of the parties to an interethnic conflict considers itself unfairly oppressed, the roots of enmity remain. And in such already tense circumstances, North Ossetia victoriously appropriates the “symbolic capital” of ancient Alania, thereby unambiguously hinting at its “historical right” to dominate these and many other territories of the North Caucasus. Would such a thing be possible with wise, balanced leadership, taking into account the subtleties of national relations and the painful attention of small ethnic groups to manipulations with history?
I mentioned the topic of Ossetian-Alanian falsification in passing in my book “Wolf Jump: Essays political history Chechnya”, in particular, in the chapter “Zelenchuk nonsense”. And then I treated the falsifiers impolitely, but did not devote enough space to the problem, since the essays had a different topic. In addition, I still did not understand the seriousness and all possible consequences victories of the falsifiers of the history of the North Caucasus. Now I consider it necessary to devote a special material to this issue. And I do this mainly for my friends, for good acquaintances, nice and pleasant people from among the Ossetian intellectuals, with whom I have repeatedly argued; they are wonderful people and smart, interesting authors, however, they do not seem to understand what kind of wilds they get into by supporting the deliberately false fabrications of "nationally oriented" falsifiers of history. In no case do I want to be at enmity and quarrel with anyone, I hope that we will maintain peaceful, friendly relations even in the midst of the most heated discussion. However, I am forced to put the problem in the most categorical way, because in the end it is always the truth that is most conducive to both peace and friendship, and not the indulgence of lies. This is the Sanskrit motto inscribed on the coat of arms of India: satyam eva jayate, na anritam. What does it mean: the truth wins, not a lie.
So, Ossetians are not Alans. Why?
1.
Because the Alans are no more. There are no Alans anywhere else. Just as there are no ancient Greeks, ancient Egyptians, Goths, Franks, Burgundians, Aryans, Krivichi, Vyatichi, Romans and many other tens and hundreds, maybe thousands of ancient and medieval peoples that used to be, but now they are not. A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains forever. You can talk about the history of the territories, but on those lands where Alania once was, there was a lot of things before it, and there was a lot more after it. And now North Ossetia and several other republics. And Ossetia is not Alania. As Dagestan is not Khazaria. Nations are not eternal. We can talk about greater or lesser continuity between different peoples in different territories. For example, modern Greeks are not the same as ancient Greeks. But there is some connection and it has been historically preserved, including in the name. From ancient Egypt, the current Arab Republic of Egypt is left with only a name and almost nothing more: only pyramids, museums and mummies of pharaohs, which, as they say, are not even genetically close to the modern population of Egypt. And such conquering peoples as the Aryans, Goths and Alans did not survive at all. They had a tremendous impact on culture, took part in the ethnogenesis of not only one people, but entire strings of peoples, but they themselves dissolved in them, leaving only their own glory. It happens that way too. It's not good or bad, it's just different. The Franks conquered the Gauls and gave the name France to a country inhabited mainly by the descendants of the Gauls, while they themselves disappeared into them. The Angles were conquered by the Normans, but the Normans dissolved, and the country remained England. The White Aryans came to India, Sanskritized the entire peninsula in such a way that now the Negroid of the Polynesian type, the Hindu Brahmin, calls himself an Aryan and does not let any German or Russian into his "Aryan" temple, because non-Aryans desecrate it. As the brilliant Oles Buzina, who was killed in Ukraine by the Nazis, wrote, perhaps in a few centuries the population of Eurasia will still call themselves “Slavs”, while having dark skin and a Mongolian eye shape, and speaking Surzhik from English and Chinese. Nothing stays the same. In ethnic reality, everything is in constant motion, imperceptible on the scale of human life, but on the scale of millennia, it looks like a swarm of midges. Even the modern Jews, who claim to preserve their nation from ancient times, are not at all the Jews who were subjugated and scattered by the Romans; modern Jews are the result of constant miscegenation and it is possible that the so-called "Sephardim" are in no way related to the so-called "Ashkenazi". The State of Israel was built in the bare desert from a pure dream, and official language Israel, Hebrew, was not so long ago “recreated”, that is, reinvented by philologists. What we really have in the case of the Jews is a cultural community that has retained its religion, culture and self-consciousness. This is not an ethnic group of blood, but a book that they carried with them, endlessly mixing and changing. Can the Ossetians produce a book written two or three thousand years ago in the Alanian language and since then kept in the chests of every Ossetian-Alan, in all his wanderings from Africa to Siberia? No, there is no such book. Only Jews and Hindus have such books. Moreover, the Jews with their book lost their original homeland and dispersed to foreign lands, mingling with other peoples who lived on them, and the Indians remained on their land, only these are not the peoples who wrote the books at all, but those that lived earlier or came later ; the book, it turns out, was preserved not by the people, that people no longer exist, but by the earth. And this is neither good nor bad. It's just the reality. Such is the truth. There used to be Alans, but now they are gone. There are no Russians either. But the name of the Russians was preserved by a very changed and grown people, it has already been preserved, as it happened historically. It has already happened that Russians are called Russians, and Greeks are called Greeks. But when the Ossetians, six hundred years after the death of Alania, decide that they are "Alans", and their republic is "Alania" - this is at best similar to Romania, "Romania", which decided to appoint itself the heir of Rome (Rum, Roma) and began experiments to romanize their language. Best case scenario! And so, it is more like that the inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region will pass such a law through the parliament so that they are now called nothing more than Hyperboreans, because there is ancient evidence that it seems that Hyperboreans lived somewhere here; therefore, we are they, and we demand from now on to call us "Arkhangelsk region - the Republic of Pomoria - Hyperborea". I can also give a dozen of the same ridiculous examples. Just so that the Ossetian brothers understand: their claims to Alania are no less ridiculous than to Hyperborea, Gardarika, Atlantis and other ancient or mythical lands. Alans are no more. And at the same time, we are all a little bit Alans, a little bit Goths, a little bit Greeks, and so on; for many centuries, the blood of peoples has mixed and, more importantly, culture has constantly interacted and mutually enriched. So let go of the spirits of your ancestors, do not tie them to the leg of your desk and rejoice in the privilege of being the heir not only of the Alans, but also of the Romans, and even the Cro-Magnons, who are older only than the Neanderthals and Australopithecus, but for some reason no one is standing in line for their inheritance .
2.
What were the Alans themselves, and how is it possible now, after a thousand years, to “be Alans”? What could this mean? It is embarrassing to remind about this among smart, educated people, which undoubtedly are my readers, especially Ossetians, but it has long been established by many researchers and it has already become dull common place in historical science, the fact that in ancient and early medieval times the concept of ethnos was strongly confused with the concept of estate or way of life. And also the fact that the name of a cluster of tribes and territories was often given by the name of one clan, as a rule, the dominant one, even if it was the rest of a foreign language and culture. My ancestors lived in Alanya? Yes, it's very possible. Were my ancestors Alans? Hmm, well, in a way, yes. In the same sense in which, for example, the Drevlyans, brutally murdered by the Russian princess Helga, were "also Russian." And who were Russians, Russ, so to speak, in a narrow, special sense? We open The Tale of Bygone Years and read in one of the first agreements concluded with Byzantium: we, from the Russian family ... and then a list of Swedish names. This is especially true of such societies as the Alans and Goths, which, most likely, were tribes-estates of warriors, conquerors, invaders, who formed the exploiting layer in the early state formations of the barbarians. At the same time, the neighbors could also call all the conquered Alans, or Goths, but they themselves knew about the difference. At the same time, there was certainly vertical mobility: some daring from a non-Gothic tribe could enter the squad of the Gothic leader and become a “Goth” himself. And that of the Alans, who left the military class, settled on the ground, became a peasant, remained "Alan" only in a very broad sense. At the same time, the ethnic coloring of the class, of course, was; and common language and culture. But we should hardly expect genetic unity from them. Here the language and culture are rather derived from the class. So the Russian nobles were all obliged to speak French, although few of them were French. And how tribes-estates are formed, we see from the example of the Cossacks close to us. Do you remember how they accepted Gogol into the Cossacks in the Zaporizhzhya Sich? Orthodox? Do you accept the Charter of the Sich? All right, Cossack. Go to what you know kuren. Imagine, they didn’t ask for a passport, they didn’t do a DNA test for the Y-chromosome. Or maybe he had a Turkish grandmother? Therefore, among the Terek, for example, the Cossacks, Caucasians, and Tatars, and God knows who else, starting from the descendants of the Goths, are anthropologically very noticeable. But the Tatars who went out as Cossacks accepted Orthodoxy, and they understood the Russian language in its Cossack version. However, the Cossacks also fluently spoke Tatar, which even Leo Tolstoy tells us about. This is how, most likely, the tribe-estate of the Alans was formed. Therefore, it is somehow absurd to talk about its genetic-ethnic unity, and, therefore, about the biological succession from it. Apparently, therefore, the Alans, having met with the Goths, easily formed a military community and a tribal alliance, so close that neither contemporaries nor historians can sometimes separate them, and they call them that way, through a hyphen: Goth-Alans. Although it seems that in terms of language and origin, the Goths and Alans should be completely different! However, class commonality and the same way of life (robbery, conquest, collecting tribute from conquered tribes and receiving “salaries for service” - in fact, racketeering fees - from Rome) turned out to be more important than ethnic roots. So, side by side, the Goths with the Alans moved to the West, and reached Spain, where the region of Catalonia is now called so why? Right. Because this is Goto-alania. It turns out that we are even ready (Germans) with Alans (Iranians?) not to distinguish; and you want to single out the descendants of the pure Alanian line in the cauldron of the North Caucasian peoples eight centuries after the disappearance of their ancestors. If the Alans are not only an ethnic group, but also an estate, then no “genetic markers” will help you. Although, of course, if you call Klyosov (and pay him well), he will easily prove to you that Ossetians and only Ossetians are the only male descendants of the Alans. Or the lost tribe of Israel. Or arias. Or Hyperboreans. Yes, what you order, then it will prove. Just make sure that his Kabardians do not invite you before. Or not paid more.
3.
If Ossetians are suddenly Alans, then the following question arises: what kind of Alans are Ossetians? The fact is that we first see some Alans, who, together with the Goths, driven by the Huns, as a barrage detachment, storm Europe (and North Africa!). Those Alans disappear into their Catalonia. But several centuries later we find other Alans who dominate the North Caucasus. Perhaps this is not just the same name for different tribes. Maybe they are relatives. Some went there, and others here, hid here and there, then crawled out. Happens. After all, a part of the Goths hid in the Crimea, and for several centuries there was a diocese in the Crimea called Gothia, and its capital was Mangup. Only the Crimean Gothia is still not the same Gothia, which was the power of Germanarich. In Crimean Gothia, the Goths were already heavily Hellenized, and soon became "Greeks" (because of the Greek Orthodox faith). And the population of the Crimean Gothia consisted least of all of the Goths, more of various other nationalities, of which there were always many in the Crimea. I suspect that something similar happened to the Caucasian Alania: since it turned out that the Goths and Alans are brother peoples, then their fate could be the same. After all, about a thousand years passed from the revelry of the brothers of the Alans and the Goths on the outskirts of the Roman Empire to the defeat of Alania by the Mongols. This is a lot. Too much for such a mobile people-estate as the Alans to remain the same as it was. A thousand years. No, it's unlikely. However, I repeat, I admit that the new Alans were not strangers to those ancient Alans. And yet it would be more correct to distinguish: the ancient Alans of late antiquity and the last Alans of the Middle Ages. But they were also destroyed. Fully. This is recognized by everyone, even very nationally oriented Ossetian historians. The invasion of the Mongols shook the dominion of the Alans. And then Tamerlane finished off the Alans. This is a separate long story, but Tamerlane did not just go to war against the Horde Khan, who then also owned the North Caucasus. He went to jihad, to destroy the infidels. And was great battle on the Terek, in which the consolidated army of the Horde and their vassals was defeated. And then Tamerlane returned, especially in order to finish off the North Caucasus. I hope to write a separate article about this. But in short, he destroyed everyone. It was a real genocide. After the campaign of Tamerlane, the population of the region decreased significantly. The blossoming earth became ashes. And the Alans took the brunt. After all, they were a military, dominant class! Naturally, they all fought. And everyone was killed. Tamerlane specifically hunted for the Alans. It was them that he intended to exterminate to the root. And destroyed it. After that, the Alans disappeared. How, for example, the Pechenegs disappeared after the Byzantines staged a genocide on them. Perhaps, even for sure, some individuals of the Alanian tribe, or even families, physically survived, and took refuge in the mountains, alone, or found shelter with the mountain people, once subject to them. But as a political reality, as a ruling class and dominant ethnic group, the Alans ceased to exist. This is an indisputable fact. And hiding with former tributaries, living according to their mercy and kindness (and, therefore, according to their customs) - this no longer means being an Alan. Even if such a person survived, he was no longer an Alan. Moreover, his children were not Alans. Nobody considered them Alans anymore. And they themselves did not consider themselves Alans. Therefore, no one, including the Ossetians, has preserved the self-consciousness of the Alans. The Alans are dead. And there is no way Ossetians can be kept secret (first of all, from themselves - until the intellectuals found historical books about the great Alans and it dawned on them: yes, it's us!) The descendants of the medieval Alans. It was easier for them to be the descendants of the Spanish Alans, the Catalans! By the way, have you done your research yet? How many words in the Ossetian language are the same as the Catalan dialect? And the anthropological type? Have the “geneticists” already collected biomaterials from the Catalans, are they on duty in the Catalan toilets, begging the Catalans, for example, for saliva in order to analyze the “markers”? Get busy, I give an idea, what is already there.
4.
Let us now look at some of the substantiations of the Ossetian-Alanian version. Or rather, the fluttering of the Ossetian-Alanian dream.
4.1. Language. The Ossetian language is an Alanian language.
An excellent conclusion. If we really knew something about the Alanian language. But we do not have a single complete and extensive literary monument in the Alanian language. Therefore, the Alanian language can be considered lost. The Gothic language would also be lost if it were not for the "Silver Code" - the Bible of Bishop Wulfilla, translated into the Gothic language. According to this book, the Gothic language was restored. There is no similar source for the Alanian language. What is there? There is a "Zelenchuk inscription". This is a drawing from an inscription allegedly made on a tombstone. When they went for the original source, they did not find it. The headstone is gone. Dissolved. Some Alan or Ossetian unconscious dragged away, made himself a floor in the bath. There was only a drawing made by a certain Strukov, who, swears by his mother, saw the stove. It was written on it in Greek letters, it seems, in the Yas language: the mournful grave of the valiant Ossetians. And names. Wait! And what about Alans? Well, Ossetians are Alans. Such "convincing" evidence. There are 4 (four!) Alanian phrases in one Byzantine source of the 12th century. Here they are called Alanian by the author of the text himself. According to linguists, the phrases are closest to the Yas language. Who are the yasas? These are relatives of the Ossetians who lived in Hungary. Would you be surprised that it was a Hungarian researcher who discovered Iasian phrases in a Byzantine source in 1927? Me not. The Ossetian researcher simply has not yet reached the Vatican library, so at least he sent a relative. Yases were known to both Russian and Byzantine chronicles separately and independently from the Alans. It seems that at that time no one considered them one people. But they could be confused. Moreover, the Yases could be part of an alliance of tribes led by the Alans. Yes, and their languages \u200b\u200bcould be similar, and not only among them, but also among many tribes of the Iranian cycle: Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans (if they were also Iranians), Yases, and those whom we do not know, but who also was. It turns out that both monuments, even if their authenticity is recognized (well, you never know, originals are lost, even gravestones are lost; and that interested persons find manuscripts is also unseen! Quite often this happens) are monuments of the Yassian language. From which we can conclude that there was such a people, the Yases, and that they are very related to our Ossetians. Well, they even have the same name. In principle, we already knew this. And what about the Alans? Well, here again - our friends answer us. So the Ossetians are the Alans. What else is there in the language? Toponymy and names. Wonderful. But not enough. After all, for example, the name Atilla is best translated from the Gothic (“father”), however, according to Roman historians (and I don’t have other historians for you), Atilla was still a Hun, not a Goth. We have to conclude that the available data are quite sufficient to formulate a debatable hypothesis that the Yas language, which is close to the Ossetian language, could also be close to the Alan language if the Alans had some specific ethnic language of their own. But it is absolutely not enough to “cast in granite” and print in the constitution that Ossetians are Alans and they are, because the Alan language is known to us (in fact, not) and this is the same as the ancient Ossetian language (the presence in antiquity or in the Middle Ages of the Ossetian language refutes rather than proves the Alanian hypothesis).
4.2. Religion. The Alans were Christians, and the Ossetians retained the Alanian Christian faith.
In fact, not only the Alans and not only the ancestors of the Ossetians were Christians. Christianity (or rather, its Santerian mixture with local beliefs) was very common among the peoples of the North Caucasus until Islamization. It's just that the Ossetians later began to undergo Islamization. But now the “descendants of the Alans” are Islamizing with might and main. It is impossible to establish the continuous continuity of the Alanian diocese of Byzantine Christianity with the Ossetian church, since the Alanian diocese was destroyed along with the Alans themselves during the jihad of Tamerlane.
4.3. Archeology. Somewhere in the mountains, monuments were found indicating that the Alans lived in the mountains.
Or not Alans. And some other Iranian-speaking tribes. Or the tribes of the Alanian union. What are monuments? A business card on which it is written: Alan lived here, whose grandson became an Ossetian? No. Most often these are shards of broken dishes. Remains of buildings. Weapons (quite possibly made far away) and, if you're very lucky, bones. On which nothing is written either (but if you extract DNA from them, then with some dexterity of judgment you can prove anything). And if they really were Alans, then what does this prove, besides the fact that once, in the 6th-7th century, Alans lived somewhere here? Well, we figured it out ourselves. Especially, depending on who else is considered Alans. And what about the Ossetians? And, well, the Ossetians are the Alans. Yes, I heard. It's even in the constitution. Backdating.
5.
Who are Ossetians if they are not Alans? Oh, everything here is obscenely simple. Alans are nowhere to be found for a long time. And Ossetians are Ossetians. That is why they are called that. Or you can use their self-names (of which there are several among different tribes, united by promiscuous neighbors under the name of Ossetians, but none of the self-names in any way reminds of the Alans). The ethnogenesis of the Ossetian tribes began, like many other tribes of the North Caucasus, somewhere around the 15th century, after the invasion of Tamerlane. Because Tamerlane multiplied all former ethno-political communities by zero. After him, there were no organized peoples left, there were only surviving families that wandered through the ruins and ashes and started life anew, from scratch. It's like a new humanity after the apocalypse: there used to be France, Germany, Italy, and now there is only nuclear ashes, and the descendants of the surviving Germans and Romanians are tinkering in the ashes, joining new gangs, learning to grow potatoes and pump gasoline from abandoned tanks to refuel their terrifying types of motorcycles collected from scrap metal. You see, after two or three centuries they have new tribes. But they are no longer Romanians, but some other communities. Although, if someone has retained the ability to read and found Tolkien's book, he can proclaim that they are the sons of Mordor! And they will be proud of it. So, from the remnants, scraps of the genocide, Ossetians, on the one hand, and Vainakhs, on the other, were formed. Although there is enough in common between them. One for all the Nart epic (Tolkien's book, found in nuclear ash, was read together at first; then everyone who remembered and understood it was retold to their children). But was there a substrate? And was there a language? Of course, as without it. Here, I think, it was like this: at the time it went to the Caucasus and through the Caucasus, and many tribes of the Iranian cycle settled along the way. Some are known as Scythians, like Sarmatians, Aorses, Siraks (?), Roxalans (?), someone, perhaps, like the early ancient Alans, and we don’t know other names, but they were. These surviving remnants of various Iranian tribes formed the basis for the current Ossetian peoples. It is possible that the miraculously surviving Alanian deserters also joined them (the soldiers all died). But they hardly became the basis of a new ethnogenesis. After all, if not individual individuals were preserved, but some significant pieces of the former ruling clans, then they would rather join the new ruling clan of the Kabardian princes. Because soon they, the Circassians-Circassians-Kabardians, as a new military tribe-estate, began to rule this land. And he sees his brother-in-law from afar. For a person of that time, his was close in spirit, way of life, according to class, more than one who has a similar language, but he does not know how to fight, but grows cereals. Because the Alans so easily merged with the Goths earlier. And later they could easily combine with the Circassians and become Circassians; rather than become peasants. Own is a class sign, not an ethnic one. This is the harsh reality of the past. Yes, and now partly too. And I still feel sorry for the yas. After all, not the last people were in antiquity. Not as famous as the Alans. But it is more like an ethnic community, and not just a class-professional designation. And after all, most likely the Yases, or their North Caucasian version, were the closest ancestors of the Ossetians. And the descendants forgot about them, spat on their graves, they are ashamed of their real fathers, but they try to cling to the incomprehensible, but beautiful-sounding Alans as heirs. So the Ossetians are the descendants of the Ossetians, relatives of the Yasses. And you don't have to be ashamed of it. Ossetian - it sounds proud. We all love Ossetian cheese. Ossetians are smart, brave, wonderful people. Being an Ossetian is quite enough. It is not at all necessary to consider yourself a Hyperborean or an Atlantean.
6.
In conclusion, I want to talk a little about metisization. About mixed marriages, half-breeds and other "genetic garbage", as the supporters of "purity of blood" define it. In short, "genetic garbage" is otherwise called the aristocracy. Because mixed marriages are most characteristic of the upper classes, for rulers, exploiters, for the rich, warriors, merchants and travelers. And “purity of blood” is a sure sign of a dependent peasantry. And, of course, I myself am entirely for the working people. But the zoological nationalists are somewhat surprised, who cannot decide in any way: whether they should take off their cross, or put on shorts. “Pureness of blood” is claimed to be a sign of some kind of “aristocratism”, and mixedness is the lot of the lower caste. Although in life everything was and is exactly the opposite. Multinationality is a property of the elite, kings, princes, boyars, nobles, warriors. And “purity of blood” is a sign of serfs. If someone says that he is “pure Russian”, or “pure Georgian”, or “pure Chatlan”, then he thereby admits that his ancestors, most likely, were of a poor, servile class. And that's not bad. In Soviet times, such a person would be welcomed for a correct, labor, worker-peasant origin. But aristocrats are almost always "multinational". The purest Russian can be found in the deepest rural wilderness. Especially if his ancestors were serfs. They, of course, married each other in the same village. The master did not order to go further. The same is with other peoples, not excluding the mountain peoples. The poor, the disenfranchised were forced to keep their blood pure. But the aristocracy has always been prone to interethnic marriages. Here, we read in the Ipatiev Chronicle that in 1116, Prince Yaropolk captured an Ossetian, the daughter of the Yassky prince, because she was very beautiful, and married her. Such a Russian-Ossetian mixed marriage in the XII century. Because the prince could afford it. And at the same time, of course, somewhere in a deep forest, in a swamp, Russian peasants kept the purity of blood by marrying second cousins; and so did their distant class brothers, the Iasian poor dependent people. And mixing blood is the business of princes. And in vain do you think that the aristocrats were illegible in this matter. The same Yaropolk, he stole for himself not just a beauty, but a princess. Because to marry "one's own" is not to knock up the housekeeper, even if she is at least three times a Slav, but to have a wife from the princely class. The aristocracy is prudent in marriages. Marriage for the aristocracy is not just about getting a cook and someone to sleep with, it is an opportunity to unite estates, possessions, strengthen diplomatic ties, and so on. The elite marry their own. But for her, her own people are not bastards from the people (exploiters never consider the subject people to be their own), but the same aristocrats, no matter their own people or someone else's. Alien is even better. Before us is an example not only of princes, but of the entire Russian nobility, which was made up of: Russians, Tatars, Lithuanians, Poles, Germans, Swedes, and so on. Like different nations ? No, one, because one caste. Because not any Tatars became Russian nobles, but only khans, beys, rich and powerful people. A person could change his faith and, as a result, his language and ethnicity, but his estate remained the same. If a khan came out of the Horde to Rus', then he was ranked among the princely estate, if he was a bey, then he was a boyar, and a simple Tatar warrior could only become an archer or, if he was lucky, a Cossack. Sometimes, as a sign of special merits, the monarch personally could raise the class status of a faithful servant; and then, for another two or three generations, this family was considered upstarts. For the aristocracy, the preservation of “purity of blood” means marriages within the class, and not within the ethnic group. Who is ethnicity? Serf me or something? When a descendant of a German baron gave his daughter as a descendant of a Tatar murza, this was the hereditary Russian aristocracy, an impeccable origin. And when a Russian landowner gave birth to a child from his Russian serf, then this is not just a child of misalliance, but a disenfranchised degenerate, alas. Alexander Pushkin was extremely proud of his origins. And it would not have occurred to any nobleman to reproach him with a "Negro admixture." That same legendary maternal ancestor of Pushkin, the Arap of Peter the Great, firstly, was not a galley slave at all, but the son of an African prince (!!!), a direct vassal of the Turkish sultan, and this level is almost royal; secondly, he had the emperor himself as a godfather and rose to the rank of general-in-chief. And the fact that he was black meant nothing to a normal nobleman, because the real “Negro” is his Russian white-skinned serf, and the prince, whether he be black or green, he is the prince. Pushkin was proud of his generosity both on the maternal and paternal lines, no one even in delirium considered him a “mestizo”, “geek”, “half-breed”, Pushkin himself spoke caustically about some freshly baked “aristocrats” who “jump into princes from crests ". And the point, again, is not in the ethnic group, but in the class, because Khokhols are Little Russian peasants, townsfolk or land-poor, thin landowners. It is impossible to become an aristocrat, only one born aristocrats can be an aristocrat. Such was the class principle, such were the ideas about "purity of blood" among the ruling class, almost always and almost everywhere. They never had anything to do with ethnic or even racial uniformity. I can give a thousand more illustrations, but I will stop. I hope the idea is clear. And why am I explaining this, and what does the Alans have to do with it? Well, at the same time, the Alans. Since the Alans were, most likely, not just a narrow ethnic group, but a ruling tribe-estate, a layer of warriors and rulers, there can be no particular doubt that they were for several centuries (if they existed or at least their name existed for several centuries) were able to combine with the elite and the North Caucasian societies subject to them, and with their neighbors - Georgians, Armenians, Greeks, Russians, Persians and anyone else in general. According to the principle not of ethnicity, but of class - princes in their own circle, nobles in their own, combatants in their own. And by the time of death, ethnically, culturally and in language, the "Alans" were the same as the "Russian nobles" at the time of their death: a wide range of bloodlines and knowledge of several languages, especially "international" - Greek, Latin. Therefore, there are no monuments in Alanian and there is no writing in Alanian, despite the development of Alanian civilization. The search for a literary Alanian language is meaningless, because it could not exist at all. Why is it needed? All real Alans, that is, the elite: warriors, rulers, priests, merchants - spoke and wrote in Greek, like other elites of Eastern Christendom. And among themselves they gradually began to communicate in Greek. They needed a different language only to communicate with their subjects. And it is quite possible that the Yas language was such, if the Yases and related proto-Ossetian, post-Iranian tribes made up a significant part of the subject population. Was their own language , or what is left of it for several centuries of class existence is similar to the Yassky? Maybe he was. This we will never know. Maybe they could understand the yas in the same way that the Polish gentry, at the very least, understood the Russian, "Ukrainian" peasants. And before their Lomonosovs, Derzhavins, Pushkins, who began to create a literary language among the Russians on the basis of the church and annalistic Old Bulgarian, folk dialect (from a peasant nanny), the experience of Greek poetry and borrowing the grammatical structures of French and German, the Alans did not live. Tamerlane cleaned them up. It was quite possible for foreigners to take this national Yas language of Alanya for Alan, although the Alans themselves did not necessarily think so, but there is very little evidence even for this (four phrases found by Yas-Hungarian in the Vatican library in the 20th century and that’s it). Such is the lining, such is the ins and outs of the claims to the Alanian inheritance. In the Caucasus, everyone understands that the one who calls himself "Alan" does not actually claim any kind of ethnic identification, but wants to classify himself as a "higher", master class, called to rule the Caucasians. And we don't like that. After long centuries of wars and strife, the mountain communities of the North Caucasus developed the rules of strict military democracy, equality of rights, and the absence of estates. This was quite surprised by Russian authors who wrote that in the North Caucasus every "bridle", every free, independent, is his own master. After the Alans, the Kabardian feudal lords owned the plains for a long time. But they were gradually supplanted by local societies - Vainakh and others. Freed from the princes. And since then there has been one proverb in the Chechen language based on untranslatable consonance, which says: whoever calls himself a prince is a dog. Therefore, loving and respecting all our peoples, honoring our history, and in it the Khazars, Alans, and Adygs, we must, nevertheless, consider our culture as a common property of all the North Caucasian peoples; consider history and legends as a common heritage; and not to declare themselves, contrary to historical truth and contrary to the fraternal, democratic customs of our peoples, as the heirs of the ruling clans, loud-sounding "Alans" or someone else. It is better in peace and friendship to study history together, to be proud of our ancestors together and to learn from them together - to learn both valor and learn a lesson from their tragic experience. And do not repeat the mistakes, do not condone the hatred that has already sharpened our land for centuries, bled it dry and made it weak before the enemies. Together we, all the peoples of the North Caucasus, and also the Tatars, and the Cossacks, and, of course, the Russian people, the support and foundation of our common statehood, are a great invincible force.
7.
My Ossetian friends will surely find many mistakes in the essay and point them out to me. I will gladly correct all the details, but the general meaning and message of my essay is unlikely to change. I want to repeat that I sincerely love all my countrymen, all brothers, which I consider all the peoples of our beautiful land, and only for the sake of good and the common good, I undertook this work, without receiving either money or honors for it. Please forgive me for forced sharpness, it is necessary to clearly identify the problem. I ask for a special apology and understanding from the Ossetian intellectuals, whom I deeply respect, whom I value infinitely, and therefore I enter into a discussion; otherwise what would I care? When a stranger does strange things or says strange things, out of politeness you pretend not to notice; but when your brother holds his hands over an open fire and is likely to get burned, you will go up to him and try to convince him not to harm yourself and others; so I turn to the Ossetians because they are like brothers to me, I will not explain to the Castilians what they are wrong, arguing with the Catalans - these are people far from us, they will figure it out themselves. But we are close to each other, not strangers. Therefore, accept with love what is made with love for you. And we can argue, but how do brothers argue, without resorting to weapons or administrative intervention "from above". In this dispute, we can be sharp and caustic, but we will not be offended by each other, and after that we will go together to eat Ossetian pie or Chechen chepelgash, which are also brothers, like you and me. I embrace you all, my dears, and let me jokingly sign.
Herman Amal Sadulayev-Gotsky,
Chechen, Cossack and Goth, direct descendant of Germanaric Amal of Goth, Rurik and Genghis Khan
St. Petersburg-Yurt, December 14, 2017
The Huns did not put an end to the Roman Empire. She fell under the hooves of the Alanian cavalry. An Eastern people with long skulls brought a new cult of war to Europe, laying the foundations for medieval chivalry.
Invincible wars
The Roman Empire throughout its history has repeatedly faced the invasion of nomadic tribes. Long before the Alans, the borders of the ancient world shook under the hooves of the Sarmatians and Huns. But unlike their predecessors, the Alans became the first and last "non-German" people who managed to establish significant settlements in Western Europe. For a long time they existed next to the empire, periodically making "neighborly visits" to them. Many Roman commanders spoke about them in their memoirs, describing them as invincible warriors.
According to Roman sources, the Alans lived on both sides of the Don, that is, in Asia and Europe, since, according to the geographer Claudius Ptolemy, the border passed along this river.
Those that inhabited the western bank of the Don, Ptolemy called the Scythian Alans, and their territory "European Sarmatia". Those who lived in the East were called Scythians in some sources (according to Ptolemy) and Alans in others (according to Suetonius). In 337, Constantine the Great accepted the Alans into the Roman Empire as federates and settled them in Pannonia (Central Europe). From a threat, they at once turned into defenders of the empire's borders, for the right to settle and pay. True, not for long.
Almost a hundred years later, dissatisfied with the conditions of life in Pannonia, the Alans entered into an alliance with the German tribes of the Vandals. It was these two peoples, acting together, who found themselves the glory of the destroyers of Rome after having plundered the Eternal City for two weeks. The Roman Empire never recovered from this blow. Twenty-one years later, the German leader Odoacer formally "declared" the fall of Rome, forcing the last of the Roman emperors to abdicate. The name of the vandals, to this day, remains a household name.
Fashion for "Alanian"
Imagine the citizens of Rome who began to imitate the barbarians. It seems absurd to think that a Roman, dressed in Sarmatian trousers, has grown a beard and rides on a short but fast horse, trying to conform to the barbarian way of life. For Rome in the 5th century AD, this was not uncommon. The Eternal City was literally “covered” by the fashion for everything “Alanian”. They adopted everything: military and equestrian equipment, weapons; Alanian dogs and horses were especially valued. The latter were not distinguished by either beauty or height, but were famous for their endurance, to which they attributed an almost supernatural character.
Satiated with material goods, the Roman patricians sought an outlet in everything simple, natural, primitive and, as it seemed to them, close to nature. The barbarian village was opposed to the noisy Rome, the ancient metropolis, and the representatives of the barbarian tribes themselves were idealized so much that traces of this “fashion” formed the basis of subsequent medieval legends about courtly knights. The moral and physical advantages of the barbarians were a favorite theme of novels and short stories of that time.
For the Alans, as well as for the rest of the federates in general, the opposite process was characteristic. The barbarians preferred to use the achievements of a large civilization, on the periphery of which they found themselves. During this period, there was a complete exchange of values - the Alans were Romanized, the Romans were "Alanized".
Deformed skulls
But not all the customs of the Alans were to the liking of the Romans. So, they ignored the fashion for an elongated head and artificial deformation of the skull, which was common among the Alans. Today, a similar feature of the Alans and Sarmatians greatly facilitates the work of historians, making it possible to determine the distribution of the latter, thanks to the long skulls found in burials. So, it was possible to localize the habitat of the Alans on the Loire, in Western France. According to Sergei Savenko, director of the Pyatigorsk Museum of Local Lore, up to 70% of the skulls dating back to the Alans era have an elongated shape.
In order to achieve an unusual head shape, a newborn whose cranial bones had not yet grown strong was tightly bandaged with a ritual leather bandage decorated with beads, threads, and pendants. They wore it until the bones were strengthened.
The elongation of the skull had a ritual character. There is a version that the deformation affected the brain and allowed the Alanian priests to go into a trance faster. Subsequently, representatives of the local aristocracy intercepted the tradition, and then it came into wide use along with fashion.
Ancestors of King Arthur
According to Flavius Arrian, the Alans and Sarmatians were mounted spearmen powerfully and quickly attacking the enemy. He emphasizes that an infantry phalanx equipped with projectiles is the most effective means of repulsing the attack of the Alans. The main thing after this is not to "buy in" to the famous tactical move of all the steppe dwellers: the "false retreat", which they often turned into a victory. When the infantry, with whom they had just stood face to face, pursued the fleeing and disordered enemy, the latter turned his horses and overturned the foot soldiers. Obviously, their manner of fighting later influenced the Roman way of warfare. At least, later telling about the actions of his army, Arrian noted that
"The Roman cavalry holds their spears and beats the enemy in the same manner as the Alans and Sarmatians."
This, as well as Arrian's considerations regarding the combat capabilities of the Alans, confirms the prevailing opinion that in the West they seriously considered the military merits of the Alans.
Their fighting spirit was elevated to a cult. As ancient authors write, death in battle was considered not only honorable, but joyful: the Alans considered the “happy dead” to be the one who died in battle while serving God. The same "unfortunates" who happened to live to old age and die in their bed were despised as cowards and became a shameful stain in the family.
The Alans had a significant influence on the development of military affairs in Europe. With their legacy, historians associate a whole range of both military-technical and spiritual-ethical achievements, which formed the basis of medieval chivalry. According to Howard Reid's research,
the military culture of the Alans played a significant role in the formation of the legend of King Arthur.
It is based on the testimonies of ancient authors, according to which Emperor Marcus Aurelius recruited 8,000 experienced horsemen - Alans and Sarmatians. Most of them were sent to Hadrian's Wall in Britain. They fought under banners in the form of dragons, and worshiped the god of war - a naked sword stuck in the ground.
The idea of looking for an Alanian basis in the Arthurian legend is not new. So American researchers, Littleton and Malkor, draw a parallel between the Holy Grail and the sacred cup from the Nart (Ossetian) epic, Nartamonga.
Kingdom of Vandals and Alans
It is not surprising that the Alans, distinguished by such militancy, in alliance with the no less militant tribe of the Vandals, represented a terrible misfortune. Distinguished by their particular savagery and aggressiveness, they did not enter into an agreement with the empire and did not settle in any locality, preferring nomadic robbery and the seizure of more and more new territories. By 422-425, they approached Eastern Spain, took possession of the ships located there, and, under the leadership of the leader Gaiseric, landed in North Africa. At that time, the African colonies of Rome were going through hard times: they suffered from Berber raids and internal rebellions against the central government, in general, they represented a tasty morsel for the united barbarian army of Vandals and Alans.
In just a few years, they conquered the vast African territories that belonged to Rome, led by Carthage. A powerful fleet passed into their hands, with the help of which they repeatedly visited the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy.
In 442, Rome was forced to recognize their complete independence, and thirteen years later, its complete defeat.
Alanian blood
Alans for all the time of their existence managed to visit many territories and leave their mark in many countries. Their migration stretched from Ciscaucasia, through most of Europe, and into Africa. It is not surprising that today many peoples living in these territories claim to be considered the descendants of this famous tribe.
Perhaps the most likely descendants of the Alans are modern Ossetians, who consider themselves the successors of the great Alania.
Today, there are even movements among Ossetians who advocate the return of Ossetia to its supposedly historical name. It is worth noting that the Ossetians have grounds to claim the status of the descendants of the Alans: the common territory, the common language, which is considered a direct descendant of the Alanian, the commonality of the folk epic (Nart epic), where the ancient Alanian cycle supposedly serves as the core. The main opponents of this position are the Ingush, who also stand up for their right to be called descendants of the great Alans. According to another version, the Alans in ancient sources were a collective name for all hunting and nomadic peoples located north of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.
According to the most common opinion, only a part of the Alans became the ancestors of the Ossetians, while other parts merged or dissolved into other ethnic groups. Among the latter are Berbers, Franks and even Celts. So, according to one version, the Celtic name Alan comes from the patronymic "Alans", who settled at the beginning of the 5th century in the Loire, where they mixed with the Bretons.
