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The House of Israel

Westwards via Scythia cal maze that -- in one form or another -- they might be
expected ultimately to emerge.

It has been established that the great mass of the peo- The Secular Record
ple of Israel was deported from Palestine during the pe-
riod 734-710 B.C. to what is now north-west Persia, but Although the Persian inscriptions include all the
known to the ancient historians as part of the vast terri- Scythian peoples under the term Saka, it is clear that
tory which they called Scythia. this ancient Persian name was used particularly with re-
lation to a dominant group of nations of Iranian origin.
The Scythian question has profoundly puzzled histori- This group is now usually referred to as the Sacae.
ans and ethnologists, ancient and modern, and at this Their emergence into recorded history took place during
late period of history there would appear to be no likeli- the early part of the seventh century B.C.
hood of any solution which might achieve general ac-
ceptance. The divergence of view of accredited Of the ancient writers, Herodotus (fifth century B.C.) re-
authorities is remarkable -- and when experts disagree cords that, in his day, the Saka Humavarga were lo-
the layman is entitled to make his own choice. Neverthe- cated east and south-east of the Sea of Aral, even as far
less, in order to attempt to follow the migrations of the as Turkestan and the borders of India. He associates
Israel peoples after their expulsion from Palestine, it is the Sacae with the Bactrians, and says that they were at
necessary to consider the available data on this most one period led by Hystaspes, son of Darius, who had
controversial subject, even though the evidence ad- married Atossa, daughter of Cyrus. By the time of the
duced is often conflicting as between one authority and Alexandrine writers, the bulk of the Sacae appear to
another. have been dwelling somewhere beyond the Jaxartes.

The Location Diodorus (first century B.C.) says that kindred Sacae
peoples spread from the Araxes to as far west as the
In particular, the territory originally called Scythia ex- Don, and that they settled two remarkable colonies from
tended from the mouth of the Danube, northwards of Assyria and Media on the latter river, and in Paphlago-
the Black Sea, to the Volga. In its widest sense, how- nia and Pontus; further, that these colonists later be-
ever, the term embraced all lands eastwards, even as far came classified as Sauromatians. This parallels the
as the borders of India and eastern Turkestan. In gen- Sigynnae migration, mentioned by Herodotus, who
eral, the Scythians comprised a vast agglomeration of claimed to be colonists from Media, and who had earlier
nomadic and semi-nomadic nations and tribes of diverse migrated westwards, as far as the Rhine.
origin: Nordic, Mediterranean, Alpine, Slavonic, Tartar
and Mongol. Some of them were cultured; others were Strabo (first century B.C.) states that this dominant peo-
barbarous and foul. Their names, customs, language ple had conquered the whole territory from Cappadocia
and habitat changed with the centuries. The Greeks had to far east of the Caspian. He mentions that they gave
their own classification for these peoples. The Romans their name to Sacasene, the most fertile tract of land in
used other names; whilst the Persians indiscriminately Armenia.
called them all Sacae. Pliny, writing prior to A.D. 80,
said: '...Upon no subject that I know are there greater Pliny (first century A.D.) considered that the name
discrepancies among writers.' Small wonder, therefore, Sacae properly belonged to that portion of the Scythian
that modern ethnologists disagree. peoples whose territory originally abutted on the
boundaries of Persia itself.
It was into this heterogeneous assortment of obscure
nations and tribes that the Israel peoples disappeared Of modern ethnologists Tarn states that there were
from the Bible narrative. And it is out of this ethnologi- Sacae both north and south of the Jaxartes about the
period of Eratosthenes (c. 276-194 B.C.). Those south of
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