Pages: 287-318

The article checks the date of the invasion of the Scythian king Madius in Media. This date is synchronized with the time of the fall of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria — in the 14th year of the reign of Nabopolassar in Babylonia. The siege of Nineveh was attended by the troops of Cyaxares, king of Media and Nabopolassar, who ruled in Babylonia. Consequently, the determination of the date of the invasion in Anterior Asia by the Scythians of King Madius depends on the dates of the reign of Nabopolassar and Cyaxares. This led to a reference to written sources containing the necessary data related to the time of the rule of the heads of states of the Middle East.
The dates of the invasion in Media and the return of the Scythians from Anterior Asia are important for determining the time of their appearance in the Northern Black Sea region and in the Northern Caucasus before this campaign. Over the past two decades, the date of the monuments of the Scythian archaic in the last regions has been significantly aged. Aging the dates led to a chronological contradiction between archaeological and narrative sources, which required their harmonization.
According to written accounts, the invasion of the Scythians led by Madius in the Middle East occurred in 608 BC, and the return was not earlier than 585 BC. The result of the Scythian military activity on the territory of the ancient Eastern states was reflected in the archaeological material of the barrows of the Northern Black Sea and Caucasus. The examination showed the necessity and possibility of aging the date of archaic Scythian monuments in these regions, which eliminates the contradiction between the archeological data and written sources.

Keywords: Scythians, Middle East, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, chronology, mound

Information about author:

Tatiana Kuznetsova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]