Mèdes

The Mèdes are people of the Iran old, close to the Perse S, with which they were often confused. They occupied a territory which recovers the North-West of current Iran, in the south of the Caspian Sea current Azerbaïdjan, around their capital Hangmatana/Ecbatane to II

Mèdes formed an empire at the beginning of the seventh century BC which lasted until in 550 av. J. - C. This empire competed with the kingdom of Lydie and Babylon.

Who were Mèdes?

Mèdes are Iranian people. They are related with Persians, that the Greek authors sometimes had evil to distinguish from them, testifies to it the expression “medic Guerres”.

The language mède

The language mède is a point on which one discusses much. No certainty can exist on it, if they are not that it is about an Iranian language, in the absence of texts found in this language or even of words, toponyms, anthroponymes clearly identified like coming from the language mède.

Schematically, two theories clash on this subject. The first postulates that this language is relatively different from the Perse, and that it shows its own characteristics. Holding of this theory are based for that on certain passages of Greek authors: thus, comparing the languages mède and Persian, Hérodote also mentions the word spaka (“dog”) (always present in the current Iranian languages such as the Kurdish and the Talysh), different from Persian. One also wanted to identify certain Persian words as being loans with the mède, in particular those relating to the policy or the religion; for example: xšayaθia “king”, aspa “horse”, asa “stone”. It was tempted to reconstitute mèdes roots starting from Persian words. The second theory, objecting to the first its speculative side, and the absence of sources indicating any clearly difference between Persian and the mède, prefers to be satisfied to see two very close languages there, pertaining to the same language of which they would be dialects. One can thus in this case consider that there did not exist language mède or Persian strictly speaking, but a language common to both people.

One also proposed to see in the language mède an ancestor of Kurdish.

The culture mède

The material culture of Mèdes is identified better, even if there too remote regions remain. One sometimes wanted to see in the “gray pottery” ( Gray ware ) found in sites of the valley of Gorgan and with Tepe Sialk close to Hamadan for the end of the 2nd millenium a mark of “proto-Iranian”, even “proto-mèdes” who would have arrived in the area at this period (following Roman Ghirshman in particular). In fact, the attribution of a type of Céramique to an ethnicity remains subject to deposit. The study of the sites of the area where the mésopotamiennes sources of the {{IXe}} - {{VIIIe}} centuries mentions tribes mèdes on the other hand led to more convincing discoveries concerning Mèdes.

The sites usually considered as representative of Mèdes are Godin Tepe, Nush-i Jân and perhaps Baba Jân, and which all is located in the area of Hamadan, old the Ecbatane, capital of the kingdom mède, whose levels of this period unfortunately could not be excavated. They testify to common architectural practices, strongly inspired by those of Anatolia or Urartu, already attested in the North-West of Iran in the great site of Hasanlu (generally allotted for this time to the Mannéens, people close to Mèdes).

Godin Tepe, localized close to Hamadan, was inhabited as of the end of the Neolithic , and developed while maintaining the commercial relationship with the Élam. After a phase of abandonment between the end of 2nd and the beginning of the 1st thousand-year-old, it is populated again by the Iranian populations towards 750. They arrange a fortress in height then. A powerful rampart protected the citadel on its northern side. In the east an arsenal was. In the center, a gallery with two lines of columns had been built, leading on the kitchens, and a building which could be a temple of fire. The west coast included/understood the principal part of the fortress, the palate. It was about a hypostyle big room, where the throne of the Master of the places was. Later, a second room with columns, more reduced, was built in the west. This site was probably the residence of a kinglet mède. It was abandoned in the middle of the 6th century.

Tepe Nush-i Jân is located at the north of Hamadan. It is built in height on a hill. The fortress is divided into four zones. A " fort" was located at the west. One found the lower floor of this building, which included/understood warehouses. A staircase attests presence of a stage. At the other end, a temple of Fire had been built, before being partly covered by a building with columns. Between the hall with columns and the " fort" , a second temple of fire was built (see low). At the 7th century, the inhabitants of the site recover the stone buildings, undoubtedly with an aim of preserving them to make a repair. But the site is then abandoned.

Jân baba, in the south-west of Nehavend, is a very old site, which makes new great strides as of the end of the 9th century, at the period 3A. It obtains a monumental architecture on the level 3B: its principal building is a " manoir" , of 33 X 35 meters on side, protected by turns from angles. At the century, the site is set fire to, then restored (level 3B shortly after and C). It could be that the inhabitants who arrange then are of Mèdes, unless they are not already there as of the end of the 9th century.

The archaeological material mède is identifiable with more difficulty, and generally one notes a certain homogeneity artistic and architectural at the different ones populates of Iran of the North-West of this period, which makes sometimes dubious the identification of such a type of objects or constructions to precise people. The texts can thus be of a certain help, when they also do not lend them to debates concerning the geography of the area.

The religion of Mèdes is known for us only by archeology. The site of Nush-i Jân comprised the best example of temple of fire, therefore typical of the religion “proto- mazdéenne” of the former Iranians. It is a cruciform tower of 14,5 X 16 meters. An anteroom opens on an arched room recovering a furnace bridge and a basin. From there, one reaches a driving staircase with an upper floor, or with concealed where the furnace bridge of Fire is. It comprised a furnace bridge of fire in its center. Another older temple had been built at the other end of the site and another perhaps in Godin Tepe COM one was could see it.

First certificates

The ancestors of Mèdes, arrive in the North-West of Iran at the end of the 2nd millenium, if one wants to identify them with the inhabitants of sites like Tepe Sialk V and VI, or later, towards the beginning of the {{thousand-year-old Ier}}, if one sticks to the historical sources. The fact that one could not identify material culture clearly mède does not make it possible us to see there more clearly.

Mèdes appear with obviousness in the yearly of the king Assyrie N Salmanazar III, which carries out in its twenty-fourth year of reign (835), a campaign in the area of the Western Zagros. It then subjects thirty-six “kings” mèdes, which they is rather necessary to regard as chiefs of tribes. Shamshi-Adad V takes the mède city of Sagbitu, whose it beats the Khanesiruka chief, in 815. Other Assyrian kings fight mèdes groups thereafter: Adad-Nerari III, with six recoveries, Teglath-Phalasar III, which off-sets 65.000 people of Zagros, Sargon II, with four recoveries, in particular during its eighth countryside. This one installs deportees close to the frontièe with Mèdes. His/her Sennacherib son faces the king of Ellipi, a kingdom non-mède located at the neighborhoods of the Luristan, and faces some mèdes groups then. These two Assyrian sovereigns create three provinces to support their control on the area of Western Zagros: Parshuash, Kisheshin, famous Kār-Ninurta, and Kharkhar, famous Kār-Sharrukēn. The exact localization of the places of confrontations between Assyrians and Mèdes is vague, even if one agrees to locate the heart of the area populated by Mèdes around the Alwand mount, where are Godin Tepe, Nush-i Jân and Ecbatane. The Bikni mount is a place often returning in the Assyrian sources relating to the country mède, and its localization is still discussed: is this the Alwand mount, or Demavend more in the east? Mèdes are often fought at the same time as of other people: the Mannéens, evolving in the area of the Lake Orumieh, and Persians, being at the same place towards the {{IXe}} century, before migrating to south-east to future Persia. The “tributes” (which can as sometimes be trade) as say to take the Assyrians in this area are primarily cattle, especially horses, in the breeding of which Mèdes are specialized, as well as Lapis-lazuli, produced in Afghanistan (area accessible by the shopping streets passing in country mède), or of the Cuivre.

The creation of Assyrian provinces in margin of Zagros, with the establishment of fortresses, shows that Assyrie perceives this area as a potential threat which should be controlled. In spite of that, the {{VIIe}} century sees the country mède being organized in more powerful political entities, as the archeological sites prove it, which testify to increasingly powerful local authorities. Assarhaddon carries out in 676 a forwarding in Zagros, which leads it to the kingdom of Patusharri, with the foot of the Bikni mount, where those live that it calls the “Mèdes distances”. Two years later, three kings mèdes ask him for a military aid: Uppis de Partakka, Zanasama de Partukka and Ramateia d' Urukazabarra. His/her son Assurbanipal conducts also a campaign in country mède. Nevertheless, all seems to indicate that the Assyrians lost control on the provinces of Parshuash, Kisheshin and Kharkhar, while their offensives nevertheless put at evil several political entities of the area, in particular Mannéens and Ellipi. This political vacuum leaves the place to the development of a kingdom mède, which is however never mentioned in the Assyrian sources.

The kingdom mède

The exact conditions of the foundation of the kingdom mède remain to us inaccessible. According to the tradition brought back by Hérodote, it is a character named Deioclès which succeeds in by the trick being made proclaim king of its people, and founds a large organized kingdom, with its capital, Ecbatane. It would have reigned on the various linked tribes mèdes, the Tubes, Paretaceniens, Struchates, Arizantiens, Budiens, and the Magi. Nothing of all that is indicated in the historical sources time, nor by archeology, the levels mèdes of Ecbatane not having been excavated, which does not enable us to recognize the process of construction official in the capital mède. Nush-i Jân and Godin Tepe are as for them all as well as possible only the capitals of small local potentates, but surely not the places to be able of a great empire, which are remainder often difficult to identify in the contexts of seminomad populations. An Iranian kinglet named Daiukku is attested in the Assyrian accounts of war of the time of Sargon II, but it undoubtedly is not about the king mède mentioned by Hérodote, considering the facts mentioned are around the Lac of Orumieh, and not in country mède. Any door to believe that Déioclès are a legendary character, in any case the history whom Hérodote reports concerns the myth obviously.

According to the tradition, the second king mède is Phraortès ( Fravartiš ), wire of Déioclès, which would have in particular subjected Persians, and would have died as a combatant an Assyrian king, identified with Assarhaddon. He is not attested more than his father.

Its successor Cyaxare ( Uvaxšaθra or Kayxosrew ) is on the other hand a character attested well in the Babylonian historical sources, in particular the Chronique of Nabopolassar , reporting the fall of Assyrie. According to what report the Greek authors, it would have planned to avenge his father while raising an large army to beat the Assyrians, but it would have been overcome by the Scythes, which dominate Mèdes during twenty-six years. The close relation-Eastern sources mention well a Scythian invasion in this area of the world for this period, which makes tender of Mèdes to these people a probable event. Cyaxare nevertheless would have succeeded in driving out the invaders, before assembling a powerful army. In the facts, the mésopotamiennes sources present well Cyaxare like the sovereign of a powerful kingdom, installed apparently well. For what one sees, the kingdom mède is before all the work of this character.

It comes to assistance of the king Nabopolassar of Babylon in its fight against the Assyrian empire, which lasts already since ten years. Whereas the Assyrians were driven out of Babylonia, the army of this country is still unable to attack to the heart of their country. The troops mèdes enter in scene, and tip the scales in discredit of the Assyrians. They take several their capitals: Assur in 614, then Ninive in 612 with the Babylonian troops. In 609 finally, the two allied ones subject the Assyrian last resistant to Harran.

Mèdes and the Babylonians would then have become large allies, and Greek sources bring back the marriage of Nabuchodonosor II, wire of Nabopolassar, with Amytis, girl of Cyaxare. The context could in makes be more tended, even if one sees in Babylonian sources of the time of the merchants of this area having a counter with Ecbatane. Cyaxare continues its conquests, by subjecting the Eastern Anatolia, completing with the passage what there remained kingdom of the Urartu, before facing in 585 the king of Lydie, Alyatte. This battle would have remained undecided, and an eclipse of the sun would have occurred, frightening the belligerents. Those made peace, with for Nabuchodonosor intermediary, and established their border on the river Halys, current the Kizil-Irmak. Cyaxare dies a little later and his/her son Astyage ( Ištuvegu ) succeeds to him.

The kingdom mède is a political entity which is to us for his greater imperceptible part. Nothing of his organization is known. It was often supposed that its structures had mainly been taken again by their Persian successors, but that is very speculative, and it is currently considered that the heritage élam ite is more determining for the formation of the Persian empire. The absence of royal inscriptions mèdes, just as the fact that the archeological sites of the area mède was miserly in documentation of this period, all that often pushes us to see in the kingdom mède a political construction still little worked out, which left few traces. If the Western extension of this kingdom is well-known, one is in the blur concerning the east. It is possible that Mèdes dominated of the kingdoms located at the east of their, in Hyrcanie and Parthie in particular, as seem to attest it the bonds maintained at the time achéménide between Médie and these areas. At all events, it is obvious that the position of intermediary that Mèdes between their Eastern neighbors and Mésopotamie and it played Anatolia, along the “Road of Khorassan”, had to contribute to enrich them.

Mèdes under the domination achéménide

In 553, the Persian king Cyrus II revolts against the supervision mède and succeeds in overcoming Astyage. This event is indicated to us by Babylonian sources, in particular the Chronique of Nabonide , and authors Greek, like Hérodote and Ctésias, which presents various versions in their unfolding of them, even if it is often proposed that the victory was difficult, and is helped by the treason of part of the army mède (by Harpage in the Greek sources). After that, Cyrus constitutes the powerful empire of the Achéménides.

The place of Mèdes in this new political construction is not unfavorable: they occupy a row equal to that of Persians, several Mèdes occupy an important place in the administration of the empire or the army, and some of the uses of the court mède would have been taken again by that of Persians. Médie becomes a Satrapie, and Ecbatane is the residence of summer of the first achéménides. A revolt mède however bursts after Darius {{Ier}} is assembled on the throne by the force, in 522 - 521. Certain Phraortès (II), which is said going down from the line of Cyaxare, joins together an army mède, supported in particular by Hyrcanie NS, but it is made overcome by a Persian general, is captured and carried out in Ecbatane. Another great rebellion mède occurs in 409, under the reign of Darius II, and is subdued quickly.

The country mède remains calm during the remainder of the empire achéménide, and even during its fall.

Médie of the hellenistic time at the beginning of our era

To the hellenistic time, Médie falls under control from the Greeks, and is included after the conflicts opposing the Diadoque S in the territories controlled by the Séleucides, after having been a time dominated by Antigone One-eyed the. The former general Atropatès which directed the quota mède of the Persian army to the Bataille of Gaugamèles, joins thereafter with Alexandre Large the and becomes satrap of the north of Médie, which becomes Médie Atropatène, future Azerbaïdjan, which he manages to make autonomous of the capacity séleucide. The capital of this kingdom was in Gazaca. After several decades of independence, king Artabanzanes must conclude a treaty from vassalage with Antiochos III in 220. This area remains little hellenized, unlike the south of Médie, centered around Ecbatane. Several new cities are rested there by the sovereigns séleucides, and old Rhaga is famous Europa. A local satrap, Molon, revolt in 220 against Antiochos III, which demolishes it. Between 163 and 160, it is another satrap of Médie, Timarque, who revolts against Démétrios {{Ier}} Sôter, and succeeds in seizing the power in Babylonia, before being finally subjected.

The revolts which shake the kingdom séleucide towards 150 benefit the king Parthian Mithridate {{Ier}} (Arsacès V the Large one), which takes Médie then, as well as Atropatène. After several decades of fights, the capacity of the Arsacides is finally ensured in Médie, in spite of the attacks of the Eastern nomads (Scythes or Tokhariens). The area is reorganized administratively, and the town of Rhaga/Europa is famous Arsacia.

In 226 a. J. - C., Persian Ardashir seize the capacity in Iran and Mésopotamie by détrônant the last Parthian king, to found the dynasty of the Sassanides. At this time, old division between the various Iranian people is attenuated, in particular in this area, and the ethnic denomination “Mèdes” definitively lost its direction.

List kings mèdes

728 with 675: Deioclès
675 with 623: Phraortès
623 with 585: Cyaxare
585 with 550: Astyage

See too

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