The rock tombs of Qyzqapan [1] or Qizqapan (Kurdish : ئهشكهوتی قزقاپان, romanized: Ashkawt-i Qizqapan), is a rock-cut tomb lying near the Palaeolithic cave of Zarzi in Iraqi Kurdistan. [2]
The rock tombs of Qyzqapan [1] or Qizqapan (Kurdish : ئهشكهوتی قزقاپان, romanized: Ashkawt-i Qizqapan), is a rock-cut tomb lying near the Palaeolithic cave of Zarzi in Iraqi Kurdistan. [2]
Ashkawt (also spelled Ishkewrt ئەشكەوت) means cave in Sorani Kurdish. Qizqapan means "rapist" or "ravisher" in Turkish. The cave is also known as the cave of the abducted girl (Kurdish : ئەشكەوتی كچه دزراوەكه). [2]
The rock-cut tomb has three burial chambers, each with a hewn grave in the left corner, all accessible from the central chamber. [3] [2] The entrance into the tomb lies approximately 8 meters above the ground level.
Different dates from the Medes, Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian periods have been proposed for the construction of the tomb. [4] [5] The general belief of scientists is that the tomb was built by the Medes people [6] [7]
The symbols of the tomb refers to Mithraism, [8] with Mithra being the supreme deity of Medes. [2] Some scholars such as Igor Diakonov believe that the tomb was built for the Median ruler Huvaxshatra or Cyaxares. [9] if the Qyzqapan tomb is a royal one (which is very likely) the warrior is none other than Cyaxares. [10]
Mithridates II was king of the Parthian Empire from 124 to 91 BC. Considered one of the greatest of his dynasty to ever rule, he was known as Mithridates the Great in antiquity.
The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia in the vicinity of Ecbatana. Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown.
Ecbatana was an ancient city, the capital of the Median kingdom, and the first capital in Iranian history. It later became the summer capital of the Achaemenid and Parthian empires. It was also an important city during the Seleucid and Sasanian empires. It is believed that Ecbatana is located in the Zagros Mountains, the east of central Mesopotamia, on Hagmatana Hill. Ecbatana's strategic location and resources probably made it a popular site even before the 1st millennium BC. Along with Athens in Greece, Rome in Italy and Susa in Khuzestan, Ecbatana is one of the few ancient cities in the world that is still alive and important, representing the current-day Hamadan.
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Median was the language of the Medes. It is an extinct ancient Iranian language and classified as a distinct language belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other more recently attested languages such as Old Azeri
Zarinaea also referred to as Zarinaia or Zarina was a queen of one of the Saka tribes or of the Dahae of the 7th century BCE who is mentioned by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus.
Media is a region of north-western Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. During the Achaemenid period, it comprised present-day Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan. As a satrapy under Achaemenid rule, it would eventually encompass a wider region, stretching to southern Dagestan in the north. However, after the wars of Alexander the Great, the northern parts were separated due to the Partition of Babylon and became known as Atropatene, while the remaining region became known as Lesser Media.
Greater Iran or Greater Persia, also called the Iranosphere or the Persosphere, is an expression that denotes a wide socio-cultural region comprising parts of West Asia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia —all of which have been affected, to some degree, by the Iranian peoples and the Iranian languages.
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Scholars have suggested different theories for the origin of the name Kurd. Recent scholarship suggests it comes from the Middle Persian word for "nomad", or may ultimately be derived from a toponym or tribal name, such as the Cyrtii or from Corduene.
Parthia is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, and formed part of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire after the 4th-century BC conquests of Alexander the Great. The region later served as the political and cultural base of the Eastern Iranian Parni people and Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire. The Sasanian Empire, the last state of pre-Islamic Iran, also held the region and maintained the seven Parthian clans as part of their feudal aristocracy.
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Sakez also known as Sekez, Sekakez and Scyth (Eskit) was a sizable urban settlement and historical ancient city in the first millennium BC in Iran. It was the political and military capital of Scythians in western Iran and one of the few ancient cities that has been the residence of people and the center of civilization and it still is. Archaeologists believe that the present-day city of Saqqez in Kurdistan is the remnant of the city of Sakez, which takes its name from the Scythians and, with a slight change in pronunciation, is still called by the same name.
Media was a political entity centered in Ecbatana that existed from the 7th century BCE until the mid-6th century BCE and is believed to have dominated a significant portion of the Iranian plateau, preceding the powerful Achaemenid Empire. The frequent interference of the Assyrians in the Zagros region led to the process of unifying the Median tribes. By 612 BCE, the Medes became strong enough to overthrow the declining Assyrian empire in alliance with the Babylonians. However, contemporary scholarship tends to be skeptical about the existence of a united Median kingdom or state, at least for most of the 7th century BCE.