Wansaho civilization

Wansaho civilization

Geographical range	(Saholand)
Period	Wansaho chronology
Dates	c. 1750 BC - c. 500 CE
Major sites	Peyop, Lomil
Preceded by	Nuric migrations
Cause of collapse	Roman/Germanic conquests of the Wansaho

The Wansaho civilization was a northeastern Nuric civilization, situated along the Saho River and its tributaries, that existed through antiquity. It was comprised of a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states until Sa-Peyopan hegemony at around 520 BCE. Together with the (Southern Nuric) and (Central Nuric) civilizations, it was one of three complex Nuric civilizations of pre-Roman settlement. It was noted for its architecture, ancestral practices, a uniquely bitheistic religion, writing system, calendar, astronomy, and surviving historical records.

Contact and trade with Carthage in the 5th century BCE led to the spread of disease epidemics, unbeknown to the Wansaho, that led to severe depopulation, followed by the adoption of iron metallurgy. This then led to the Iron Wars, a conflict by a coalition of city-states against Sa-Peyop's hegemony. These events weakened the Wansaho civilization for the eventual Roman and Germanic settlements of Matys, leading to its collapse and dissolution. Today, its boundaries roughly correlate to the regions of Atlantica and Sapeeyopa in the state of East Matys, with small overlaps into other East Matysian regions such as Castra and (Nurakal), along with the states of Arcosia and (Northern Matys).

Etymology

The name Wansaho comes from a Romanized adaptation of the Wansahic phrase Wa n Sa'ahoph (that/those of the great river). While the Saho River served as a important cultural marker for the Wansaho, most Wansaho never identified strongly with it, instead identifying more strongly with the city-state they lived under or the ancestral progenitor they descended from.

History

Like the other Nuric civilizations of its time, the Wansaho's chronology has been categorized by Nurologists into three periods: the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic. These periods try to roughly correlate with significant events in Wansaho history such as the establishment of the city-state system as the end of the Preclassic, or the Iron Wars marking the end of the Classic. Today, these periods' start and end dates vary by a margin of up to a century, based on the scholar.

Wansaho chronology

Period	Division		Dates
Preclassic	Early Preclassic		1750 BC
	Middle Preclassic		x
	Late Preclassic		x
Classic	Early Classic		520 BCE
	Late Classic		x
Postclassic	Early Postclassic		x
	Terminal Postclassic		x

Preclassic

The actual arrival of Nuric settlement in the Saho River basin is still hotly debated by Nurologists, but it is estimated to have occurred anytime between 1800 and 1700 BCE. The earliest archaeological evidence of Saho River is carbon dated at 1800-1679 BCE. From surviving Sa-Peyopan historical documents, Peyop, the ancestral founder of the city-state of Peyop, is said to have reigned for five total solar eclipses or "Great Intercourses." This would mean, if believed, that Peyop's reign would be sometime before either 1733 or 1710 BCE to at the very latest either after 1679 or 1666 BCE, with settlement 150 km inland already established.

It is inferred that the Wansaho descend from Southern Nuric peoples, who traveled by boat from the Black Lands through the Castran barrier islands to reach the Saho River. This is further evidenced by the almost identical jewelry, tools, weaponry, and art style found in burial sites and rock glyphs in both regions around this time period. The distinction and development of Wansaho culture, independent from the Southern Nuric civilization, is believed to have started developing by the Middle Preclassic and certainly finished by the time of the Late Preclassic. One example comes from writing material, the Wansaho distancing themselves from the use of papyri in their cooler, more damp environment than the Southern Nur and instead using clay tablets, which necessitated a radical revision of the Southern Nuric script. For this reason, we know much more about the Wansaho than the Southern Nur, as most Southern Nuric documents have rotted away by the time of Nuric archaeology, or are undecipherable despite their script's derivation from Hieratic Egyptian.

For the Early and Middle Preclassic, the Wansaho lived along the floodplains of the Saho River and its tributaries in small sedentary communities. The sophistications of the Southern Nuric civilizations were not brought over, the structures of the time being either simple or megalithic. Places of worship were commonly stone circles, with orientations toward the solstices and etchings of the lunar and Venus cycles, already signaling the Wansaho's interest in astronomical movements. Beginning evidence of Yzur and Tezelt can be found in rock glyphs in this time along with other figures assumed to be deities in the early Wansaho pantheon. Leaders of the community or other important figures were buried in burial mounds with richly decorated garments and jewelry, accompanied by animal and occasionally human sacrifices.