Caucasian Alania?

From: indravayu
Message: 15318
Date: 2002-09-09

Does anyone on the list know anything about a medieval kingdom
called Alania? I have read that it was in the Caucasus, not far away
from where the modern Ossetes live (and that the kingdom was founded
by the Ossetes Alanic ancestors), but I have come across some that
believe that there was no such kingdom in the Caucasus, and that the
Ossetes originated in a region called Alania on the _western_ shores
of the Black sea, and migrated to the Caucasus at some later period.
Can anyone help settle this matter?

Thanks,
Chris Gwinn