درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This paper utilizes an approach that combines studies of Samanid period artifacts and textual accounts with modern genetic studies to explore the identity of the people who were involved in long distance trade from the far eastern regions of the Central Asia into Northern Europe. Although this study does not analyze the Samanid works, it reiterates and illustrates how important Iran/Persia was in the history of Europe as well as Central Asia. The information contained in the artifacts and texts gives us the evidence needed to understand the vast trade network and the people who were responsible for the movement of these goods, people and ideas. This study reconfirmed recent genetic studies that the people, collectively termed Rus or Vikings, were a mixture primarily of Scandinavians, Slavs, and Turks, with additional admixing with local populations. The importance of the Persian and Arabic sources addressing contact between the Rus and Eastern people has been thoroughly discussed by Thorir Jonsson Hraundal. In these texts, the Rus were referred to by different names including Majus, Northmanni, Urduman, Warank as well as by other names. One of his many observations is the unmistakable influence of Turkic culture on that of the Rus. This complex ancestry is supported by recent genetic studies and will be discussed in more detail below in light of archaeological evidence. Thus, the term Rus refers to a way of life rather than a homogenous ethnic or cultural group. However, this study refined the identity of the people responsible by observing a correlation between the distribution of the genetic haplogroup R1a sub-clade and the long-distance trade routes across Central Asia to Northern Europe, with the central focus in Eastern Europe. Despite the vast distance, the evidence indicates that there were cultural contacts between people with linked ancestry. The study is important because it begins to reveal the unexpected influence of Eastern cultures on those of Northern Europe.

The fourth millennium BCE in northeastern Iran was marked by intricate interactions at both regional and trans-regional levels. During this time, Tepe Hissar’s inhabitants engaged in significant cultural exchanges involving pottery, figurines, and metal objects with various regions of central Iran. In the latter half of the millennium, these connections shifted towards northeastern Iran and the Gorgan Plain. Hissar became a hub for large-scale, centrally organized industries, particularly in metalworking and gemstone craftsmanship, such as lapis lazuli, which contributed to greater social stratification, evidenced by wealth accumulation in elite burials.New pottery chronologies offer a revised understanding of the cultural developments at the Hissar settlement and their social and cultural consequences, as seen in the material culture of settlements and burials. The primary goal of this research is to present the quantitative and qualitative changes in pottery and the influence of Tepe Hissar throughout the fourth millennium BCE. These changes indicate the formation of extensive internal and external cultural relationships, reflecting the cultural dynamism of Hissar during the fourth and third millennia BCE. It can likely be concluded that despite environmental heterogeneity in northeastern Iran, there were cultural homogeneities and similarities in this region. These can be observed in the resemblance of pottery styles and unified management techniques, which are attributed to cultural interactions between these communities within geographic and cultural frameworks.