Avestan period

Common card · No. 427990

The Avestan period (c. 1500 – c. 400 BCE) is the period of Iranian history when the collection of canonical texts of Zoroastrianism called the Avesta were produced. The period saw important developments to religious thought and to Iranian mythology, historiography and literature. Scholars can reliably distinguish between two different linguistic strata in the Avesta labeled "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan". These two strata represent two different stages in the development of the Avestan language and the society of its speakers. The Old Avestan society is the one to which Zarathustra and his immediate followers belonged. The Young Avestan society is less clearly delineated and reflects a longer time span. There is a varying level of scholarly consensus on the chronology and geographical extent of the Avestan period. Scholarship largely agrees that it reflects the eastern portion of Greater Iran. Early scholarship placed Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. More recent scholarship, however...

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