Editing Issedones (section)

==Location==
[[File:Herodotus world map-en.svg|thumb|Issedones seen on Ancient Greek world map.]]
The exact location of their territorial span in Central Asia is unknown. The Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Chinese Turkestan," according to E. D. Phillips.<ref>Phillips, "The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia, and Inner Asia" ''Artibus Asiae'' '''18'''.2 (1955, pp. 161-177) p 166.</ref>

Herodotus, who allegedly got his information through both [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and Scythian sources, describes them as living east of Scythia and north of the [[Massagetae]], while the geographer [[Ptolemy]] (VI.16.7) appears to place the trading stations of ''Issedon Scythica'' and ''Issedon Serica'' in the [[Tarim Basin]].<ref>Ptolemy's information appears to come at several removes from a [[Han dynasty|Han]] guide of the first century CE, according to Phillips (Phillips 1955:170); it would have been translated from Persian to Greek by the traveller [[Maes Titianus]] for his itinerary, used by Marinus of Tyre as well as Ptolemy.</ref> Some speculate that they are the people described in Chinese sources as the ''[[Wusun]]''.<ref>Golden (1992), p. 51</ref> J.D.P. Bolton places them further north-east, on the south-western slopes of the [[Altay mountains]].<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Bolton
  | first = J.D.P.
  | title = Aristeas of Proconnesus
  | year = 1962
  | pages = 104–118}}</ref>

Another location of the land of the Issedones can be inferred from the account of [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. According to what the Greek traveller was told at Delos in the second century CE, the [[Arimaspi]] were north of the Issedones, and the Scythians were south of them:

{{cquote|At Prasiai [in Attika] is a temple of Apollo. Hither they say are sent the first-fruits of the [[Hyperboreans]], and the Hyperboreans are said to hand them over to the Arimaspoi, the Arimaspoi to the Issedones, from these the Skythians bring them to Sinope, thence they are carried by Greeks to Prasiai, and the Athenians take them to Delos." - Pausanias 1.31.2}}

The two cities of Issedon Scythia and Issedon Serica have been identified with five cities in the Tarim Basin: Qiuci, Yanqi, Shule, Gumo, and Jingjue, while Yutian is identified with the latter.

The Issedones may also correspond to the [[Saka]] [[Tasmola culture]] of Central Asia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ivanov |first1=Sergei Sergeevich |title=Asia, Steppe, East: Early Iron Age Pastoralist Cultures |journal=Reference Module in Social Sciences |date=2023 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-323-90799-6.00253-6 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/iron-age-culture |quote=Based on some information from literary sources it was suggested that the areas of the Tasmola Culture distribution can be correlated with the territory of the Issedones tribal group habitat. The Pazyryk Culture of the Altai Mountains, which also covered the mountains of Eastern Kazakhstan, could be associated with the semi-legendary people of the “gold guarding vultures”|url-access=subscription }}</ref>