Herodotus' gold-digging ants in India

[mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU]

As I recall, Peissel's identification of the gold-digging
ants with marmots in the West Tibetan regions now
partially in HP, was based in part on his assumption
that Herodotus's "city of Caspatyrum" could be
identified with Tsaparang, the capital of the 
West Tibet Guge kingdom. But, phonological
approximations aside, this was totally arbitrary
and anachronistic. We have no evidence for urbanization
on the Tibetan plateau in Herodotus's time (though
there were neolithic villages), and the foundation of
Tsaparang cannot be documented before the 10th century
CE.

Matthew T. Kapstein
Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Directeur d'études
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris