Cimmerians

Cimmerians
The Cimmerian migrations across West Asia
The Cimmerian migrations across West Asia
Common languagesScythian
Religion
Scythian religion (?)
Ancient Iranic religion (?)
Luwian religion (?)
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
• Unknown–679 BC
Teušpâ
• 679–640 BC
Dugdammî
• 640–630s BC
Sandakšatru
Historical eraIron Age
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex
Phrygia
Lydia
Scythians

The Cimmerians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were culturally Scythian, they formed an ethnic unit separate from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.[1]

The Cimmerians themselves left no written records, and most information about them is largely derived from Neo-Assyrian records of the 8th to 7th centuries BC and from Graeco-Roman authors from the 5th century BC and later.

  1. ^ Tokhtas’ev 1991: "As the Cimmerians cannot be differentiated archeologically from the Scythians, it is possible to speculate about their Iranian origins. In the Neo-Babylonian texts (according to D’yakonov, including at least some of the Assyrian texts in Babylonian dialect) Gimirri and similar forms designate the Scythians and Central Asian Saka, reflecting the perception among inhabitants of Mesopotamia that Cimmerians and Scythians represented a single cultural and economic group"