Well, my impression has always been that the Sarmatians
and Persians didn't recognize each other as kin until
comparative linguists came along and told them so.
But if Piotr says that 'Iron' is Persian in origin then we
have no choice but to look somewhere along these lines.
There's also the fact that the Digoron Ossetes don't
call themselves 'Iron', though I've heard it claimed
that the -oron part of Digoron is cognate. Maybe the
Digors represent a stage before the acquisition of the
name Iron rather than a subgroup that has lost the common
ethnonym, as it's usually thought. I know that the Dariel
Pass in Ossetian territory was of strategic concern to the
Byzantine and Persian Empires. Maybe a Persian military
colony stationed at the pass with money from, and
connections to, the outside world became a petty elite
with which most of the local people eventually aligned
themselves and so acquired the Ir name, with periphal
groups like the ancestors of the Digors 'missing out'.
Although we had better be careful. We know what happens
when one starts elaborating theories on the basis of
speculative scenarios that can't be proven. (-:
-David
--- In cybalist@..., george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
> *****GK: It could be a false trail, but worth a brief
> check anyway. Didn't the boundaries of the later
> Persian Empire at some point come pretty close to
> Ossetia? Might some bright Ossetian politicos not have
> tried to interest the Persians (as protectors?) by
> adopting "Iron" as their new ethnonym ("we're your
> brothers")? Except that there's also the religious
> issue... So maybe that won't work.*****
>
> --- liberty@... wrote:
> > How bizarre! I wonder how the Ossetes came to
> > acquire another
> > group's ethnic name. They were historically
> > attested as "Alans"
> > and/or "As" prior to settling in the Caucasus and
> > for some time
> > afterwards but then at some point began calling
> > themselves "Ir".
> > Did they mingle with a Persian colony in the
> > Caucasus or something?