Median kingdom

Textual sources 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. 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, 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 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 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. 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. Archaeological sources 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). 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. In one of their reports, the excavators David Stronach and Michael Roaf conjectured that the collapse of Assyria and the gradual erosion of Scythian power might have influenced the abandonment of various fortresses, especially those located near the territorial core of Media. 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. A similar story is also suggested by the results of excavations at Baba Jan, although the excavator supports a higher chronology, with the flourishing Phase III in the 9th–8th centuries and irregular occupation in the 7th century, primarily 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. 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. == History ==

Assyrian campaigns in Media At the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, Median tribes began settling in the territory of future Media in western Iran. From the 9th century BCE, the Assyrians regularly invaded and plundered regions in northwest Iran, where numerous small principalities existed at that time. The first mention of the Medes in Assyrian texts dates back to 834 BCE when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (r. 858–824 BCE) returned from a military campaign, passing through the Median territory in the Hamadan plain. The Medes formed numerous small entities under tribal chiefs, and despite subduing several Median chiefs, Assyrian kings never conquered all of Media. Frequent Assyrian attacks compelled various inhabitants of Media to cooperate and develop more effective leadership. The Assyrians valued goods from the east, such as Bactrian lapis lazuli, and the east-west trade route through Media became increasingly crucial. Trade might explain Ecbatana's rise as the central city of Media and could have triggered the unification process. Judging by Assyrian sources, no unified Median state, as described by Herodotus for the reign of Deioces, existed in the early 7th century BCE. His account is at best a Median legend about the foundation of their kingdom. In Ashurbanipal’s reign (r. 668–630 BCE), references to the Medes become very sparse. Ashurbanipal reports that three Median city lords had rebelled against Assyrian rule were defeated and brought to Nineveh during his fifth campaign in 656 BCE. This is the last mention of Medes in the Assyrian sources. The fact that the three Median rulers are described as city lords may indicate that the powers structure among the Medes at this time was the same as in the 8th century. It is unknown whether the Assyrian provinces in the Zagros, Parsua, Bīt-Hamban, Kišesim (Kār-Nergal) and Harhar (Kar-Sarrukin), were still part of the empire during Ashurbanipal's reign. everything seems to indicate that the Assyrians were losing control over the provinces established in the Zagros. This could have created room for the development of a unified Median state and although Assyrian sources make no reference to a united Median territorial state that would be comparable to Assyria itself or other contemporary principalities such as Elam, Mannea or Urartu, many scholars remain reluctant to assign no historical relevance whatsoever to Herodotus' account. From 627 BCE onward the Assyrians were definitely in serious trouble both at home and in Babylonia and, therefore, the Median kingdom most likely emerged after 627, or possibly already after 631 BCE. Herodotus reports that Cyaxares, wanting to avenge his father's death, marched with the army toward the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, with the aim of destroying the city. While besieging Nineveh, the Medes were attacked by a large Scythian army under the command of Madyes, son of Bartatua. A battle ensued, in which the Medes were defeated, losing their power in Asia, which was entirely taken over by the Scythians. Fall of the Assyrian Empire After the death of Ashurbanipal in 631 BCE, the Assyrian Empire entered a period of political instability. In 626 BCE, the Babylonians rebelled against Assyrian domination. Nabopolassar, governor of southern regions and leader of the revolt, was soon recognized as king of Babylon. Nabopolassar gained control of Babylon but not all of Babylonia from the Assyrians and was engaged in serious fighting, he must have been looking for any possible allies. Interestingly, Herodotus mentions that the Median king Phraortes was killed around 625 BCE during an unsuccessful invasion of Assyria. There is no evidence regarding the relations between the Medes and Assyrians from 624 to 617 BCE. It is unknown whether the Medes were still geographically separated from the Assyrian heartland by the Zagros Mountains and surrounding peoples, or if they were already asserting themselves in the mountainous Assyrian provinces, particularly in Mazamua (modern Suleimaniya). However, for the subsequent years from 616 to 595, much of the Babylonian Chronicle is preserved and provides reasonably reliable account of events. The source is not a complete record of the history of the period, and is focused exclusively on events in Mesopotamia. Afterwards Cyaxares and his army went home. In 613 BCE, the Medes are not mentioned in the chronicle. However, in 612 BCE, a king of the ummān-manda appears on the scene; he is surely identical with the king of the Medes, although it is strange that a single cuneiform tablet should describe one people by two different terms. The combined military forces of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar laid siege to Nineveh, resulting in its fall after three months. After the sack of the Assyrian capital, only the Babylonians seem to have continued the campaign and a part of the Babylonian army marched on Nasibina and Rasappa, while Cyaxares and his army returned to Media. Meanwhile the Assyrians were regrouping under a new king further west at Harran. The Medes appear to be absent from the account of 611 BCE, while the Babylonians are militarily active advancing towards Syria and the upper Euphrates. The Medes reappeared on the scene in 610 BCE, when they joined the Babylonians for an assault on Harran. Faced with the formidable alliance, the Assyrians and their Egyptian allies abandoned Harran, which was captured. After that, the Medes then departed for the last time In 605 BCE, the Babylonians marched to Carchemish and conquered it, completely defeating the Assyrians and Egyptians. It is not clear whether the Medes also participated in this final defeat of the Assyrians. The outcome of the fall of Assyria for Median territorial expansion is unknown, but the Babylonian Chronicle and other evidence imply that most of the former Assyrian territory came under Babylonian control. Mario Liverani argues against the notion that the Medes and Babylonians shared Assyrian territory; instead, the Medes simply took over the Zagros, which Assyria had already lost earlier. The Cimmerian power, once great and significant in Cappadocia, collapsed almost simultaneously with Urartu. This created an opportunity for the Medes, who, after conquering Urartu, entered Asia Minor, subjugating Cappadocia. This region might have been familiar to them, as Assyrian texts from the 7th century BCE describe the situation in Anatolia west of the Euphrates similarly to the Zagros region. Aria and Bactria, becoming an empire that stretched from Anatolia in the west to Central Asia in the east. Whatever the political role of the Medes in the east, the representation of an Indian embassy at the court of Cyaxares (Xenophon, Cyropaedia 2.4.1) seems a plausible outcome of commercial contacts. Cyaxares died shortly after the treaty with the Lydians, leaving the throne to his son Astyages. During his reign, Astyages may have worked to strengthen and centralize the Median state, contrary to the will of the tribal nobility. This may have contributed to the downfall of the kingdom. According to Ctesias, the Median kings also fought wars against the Cadusians and the Sacae, although there is no hard evidence to back this up. Nevertheless, the reference to a war against the Sacae might indicate continued challenges from nomadic incursions, while the narrative about the war against the Cadusians might indicate that the Medes had limited control over the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, where the Cadusians lived. Taking control of Media may have implied taking control of vassal states like Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, and Aria. If Cyrus was indeed the grandson of Astyages as Herodotus claims, then this would explain why the Medes accepted his reign. However, it is also possible that the connection between Cyrus and Astyages was invented to justify Persian rule over the Medes. According to Ctesias, Astyages had a daughter named Amytis, who was married to Spitamas, who then became the presumptive successor to his father-in-law. After killing Spitamas, Cyrus would have married Amytis to gain legitimacy. Although the authenticity of Ctesias's account is questionable, it is very likely that Cyrus married a daughter of the Median king. After Astyages's defeat, the Lydian king Croesus crossed the Halys River in hopes of expanding his borders to the east. This resulted in a war, leading Lydia to be conquered by the Persians. A Sagartian named Tritantechmes, who also claimed to be a descendant of Cyaxares, continued the rebellion but was also defeated. This is the last Median rebellion against Achaemenid rule. After the end of the Achaemenid Empire, Media continued to have great importance under the later Seleucid and Parthian empires. == Historicity ==

Until the late 20th-century, scholarship generally agreed that the collapse of the Assyrian Empire was followed by the emergence of a Median empire. The Median empire was said to resemble the later Achaemenid Empire and to have ruled over a vast area of the Ancient Near East for half a century until its last king, Astyages, was overthrown by his own vassal, Cyrus the Great. In 1988, 1994, and 1995, historian Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg questioned the existence of a Median Empire as a political entity possessing structures comparable to the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, or Achaemenid Empires. She cast doubts on the overall validity of our most important source, namely Herodotus's Medikos Logos, and pointed to gaps in non-classical sources, especially for the first half of the 6th century BCE. Sancisi-Weerdenburg highlighted that virtually only Greek classical sources were used by modern historiography to construct Median history, and that ancient Near Eastern sources were almost fully ignored. She argued that there is no direct or substantial indirect evidence, not from Herodotus, supporting the existence of a Median Empire, and that such an empire is a Greek construction. Around 650 BCE, information about the Assyrian provinces in the Zagros was considerably reduced, and Assyrian sources no longer mention the Medes. When the Medes reappear in contemporary records in 615 BCE, they are attacking Assyria. There is no indication of how Cyaxares brought a unified Median force to such effective and devastating use. Currently, two contrasting academic views exist: the traditional perspective sees Cyaxares as the king of a unified Median state confronting Assyria as an equal power, while the alternative view considers the Medes as a military force that contributed to the fall of Assyria but lacked political cohesion. The absence of relevant Assyrian evidence after 650 BCE does not rule out the existence of a broader Median authority centered in Ecbatana. Some theories suggest that tribute demands and commercial exploitation along the Great Khurasan Road may have contributed to the accumulation of wealth by Median chiefs, prompting an ambitious individual to seek broader authority. Alternatively, conflicts among Median chiefs led to Assyrian intervention in 676 BCE and the oath of allegiance in 672 BCE. Assyrian concerns about potential threats from the Medes, Scythians, and Cimmerians during this period may have created an opportunity for the emergence of a dominant leader. The attack on Assyria from 615 to 610 BCE likely played a crucial role in consolidating the authority of this leader. David Stronach argues that there is not enough reason to posit the existence of a robust, independent, and unified Median kingdom at any date before 615 BCE. However, he disagrees with extending this negative assessment to the period from 615 to the mid-6th century BCE. For the period from 615 to 550 BCE, Babylonian sources contain two important pieces of information that align with Herodotus's account: in 615-610 BCE, the Medes, united under the leadership of Cyaxares, destroyed Assyrian capitals; in 550 BCE, the Median army, led by Astyages, defected to the Persian king Cyrus, followed by the conquest of Ecbatana. Thus, the beginning and end of an independent Median kingdom seem to be present, although the nature of such a kingdom is not necessarily equal to that described by Herodotus as a true empire foreshadowing the Achaemenid Empire. It is likely that a unified Median kingdom exerted control over a significant part of northern Iran, at least in the first half of the 6th century BCE. However, some scholars have also raised doubts about the existence of a unified, short-lived Median kingdom. Historian Mario Liverani proposed that there was no transition from city lords to regional rulers or kings; instead, there was a brief unification under a primary Median king, specifically to confront a weakened Assyria in the 610s BCE, followed by a rapid return to the previous status quo. Nevertheless, this view is not widely accepted. While some scholars still consider Media a powerful and structured empire that would have influenced the Achaemenid Empire, concrete archaeological evidence for such an empire is lacking. Others view the Median Empire as a fiction created by Herodotus to fill a gap between the Assyrian and Persian Empires in his vision of a sequence of Eastern empires. Karen Radner concluded that, without Herodotus and the Greek tradition, it is "highly doubtful" that modern researchers would posit the existence of a Median Empire. Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg expressed this view when she said that "the Median Empire exists for us because Herodotus says it did". An alternative view suggests a loose confederation of tribes capable of causing devastating effects, such as the conquest of Assyria, but lacking centralized imperial structures, mechanisms, and bureaucracies of control. This confederation would operate through loose alliances and dependencies driven by momentarily overlapping goals and ambitions. If any organized and stable authority existed, it would likely be centered in the central Zagros region, between Lake Urmia and Elam. While this hypothesis is sustainable and plausible, it remains a probability since textual evidence is inconclusive. Although archaeological evidence supports many judgments based on textual sources, at least for the period until around 650 BCE, there is still enough uncertainty for the period after 650 BCE. Reconsidering the Medes as a confederation or coalition, rather than a "traditional" empire, aligns with the limited evidence, but such reconsideration does not necessarily diminish their importance in the history of the Ancient Near East.{{Cite web According to Matt Waters, the existing evidence shows a Median king exerting influence or authority directly or indirectly over many peoples through a hierarchical and informal system of governance, without the existence of a formal "Median Empire" — meaning a centralized and bureaucratic structure. In the 590s BCE, Jeremiah mentions 'the kings of the Medes' (51:11) and 'the kings of the Medes, their governors (pechah), all their officials (sagan), and all the lands (eretz) of their dominion (memshalah)' (51:27-28). The plurality of "kings" is remarkable (although the Septuagint uses the singular "king"); whether the fact that Jeremiah (25:25) also lists "all the kings of Elam and Media" among the condemned nations shows that the plural and singular are rhetorically interchangeable is debatable. A possible explanation may be found in Nabonidus's references to the "Ummān-manda, their country, and the kings who march at their side." Nabonidus is pointing to a unitary threat, composed of components that include a plurality of kings. Jeremiah's formula may be an alternative way of expressing this, especially since the Hebrew prophet is not concerned with the complexities of the situation. The descriptions by Nabonidus and Jeremiah are consistent with Herodotus's depiction of Median dominance in 1.134: == Organization ==

Administrative management Currently, there's a lack of direct information about the political, economic, and social structure of the Medes. However, it is likely that in many aspects, the Median administrative system resembled that of the Assyrians, under whose influence the Medes were for a long period. Some elements of the administrative system introduced by the Assyrians may have persisted in the Median provinces even after the fall of Assyria. Instead of being a centralized monarchy, the Median state was more like a confederation with various rulers. The Median governance system favored a pyramidal structure of loyalty, where small rulers pledged allegiance to a provincial king, who, in turn, owed loyalty to the central court in Ecbatana. This system somewhat resembled the satrapal and feudal systems. The exercise of authority over various Iranian and non-Iranian peoples in the form of a confederation is implied by the ancient Iranian royal title "king of kings". Probably, there never was a Median Empire strictu sensu. The Median kingdom was probably just a loose federation of western Iranian chieftains and kings and their unity was maintained by their personal ties with the Median king, who was less an absolute monarch than a first among equals. This fits the description of other rulers "who march at the side" of the Median king mentioned in Babylonian sources. Maria Brosius envisions Media as a territory of chiefdoms that, between 614 and 550 BCE, united their military forces under a city lord, with Ecbatana as their power base. Royal court Available information about the Median court is limited and not entirely reliable. In his charming account of the youth of Cyrus II, Herodotus suggests that the Median court included bodyguards, messengers, the "king's eye" (a kind of secret agent), and builders. Ctesias mentions the royal cupbearer as one of the positions at the Median court. When founding the Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus likely continued the organization and practices of the Median court, including forms of etiquette, ceremony, and diplomatic protocol that the Medes, in turn, inherited from Assyria. According to Herodotus, as soon as he ascended the throne, Deioces ordered the construction of a fortress city to be his capital; all governmental authority was centralized in this city, Ecbatana. He established law and order by introducing "observers and listeners" throughout his kingdom, monitoring the actions of his subjects. The presence of Median soldiers in Assyrian palaces evidently significantly influenced the restructuring of Median military tactics, adopting more advanced techniques. Occupying the second most important position in the Achaemenid Empire, the Medes paid less tribute but provided more soldiers to the Achaemenid army than other peoples. This is evidenced by the reliefs of Persepolis and Herodotus, as well as the fact that many Median generals, such as Harpagus, Mazares, and Datis, served in the Persian army. Hilary Gopnik see the Median state as a “dominant economic force” in control of the trade routes of the northern Zagros in the late 7th and 6th centuries. As Medes, being the most powerful people on the Iranian plateau in the first half of the 6th century BCE, may have demanded tribute from peoples such as the Persians, Armenians, Parthians, Drangians, and Arians. The importance of Media is primarily related to controlling a substantial portion of the east-west route known in the Middle Ages as the Silk Road. This route connected the Eastern and Western worlds, linking Media to Babylon, Assyria, Armenia, and the Mediterranean in the west, as well as to Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, and China in the east. Another important road connected Ecbatana with the Persian capitals, Persepolis and Pasargadae. In addition to controlling east-west trade, Media was also rich in agricultural products. The valleys of the Zagros were fertile, and Media was well-known for its crops, sheep, and goats. The country could sustain a large population and boasted many villages and some cities like Rages and Gabae. Assyrian texts mention wealthy Median cities, but the recorded plunder mainly consisted of weapons, cattle, donkeys, horses, camels, and occasionally lapis lazuli, obtained through Median trade further east. Around the time of their unification or shortly afterward, it seems that the Medes acquired means to supply themselves with more substantial wealth. This is inferred from a passage in the Babylonian Chronicle from the 6th century BCE, which mentions that king Cyrus II took silver, gold, goods, and properties from Ecbatana as spoils to Anshan. == Territorial extension ==

The borders of Media changed gradually over time, resulting in a geographical extension whose precise details remain unknown. The original territory of Media, as known by the Assyrians from the late 9th century to the early 7th century BCE, was bordered to the north by Gizilbunda, located in the Qaflankuh Mountain Range north of the Hamadan plain. To the west and northwest, Media did not extend beyond the Hamadan plain and was bordered by the Zagros Mountains, except in the southwest, where Media occupied the Zagros Valley, and its border extended to the Garrin Mountain, separating it from the kingdom of Ellipi, located south of Kermanshah. To the south, it bordered the Elamite region of Simaški, corresponding to the current Lorestan province. To the east and southeast, Media seems to have been delimited by the Dasht-e Kavir desert. Patusarra and Mount Bikni were probably the remotest territories of Media that the Assyrians penetrated during their greatest expansion in the second half of the 8th century and the early decades of the 7th century BCE. Scholars typically identify Bikni with Mount Damavand, northeast of Tehran. However, others identify it with Mount Alvand, immediately west of Hamadan. If this identification is correct, it means that the Assyrians never crossed this mountain, and all the Media territory they conquered or knew was west of Hamadan. The archaeological evidence available is limited, but the easternmost site with potentially Median pottery is Tepe Ozbaki, situated 75 km west of Tehran, so it is probable that Media extended at least that far east. In the 6th century and later, much of northern Iran and some neighboring territories were attributed to Media. This was the result of Median conquests in the second half of the 7th century BCE. The Median involvement with Assyria from 615 to 610 is marked by three, possibly four, campaigns, each of which concluded with the sack of an important city. The Medes' departure after each conquest suggests a lack of interest in political control over the heartland of the former Assyrian empire. Julian Reade posits that the Assyrian provinces within the Zagros, like Mazamua, and perhaps the upper Tigris regions of Tušhan and Šupria, were the only ones more suitable for Median expansion due to their familiarity to the Median territory. Nonetheless it is sometimes suggested that the Medes took control of the Assyrian heartland as claimed by later Greek sources. Herodotus (1, 106), writing about 450 BCE, that Cyaxares conquered all Assyria; whatever was meant by Assyria in this context, this may imply at most a remote suzerainty of the kind described by Herodotus (1, 134). Ctesias, around 400 BCE, mentions resettlement of Nineveh under Median rule. Xenophon, who travelled through the country in 401 BCE, regard metropolitan Assyria as part of Media. He also says that Nimrud and Nineveh were former Median cities conquered by the Persians. The relevance of these informations for the situation in the 6th century BCE is questionable. The Babylonian Chronicle records that in 547 the Persian king Cyrus passed through Arbela (modern Erbil) on his way to attack a kingdom whose name is damaged but which is often supposed to have been Lydia. He concedes that the Medes might have been in Anatolia for a brief period and even entered into a treaty with the Lydians but dismisses the idea of permanent Median control in eastern and central Anatolia in the 6th century BCE. The demise of the Urartian kingdom remains unclear due to the lack of written sources after the 640s BCE. However, there seems to be a consensus that the kingdom was destroyed by the Medes, given the accepted border at the Halys River by many scholars. It is assumed that the Medes somehow managed to extend their dominion to the west. Without any regional structure to resist military incursions, Babylonians invaded Urartu in 608-607 BCE, and perhaps 609 BCE, and later the Medes must have asserted their authority over the region. The Nabonidus Chronicle reports a campaign of Cyrus the Great in 547 BCE to a land for which only the first character is still recognisable in the text. Although there is ongoing debate, the prevailing interpretation identifies it as Lydia, reading the damaged character as Lu-. However, in 1997, Joachim Oelsner identified the sign as Ú, the first sign of Urartu. It is likely that Cyrus, after he had conquered Media, spent several years to establish his power under regions that had been previously under Median control. However, considering the view of fragility of the Median power on its western flank and reservations about the existence of a Median Empire, Rollinger concludes that Urartu likely survived the Median "episode" only to be conquered by Cyrus. But there might have been a period of Median supremacy or overlordship since the Behistun inscription treats revolts in the first year of Darius' reign in this region as part of the revolts in Media, dividing 'Media' into at least three parts: Media proper, Sagartia, and Urartu (Armenia). However, it is possible that it never exceeded the size of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which at its peak covered 1,400,000 km². A recent reassessment of historical evidence, both archaeological and textual, has led many scholars to question previous notions about the territorial extent of the Medes. As a result, some scholars are removing many supposed "provinces" and "dependent kingdoms" from the composition of the "Median Empire", such as Persia, Elam, Assyria, northern Syria, Armenia, Cappadocia, Drangiana, Parthia, and Aria. Thus, the influence and territorial extent of the Median state was reduced to the territory adjacent to Ecbatana. == Legacy ==

The formation of the Median kingdom is one of the decisive moments in Iranian history. It heralded the Aryan rise to dynastic power, shaping cultural and political life on the Iranian plateau and in other territories occupied by Iranians. Iranian peoples united for the first time, creating a political counterbalance to the major powers in the west, Lydia and Babylon. The Persian victory over Media constituted a step toward glory for Cyrus II, who then achieved a series of victories and founded the Achaemenid Empire, the largest and most powerful Iranian state in history. Some historians, analyzing Achaemenid administrative and palace vocabulary, suggest that Median loanwords were particularly frequent in royal titulature and bureaucracy. Additionally, it is hypothesized that the Medes indirectly transmitted Assyro-Babylonian and Urartian traditions to the Persians. The inference is that Cyrus assimilated into Median traditions, given Media's previous political supremacy. Due to its localization, the Persians were very prone to Elamite influence, to the point that is thought that the Persians of the time of Cyrus comprised a population descended from a blending of Iranians and Elamites. The permanence of Elamites borrowing in every aspect of social and political life suggest that the organization of the Kingdom of Cyrus and his successors owes more to the Elamite legacy, which can be identified precisely, than to Median borrowings, which are very difficult to isolate. == Notes ==