Cimmerians - Knowledge

3339: 4578: 4465: 3279:) had launched a counter-attack against the Cimmerians: Rusa I had gathered almost all of the Urartian armed forces to campaign against the Cimmerians, with Rusa I himself as well as his commander in chief and thirteen governors personally participating in this campaign. Rusa I's counter-attack was heavily defeated, and the governor of the Urartian province of Uišini was killed while the commander in chief and two governors were captured by the Cimmerian forces, attesting of the significant military power of the Cimmerians. 4710: 78: 5392:. While Cimmerian activities in Anatolia and Scythian activities in Media are attested, the claim that the Scythians arrived in Media while pursuing the Cimmerians is unsupported by evidence, and the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after that of the Cimmerians suggests that there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account of the Cimmerians crossing the Caucasus and moving south into West Asia under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their territories. 3919:), with the opportunity to attack Mannai and recover some of the settlements which the Mannaeans had previously captured. And although Aḫšēri himself was able to withstand the Neo-Assyrian invasion, he had depended on the Cimmerians to suppress internal opposition to his rule, and their absence weakened him enough that he was soon deposed and killed by a popular rebellion which his son Uallî repressed before ascending to the throne of Mannai and submitting to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. 301: 3221: 41: 4590: 4154: 3579: 5195:, on whose eastern borders the Cimmerians were still living in the 8th century BC. Thus, Homer's source on the Cimmerians was the Argonautic myth, which itself recorded of their existence when they were still living in northern Transcaucasia: the location of the Cimmerians as recorded by the Argonautic myth corresponds to the same one recorded by the late 7th century BC poem 5506:

where was believed to be the entrance to Hades; these "underground Cimmerians" visited each other using tunnels through which they would also admit strangers to the also underground oracle: according to this legend, these "underground Cimmerians" had an ancestral custom according to which they should never see the sun and were allowed to go out only at night;

3967:Ḫubišna, nor were they able to secure the borders of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, leaving Que vulnerable to incursions from Tabal, Kuzzurak and Ḫilakku, who were allied to the western Cimmerians who were establishing themselves in Anatolia at this time and might still have maintained connections with them even after Esarhaddon's victory at Ḫubišna. 3637:, with messengers travelling between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Hubuskia being at risk of being captured by hostile Cimmerian, Mannaean, Scythian or Urartian forces. Neo-Assyrian records also referred to these joint Cimmerian-Scythian forces, along with the Medes and Mannaeans, as a possible threat against the collection of tribute from Media. 3799:. Nonetheless, since the Cimmerians were distant foreigners with a very different culture, and therefore did not fear the Mesopotamian gods, Esarhaddon's diviner and advisor Bēl-ušēzib referred to these eastern Cimmerians instead of the Scythians as possible allies of the Mannaeans and advised Esarhaddon to spy on both them and the Mannaeans. 3611:) welcomed the Cimmerians and the Scythians as useful allies who could offer both protection and favourable new opportunities to his kingdom, which in turn allowed him to become an opponent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with him subsequently remaining an enemy of Sennacherib and his successors Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. 3506:, after which they consequently became active in West Asia. This Scythian expansion into West Asia, nonetheless, never lost contact with the core Scythian kingdom located in the Ciscaucasian Steppe and was merely an extension of it, as was the concurrently occurring westward Scythian expansion into the Pontic Steppe. 3102:

over the course of the late-8th to late-7th centuries BC disrupt the balance of power which had prevailed between the states of Elam, Mannai, the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Urartu on one side and the mountaineer and tribal peoples on the other, eventually leading to significant geopolitical changes in this region.

3242:) through the territory of the kingdom of Mannai, after the Mannaean king Ullusunu had invited them to attack Urartu through his kingdom's territory. This attack therefore took the Urartians by surprise and forced the governor of Uišini to ask for support from the king of the neighbouring small state of 4768:

in Anatolia in the west to the Caspian Sea and the eastern borders of Media in the east, and from Transcaucasia in the north to the northern borders of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the south. And, following the defeat of the Cimmerians and the disappearance of these states, it was the new Lydian Empire

4760:

The Cimmerians completely disappeared from history following this final defeat, and they were soon assimilated by the various populations and polities of Anatolia, such as Lydia, Media, and Pteria. It was also around this time that the last still-existing Syro-Hittite and Aramaean states in Anatolia,

4537:

succeeded him as king of Lydia and resumed diplomatic activity with the Neo-Assyrian Empire with the hope of military support which Ashurbanipal again did not provide. As a result, Ardys might possibly have been forced to submit to the Cimmerians, although the Cimmerians themselves never ruled Lydia.

4270:

These Cimmerian attacks also destroyed the relations between Lydia and Phrygia, and archaeological evidence from the Lydian site of Daskyleion shows that the Cimmerian invasion ended the development of trade and economic production in the early 7th century BC which had contributed to integrating both

3934:

This Cimmerian movement into Anatolia consisted of a large scale migration, with Cimmerian families taking their mobile possessions, animals, as well as conquered booty, along with them. This migration is archaeologically attested in the form of the expansion of the Scythian culture into this region,

3907:

However, some time in the late 660s or early 650s BC, the eastern Cimmerians left the Iranian Plateau and retreated to the west into Anatolia to join the western Cimmerians operating there: since Aḫšēri had depended on his alliance with the Cimmerians and Scythians to protect his kingdom from attacks

3823:

The Neo-Assyrian Empire did not remain on a defensive footing in response to the activities of the allied Cimmerian, Mannaean and Scythian forces, and it soon undertook diplomatic initiatives to separate Aḫšēri from his allies: by 672 BC, the Scythians had become the allies of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

3461:

The Cimmerian and Scythians movements into Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau would act as catalysts for the adoption of Eurasian nomadic military and equestrian equipments by various West Asian states: it was during the 7th and 6th centuries BC that "Scythian-type" socketed arrowheads and sigmoid bows

4136:

The disturbances experienced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire as result of the activities of the Cimmerians in Anatolia led to many of the rulers of this region to try to break away from Neo-Assyrian overlordship, with Ḫilakku having become an independent polity again under the king Sandašarme by the time

3930:

At an unknown time, the western Cimmerian group moved into Anatolia, where it would be particularly active in the regions of Tabal, Phrygia and Lydia and would be involved in wars against these latter two states as well as against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which itself avoided confrontations with the

3586:

With the Cimmerian victory on Urartu and Sargon II's successful campaign there in 714 BC having eliminated it as a threat against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Mannai had ceased being useful as a buffer zone for Neo-Assyrian power, while the Mannaeans themselves saw the Neo-Assyrian imperial demands as a

3380:

The Cimmerians might however have possibly ended their hostilities with Urartu and acted as mercenaries in the Urartian army during this period, under the reign of Argišti II. Some of these Cimmerians serving in the Urartian army might have been responsible for the creation of several human funerary

2849:

Ancient West Asia sources are however lacking for any such pressure on the Cimmerians by the Scythians or of any conflict between these two peoples at this early period. Moreover, the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after the Cimmerians did so suggests that there is no available

2801:

Therefore, the Scythians and the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex were closely related populations who shared a common origin, culture, and language, and the earliest Scythians were therefore part of a common Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia, with the

2608:

The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex thus developed natively in the North Pontic region over the course of the 9th to mid-7th centuries BC from elements which had earlier arrived from Central Asia, due to which it itself exhibited similarities with the other early nomadic cultures of the Eurasian

6601:

These settlements were administered by leaders who were part of a hierarchical system, and who were either Cimmerians themselves or belonged to the various ethnic groups living within the Cimmerian kingdom in Anatolia. The Neo-Assyrian Empire considered these leaders to be equivalents of the rulers

5569:

drawing on the similarity of the names of the Cimmerians and Cimbri, Posidonius equated these two peoples with each other, and then claimed that the Cimmerians who passed into West Asia were merely a small body of exiles, while the bulk of the Cimmerians lived in the thickly wooded and sun-less far

4675:

Dugdammî soon broke his oath and attacked the Neo-Assyrian Empire again, but during his military campaign he contracted a grave illness whose symptoms included paralysis of half of his body and vomiting of blood as well as gangrene of the genitals, and he consequently committed suicide in 640 BC in

4271:

Lydia and Ionia into the Mediterranean economy. Lower class Ionian Greeks and Carians affected by this Cimmerian invasion appear to have formed a significant part of the colonists who went to set up new settlements throughout the shore of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC, such as the colonies of

4258:

Since it was due to the threat of the Cimmerians that Gyges had made friendly overtures to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Ashurbanipal considered the Cimmerian presence in Anatolia more useful than fighting them. Therefore, he adopted a policy of accepting whatever gifts and praise that Gyges would offer

3802:

This second Assyrian invasion of Mannai however met little success because the Cimmerians with whom Esarhaddon had negotiated had deceived him by accepting his offer only to attack his invasion force, and the relations between Mannai and the Neo-Assyrian Empire remained hostile while the Cimmerians

3632:

Around this time, Aḫšēri was hindering operations by the Neo-Assyrian Empire between its own territory and Mannai, while the Scythians were recorded by the Neo-Assyrians along with the eastern Cimmerians, Mannaeans and Urartians as possibly menacing communication between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and

3465:

Cimmerian and Scythian trading posts and settlements on the borders of the various West Asian states at this time also supplied them with goods such as animal husbandry products, not unlike the trade relations which existed the mediaeval period between the eastern steppe nomads and the Chinese Tang

3389:

By 680 and 679 BC, Cimmerian detachments composed of individual soldiers were serving in the Neo-Assyrian army. These might have been Cimmerian captives or Cimmerians recruited into the Neo-Assyrian military or merely Assyrian soldiers equipped in the "Cimmerian style," that is using Cimmerian bows

3307:

According to Neo-Assyrian reports from the reign of Sargon II itself, the king of the Cimmerians, whose name was not mentioned in these reports, had set up his camp in a region named Uṣunali. At another point, this Cimmerian king had departed from Mannai to attack Urartu, where he plundered several

3282:

After this defeat, the Urartian forces retreated to Quriani, while Rusa I left for the Urartian province of Wazaun. Although Neo-Assyrian intelligence reports claimed that the Urartians were fearing an attack by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and that panic spread had among them following this defeat, the

3121:

There appears to have been very little direct connection between the Cimmerians' migration into West Asia and the Scythians' later expansion into this same region. Thus, the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after the Cimmerians did so suggests that there is no available evidence

5395:

Moreover, Herodotus's account also ignored the earlier Cimmerian activities in West Asia during the reigns of Sargon II to the ascension of Ashurbanipal, including the two separate invasions of Lydia, and instead contracted them into a single event during which Lydgamis led the Cimmerians from the

4666:

However, Mussi died before the planned attack on Neo-Assyrian Empire and his kingdom collapsed when its elite fled or was deported to Assyria, while Dugdammî carried it out but failed because, according to Neo-Assyrian sources, he became ill and fire broke out in his camp. Following this, Dugdammî

4199:

In 671 to 670 BC, Cimmerian contingents were serving in the Assyrian army, and Neo-Assyrian sources were referring to the spread of military technology and animal husbandry products referred to in Assyrian sources as "Cimmerian leather straps" and "Cimmerian bows" into the Neo-Assyrian Empire from

3315:

Thus, the Cimmerians were attacking Urartu by passing through the routes in Mannai, thanks to which they were able to establish areas of influence on the northeastern borders of Urartu, which also provided them with access to the Anatolian Plateau and allowed them to replace Urartu as the dominant

3101:

Thus, the Cimmerians and Scythians became active in West Asia in the 7th century BC, where they would vacillate between supporting either the Neo-Assyrian Empire or other local powers, and serve them as mercenaries, depending on what they considered to be in their interests. Their activities would

6837:, and they produced a Scythian-like material culture. Archaeological remains typical of Iron Age steppe nomads found in Caucasia and Transcaucasia, consisting of kurgans, weapons, horse harness parts, horses, stirrups, arrowheads, and Animal Style ornaments, might have belonged to the Cimmerians. 5505:

Strabo, himself citing Ephorus, claimed that, because the inhabitants of Magna Graecia placed the setting of the Odyssey's Nekyia around Lake Arvernus, they also depicted the Cimmerians as a people living in this area in underground houses tunnels around the nearby Ploutonion (oracle of the dead)

4247:

However, the Lydian forces were initially not able to resist this invasion, and Gyges sought to find help to face the Cimmerian invasions by initiating diplomatic relations with the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 666 BC: without accepting Assyrian overlordship, Gyges started to send regular embassies and

4023:, they had established their rule over native Anatolian settlements as well as formed their own settlements in Central Anatolia, with the city of Ḫarzallē or Ḫarṣallē being the capital city of the Cimmerian king Dugdammî. Each of these settlements had rulers referred to by Neo-Assyrian sources as 3966:

Despite this victory, and although Esarhaddon had managed to stop the advance of Cimmerians in the Neo-Assyrian province of Que so that this latter region remained under Neo-Assyrian control, the military operations were not successful enough for the Assyrians to firmly occupy the areas around of

3835:

The marriage between Bartatua and the Šērūʾa-ēṭirat likely took place, in consequence of which the Scythians ceased to be referred to as an enemy force in the Neo-Assyrian records and the alliance between the Scythian kingdom and the Neo-Assyrian Empire was concluded, following which the Scythian

3678:

Meanwhile, Mannai, which had been able to grow in power under Aḫšēri, possibly thanks to its adaptation and incorporation of steppe nomad fighting technologies borrowed from its Cimmerian and Scythian allies, was able to capture the territories including the fortresses of Šarru-iqbi and Dūr-Illil

6871:

By the time the Cimmerians had moved into West Asia, their culture along with the pre-Scythian culture of the Scythians had evolved into the Early Scythian culture: several "Early Scythian" remains are known from West Asia which correspond to the activities of the Cimmerians in this region, with

5387:

Herodotus's account of the Cimmerians' flight contracted the actual events into a more condensed story where they moved south by following the shore of the Black Sea under the leadership of Lygdamis, while their Scythian pursuers followed the Caspian Sea's coast, thus leading the Cimmerians into

5371:

These inconsistencies suggest that Herodotus's narrative of an eastern flight of the Cimmerians was a later folk tale invented by Greek colonists on the north shore of the Black Sea to explain the existence of ancient tombs, reflecting the motif of assigning old tombs and buildings with mythical

5367:

The story of the fratricidal war of the Cimmerian "royal tribe," that is of the defeat and destruction of its ruling class, is contradicted by how powerful the Cimmerians were according to the Assyrian records contemporaneous with their presence in West Asia. Another inconsistency in Herodotus's

4777:

The inroads of the Cimmerians and the Scythians into West Asia over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC had destabilised the political balance which had prevailed in the region between the dominant great powers of Assyria, Urartu, and Phrygia, and also caused the decline and destruction of

4455:

In the 650s BC, the Cimmerians were allied to Urartu and were serving as auxiliaries in the service of its king Rusa II, who was then attempting to attack the newly conquered Assyrian province of Šubria near the Urartian border. Urartu was thus integrating steppe nomad mercenaries into its armed

3784:

Since the Cimmerians had left their Ciscausian homelands and moved into West Asia to seek booty, they had no interest in the local affairs of the West Asian states and therefore fought for whoever was capable of paying them the most: therefore Esarhaddon took advantage of this and, at some point

3286:

This defeat against the Cimmerians had nonetheless weakened Urartu significantly enough that, when Sargon II campaigned against Urartu in 714 BC itself, in the month of Tamūzu, he was able to defeat the Urartians in the region of mount Wauš, and annex Muṣaṣir, while Rusa I consequently committed

2853:

The remnants of the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe were assimilated by the Scythians, with this absorption being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles, thus transferring the dominance of this region from the Cimmerians to the Scythians who were assimilating them, after

2678:

ever recording them living in this area; moreover the groups of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex from the Pontic Steppe and Central Europe have so far not been identifiable with the historical Cimmerians. Instead, the main grouping of Iranic nomads of Central Asian origin belonging to the

5462:

Homer's description of the Cimmerians as living deprived from sunlight and close to the entrance of Hades influenced later Graeco-Roman authors who, writing centuries after the disappearance of the historical Cimmerians, conceptualised of this people as the one described by Homer, and therefore

4902:, had destabilised the political balance which had prevailed in the region between the dominant great powers of Assyria, Urartu, and Phrygia, and also caused the decline and destruction of several of these states' power, consequently to the rise of multiple new powers such as the empires of the 6867:

The movement of the Cimmerians and Scythians into West Asia archaeologically corresponds to the movement of these pre-Scythian archaeological cultures into this region, where both groups used identical arrowheads, thus making it difficult to distinguish the Cimmerians from the early Scythians.

6597:

After the Cimmerians who had migrated into West Asia had divided into two groups, the western horde living in Anatolia had become sedentary and were living in settlements, some of which were fortified, and which had either been founded by them or were native Anatolian settlements over whom the

6039:

And, while the Cimmerians are archaeologically, culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from the Scythians, all Mesopotamian and Greek sources contemporary to their activities sources both nevertheless clearly distinguished between the Cimmerians and the Scythians as separate political

4408:

These setbacks, along with Ashurbanipal's refusal to provide military support to Lydia, discredited Neo-Assyrian power enough that Gyges understood that he could not rely on Assyrian support against the Cimmerians, and, once the Cimmerians had moved to the east and their attacks on his kingdom

4132:

The core territories of the western Cimmerians were in Central Anatolia between the Konya Plain and the Neo-Assyrian province of Que, but also extended to parts of the Konya Plain itself, including its western parts, and to Cappadocia, as well as to the west of Tabal, implying that some of the

3872:

and Dusanni of Šaparda became powerful enough that their respective polities were seen by the Neo-Assyrian Empire as major forces in Media. And when Kaštaritu rebelled against the Neo-Assyrian Empire and founded the first independent kingdom of the Medes after successfully liberating them from

3311:

Urartu mobilised its armed forces to fight against this Cimmerian invasion, although the Urartians preferred to wait until it was snowing to attack the Cimmerians, due to how snow could block roads and hinder the mobility of the horses that the Cimmerians depended on to carry on their attacks.

4348:

they were not only in control of a large territory in Anatolia and were one of the main political forces operating in this region, but were also able conquer part of what had previously been secure western possessions of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, such as the province of Que or even part of the

2845:

The reasons for the departure of the Cimmerians are unknown, although they might possibly have migrated under the pressure from the Scythians, similarly to how various nomadic peoples drove each other into the peripheries of the steppes in Europe, West Asia and the Iranian Plateau during Late

2370:

However, while the Cimmerians were an Iranic people sharing a common language, origins and culture with the Scythians and are archaeologically indistinguishable from the Scythians, all sources contemporary to their activities clearly distinguished the Cimmerians and the Scythians as being two

4400:

This extraordinary situation meant that, under Dugdammî, who was their most powerful king, the Cimmerians had become a force feared by Ashurbanipal, and the Cimmerians' successes against the Neo-Assyrian Empire meant that they had become recognised in ancient West Asia as equally powerful as

2483:

to become nomadic pastoralists, so that by the 9th century BC all the steppe settlements of the sedentary Bronze Age populations had disappeared, and therefore led to the development of population mobility and the formation of warrior units necessary to protect herds and take over new areas.

3569:

The arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after that of the Cimmerians suggests that there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account of the Cimmerians crossing the Caucasus and moving south into West Asia under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their

3287:

suicide and his son Melarṭua was crowned as the new king of Urartu. Although Urartu's power was so shaken by these defeats that it stopped harassing Mannai and the Neo-Assyrian provinces on the Iranian Plateau, it nevertheless remained a major power in West Asia under Melarṭua's successor,

2880:

Over the course of the second half of the 8th century BC and the 7th century BC, the equestrian steppe nomads from Ciscaucasia expanded to the south, beginning with the Cimmerians, who migrated from the Caspian Steppe into West Asia, following the same dynamic of the steppe nomads like the

3959:, or the Cimmerians might have attempted to invade this region on their own. The Neo-Assyrian Empire reacted to maintain its control of Cilicia by conducting a campaign in 679 BC during which Esarhaddon killed the Cimmerian king Teušpâ and annexed a part of the territory of the kingdom of 6858:

Both the Cimmerians and the early Scythians thus belonged to pre-Scythian archaeological cultures, and the material culture of the Cimmerians was therefore similar enough to that of the later Scythians who followed them that the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk and Proto-Scythian cultures are

2793:

Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated in Central Asia in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region, which is attested by the continuity of Scythian burial rites and weaponry types with the

3082:. And, as the populations of the nomads of the Ciscaucasian Steppe continued to grow, their aristocrats would lead their followers southwards across the Caucasus Mountains in search of adventure and plunder in the volatile status quo then prevailing in West Asia, not unlike the later 5368:

description of the flight of the Cimmerians is the direction through which they retreated: according to this narrative, the Cimmerians moved from the Pontic Steppe to the east into Caucasia to flee from the Scythians, who were themselves moving from the east into the Pontic Steppe.

16726: 2620:, these nomads from the Pontic-Caspian Steppes were able to gradually infiltrate into Central and Southeast Europe and therefore expand deep into this region over a very long period of time, so that the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex covered a wide territory ranging from 4195:

might also have been destroyed by the Cimmerians so that it had to be re-founded at a later date. Thus, it was at this time that the Cimmerians first came into contact with the Greeks in Anatolia, constituting the first encounter between the ancient Greeks and steppe nomads.

4404:

This situation remained unchanged throughout the rest of the 650s and the early 640s BC, with the Cimmerian aggressions worrying Ashurbanipal regarding the security of his northwestern border so much that he often sought answers regarding this situation through divination.

2857:

The arrival of the Scythians and their establishment in this region in the 7th century BC corresponded to a disturbance of the development of the Cimmerian peoples' Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, which was thus replaced through a continuous process over the course of

6539:

The Cimmerians might have been a confederation composed of several tribes spread across Anatolia and the western Iranian Plateau, and which was in turn divided into larger groups depending on political changes. A similar structure is attested in mediaeval times among the

5761:

Research in the late 20th century AD eventually concluded that the various "Cimmerian" toponymies from the Pontic Steppe were invented during the 6th century BC, that is when the Pontic Steppe was under Scythian rule, long after the historical Cimmerians had disappeared.

4796:

These Cimmerian and Scythian activities also influenced the developments in West Asia through the spread of the steppe nomad military technology brought by them into this region, and which were disseminated during the periods of their respective hegemonies in West Asia.

4124:

In the early 660s BC, the power of the Cimmerians grew drastically and they became the masters of Anatolia, where they controlled a large territory bordering Lydia in the west, covering Phrygia around Gordion and the Sangarios river, and reaching the Taurus Mountains in

5577:

Since the Cimmerians and Cimbri had similar names, and they were also both perceived by the Graeco-Romans as ferocious and barbarian peoples who caused death and destruction, the ancient Greek literary traditions progressively equated and identified them with each

4417:, who had himself been a Neo-Assyrian vassal who was then eliminating the other Neo-Assyrian vassal kinglets in Lower Egypt to unite the whole of Egypt under his own rule. Ashurbanipal responded to Gyges's disengagement with the Neo-Assyrian Empire by cursing him. 4913:

These Cimmerians and Scythians also influenced the developments in West Asia through the spread of the steppe nomad military technology brought by them into this region, and which were disseminated during the periods of their respective hegemonies in West Asia.

6976:: "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) 4667:

was faced with a revolt against himself, after which ended his hostilities against the Neo-Assyrian Empire and sent tribute to Ashurbanipal to form an alliance with him, while Ashurbanipal forced Dugdammi to swear an oath to not attack the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

4530:, that is on his own independent actions, by claiming that the Cimmerians invaded Lydia and killed him as punishment for him providing Psamtik I with the troops he used to eliminate the other pro-Assyrian Egyptian kinglets and unify Egypt under his sole rule. 4639:

itself, immediately after their third invasion of Lydia and the attack on the Asian Greek cities. There, Dugdammî allied with Mugallu's son and successor as king of the then rebellious Assyrian vassal state of Tabal, Mussi, to attack the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

4686:

The power of the Cimmerians dwindled quickly after the death of Dugdammî, although the Lydian kings Ardys and Sadyattes might however have either died fighting the Cimmerians or were deposed for being incapable of efficiently fighting them, respectively in

3109:

to a warrior, and containing typical steppe nomad equipment, suggests that nomadic warriors had already been arriving in West Asia since the 9th century BC. Such burials imply that some small groups of steppe nomads from Ciscaucasia might have acted as

3035:), which had established several installations including a system of fortresses and provincial centres over regional communities in eastern Anatolia and the northwest Iranian Plateau, was contesting its southern borderlands with the Neo-Assyrian Empire; 3438:

The two groups of the Cimmerians might themselves have continued to remain part of the same steppe nomad polity, which was itself nevertheless organised along various divisions depending on political changes. Such a structure was also present among:

3803:

remained allied to Mannai until the period lasting from 671 to 657 BC. As a result of this failure, the Neo-Assyrian Empire resigned itself to waiting until the Cimmerians were no longer a threat before mounting any further expedition in Mannai.

6036:, although they may have been an ethnically heterogeneous tribal confederation living under an Iranic aristocracy, not unlike how the polity of the Scythians consisted of various peoples living under the dominance of the Iranic Royal Scythians. 16946: 16648: 5247:

the approach of the Scythians led to a civil war among the Cimmerians because the "royal tribe" wanted to remain in their lands and defend themselves from the invaders, while the rest of the people saw no use in fighting and preferred to

4112:

The western Cimmerians were thus active in Tabal, Ḫilakku and Phrygia in the 670s BC, and, in alliance with these former two states, were attacking the western Neo-Assyrian provinces. At unknown dates, the western Cimmerians also invaded

2781:

from Central Asia into the Caucasian Steppe, which started in the 9th century BC, when a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started after the early Scythians were expelled out of Central Asia by either the

4917:

After the end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and following the conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire which had succeeded it by the Persian Achaemenids, the Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Persian Empire used the name of the Cimmerians

4168:

were first starting to make expeditions in the Black Sea, and encounters with friendly native populations quickly stimulated trade relations and the development of more regular commercial transits, which in turn led to the formation of

17416: 17382: 15308: 6415: 3675:(House of the New Year Festival) of this city, which later had to be rebuilt by Esarhaddon. These attacks into their heartlands shocked the Assyrians, who sought to know if they were to face more such invasions through divination. 2213: 4433:, who had supported Šamaš-šuma-ukin, and, although Ashurbanipal would nevertheless be able to maintain control over Babylonia for the rest of his reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire finally emerged from this crisis severely worn out. 14767:

Adalı, Selim Ferruh (2023). "The Phantom Menace? The Chronology of Cimmerian Expeditions, Territories and Zones of Influence in Anatolia". In Draycott, Catherine M.; Branting, Scott; Lehner, Joseph W.; Özarslan, Yasemin (eds.).

3640:

During these attacks, the Scythians, along with the eastern Cimmerians who were located on the border of Mannai, were able to reach far beyond the core territories of the Iranian Plateau and attack the Neo-Assyrian provinces of

3308:

regions, including the district of Arḫi, and reached the city of Ḫuʾdiadae near the core territory of Urartu, forcing the governor of Uišini to request military aid for the people of Pulia and Suriana from Urzana of Muṣaṣir.

6875:

Despite textual sources attesting of Cimmerian activities in Anatolia which strongly affected the polities in that region, their presence there has largely still not been identified in the archaeology of Iron Age Anatolia.

5729:, they fled north to the region near Sinope, from where they migrated into East and Central Europe and became the Scythians and Cimmerians, who themselves moved to north-west Europe and became the supposed ancestors of the 4429:, who had succeeded him as king of Babylon, rebelled against his younger brother Ashurbanipal: it took Ashurbanipal four years to fully suppress the Babylonian rebellion by 648 BC, and another year to destroy the power of 3462:

ideal for use by mounted warriors, which were the most advanced shooting weapon of their time and were both technically and ballistically superior to native West Asian archery equipment, were adopted throughout West Asia.

2854:

which the Scythians settled between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west, in the Ciscaucasian Steppe where were located the Scythian kingdom's headquarters.

6851:, due to which the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex itself exhibited similarities with the other early nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe which existed before the 7th century BC, such as the 4382:), which in the Mesopotamian worldview was a title that could belong only a single ruler in the world at any given time, and was normally held by the King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This attribution of the title of 4318:

The defeat of the Cimmerians by Gyges in turn weakened their allies, Mugallu of Tabal and Sandašarme of Ḫilakku, enough that they were left with no choice but to submit to the authority of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in

3935:

although the further details of the exact time and trajectory through which the Cimmerians moved into Anatolia, and whether these movements consisted of a single group or of disparate divisions, are however unknown.

3806:

Around this same time, the Indaraeans were also active around the northern boundary of Elam, and some of them might have moved to the southern Iranian Plateau, where they possibly introduced Bronze articles from the

3376:

due to which the Cimmerians ceased being mentioned in Neo-Assyrian records under his reign and would re-start being mentioned by the Assyrians only under the reign of Sennacherib's own son and successor Esarhaddon.

4308:, possibly through campaigns in western Central Anatolia to the east of Sardis and the south of the core Phrygian territory, after which he sent captured Cimmerian city-lords as diplomatic gifts to Ashurbanipal. 5363:

Herodotus likely used Bosporan Greek folk tales as source for these claims, although some of the "Cimmerian" toponyms in the Bosporan region might have originated from a genuine Cimmerian presence in this area.

5922:, who were another nomadic Iranic tribe related to the Cimmerians, and the claim in earlier scholarship that the Cimmerians lived in the Pontic Steppe appears to be erroneous and lacks evidence to support it. 5171:

who, in ancient Greek mythology, lived in a permanently sunlit land on the eastern borders of the world. Due to this location, the Ancient Greek name of the Cimmerians was identified with the word for mist,

3328:, who had previously been a bitter opponent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, ended hostilities with the Neo-Assyrians in 709 BC and sent a delegation to Sargon II to attempt to form an anti-Cimmerian alliance. 6982:

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"

5162:

with records of real events, and naturalism with supernatural elements, and therefore contained no reliable information about the real Cimmerian people. This image was created as a poetic opposite of the

4881:

The inroads of the Cimmerians and the Scythians into West Asia over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC, which were early precursors of the later invasions of West Asia by steppe nomads such as the

17630:

The Danubian Lands Between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas (7th Century BC-10th Century AD): Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Belgrade - 17-21 September 2013)

15144: 4631:

Sensing the exhaustion of Neo-Assyrian power following the suppression of the revolt of Šamaš-šuma-ukin, the Cimmerians and Treres moved to Cilicia on the north-west border of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in

4761:

which had been either independent or vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Phrygia, Urartu, or of the Cimmerians, also disappeared, although the exact circumstances of their end are still very uncertain.

5251:

since neither side could be persuaded by the other, the "royal tribe" divided themselves into two equally numerous sides that fought each other till death, after which the commoners buried them by the

3138:, during the 8th century BC, the Cimmerians settled in a region located to the east of Colchis, in the areas of central Transcaucasia to the immediate south of the Darial and Klukhor passes and on the 3693:, possibly to relieve the pressure on the trade routes across the Iranian Plateau and the steppes from the Scythians, Cimmerians, and Medes. Urartu remained a major power under Argišti II's successor 5232:

in 513 BC, later started the tradition of locating Homer's Cimmerians and "Cimmerian" places (such as a "Cimmerian city") in the Scythian-dominated Pontic Steppe between the Araxes and the Bosporus.

3130:

During the early phase of their presence in West Asia until the early 660s BC, the Cimmerians moved into Transcaucasia, which acted as their initial centre of operations: after having passed through

4081:

When Esarhaddon conquered the nearby state of Šubria in 673 BC, Rusa II supported him, attesting of a period of non-aggression between Urartu and Assyria under the reigns of Rusa II and Esarhaddon.

3098:), with the occasional raids eventually leading to longer expeditions, in turn leading to groups of nomads choosing to remain in West Asia in search of opportunities as mercenaries or freebooters. 5685:

The eastern Greeks living on the north shore of the Black Sea, who were familiar with the Cimmerian activities in Asia, nevertheless criticised these western locations assigned to the Cimmerians.

2670:

The Cimmerians were thus the first large nomadic confederation to have inhabited the Ciscaucasian Steppe, and they never formed the basic mass of the population of the Pontic Steppe, with neither

6872:"Scythian" arrowheads have been found among the weapons of besieging armies of ruined cities in parts of Anatolia where Cimmerians are attested have operated but where Scythians were not active. 2850:

evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account that it was under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their territories that the Cimmerians crossed the Caucasus and moved south into West Asia.

3792:, he started secret negotiations with the eastern Cimmerians, who confirmed to the Assyrians that they would remain neutral and promised not to interfere when Esarhaddon invaded Mannai again in 3283:

situation within Urartu remained calm, and the king Urzana of Muṣaṣir personally, as well as a messenger from the kingdom of Ḫubuškia, went to meet Rusa I to reaffirm his allegiance to Urartu.

3024:, in the southeast of West Asia and the southwest of the Iranian plateau, where they were the main power, with their ruling classes being divided into pro-Assyrian and pro-Babylonian factions; 5066:

Due to the fear that the Cimmerian invasions caused among the Greeks of Ionia, they were remembered in Greek tradition, and an inscription from 283 BC mentioned that the Greek city-states of

2643:

of Central Europe: among these influences was the adoption of trousers, which were not used by the native populations of Central Europe before the arrival of the Central Asian steppe nomads.

6047:. However the proposal of a Thracian origin of the Cimmerians is untenable and arose from a confusion by Strabo of Amasia between the Cimmerians and their allies, the Thracian tribe of the 6571:

The Cimmerians had military assemblies composed of their troops, which the king had the power to convene to assist him. Cimmerian warlords were also capable of rebelling against the king.

6898:

The site of Büklükale, where was discovered Scythian-type animal style ornaments, might have been the location of a Cimmerian settlement, although this identification is still uncertain.

6847:

The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex thus developed natively in the North Pontic region over the course of the 9th to mid-7th centuries BC from elements which had earlier arrived from

4996:). The Greeks similarly used the name of the Scythians as a generalising term for all stepp nomads, and the Byzantines later also similarly used it as an archaising term to designate the 3354:

After Sargon II's death, Gurdî's kingdom grew in power while the Neo-Assyrian Empire lost control of Tabal, which largely came under Gurdî's rule; although Sargon II's son and successor

3122:

to the later Graeco-Roman account that it was under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their territories that the Cimmerians crossed the Caucasus and moved south into West Asia.

17582: 4735:

conquered Urartu, entered Central Anatolia, and defeated the Cimmerians and Treres. This final defeat of the Cimmerians was carried out by the joint forces of Madyes's Scythians, whom

6563:

The Cimmerians were ruled by a supreme king whose power was passed down in a single dynasty. The names of three Cimmerian kings have been recorded: Teušpâ, Dugdammî, and Sandakšatru.

4356:

These Cimmerian aggressions worried Ashurbanipal about the security of the northwest border of the Neo-Assyrian Empire enough that he sought answers concerning this situation through

5244:

after the Scythians were expelled from Central Asia by the Massagetae, they moved to the west across the Araxes, and took possession of the Cimmerians' lands after chasing them away;

4145:

Soon, in the late 660s or early 650s BC, the western Cimmerians were reinforced by the eastern Cimmerians who had left the western Iranian plateau to move to the west into Anatolia.

6594:

way of life similar to that of the Scythians, which is reflected by how West Asian sources mentioned Cimmerian arrows, bows and horse equipment, which are typical of steppe nomads.

3653:

in the valley of the Diyala river. One Scytho-Cimmerian attack which had invaded Ḫubuškia from Mannai was even able to threaten the core Neo-Assyrian territories by passing through

6691:

might have been a reference to the Cimmerians, who had this lifestyle in common with the Scythians, as attested by Hesiod's description of the Scythians as living in the same way.

4447:

Meanwhile, Dugdammî might have taken advantage of the civil war within the Neo-Assyrian Empire caused by Samas-suma-ukin's rebellion to attack northwestern Neo-Assyrian provinces.

16079:

Cimmerians and Scythians: Cultural, Historical and Chronological Problems of the Archeology of the Eastern European Steppes and the Caucasus in the Pre- and Early Scythian Periods

4805:

It has been hypothesised that some Cimmerians might have migrated into Eastern, Southeast and Central Europe, although this identification is presently considered very uncertain.

2911: 4105:, an Assyrian oracular text recorded that the Cimmerians, together with the Phrygians and the Cilicians, were threatening the Neo-Assyrian Empire's newly conquered territory of 3922:

Thus, Ashurbanipal's situation improved once he was finally re-establish Neo-Assyrian overlordship over Mannai thanks to the retreat of the Cimmerians from the Iranian Plateau.

3368:

Nonetheless, although the Neo-Assyrian Empire stopped intervening in Anatolia, Sennacherib was able to secure the new northwestern Neo-Assyrian borders running from Cilicia to

2598:

of Ciscaucasia also played an important contribution in the development of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, especially regarding the adoption of Kuban culture-types of

4721:

themselves appear to have adopted Cimmerian military practices such as the use of mounted cavalry, with the Lydians fighting using long spears and archers, both on horseback.

4137:

that Esarhaddon had been succeeded as king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by Ashurbanipal, so that by then the Cimmerians had effectively ended Neo-Assyrian control in Anatolia.

3897:, the eastern Cimmerians experienced a defeat by the Neo-Assyrian army and were forced to retreat into their own territory, and they were still on the territory of Mannai by 6459:

in Greek shows that its first consonant had experienced the change of the sound /d/ to /l/, which is consistent with the phonetic changes attested in the Scythian languages.

3238:

The oldest known activities of the Cimmerians in West Asia date from the mid-710s BC, when they launched a sudden attack on Urartu's province of Uišini (whose capital was

2805:

This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC, and archaeologically corresponded to the movement of a population originating from

3839:

The eastern Cimmerians meanwhile remained hostile to Assyria, and, along with the Medes, were the allies of Ellipi against an invasion by the Neo-Assyrian Empire between

16474:

La Lydie d'Alyatte et Crésus: Un royaume à la croisée des cités grecques et des monarchies orientales. Recherches sur son organisation interne et sa politique extérieure

14453:: "It seems that Cimmerians and Scythians (Sakai) were related, spoke among themselves different Iranian dialects, and could understand each other without interpreters." 6552:

The Cimmerians, like the Scythians, were organised into a tribal nomadic state with its own territorial boundaries, and comprising both pastoralist and urban elements.

3249:

The first recorded mentions of the Cimmerians date from spring or early summer of 714 BC and are from the intelligence reports of the then superpower of West Asia, the

6891:

which contains typically Early Scythian weapons and horse harnesses. Another Cimmerian burial, located at about 100 km to the east of İmirler and 50 km from

3196:

The territory of the Cimmerians at this time was separated from the kingdom of Urartu by a Urartian vassal country named Quriani, itself located near the countries of

2534:. The archaeological and historical records regarding these migrations are however scarce, and permit to sketch only a very broad outline of this complex development. 264: 250: 225: 211: 6574:

Once the Cimmerians in Anatolia had become sedentary, they formed settlements which were ruled by city-lords not unlike those who ruled the city-states of the Medes.

2813:

in the late 9th century BC towards the west, and arriving in the 8th to 7th centuries BC into Europe, especially into Ciscaucasia, which it reached some time between

16472: 4873:

into Central Europe, whose local native populations did not wear trousers before the arrival of the first wave of steppe nomads of Central Asian origin into Europe.

5746:

movement, British Israelists claim to be the most authentic heirs of the ancient Israelites while rejecting Jews as being "contaminated" through intermarriage with

2367:

The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka.

3457:, who were organised into a single kingdom ruled through two divisions, each of which was composed of several tribes and was ruled by a member of the same dynasty. 3146:

in modern-day central and southern Georgia. Archaeologically, this Cimmerian presence is attested by remains associated to nomadic populations dating from between

4222:

With their eastern and southeastern borders abutting the Neo-Assyrian, which had been powerful enough to defeat their king Teuspa some years earlier, in the late

6410: 3509:

Once they had finally crossed into West Asia, the Scythians settled in eastern Transcaucasia and the northwest Iranian plateau, between the middle course of the

3491:

After having settled into Ciscaucasia, the Scythians became the second wave of steppe nomads to expand southwards from there, following the western shore of the

3474:

The eastern group of Cimmerians would remain on the northwestern Iranian plateau, where they were initially active in Mannai before later moving southwards into

6222:

The Iranologist Ľubomír Novák considers Cimmerian to be a relative of Scythian which exhibited similar features as Scythian, such as the evolution of the sound

4757:, Ashurbanipal thanked the god Marduk for the fate which had struck Sandakšatru, suggesting that he had experienced a horrifying death not unlike his father's. 5240:

Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote a legendary account, partly based on Hecataeus's narrative, of the arrival of the Scythians into the lands of the Cimmerians:

5070:

and Priene were still engaging in a lawsuit disputing the territory of Batinetis which had been abandoned during the Cimmerian invasion of Ionia and Aeolia.

3646: 4244:

had been filling the power vacuum in Anatolia created by the destruction of the Phrygian Empire and was establishing itself as a new rising regional power.

6718:

from the local inhabitants of Ḫilakku and Tabal. The name of the god Šanta might possibly appear as a theophoric element in the name of the Cimmerian king

6855:, so that these various pre-Scythian early nomadic cultures were thus part of a unified Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia. 2827:, thus following the same general migration path as the first wave of Central Asian Iranic nomads who had formed the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex. 2616:

Thanks to their development of highly mobile mounted nomadic pastoralism and the creation of effective weapons suited to equestrian warfare, all based on

2613:, so that these various pre-Scythian early nomadic cultures were thus part of a unified Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia. 16429: 3951:

with Cilicia, might have demanded help from the Cimmerians against possible Neo-Assyrian attempts to take control of their region following the death of

2208: 4315:, which provided an impetus for the formation of new Greek colonies in the Propontis and therefore made the Black Sea accessible to Greeks from Ionia. 6555:

Such nomadic states were managed by institutions of authority presided over by the rulers of the tribes, the warrior aristocracy, and ruling dynasty.

4360:. And, as a result of these Cimmerian conquests, by 657 BC, the Assyrian astrologer Akkullanu was calling the Cimmerian king Dugdammî by the title of 4334:

Facing resistance from the Lydians in the west, the Cimmerians moved eastwards, against the Neo-Assyrian Empire: despite their defeat by Gyges in the

3769:), who had succeeded him as the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and carried out a retaliatory campaign which reached deep into Median territory until 2537:

The Cimmerians corresponded to a part of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, to whose development three main cultural influences contributed to:

3588: 16074:Киммерийцы и скифы: Культурно-исторические и хронологические проблемы археологии восточноевропейских степей и Кавказа пред- и раннескифского времени 5849:. The derivation of the name of Crimea from that of the Cimmerians is however no longer accepted, and it is now thought to have originated from the 4769:

of Alyattes which became the dominant power of Anatolia, while the city of Sinope was re-founded by the Milesian Greek colonists Kōos and Krētinēs.

17755: 17066: 4388:

to a foreign ruler was an unprecedented situation of which there is no other known occurrence throughout the duration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

4191:

The Cimmerians destroyed Sinope during the 7th century BC and killed its founder, Habrōn, after they had invaded Paphlagonia. The Greek colony of

4764:

Scythian power in West Asia thus reached its peak under Madyes, with the West Asian territories ruled by the Scythian kingdom extending from the

2552: 2503:

The Cimmerians originated as a section of the first wave of the nomadic populations who originated in the parts of Central Asia corresponding to

4440:

had promised to him that the Cimmerians would be defeated similarly to how Ashurbanipal himself had defeated the Elamites and killed their king

6241:

According to Igor Diakonoff, the Cimmerians spoke a Scythian language belonging to the eastern branch of the Iranic language. The Scythologist

5699:

as living on the western shore of the Oceanus, some earlier modern interpretations tried to locate them in the far north of Europe, such as in

4952:, because of their similar nomadic lifestyles. The Achaemenid Babylonian scribes therefore designated the bows used by Saka mounted archers as 4789:

The Cimmerian and Scythian activities in West Asia also hampered the development of trade, and overland trade routes in the region such as the

4129:

and the borders of Urartu in the east, and encompassing the area bounded by the Black Sea in the north and the Mediterranean Sea in the south.

3338: 2906: 2086: 16343: 14732:

Adalı, Selim Ferruh (2017). "Cimmerians and the Scythians: the Impact of Nomadic Powers on the Assyrian Empire and the Ancient Near East". In

4620: 16201: 16113: 5221:

The Greeks living in Anatolia in the 6th century BC still evoked the memory of the Cimmerians with fear a century after their disappearance.

4743:, who was himself the son of Sadyattes as well as the grandson of Ardys and the great-grandson of Gyges, whom Herodotus of Halicarnassus and 2786:, who were a powerful nomadic Iranic tribe from Central Asia closely related to the Scythians, or by another Central Asian people called the 5372:

heroes or with lost ancient valiant peoples, similarly to how the Greeks within Greece proper claimed similar remains had been built by the

2272:

started with /k/ rather than with /g/ as in the original name due to its transmission to the Greek language through the intermediary of the

2050: 4294:

Gyges's struggle against the Cimmerians soon turned in his favour without Neo-Assyrian support, so that he was able to defeat them between

2872:

by the early Scythian culture in southern Europe, which itself nevertheless still showed links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.

15145:"Japanese archaeologists have revealed that Büklükale was the first settlement of the ancient nomadic people, the Cimmerians, in Anatolia" 2663:, which acted as their eastern border separating them from the Scythians; to the west, the territory of the Cimmerians extended until the 5797: 1248: 3335:

in Anatolia, during which he probably also fought the Cimmerians, and was killed in battle against the Tabalian ruler Gurdî of Kulummu.

3078:

caused by the rivalries of the great powers of West Asia thus proved to be a very attractive source of opportunities and wealth for the

2491:

pastoralists constantly moving their herds from one pasture to another in the steppe, and to search for better pastures to the west, in

5408:

claimed that the Cimmerian Bosporus had been named after the Cimmerians, who were once powerful in that region, and that the city of "

3434:

in the area near Mannai, where they had been settled since the time of Sargon II, thus forming the eastern division of the Cimmerians.

16753:

The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC), and Sînšarraiškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria

3860:

It consequently became more difficult for the Neo-Assyrian Empire to control the Median city-states and the various polities in the

17108: 3777:. Išpakāya was killed in battle against Esarhaddon's forces during this campaign, and he was succeeded as king of the Scythians by 17659:

Young, T. Cuyler (1988). "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses". In

14738:

Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Contact and Exchange between the Graeco- Roman World, Inner Asia and China

6879:

The few known Cimmerian archaeological remains from the period of their presence in Anatolia include a burial from the village of

6544:, whose single kingdom was divided into two wings each ruled by a member of the same dynasty and each made up of several tribes. 5751: 4236:, the Cimmerians under Dugdammî instead redirected their activities towards western Anatolia, where they attacked the kingdom of 3741:

to the northwest of the Lake, all intended to monitor the activities of the allied forces of the Scythians, Mannaeans and Medes.

16303:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 15939: 3536:, and this part of Transcaucasia settled by the Scythians consequently became known in the Akkadian sources from Mesopotamia as 2924:, after which Cimmerians eventually became active in the West Asian regions of Transcaucasia, the Iranian Plateau and Anatolia. 2842:

to the lands of the Cimmerians, who around this time were leaving their homelands in the Caspian Steppe to move into West Asia.

17730: 9584: 9580: 7190: 7186: 7161: 7157: 7127: 4577: 17700: 17649: 17327: 17269: 16966: 16931: 16843: 16808: 16773: 16715: 16668: 16630: 16590: 16536: 16404: 16291: 16185: 16094: 16058: 15969: 15925: 15874: 15796: 15750: 15714: 15663: 15612: 15561: 15518: 15445: 15254: 15199: 15133: 15082: 15039: 15001: 14971: 14917: 14863: 14800: 14789: 14757: 13485: 12815: 12724: 12538: 12364: 11551: 5942:

During the initial phase of their presence in West Asia, the Cimmerians lived in a country which Mesopotamian sources called

4058:): these administrators consisted of both Cimmerians and members of other ethnic groups who lived within Dugdammî's kingdom. 2057: 2029: 6714:

The western group of the Cimmerians who migrated into West Asia appeared to have adopted the worship of the Anatolian deity

16485: 6880: 5891:

The original homeland of the Cimmerians before they migrated into West Asia was in the steppe situated to the north of the

5209:, who both described the Cimmerians as having once dwelt in the steppe to the immediate north of the Caspian Sea, with the 5145:, and which was covered with mists and clouds and therefore remained permanently deprived of sunlight although the Sun-god 2511:, and who had, beginning in the 10th century BC and lasting until the 9th to 8th centuries BC, migrated westwards into the 2182: 908: 14820: 5624:

in which he assumed that Homer did not know of the Cimmerians and therefore renamed them in his text as the "Cerberians" (

4522:

except for its citadel, and Gyges was killed during this attack. The Neo-Assyrian sources blamed Gyges's death on his own

4409:

decreased, he therefore ended diplomacy with the Neo-Assyrian Empire and instead sent troops to help the Egyptian kinglet

17745: 17735: 6841: 6819: 5758:, the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre." 2516: 2263:

Igor Diakonoff later abandoned his own etymology to support Ivantchik's proposed etymology of the name of the Cimmerians.

2014: 216: 77: 58: 16396: 6256:

of Asia Minor on them after their migration there. Only a few personal names in the Cimmerian language have survived in

17765: 17760: 5141:

river which encircles the world, in a land towards which Odysseus sailed to obtain an oracle from the soul of the seer

4084:

Assyrian sources from around this same time also recorded a Cimmerian presence in the area of the Neo-Hittite state of

3118:

in West Asia, which laid the ground for the later large scale movement of the Cimmerians and Scythians into West Asia.

2790:, thus forcing the early Scythians to the west, across the Araxes river and into the Caspian and Ciscaucasian Steppes. 2079: 2036: 967: 17404: 16251: 15371: 15330: 15014:(2001). "Cimmerians and Early Scythians: the Transition from Geometric to Orientalising Style in the Pontic Area". In 5907:; the Cimmerians thus originally lived in the Caspian and Caucasian steppes, in the area corresponding to present-day 4835:

The proponents of this hypothesis of a Cimmerian invasion also suggest that it would have also affected south-eastern

4546:

After sacking Sardis, Lydgamis and Kobos led the Cimmerians and the Treres into invading the Greek city-states of the

17473: 16871: 6598:

Cimmerians had established their rule. The capital of these Anatolian Cimmerians was a city by the name of Ḫarzallē.

5266:

Herodotus also referred to the presence of several "Cimmerian" toponyms as existing in the Bosporan region, such as:

3836:

kingdom therefore remained on friendly terms with the Neo-Assyrian Empire and maintained peaceful relations with it.

2314: 300: 6055:, the possibility of the Cimmerians being Thracian-speakers is less likely than that of them being Iranic-speakers. 17725: 15810: 14586: 6753:

in October 2018 examined the remains of three Cimmerians buried between around 1000 and 800 BC. The two samples of

4941: 2043: 807: 6790:

in July 2019 examined the remains of three Cimmerians. The two samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroups

4869:

The peoples of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex of which the Cimmerians were part of introduced the use of

4597:

The Cimmerians and Treres remained on the western coast of Anatolia inhabited by the Greeks for three years, from

3235:, where they helped the inhabitants of Colchis and of the nearby regions defeat attacks by the kingdom of Urartu. 3071:, were local rulers who negotiated for their own interests by vacillating between the various rival great powers. 17343: 17304: