Caspians
Encyclopedia
Caspians is the English version of a Greek ethnonym
mentioned twice by Herodotus
among the satrap
ies of Darius and applied by Strabo
to the ancient people dwelling along the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea
, in the region which was called Caspiane after them. The name is not attested in Old Iranian .
The Caspians have generally been regarded as a pre-Indo-European
people; they have been identified by Ernst Herzfeld
with the Kassites
, who spoke a language without an identified relationship to any other known language and whose origins have long been the subject of debate.
However onomastic
evidence bearing on this point has been discovered in Aramaic papyri
from Egypt
published by P. Grelot, in which several of the Caspian names that are mentioned— and identified under the gentilic כספי kaspai— are in part, etymologically Iranian. The Caspians of the Egyptian papyri must therefore be considered either an Iranian people or strongly under Iranian cultural influence.
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
mentioned twice by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
among the satrap
Satrap
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
ies of Darius and applied by Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
to the ancient people dwelling along the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
, in the region which was called Caspiane after them. The name is not attested in Old Iranian .
The Caspians have generally been regarded as a pre-Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
people; they have been identified by Ernst Herzfeld
Ernst Herzfeld
Ernst Emil Herzfeld was a German archaeologist and Iranologist.-Life:Herzfeld was born in Celle, Province of Hanover...
with the Kassites
Kassites
The Kassites were an ancient Near Eastern people who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC...
, who spoke a language without an identified relationship to any other known language and whose origins have long been the subject of debate.
However onomastic
Onomastics
Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek: "ὀνομαστικός" , "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" , from "ὄνομα" "name". Toponymy or toponomastics, the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of...
evidence bearing on this point has been discovered in Aramaic papyri
Hebrew and Aramaic papyri
Hebrew and Aramaic papyri have increasingly been discovered from the 1960s onwards, although these papyri remain rare compared to papyri written in Koine Greek and Demotic Egyptian...
from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
published by P. Grelot, in which several of the Caspian names that are mentioned— and identified under the gentilic כספי kaspai— are in part, etymologically Iranian. The Caspians of the Egyptian papyri must therefore be considered either an Iranian people or strongly under Iranian cultural influence.