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3rd century BC

Massagetae — 1) possibly the ancestors of the Alans, a group of tribes living on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in the northern part of the Ural-Caspian steppes near the Araxes River. As a result of the campaigns of Darius I in 518-514 BC, their lands became part of the Persian Empire, and after its defeat — into the empire of Alexander the Great. Subsequently, the Massagetae merged with other steppe tribes; 2) see Huns; 3) in ancient written sources, a collective name for a number of nomadic tribes.

M. J. Khalilov. Monuments of the Masgut archaeological culture: "The Masguts and their king were first recorded in written sources approximately in 293 AD in the famous inscription from Paikuli. Considering that the Sasanian inscriptions of the 60s of the 3rd century make no mention of them, it can be stated that the Masguts appeared on the territory south of Derbent in the 70s–80s of the 3rd century. Thus, the appearance of the Masgut culture in the northeast of Caucasian Albania can be dated to this time. In the 30s of the 4th century — during the period of the greatest power of the Masgut Kingdom — its southwestern border reached the confluence of the Kura and Araxes, but the country of the Masguts itself was located on the flat part of the historical Albanian region of Chol — between the cities of Derbent and Shabran, bounded on the north by the Derbent defensive walls, on the south by the Gilgilchay defensive walls, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the west by the foothills of the Greater Caucasus. This zone coincided with the area of the Masgut culture.

In medieval sources, a parallel name for the country of the Masguts has been preserved — Abkhaz. The same name was borne by one of the medieval cities, as well as by an ethnic group of this region. Based on this, it is assumed that the movement of the Masguts (Massagetae) from Central Asia to the Eastern Caucasus was led by the Apasiacae — a tribe of Massagetean origin. The early kings of the Masguts belonged to a branch of the Arsacid dynasty. Even Strabo (XI, 8, § 8) reported that at one time the founder of this dynasty, Arsaces (Arshak), found refuge in the country of the Apasiacae. A certain part of the tribes of Hunnic origin also remained within the Masgut union. The Masgut culture existed from the end of the 3rd century to the end of the 8th century. The residence of the Masgut kings until the 5th century was apparently located in Southeastern Dagestan, south of Derbent. At the end of the 5th century, after the founding of the city of Masgat, their capital moved to Northeastern Azerbaijan. This city is presumably localized on the site of the medieval village of Muskar near the modern village of Niyazoba. But archaeological sites associated with the cities of Abkhaz and Masgat have not yet been identified. Masgut settlements have been recorded in Palasa-syrt (Derbent district of Dagestan), Gukhur-obe (Gusar district of Azerbaijan), and in other places. Of these, the Palasa-syrt settlement of the 4th-6th centuries has been better studied so far, where two types of dwellings have been identified. One of them — above-ground dwellings of pole construction, which were characteristic of nomads transitioning to sedentarism, however, the main structural details of the dwelling (pole base, wooden support pillars) bear features of the traditional dwelling of nomads (L.B. Gmyrya). Burial sites of the tribes of the Masgut union have been identified in Southeastern Dagestan (Palasa-syrt, Kukhmazkunt, Ashaga Stal Kazmalyar) and in Northeastern Azerbaijan (Gukhur-oba, some burials of Khudjbaly and Sandyqtepe). The burial grounds consist of under-mound catacomb (Palasa-syrt, Kukhmazkunt, Ashaga Stal Kazmalyar), niche, and pit burials (Palasa-syrt), as well as catacomb (Gukhur-oba) and ground (Gukhur-oba, Khudjbaly, Sandyqtepe) burials without mound embankments.

In the 30s of the 4th century, three sons of the Masgut king adopted the Christian religion, and already at the end of the 4th century, the Hunnic bishop John lived in the country of the Masguts. However, after the transfer of the residence of the Albanian Catholicos from Chola, Christianity in this region lost its positions. In the Middle Ages, the country of the Masguts — Masgat — no longer extended to Derbent. The northern border of Masgat ran along the Samur River. The Masgut Kingdom was liquidated in 833 by the Derbent Emirate. Masgat turned into a region with a Muslim population. The adoption of the Islamic religion by the Masguts put an end to their original pagan culture."

VARIANT NAMES: Latin. Massagetae, Greek. Μασσαγεται, Κερμυχιουες, Κερμυχιωυες, Russian. Massagety, Masguty.


Sources:

Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015