Re: Satarchae, Sadagarii, Sagartioi, Sargetae, Asagarta; ÁsgarÃ

> So Satarchae, Sadagarii, Sagartioi, Sargetae and more are just
> several names for the same people. Are there more?
>
> It seems Pekkanen derives all the various forms of the names of this
> Iranian upper layer / nomadic people, descendants of the Royal
> Scythians, from *(a)sagart-.
> Now this is just too tempting:
>
> *asagart- -> Ásgarð-
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asgard
> with the relevant quotes:
> > http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heimskringla/Ynglinga_Saga#Of_the_People_of_Asia.
> 'Of the People of Asia.
> The country east of the Tanaquisl in Asia was called Asaland, or Asaheim, and the chief city in that land was called Asgaard. In that city was a chief called Odin, and it was a great place for sacrifice. It was the custom there that twelve temple priests should both direct the sacrifices, and also judge the people. They were called Diar, or Drotner, and all the people served and obeyed them. Odin was a great and very far-travelled warrior, who conquered many kingdoms, and so successful was he that in every battle the victory was on his side. It was the belief of his people that victory belonged to him in every battle. It was his custom when he sent his men into battle, or on any expedition, that he first laid his hand upon their heads, and called down a blessing upon them; and then they believed their undertaking would be successful. His people also were accustomed, whenever they fell into danger by land or sea, to call upon his name; and they thought that always they got comfort and aid by it, for where he was they thought help was near. Often he went away so far that he passed many seasons on his journeys.'
>
> I can't see anything in that description that would be improbable for a ruler of an Iranian upper layer / nomadic people.

Re: the idea that the Galatians were somehow Bastarnian
http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/66910
cf. Strabo 12.5.1
http://rbedrosian.com/Classic/strabo12d.htm
'To the south of the Paphlagonians are the Galatians, of whom there are three tribes; two of them, the Trocmi and the Tolistobogii, have their names from their chiefs; the third, the Tectosages, from the tribe of that name in Celtica. The Galatians took possession of this country after wandering about for a long period, and overrunning the country subject to the Attalic and the Bithynian kings, until they received by a voluntary cession the present Galatia, or Gallo-Grascia, as it is called. Leonnorius seems to have been the chief leader of these people when they passed over into Asia. There were three nations that spoke the same language, and in no respect differed from one another. Each of them was divided into four portions called tetrarchies, and had its own tetrarch, its own judge, and one superintendent of the army, all of whom were under the control of the tetrarch, and two subordinate superintendents of the army. The Council of the twelve Tetrarchs consisted of three hundred persons, who assembled at a place called the Drynemetum. The council determined causes relative to murder, the others were decided by the tetrarchs and the judges. Such, anciently, was the political constitution of Galatia; but, in our time, the government was in the hands of three chiefs, then of two, and at last it. was administered by Deiotarus, who was succeeded by Amyntas. At present, the Romans possess this as well as all the country which was subject to Amyntas, and have reduced
it into one province.'

Note the similarity with form of government described for Ásgard.

And note the recurrence of the number twelve in
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Prose_Edda/Gylfaginning

Cf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury
'An early reference to a jury type group in England is in a decree issued by Aethelred at Wantage (997), which enacted that in every Hundred "the twelve leading thegns together with the reeve shall go out and swear on the relics which are given into their hands, that they will not accuse any innocent man nor shield a guilty one." [ie. that they will not be biased by the ethnic affinity, within the union of jurisdictions, of the accused] The resulting Wantage Code code formally recognized legal customs that were part of the Danelaw.'
(and search 'twelve' and '12' in the article)

The notion that juries must number twelve seems to have a long history. It would seem that the right to trial by jury has a an origin as a right to appeal to a 'federal court', ie. one 'above' the jurisdiction of your own ethnic/judicial group. Perhaps the U.S. should have started out with 12 instead of 13 states ;-) ?.

> I'll attempt an etymology myself:
>
> Snorri calls his people men of Asia.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia#Etymology
> 'The word Asia originated from the Greek word `ασία first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BC) in reference to Anatolia or - in describing the Persian Wars - to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. Herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three women's names are used to describe one enormous and substantial land mass (Europa, Asia, and Libya, referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus (i.e. Hesione), but that the Lydians say it was named after Asias, son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe in Sardis. Even before Herodotus, Homer knew of two figures in the Trojan War named Asios; and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). In Greek mythology, "Asia" (`ασία) or "Asie" (`ασίη) was the name of a Nymph or Titan goddess of Lydia.[8]'
> ...
> Alternatively, the etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word (w)aşû(m), which means 'to go outside' or 'to ascend', referring to the direction of the sun at sunrise in the Middle East and also likely connected with the Phoenician word asa meaning east. This may be contrasted to a similar etymology proposed for Europe, as being from Akkadian ere:bu(m) 'to enter' or 'set' (of the sun).
> T.R. Reid supports this alternative etymology, noting that the ancient Greek name must have derived from asu, meaning 'east' in Assyrian (ereb for Europe meaning 'west').[6] The ideas of Occidental (form Latin Occidens 'setting') and Oriental (from Latin Oriens for 'rising') are also European invention, synonymous with Western and Eastern.[6] Reid further emphasizes that it explains the Western point of view of placing all the peoples and cultures of Asia into a single classification, almost as if there were a need for setting the distinction between Western and Eastern civilizations on the Eurasian continent.
> ...
> However, this etymology is considered doubtful, because it does not explain how the term "Asia" first came to be associated with Anatolia, which is west of the Semitic-speaking areas, unless they refer to the viewpoint of a Phoenician sailor sailing through the straits between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.'
>
> de Vries
> 'austr - 2 'east',
> Icel. austur, Faroe eystur, Norw. aust(er),
> OSw. oster, Sw. östr, ODa. ostær, Da. øst(er).
> - > lp. austa (Qvigstad 95); > ne. ON. Owston, Austwick (Mawer 3).
> - OE easter, eastre "easter"), OFr. ōstr, OS OHG ōstar,
> cf. Got. Austro-gothi, Ostrogothae 'East Goths'.
> - Lat. aurora 'dawn', auster 'south wind',
> Gr. α`ύριον 'morning', Hom. `ηώς 'dawn',
> Sanskrit uşās 'dawn', ucchati 'it dawns',
> Lit. au~šta 'it dawns', aušrà f. "dawn", Latv. austrs 'east wind',
> austrums m. 'east' (IEW 86-7). '
>
> from *aNs- -> *aus-?
>
>
> The original form of the toponym/ethnonym, might thus be
> *aNsa-gart- "east fort/court"
> Perhaps *aNsaN-gart -> *asaŋart- -> *samart- -> Sarmat-, with
> folk-etymological side-form(from sauro- "lizard", ommat- "eye")
> Sauromat- ?
> cf. the nasal of
> Avestan ušå:, acc. ušåŋhəm, gen. ušaŋhō "dawn" (Pokorny);
> and note also aug- "shine"; see' ibd., best explained (I think) from
> *aN- -> *aŋ- -> *aNg- -> *aug-, the above root as an s-stem *aN-s-
> -> *aus-

I can't find an etymology for Persian saudagar "trader".
Is it <- *aNsaN-gart- (cf. Sadagarii)?


Torsten