by Roshen Dalal
The Andronovo had four subcultures:
Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim in southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan (2200–1600 BCE): Sintashta in southern Urals has graves along with grave goods including chariot burials in kurgans and all or part of animals, particularly horses and dogs. Sheep, goats, cattle, weapons, ornaments (including cheek pieces for horses), and scattered straw thought to represent barhis (used in Vedic sacrifices) were also buried. Excavations at Arkaim, located near Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals, have unearthed an area with three concentric walls.
Alakul (2100–1400 BCE): Lying between the Amu and Syr Darya in the Kyzylkum desert, the Alakul graves have a number of child burials.
Alekseyevka (1300–1100 BCE): Lying in eastern Kazakhstan, this culture had contacts with Namazga VI in Turkmenistan.
Fedorovo (1500–1300 BCE): Lying in southern Siberia, this has the earliest evidence of cremation and of a fire cult. There was handmade pottery and evidence of the swastika.
The Andronovo thus covers a huge area. The four subcultures and their inter-relationships have been analysed and defined in many ways. What is most important about the culture in terms of its connection with the Indo-Iranians is that aspects of the Andronovo have been traced in several cultures along a possible route of migration to Iran and Bactria.
Parpola traces the origin of the Indo-Iranians to the Pit Grave culture or the Hut Grave culture, which included the Poltavka and Abashevo cultures, dated to 2800–2200 BCE (or 2500–2000 BCE). These two cultures split between 2200 and 2000 BCE. One branch remained on the Volga steppes, and was known as the Poltova or Poltovka culture. This became the Timber Grave (Srubnaya) culture that continued till 1000 BCE. Another branch moved east between the Tobol and Ishim rivers, and became the early phase of the Andronovo or Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim culture. According to Parpola, it had two dialects. Poltavka in the west was pre-Proto-Iranian speaking while Abashevo in the east was pre-Proto-Aryan. These dialects became more distinct in 1800 BCE, and the Ural river formed the border between them. The Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers formed the Timber Grave culture and expanded through Central Asia using horses. The Proto-Indo-Aryan reached Mittani (Syria–Turkey) via southern Central Asia and northern Iran, using the horse-drawn chariot.
The Russian archaeologist Elena Kuzmina also identified Indo-Iranians with the Andronovo, partly on the retrospective method of seeing the evolution of the Andronovo elements in the later Sarmatian and Shaka of the 7th–6th centuries BCE. She also finds in the Andronovo a predominance of horses, cattle, chariots, and craft production for domestic use (handmade pottery, etc.) and no temples, no donkeys, no pigs, which, according to her, Indo-Iranians did not have. Instead, they had a camel and horse cult. In her book, The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, she says:
The Andronovo is the only culture in which the Bactrian camel, horse, ox and sheep cults are combined, and there is no pig cult. In this culture horse-drawn chariots spread early, there was a chariot cult and ancient chariot warriors, the social strata was defined; the fire cult was well developed, (including a hearth and ash cult); the dead were buried in graves under a kurgan with a fence according to cremation or inhumation ritual; the economy involved mixed farming with stock-raising dominant. In other words, the economy, everyday life, social system, rituals and beliefs of the Andronovans corresponds completely to the picture that is reconstructed for the Indo-Iranians according to the evidence of language, which leads to the conclusion that the Andronovans spoke Indo-Iranian.
However, Rig Vedic evidence does not correspond with these theories. The social strata was not well defined at the time of the Rig Veda. The donkey was well known, and there was no camel cult.
Kuzmina also finds house styles similar to those described in the Atharva Veda but that is a later text, certainly composed in India, and cannot be projected back into a remote past and a remote land. In fact, others have identified the Sintashta with the Indo-Iranians because the remains, with large communal houses and pit graves of a single type, represented ‘a lack of social classes’.
At least four Sintashta tombs had chariot remains, which is considered an additional reason to link them with Indo-Iranians. Wagon burials are found in the earlier Yamnaya culture. There is a chariot grave at Krivoye Ozero along with a horse. The archaeological culture at Krivoye Ozero, located north of Odessa along the Black Sea, is dated between 2012 and 1990 BCE. Chariot graves are found in China from circa 1200 BCE, in Europe from the 7th century BCE and in Iron Age England as well. They are not found in early Iran. And though there are many references to the chariot in the Rig Veda, there are no chariot remains in early north India.
Not all agree that the Andronovo culture represents Indo-Iranian speakers, or even any form of Indo-European. Among noted scholars, the Russian archaeologist and ethnologist V.N. Chernetsov as well as the Austrian anthropologist-archaeologist K. Jettmar initially considered Indo-Iranians as people of the Andronovo but later saw the people of the Andronovo culture as Finno-Ugrian speakers. This is a prominent theory.
Tracing the migratory route from here to India and Iran is not easy. The typical graves and burial mounds of the steppes do not occur south of the Amu Darya (Oxus). One possible route would be to move southwards towards Turkmenistan and north Iran, crossing through Afghanistan and south-east Iran into India.
Frits Staal, who has made a deep study of the Vedas, traces an alternative route of the Indo-Iranians to the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, northern China. The Tarim mummies of this region are well known, and the people are generally believed to be Tocharian speakers. Staal feels they were Indo-Aryans and the Indo-Aryan language developed while they were here. Later, they moved and diverged; one group crossed through Afghanistan to enter India while another group, moving west, founded the Mittani kingdom.
TURKMENISTAN
Turkmenistan is one of the regions considered the Avestan and Indo-Iranian homeland. It could also have been along a route of migration from the steppe region. South Turkmenistan has a Neolithic culture named after the site of Djeitun, in the foothills of the Kopet Dag mountain range. Early agricultural villages in this region range in date from 7000 BCE to 6000 BCE, an era that gradually developed into the Bronze Age. Villages were also in the Tedzen or Hari Rud inland delta. From 4000 BCE, lapis lazuli and turquoise were extracted at these sites. Conch shells from India were found of a later date.
Metal also began to be used. Anau and Namazga are two sites with early metal use. At Namazga, circa 3500–3000 BCE, there was a new polychrome pottery and new types of collective burials in round brick structures. At this time, there is a suggestion of inroads from north-east Iran, which had numerous settlements in the Gurgan valley. Simultaneously, several sites were abandoned as the delta shifted east. By 2500 BCE, Namazga had an early Bronze Age culture. This was followed by an urban phase between 2500 BCE and 2000 BCE. Another urban centre at this time was Altyn Tepe, a fortified site. Crops grown included wheat, barley, chickpea, and grape. Among the domestic animals were cattle, sheep, goat, pig, and camel. Pottery and metallurgy were well developed. A number of seals belonging to this period have been found. There are remains of a pyramidal tower similar to the Mesopotamian ziggurat. Namazga also had objects of Indian ivory.
IRAN
Iran has been seen as the homeland of both the Avestan people and the Indo-Iranians. It was occupied from the Stone Age. Early agricultural settlements date to 8000 BCE, and there were urban settlements from the 4th millennium BCE. There seem to have been several different peoples in the region. In north-east Iran, there were Neolithic sites as well as later copper- and bronze-using sites. The latter include Tepe Hissar, Turang Tepe, and Yarim Tepe. Namazga V of Turkmenistan is of approximately the same time frame as Tepe Hissar III. Archaeological finds indicate contacts between the two areas. Cultural influences extended to central Iran, as indicated by the site of Tepe Sialk in the Kashan Oasis.
In north-west Iran, artefacts from Ray—Zarathushtra’s traditional birthplace—dat
e to at least 4000 BCE. In western Iran, there was the Elam civilization whose antecedents may go back to 7000 BCE. Elam had close connections with Mesopotamia and, at times, came under Mesopotamian dynasties. Its main centres were Anshan and Susa. Elam had its own unique language and script, unrelated to others in the region.
According to Boyce, an Elamite inscription refers to Mazdaka while Mazdafarnah is a name in an Elamite tablet. Elamites also have references to the veneration of Atar and to Mithra. She compares the Avestan Nairyosangha to the Elamite Narishankha, and the Avestan nature gods of the sun and moon to those in Elam. In the 1st millennium BCE, major gods in the region were Marduk in Babylon, Assur in Assyria, Humban in Elam, and Khaldi in Urartu. Boyce suggests that Ahura Mazda was revered by western Iranians before Zoroastrianism reached the area. She says, ‘The surviving evidence thus suggests that the religion of the ancient Medes and Persians was essentially the same as of the Avestan, and the ethical ahuras dominated their pantheon,’ though Zarathushtra brought in new elements. But it is more likely that the concept and name of Ahura Mazda was introduced by Zarathushtra.
In south-east Iran, there are a number of sites, including Shadad (east of Kerman), Tepe Yahya (about 150 km south of Kerman), and Shahr-i-Sukhteh in Iranian Sistan.
Other major sites include Konar Sandal near Jiroft, Tepe Bampur, and Iblis. The ‘Jiroft’ civilization is a term used for these settlements, believed to be a Bronze Age civilization, different from Elam to the west. However, not all agree that such a culture existed, though the settlements had many unique features.
Shahr-i-Sukhteh, on the south-east border of Iran, on the Helmand riverbank near the Zahedan– Zabol road, covers an area of 150 hectares. The name means ‘the burnt city’. The first settlement is from around 3200 BCE, and it was burnt down three times before it was abandoned around 2100 BCE. Its huge graveyard covers 25 hectares, with graves of around 25,000–40,000 people. It was a very rich site, probably because of its proximity to sources of tin, and its involvement in trade. Shahr-i-Sukhteh had a large number of cattle figurines, bead production, work with lapis and turquoise, pottery, and other crafts. Women seem to have had a prominent position in the society, based on grave finds. There was an advanced system of medicine. A major find is the world’s first artificial eyeball, probably made of bitumen and covered with gold. A central circle or iris was carved in it, and gold rays radiated outwards. A gold thread held it in place. It was worn by a woman, 1.82 m (6 feet) tall. Her skeleton is dated to 2900–2800 BCE. Another skull has evidence of brain surgery. There is a skeleton which from bone analysis can be deduced to be that of a regular camel rider, probably a messenger. The inhabitants were farmers and craftsmen, with no evidence of weapons. The route from Susa to the Indus region crosses through Tepe Yahya and Shahr-i-Sukhteh. Both places had evidence of interaction with Mesopotamia, Turkmenistan, the Persian Gulf, and the Indus region.
Shahr had contacts with Mundigak in Afghanistan as well as with Mehrgarh in Baluchistan, and the Quetta sites of the pre-Harappan period (see Chapter 8). Much of its pottery was similar to that of a contemporary period at Namazga.
South-east Iran’s strategic location made it a zone of interaction between western Iran, Afghanistan, and north-west India. It may have been the region where Zoroastrianism emerged. This region also had contacts with the Arabian peninsula. The site of Bampur has fine black on grey ware (GW), and incised ware dated between 3500 BCE and1800 BCE. Such ware has also been found on the Oman peninsula and Dubai at several sites. In addition, a seal found here has simlarities with those of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex or BMAC (see below).
Some specialists in Iranian archaeology, who have suggested that the homeland of the Indo-Iranians was in Iran, feel that they could be associated with the Early West Iranian Grey Ware (EWGW) also known as Monochrome Burnished Ware (MBW) and migrated into Central Asia from this region.
Critics of the indigenous origin theory point out that this region continued to be occupied by non-Iranians such as Hurrians, Kassites, Gutians, Lullubis, and Elamites.
INTO IRAN
Several others have supported the theory that Iranian-speaking people entered Iran from Central Asia. The Russian archaeologist I.N. Khlopin felt the Indo-Iranians were in Iran and south Central Asia by the 4th millennium BCE.
Their entry into Iran has also been associated with EWGW.
L. Vanden Berghe believed that Iranians reached Iran around 1200 BCE. Along with several others, he felt that images on Luristan artefacts from the 12th to 8th centuries BCE represented Zoroastrian divinities. Hasanlu in north Iran begins around 1300 BCE and, along with other sites in the region, is thought to mark the Iranian entry. West Iran has a new culture around the same time, in which three periods are identified: 1300–1000, EWGW with cultural uniformity; 1000–800, late GW with local trends; 750–500, red ware, sometimes painted or decorated.
The French archaeologist J. Deshayes dated the Iranian immigration to the end of the 3rd millennium BCE and the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE. He thought the culture on the south-west of the Caspian, termed the Gorgan culture, which made grey-black burnished ware on a potter’s wheel, were the ancient Indo-Europeans or Iranians.
On the basis of comparison of the languages of Iran and Central Asia, I.M. Diakonoff felt that the Iranians came to Iran from the east through Central Asia, and the first groups were there by the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The Russian archaeologist E.A. Grantovsky felt they followed a Caucasian route of migration from the Pontic steppes and reached Iran around 1100 BCE. Kuzmina believes that two routes were used.
Burials of horses and the existence of horse graves are thought to be indicators of Iranian entry. Horse burials at Hasanlu and other sites in west Iran are thought to belong to the 10th and 9th centuries BCE.
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan is another region identified as the possible homeland of the Avestan people or the Indo-Iranian people, or both. The Rig Veda refers to some rivers of Afghanistan (see Chapter 6), and Zarathushtra is believed to have spent his last days there (see Chapter 5). Though the region is mountainous and difficult to traverse, its location makes it a mid-point of several regions. To the north is Central Asia, to the east China, Pakistan and India, and to the west, Iran. Lapis lazuli, from its mines in the Badakshan region, was transported to Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Harappan Civilization. Afghanistan thus had early connections with these regions.
Afghanistan too was occupied from the Stone Age. Palaeolithic tools have been found on river terraces, inhabited caves, and rock shelters, some dating to 100,000 BCE.
Upper Palaeolithic tools have been found at various sites, dating from 32,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE. Among notable sites is Aq Kupruk, 120 km south of Balkh, where over twenty thousand stone tools date between 18,000 BCE and 13,000 BCE. From this site, a face, either of a man or woman, carved on a limestone pebble, is one of the earliest in the world. From two different caves, there is evidence of domesticated sheep and goats of circa 10,000 BCE and circa 7500 BCE. Aq Kupruk also has indications of plant domestication by around 7000 BCE.
The next phase in north Afghanistan is marked by Mesolithic tools including microliths with geometric shapes, flints and microburins dating to 7000–6500 BCE.
With the intensification of agriculture, settlements developed in the plains. Deh Morasi Ghundai, 27 km south-west of Kandahar, and Said Qala nearby date to about 5000 BCE. Said Qala had mud-brick buildings with several rooms. Deh Morasi and Said Qala have similarities with pre-Harappan civilization sites, and with those of a similar date in the Iranian plateau and in Central Asia. It also has similarities with the large site of Mundigak, 51 km to the north. Excavations indicate that Deh Morasi possibly has a brick fire altar, in which goat horns, a goat scapula, a goblet, a copper seal, copper tubing, an alabaster cup, and a terracotta female figurine of Zhob type have been found. At Mundigak, the French archaeologist J.M. Casal suggested that a large pillared building, which had a doorway o
utlined with red, dating to the 3rd millennium BCE, was a temple.
Pottery, copper/bronze horse trappings, and stone seals were found at Shamshir Ghar, a cave in the limestone foothills near the Arghandab river dating to the 2nd millennium BCE. South-west of these Kandahar province sites are others of the same period.
Darra-i-Kur in Badakshan province dates back to 2000 BCE, and has similarities with sites in south Siberia and Kashmir. Three burials of domestic goats, one associated with fragments of children’s skulls, suggest an association with the Vedic period. Such an association may date to a very early period, as at a Teshik Tash in Uzbekistan, the grave of a Neanderthal child was encircled by seven pairs of goat horns. In the Rig Veda, a goat is associated with funerals and with the god Pushan.
Khosh Tapa (Happy Mound) in north Afghanistan, was located on a route crossing from Central Asia to India, and to Mesopotamia. Fragments of a hoard of gold and silver, vessels, decorated with geometric designs and with bulls, boars and snakes, have been found here, probably dating to 2300 BCE. Similarities in designs can be seen with with the Indus Harappan civilization, as well as with Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Central Asian styles. There were several other settlements, some with evidence of fortifications, clay missiles, and bronze projectile points. Afghanistan also has settlements of the BMAC.
BACTRIA–MARGIANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex dated to 2200–1700 BCE is also proposed as the Indo-Iranian homeland. Alternatively, it is thought to be a link region for the migration of the Indo-Iranians of the Andronovo culture. The BMAC culture covers present-day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and part of Iran, southern Uzbekistan, and western Tajikistan, with its central region around the upper Amu Darya. Some of its elements extended to south-east Iran and Balochistan. It emerged at a time when Namazga and Altyn Tepe in Turkmenistan were declining.