Vitii

The Vitii were a tribe that in antiquity lived in the former Caucasus Albania; in and around a town now known as Nij, in the Qabala district of Azerbaijan.^[1][2] While some scholars believe that the Vitii were indigenous Caucasus Albanians,^[3][4] and possibly ancestral to, or neighbours of the Udi people who now live in the Nij area,^[5][6][7] there are numerous theories suggesting that the Vitii originated with another people, who settled in the area in antiquity.

Some scholars consider the Vitii to have originated with a purported ancient Greek settlement.^[8] Conversely, V. V. Nikolaev identifies the Vitii with the Gutians, who invaded Bronze Age Sumeria.^[9] A third hypothesis, put forward by A. A. Tuallagov, suggests that the Vitii migrated from the territory of the Yuezhi and/or a Tocharian-speaking people,^[10][11] originating in Inner Asia.

The hypothesis of Greek migration appears to have originated with Strabo, who claimed that the Vitii lived in a city in founded by part of a tribe known as the Ainianes (Latin: Ainiani), after it had been expelled from Thessaly. Some proponents of this hypothesis suggest that the ethnonym Vitii – and possibly also Udi – originated with the Ainianes.^[12] (There may be limited supporting evidence for this from Armenian sources, which refer to the area in question as Otena.^[13][14]) Strabo also claims that some of the Vitii lived to the north of Caucasus Albania, on the shores of the Caspian Sea.^[15] According to Pliny, the Vitii and other Caucasus Albanians made up the majority of the population in the territory of the Scythian kingdom of Sakasene, which was centred on the later area around Nagorno-Karabakh.^[16] Similarly, Igor M. Diakonoff claims that some of the Udi were part of Iškuza, a wider part of Scythia, which included the later Sakasene kingdom.^[17]

References

1. Zaseckaja, Irina P. (1994). Культура Кочевников Южнозусских степей в гуннскую эпоху: конец IV - V вв (in Russian). АО "Еллипс". ISBN 978-5-87067-004-1.
2. Istorii͡a Dagestana: V 4-kh t (in Russian). Nauka. 1967.
3. Труды Двадцать Пятого Международного Конгресса Востоковедов, Москва 9-16 Августа 1960: Заседания секций X, XI, XIII (in Russian). Изд-во восточной лит-ры. 1962.
4. Материалы и исследования по археологии СССР (in Russian). Изд-во Академии наук СССР. 1959.
5. Ėtnopolis: ėtnopoliticheskiĭ vestnik Rossii (in Russian). Ėtnopolis. 1992.
6. Sibirskai͡a starina (in Russian). Sibirskai͡a starina. 2001.
7. Vestnik drevneĭ istorii (in Russian). Наука. 1987.
8. Васильевна, Тревер, Камилла (1959-01-01). Очерки по истории и культуре Кавказской Албании: IV в. до н.э.- VII в. н.э. (in Russian). АН СССР, Москва-Ленинград.
9. Николаев, В. В.; Николаев, Василий Васильевич (2005). История предков чувашей: XXX в. до н.э.--XV в. н.э. : хроника событий (in Russian). Фонд историко-культурологических иссл. им. К.В. Иванова. ISBN 978-5-7361-0090-3.
10. Бутаков, Ярослав (2018-07-11). Тайны древних миграций (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 978-5-457-42694-8.
11. Туаллагов, Алан Ахсарович (2001). Сарматы и аланы в IV в. до н.э.-И в.н.э (in Russian). Изд-во СОГУ. ISBN 9785833602423.
12. Васильевна, Тревер, Камилла (1959-01-01). Очерки по истории и культуре Кавказской Албании: IV в. до н.э.- VII в. н.э. (in Russian). АН СССР, Москва-Ленинград.
13. Бакиров, Марсель (2019-08-14). Прототюрки. Изначальная прародина, ранние племена и язык, история и этнокультура (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 978-5-04-184367-0.
14. Азәрбајҹан ССР Елмләр Академијасынын хәбәрләри: Известия Академии наук Азербайджанской ССР. Серия истории, философии и права. Тарих, фәлсәфә вә һүгуг серијасы (in Russian). Азәрбајҹан ССР ЕА Нәшријјаты. 1988.
15. Этнокультурные процессы в древнем Дагестане: сборник статей (in Russian). Дагестанский филиал АН СССР. 1987.
16. Akademii̐asy, Azărbai̐jan SSR Elmlăr (1961). Izvestiia. Seriia Obshchestvennykh Nauk (in Russian).
17. Herodotus; Доватур, Аристид Иванович (1982). Народы нашей страны в "Истории" Геродота: тексты, перевод, комментарий (in Russian). Изд-во "Наука".