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3). 4), who depicts a state of internal dissension among petty rulers in Media. 5) may imply that Neo-Assyrian control of the Zagros shrank in his reign. 6–9) by examining the entrails of sheep (RLA X, 76–7), about which decisions had to be taken. They, therefore, provide some insight into the problems of control encountered by the Assyrians, which were, naturally, not reflected in official presentations. Unfortunately, these texts are not precisely dated, so it is impossible to arrange them in a chronological sequence with any kind of certainty.

Another very important one runs almost directly east from Hamadan, through Tehran, then divides, with one crossing the mountains into Hyrcania and on through the great oases of Merv and Samarkand to the Jaxartes river (modern Syr Darya). Much of this desert region was inhabited by nomadic groups, known collectively as ‘Saca’ or ‘Scythians’. The other route moves south of the Kopet Dag range to Mashad and Herat in Afghanistan, whence routes diverge to the low- < previous page page_2 next page > < previous page page_3 next page > Page 3 lying region of Seistan (Drangiana), Kabul (in Gandara) and Kandahar (in Arachosia).

Henkelman 2003b: 196–7). The present excavations at the capital of the Medes, Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), have so far yielded no Median period material (Sarraf 2003). 2 The large site of Kerkenes Da• (central Turkey) was originally interpreted as a Median royal centre (Summers 1997), established to consolidate control along the supposed Medo–Lydian frontier (cf. 15). But recent work shows that it is an Anatolian dynastic centre (cf. 3). The contemporary, or primary, written evidence divides into three parts.