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ancient Iranian state (700–550 BC)
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Media (Old Persian: 𐎶𐎠𐎭, romanized: Māda; Ancient Greek: Μηδία, romanized: Mēdía; Akkadian: Mādāya) was a polity 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 in the Zagros Mountains by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, located in Upper Mesopotamia, led to the unification of the Median tribes. By 612 BCE, the Medes, in alliance with Babylonia in Lower Mesopotamia, became strong enough to overthrow the declining Neo-Assyrian Empire.
According to classical historiography, Media emerged as one major power of the ancient Near East after the collapse of Assyria. Under Cyaxares (r. 625–585 BCE), the kingdom's borders were expanded to the east and west through the subjugation of neighboring peoples, such as the Persians and Armenians. Media's territorial expansion led to the formation of the first Iranian empire, which at its height would have exercised authority over more than two million square kilometers, stretching from the eastern banks of the Kızılırmak River in Anatolia to Central Asia. In this period, the Median Empire was one of the great powers in the ancient Near East, alongside the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Lydia, and the late period of Egypt. During his reign, Astyages (r. 585–550 BCE) worked to strengthen and centralize the Median state, going against the will of tribal nobility, which may have contributed to the kingdom's downfall. In 550 BCE, the Median capital, Ecbatana, was conquered by the Persian leader Cyrus the Great, marking the beginning of the Achaemenid Empire. However, most historians increasingly view the Median Empire as having been made up by Herodotus and that the Medes were a loose confederacy instead, only uniting under one leader when external powers were attacking Media.
Not only during the Neo-Assyrian period of the 9th through 7th centuries BCE, but also in the subsequent Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods, the sources exhibit an external view of the Medes. There is not a single Median source that represents a Median perspective on their own history. The available textual sources on Media primarily consist of contemporary Assyrian and Babylonian texts; the Behistun Inscription in Old Persian; works by later Greek authors such as Herodotus and Ctesias; and some biblical texts. Before the archaeological discoveries of Assyrian and Babylonian ruins and cuneiform archives in the mid-19th century, the history of civilizations in the Near East prior to the Achaemenid Empire relied solely on classical and biblical sources. Information about the Medes, as well as about the Assyrians and Babylonians, was derived from the works of classical authors such as Herodotus and their successors. They gathered information from scholarly circles within the Achaemenid Empire, but it was neither direct nor contemporary, and it was not based on solid archives or historical materials. Although no contemporary textual source has been discovered in Media, the information available in Assyrian and Babylonian sources is quite relevant.
Due to the absence of written records from pre-Achaemenid Media and, until recently, the lack of archaeological evidence, the 'Median logos' of the Greek historian Herodotus (1. 95–106) was for a long time the primary and generally accepted historical account of the ancient Medes. In his account in the first book of his Histories, Herodotus traces the development of a unified Median state or empire with a major capital at Ecbatana and a geographical reach as far west as the Halys River in central Turkey. Although what he describes happened centuries earlier, and he probably relied on unreliable oral accounts, his description can be correlated to some degree with the Assyrian and Babylonian sources. The Greek historian Ctesias worked as a physician in the service of the Achaemenid emperor Artaxerxes II, and wrote about Assyria, Media, and the Achaemenid Empire in his work Persica, consisting of 23 books supposedly based on Persian royal archives. Despite heavily criticizing Herodotus and accusing him of telling many lies, Ctesias follows Herodotus and also reports a long period during which the Medes ruled a vast empire. What has survived from his work is filled with romantic stories, exotic anecdotes, court gossip, and lists of questionable reliability making Ctesias one of the few ancient authors considered not very reliable. However, others have regarded him as an important source.
The Assyrian royal inscriptions, dating from Shalmaneser to Esarhaddon (circa 850-670 BCE), contain the most significant set of historical information about the Medes. The Herodotean account dealing with the period before the Median king Cyaxares has been largely dismissed in favor of contemporary Assyrian records. The Assyrian sources that provide information on the Medes never mention a unified Median state. Instead, these sources indicate a fragmented political landscape comprising small-scale entities headed by various city lords. While scholars have suggested connections between certain individuals in this milieu and the names mentioned in classical sources, all identifications based on name similarity are questionable. The Assyrian sources only offer a clear picture up to c. 650 BCE. For the subsequent period, there is a gap in quantity and quality of Assyrian sources. Historical evidence for a unified Median state comes only very late in the period, when in 615 BCE the Medes reappear in Babylonian sources led by Cyaxares. After this event, the Medes once more receded from history until 550 BCE, when the Persian king Cyrus II defeated the Median king Astyages and became the paramount political figure in Iran. The history of the period c. 650–550 BCE — the apparent zenith of Median power — remains poorly understood. While classical Greek sources claim the existence of a Median Empire during this period, tangible evidence supporting the existence of such an empire has not yet been found, and contemporaneous sources from this period rarely reference the Medes.
The Median period is one of the least understood periods in Iranian archaeology, and the geography of Media remains largely obscure. Any effort to identify distinctive elements of the Median material culture from the Iron Age III (c. 800–550 BCE) in the western region of Iran primarily focuses on sites near the ancient capital of Media, Ecbatana (now Hamadan). Furthermore, the lack of clarity in the archaeological record makes it challenging to determine whether certain archaeological materials should be attributed to the Median or Achaemenid culture. Modern archaeological activity in the central area of ancient Media was especially intense and fruitful in the 1960s and 1970s, with excavations at Godin Tepe, Noushijan, and Bābā Jān Tepe. Additionally, in the adjacent region of the ancient kingdom of Mannaea, excavations at Teppe Hasanlu, and the Ziwiye hoard also yielded productive results. The archaeological activity revealed that, during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Median sites experienced significant growth but were depopulated in the first half of the 6th century BCE, a period presumed to be the zenith of development for the supposed Median Empire.
The Nush-i Jan I phase, dated to 750–600 BCE, revealed a sequence of several buildings on the site. The "Central Building" was constructed early in this phase, in the 8th century BCE, while the "Fort" and the "Western Building," the latter featuring a notable columned hall, were added to the site throughout the 7th century BCE. These public buildings were later abandoned, and in the first half of the 6th century BCE, the site was occupied by less institutionalized populations. According to one report, excavators David Stronach and Michael Roaf proposed that the fall of Assyria and the steady decline of Scythian power might have caused the abandonment of fortresses, particularly those near the Median core. In another report, it was suggested that the various buildings were abandoned in different ways during the period when Median power was still on the rise. Godin Tepe's Level II, excavated by T. Cuyler Young and Louis Levine, contains architectural structures similar to those of Nush-i Jan I and presents a similar narrative: the progressive growth of public buildings during Phases 1 to 4, followed by a period of "peaceful abandonment" and "squatter occupation" in Phase 5. Excavations at Baba Jan reveal a comparable sequence, though the excavator adopts a higher chronology: Phase III flourishes in the 9th–8th centuries, with irregular 7th-century occupation, chiefly for historical reasons (alleged Assyrian and Scythian attacks). In any case, the site appears to be completely abandoned in the first half of the 6th century BCE.
The archaeological developments in Mannae appear to have been identical to those in Media: flourishing settlements with public buildings in the second half of the 8th century BCE and throughout the 7th century BCE, followed by a period of irregular occupation in the first half of the 6th century BCE. Such a picture does not align with the reconstruction of a Median Empire based on classical historians. The historian Mario Liverani argues that the archaeological evidence from these Median sites aligns well with the evidence from Mesopotamian sources. Some scholars suggest that the abandonment of Tepe Nush-i Jan and other sites in northwest Iran may be related to the centralization of power in Ecbatana. In this context, Herodotus's observation about Deioces compelling the Median nobles to leave their small cities to live near the capital becomes relevant. One possible scenario suggests that Tepe Nush-i Jan underwent formal closure around 550 BCE, with informal or squatter occupation persisting until approximately 500 BCE. The revised dating implies that Tepe Nush-i Jan and potentially other sites from the Iron III period maintained formal occupation until the onset of the Achaemenid period. If this is the case, there would be no interruption in the occupation of Median sites between 600 and 550 BCE, as some scholars suggest, which would imply a breakdown of central authority in this period. According to Stuart Brown, the rise of Persian dominance may have been a contributing factor to the abandonment of various Median sites, including Godin Tepe.
Several excavated sites such as Godin Tepe, Tepe Nush-i Jan, Moush Tepe, Gunespan, Baba Jan and Tepe Ozbaki, show significant commonalities in architecture, ceramics, and small finds to be considered as arguably Median. Median settlement can be summarized as dispersed with fortified nodes controlling major plains, valley and passes. The largest sites identified in Media measure only 3-4 hectares, the size of small villages. Notably, monumental architecture found many Median sites does not appear to be integrated into larger settlements. It is difficult to reconcile this archaeological picture with the system of “city leaders” mentioned in the Assyrian sources. The capital of Media, Ecbatana, is a site of great interest for archaeological study, but excavations so far have revealed remains belonging to the Sasanian Empire. The early capital city at Ecbatana is simply buried or destroyed by the substantial subsequent occupation of the site. Identification of Median sites beyond Iran is challenging, but certain ceramic and architectural features may indicate dispersed Median presence or at least some influence at sites such as Nor Armavir and Arinberd in Armenia, Altıntepe, Van and Tille Höyük in Turkey, Qyzqapan and Tell Gubba in Iraq, and Ulug Depe in Turkmenistan. The archaeological findings at the Urartian site of Erebuni, in Armenia, has shown that a columned hall initially dated to the Achaemenid period is now likely to have been constructed in the late 7th century. This is the period following the fall of Assyria, when the Medes would have begun their expansion northward, according to Herodotus. A similar columned hall at Altıntepe in eastern Turkey may also be dated to this period. The spread of the columned hall form before the ascension of the Achaemenid Empire suggests some form of Median presence or influence in adjacent regions during the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE. Evidence from recent excavations and surveys suggests that permanent settlement in Media persisted beyond the late 7th century BCE. Monumental construction appears to have continued at various sites, and an early form of money was apparently in use in the heart of Media around 600 BCE. However, the Median Empire is still not a concrete archaeological fact, and its history is largely based on information provided by Herodotus and other texts directly or indirectly influenced by him.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Median kingdom”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.