In Search of the Ecbatana: Critical Considerations on the Historiography of the Medes

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department of Maragheh, Iran

Abstract

Despite the Medes’ extensive engagements in military, trade, and production activities, their pivotal role in toppling the formidable Assyrian Empire with the collaboration of the Neo-Babylonians, as well as showing the authority and wisdom of the ancient Iranians to the Greeks in Anatolia, but they had one of the least-known periods in the history of ancient Iran. This obscurity primarily arises from a dearth of archaeological artifacts, incongruities between classical Greek accounts and contemporary Mesopotamian sources, and the scarcity of indigenous Median documents. Over the past two centuries, attempts have been made to reassess and reinterpret the Medes’ identity and historical trajectory, yet the historiography of the Median period has largely remained a peripheral subject for scholars, leaving numerous unresolved queries. One of the foremost enigmas pertains to the configuration of the Median kingdom and its associated facets, such as its capital city and political nucleus. This essay endeavors to scrutinize the uncertainties surrounding the Medes’ capital, existing scholarly perspectives on this matter, and potential resolutions.

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Main Subjects

Full Text

Introduction
The Medes - who were Iranian-speaking people as evidenced by their names (Zadok, 2002) - entered the limelight of history for the first time in the 9th century BC when their name was mentioned in Neo-Assyrian inscriptions (Grayson, 1996: 68). The Medes, settled on the western edge of the Iranian plateau in fortified towns and their surrounding villages, gradually gained positions in the administrations of local governments, such as Ellipi and Mannaea or they joined the Assyrian Empire as warriors and merchants.

 

Research Literature
In the late nineteenth century, the British Assyrian and linguist Archibald Sayce, considering the ambiguities related to the history of Ecbatana since it was not mentioned in Mesopotamian inscriptions as the capital of the Medes, proposed that Ecbatana was not located in the territory of the Medes. According to him, Ecbatana was located in the land of Ellipi, in present-day Lorestan, and was the center of Cimmerian rule (Sayce, 1896: 178-179). At the same time, Henry Rawlinson also tried to explain that Ecbatana, described by Herodotus as the capital of the Medes, does not correspond to present-day Hamadan, but to Takht-e Suleiman located in in Takab County, southern Azerbaijan. This is not the same city that historians such as Polybius have identified as the capital of the Seleucids, corresponding to present-day Hamadan (Rawlinson, 1841; 1855: 9, 13). In addition, Clements Markham also believed that there were two cities named Ecbatana: the first one was founded by Media Deioces in present-day Takht-e Suleiman, and the other was established by Achaemenid Ardeshir II in present-day Hamedan (Markham, 1874: 21, note 1, 34). Fritz Hommel, contrary to the popular narrative, believed that the date of establishment of the Ecbatana was later and thought that the real founder of the Median Empire was not Deioces, but Cyaxares, and he founded the Ecbatana (Hommel, 1900: 132).

 

Discussion
Although Herodotus speaks of the longevity and splendor of Ecbatana as the capital of the Median dynasty, the problem arises when we find out that the Assyrians never mentioned a city by this name in the 9th to 7th centuries BC. This is while the Assyrians were completely familiar with the political geography of Media due to their influence on the easternmost regions of their territory. The possible formation of the Median kingdom in the 7th century BC centered on Ecbatana required that such a city had a history, prosperity, development, organization, and a high position among the cities of Media. However, the Assyrians, who had penetrated to the edge of the central Iranian desert (See Luckenbill 1968: 215, §540; Tadmor & Yamada 2011: 53), never encountered an important and strategic city called Ecbatana in the Median realm. Interestingly, during 21 seasons of excavations at Tepe Ecbatana located in Hamadan has not been discovered any settlement layer belonging to the Median period (see Molazadeh and Taheri Dehkordi, 2010; Azarnoush et al., 2015; Boucharlat 1998; Sarraf, 2003).
However, in the 22nd season of excavations at this site under the supervision of Malekzadeh in 2020, it seems that some cultural materials belonging to the Median period were identified. Earlier, in the 1950s, Dyson had found a part of a wall on this site and attributed it possibly to the Median Ecbatana (Dyson, 1975: 32, Fig. 12). Thus, so far none of the excavations have revealed any findings indicating the greatness and position of Ecbatana, as the glorious ancient and great capital of the Medes, as mentioned in the classical sources. Of the eleven anthropological characteristics and their archaeological manifestations that Matthews (2003) formulated as the core indicators of an empire, none has been found in Ecbatana/Hamadan so far. These indicators include having public and private archives, neighborhoods centered on the city core, diversity of houses, cultural diversity, diverse distribution of goods, irrigation system, administrative technology, ideological and royalty imagery, and royal monuments. It appears that the conception of this city as the ancient and great capital of the Median Kingdom is literary rather than archaeological unless future archaeological excavations change this image.
The meaning of the name Ecbatana (gathering place: Spiegel 1871: 103, note. 1; Kent, 1953: 183 & 212) probably refers to this city’s lack of civic history. This may support the view of scholars who consider the political structure of the Medes until the end of this dynasty, as not a unified kingdom, but a confederation of independent tribes (see Sancisi-Weerdenburg, 1988; Lanfranchi, 2003; Llewellyn-Jones 2016; Gopnik, 2017; Rollinger, 2007, 2020, 2021). Based on this point of view, probably the leaders of the Medes would gather in this place in times of need (such as the war with the Scythians, Assyrians, Lydians, and Persians) and agree to achieve their goals. Interestingly, according to Curzon (1892: 567), there were four other “Ecbatana” in Pars and Media, indicating that there were other locations than Hamedan, where the tribes of that area convened and made agreements for certain purposes.

 

Conclusion
The political structure of the Medes is one of the most controversial topics among scholars of the ancient history of Iran and West Asia. The limitation of historical sources and archaeological findings as well as their incompatibility have made it impossible to achieve a clear and convincing image of the history of the Medes. Recognizing the background of the Median capital, which is mentioned in the historical sources called Ecbatana, depends on the determination of the political structure of the Medes. In any case, the existence of such a city with this name in the Neo-Assyrian period has not been documented. Further, its unknown nature in the Neo-Babylonian inscriptions adds to the ambiguity. The only fact that is reflected in historical sources is the prosperity of this city during the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods. It is obvious that the history of Media still has many mysteries and unanswered questions and requires comprehensive and synergistic research in the fields of history, archaeology, and linguistics.

🔓 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Ancient Iranian Studies Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Ancient Iranian Studies. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

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  • Receive Date: 05 December 2022
  • Revise Date: 11 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 02 March 2023

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