Saka - Knowledge

6134: 12913:"Principal component analyses and D-statistics suggest that the Xiongnu individuals belong to two distinct groups, one being of East Asian origin and the other presenting considerable admixture levels with West Eurasian sources... Principal Component Analyses and D-statistics suggest that the Xiongnu individuals belong to two distinct groups, one being of East Asian origin and the other presenting considerable admixture levels with West Eurasian sources... We find that Central Sakas are accepted as a source for these 'western-admixed' Xiongnu in a single-wave model. In line with this finding, no East Asian gene flow is detected compared to Central Sakas as these form a clade with respect to the East Asian Xiongnu in a D-statistic, and furthermore, cluster closely together in the PCA (Figure 2)... Overall, our data show that the Xiongnu confederation was genetically heterogeneous, and that the Huns emerged following minor male-driven East Asian gene flow into the preceding Sakas that they invaded... As such our results support the contention that the disappearance of the Inner Asian Scythians and Sakas around two thousand years ago was a cultural transition that coincided with the westward migration of the Xiongnu. This Xiongnu invasion also led to the displacement of isolated remnant groups related to Late Bronze Age pastoralists that had remained on the southeastern side of the Tian Shan mountains." 6114: 6083: 5843: 5307: 6203: 3575: 18623: 5279: 5540: 12687:, p. 69: "Thirdly, contemporary populations with the highest likelihood of being directly descended from eastern Scythian groups are almost exclusively Turkic language speakers (Supplementary Fig. 10b). Particularly high statistical support was documented for some Turkic speaking groups geographically located close to the archaeological sites of the eastern Scythians (e.g. Telenghits, Tubular, Tofalar), but also among Turkic speaking populations located in Central Asia (e.g. Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Karakalpaks) (Supplementary Fig. 11). These same results were found for some Turkic groups located even further to the West, such as the Kazan Volga-Tatars. Finally, contemporary populations likely to share a common ancestor with eastern Scythians were mainly found among Turkic, Mongolian and Siberian groups located in eastern Eurasia (Supplementary Fig. 10d and Supplementary Fig. 11). In summary, these results provide further support for a multi-regional origin of the various Scythian groups from the Iron Age." 6178: 5197: 5802: 5331: 5509: 14742:

this day. One of this pair can now be seen at the exhibition in Bern (Fig. 4). A small, ca. 23 cm tall, figurine represents a man sitting on a settled horse. He stretches out his left hand, whereas his right hand points downwards. Holes pierced through both his fists suggest that he originally held the reins of his horse in one hand and a weapon in the other. The rider wears a short jacket, trousers and boots – elements of the typical outfit of the inhabitants of the Central Asian steppes. Trousers were first introduced in the early Chinese state of Zhao during the late 4th century BCE, as the Chinese started to learn horse riding from their nomadic neighbours. The state of Qin should have adopted the nomadic clothes about the same time. But the figurine from Taerpo also has some other features that may point to its foreign identity: a hood-like headgear with a flat wide crown framing his face and a high, pointed nose.

4500: 5295: 6163: 12931: 9440:, pp. 149–153: "During the first half of the first millennium B.C., c. 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, the southern part of Eastern Europe was occupied mainly by peoples of Iranian stock The main Iranian-speaking peoples of the region at that period were the Scyths and the Sarmatians he population of ancient Scythia was far from being homogeneous, nor were the Scyths themselves a homogeneous people. The country called after them was ruled by their principal tribe, the "Royal Scyths" (Her. iv. 20), who were of Iranian stock and called themselves "Skolotoi" (iv. 6); they were nomads who lived in the steppe east of the Dnieper up to the Don, and in the Crimean steppe The eastern neighbours of the "Royal Scyths," the Sauromatians, were also Iranian; their country extended over the steppe east of the Don and the Volga." 14849:

resembles that of the steppe leaders known to the Achaemenids and Parthians (Curtis 2000: front cover), but he proclaimed his conquest in the language of the Central Plains: Chinese. The First Emperor must have had advisors who knew something of the seals, weights and measures of Central Asia and Iran (Khayutina 2013: cat. nos 115–17), and also retained craftsmen who had mastered Western technologies and cast bronze birds for his tomb in hitherto unknown life-like forms (Mei et al. 2014). He also exploited mounted horsemen and iron weaponry originally from the steppe, and agriculture and settlements of the Central Plains, turning to the extraordinary organisation of people and manufacturing from this area to create a unified state. This could only be achieved by moving towards the centre, as the Emperor indeed did.

3217: 5174: 5448: 5989: 5162: 12940:, "Previously, we reported a shared genetic profile among EBA western Baikal hunter-gatherers (Baikal_EBA) and Late Bronze Age (LBA) pastoralists in northern Mongolia (Khövsgöl_LBA) (Jeong et al., 2018). This genetic profile, composed of major and minor ANA and ANE ancestry components, respectively, is also shared with the earlier eastern Baikal (Fofonovo_EN) and Mongolian (centralMongolia_preBA) groups analyzed in this study (Figures 3A, 3B, and 4A), suggesting a regional persistence of this genetic profile for nearly three millennia." (...) "Ancient ANA individuals fall close to the cluster of present-day Tungusic- and Nivkh-speaking populations in northeast Asia, indicating that their genetic profile is still present in indigenous populations of the Far East today". 5319: 10303:"The origin of the widespread Scythian culture has long been debated in Eurasian archaeology. The northern Black Sea steppe was originally considered the homeland and centre of the Scythians until Terenozhkin formulated the hypothesis of a Central Asian origin. On the other hand, evidence supporting an east Eurasian origin includes the kurgan Arzhan 1 in Tuva, which is considered the earliest Scythian kurgan. Dating of additional burial sites situated in east and west Eurasia confirmed eastern kurgans as older than their western counterparts. Additionally, elements of the characteristic 'Animal Style' dated to the tenth century BCE were found in the region of the Yenisei river and modern-day China, supporting the early presence of Scythian culture in the East." 13897:"We can only note certain elements in the culture of European Scythia which doubtless have an Asiatic origin and are connected with the cultures of Asia." "In many scholars' opinion it is necessary to distinguish the following cultural components of European Scythia genetically tied with the East: daggers with butterfly-shaped guards, arrowheads early forms, helmets of the Kelermes type, spiked battle-axes, horse-bits, cheek-pieces of the Chernogorovo and Zhabotinsk type, bordered mirrors, bronze cauldrons of the Beshtaugor type and "stag-stones". We can follow the development of some animal style images (deer, boar, and panther) from east to west. There are elements of stylization and degradation on the objects from the western part of the Scythian World 2853: 2338: 733: 3539: 5555: 4524: 2329: 6001: 6013: 6228: 4236: 12845:

narrow forehead of medium height are noted. The woman has broad face and forehead, the height of the forehead is average. Both portraits are characterized by prominent position of eyeballs and large eyes. Man's nose is short, prominent, with convex dorsum. Woman's nose has a wavy dorsum, and is slightly prominent. On the male portrait, the cheekbones are moderate, on the female one — high and prominent. Faces of the «royal» persons are flattened in the upper part, with a certain degree of alveolar prognathism. The lower jaw of the man is medium in size, narrow in the corners. For the woman, some gracility of the lower jaw can be noted.

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During a 2007 exhibition on the Scythians in Berlin, there was a bronze hood on display labeled a "Kazakh military cap." This bronze hood and the clothing of the nomads in kneeling posture are very similar in form to those of the terracotta figurines from the late Warring States Qin-period tomb at the Taerpo site (see Figure 1). The style of the Scythian bronze horse figures and the saddle, bridle, and other accessories on their bodies are nearly identical to those seen on the Warring States-period Qin figurines and a similar type of artifact from the Ordos region, and they all date to the fifth to third centuries BCE.

9452:, pp. 437–440: "Ordinary Greek (and later Latin) usage could designate as Scythian any northern barbarian from the general area of the Eurasian steppe, the virtually treeless corridor of drought-resistant perennial grassland extending from the Danube to Manchuria. Herodotus seeks greater precision, and this essay is focussed on his Scythians, who belong to the North Pontic steppe These true Scyths seems to be those whom he calls Royal Scyths, that is, the group who claimed hegemony apparently warrior-pastoralists. It is generally agreed, from what we know of their names, that these were people of Iranian stock " 15085:"The above-mentioned stone statues are images of Hu people, and scholars have no objection to this. Hu people are the general name given by the Han people in the Central Plains of our country to the foreign ethnic groups in the north and west in ancient China. In the cognitive field of Han people, the concept of Hu people is relatively vague, and it has a tendency to change with time. The Hu in the pre-Qin period refers specifically to the Xiongnu, but in the Han and Jin dynasties generally Hu refers to the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang. The scope of "Hu people" also expanded from the north to the west." 13310:"The substantial presence of the Ak-Alakha-1 mtDNA and Y-STR haplotypes in the contemporary Anatolian populations may be attributed to two major historical events: (a) the less likely being the Scythian invasion of Anatolia around 7th century BCE and settlement for around 30 years near the Aras or Araxes River (Herodotus 1920), and (b) the more likely being the Central Asiatic Turkic migrations into Anatolia from around 11th century CE onwards, keeping in mind the ever growing support for a strong genetic continuity between the ancient eastern Scythians and the proto-Turkic tribes (Unterlander et al. 2017)." 1354: 2494: 11991:"The evidence for this final wave is however, very slim and there is no evidence for it in the Vedic texts; for their western origin, Witzel relies on a reference in Pāṇini (4.2.131, madravṛjyoḥ) to the Vṛjjis in dual relation with the Madras who are from the northwest, and to the Mallas in the Jaiminīya Brāhamaṇa (§198) as arising from the dust of Rajasthan. Neither the Sakyas nor any of the other eastern tribes are mentioned, and of course there is no proof that any of these are Indo-Aryan groups. I view the Sakyas and the later Śakas as two separate groups, the former being aboriginal." 13370:

Turkic-speaking populations (i.e., Kazakh, Uyghur, Turkmen, and Uzbek; 34.9–55.2%) higher than that to the Tajik populations (11.6–18.6%; fig. 4A), suggesting Tajiks suffer fewer impacts of the recent admixtures (Martínez-Cruz et al. 2011). Consequently, the Tajik populations generally present patterns of genetic continuity of Central Asians since the Bronze Age. Our results are consistent with linguistic and genetic evidence that the spreading of Indo-European speakers into Central Asia was earlier than the expansion of Turkic speakers (Kuz′mina and Mallory 2007; Yunusbayev et al. 2015).

4557: 1779: 117: 3000: 3555: 2309: 5127: 3423: 8560:: "During the first millennium BC, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin... Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BCE chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive 'Animal Style' artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture..." 4982: 4390: 3523: 5658:

that Scythian society was male-dominated, was actually female. Along with the leather skirt, the burial also contained a leather headdress painted with red pigment, a coat sewn from jerboa fur, a leather belt with bronze ornaments and buckles, a leather quiver with arrows with painted ornaments on the shafts, a fully-preserved battle pick, and a bow. These items provide valuable insights into the material culture and lifestyle of the Scythians, including their hunting and warfare practices, and their use of animal hides for clothing.

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Didenko, Serghii; Toshev, Gennadi; Bruyako, Igor; Grechko, Denys; Okatenko, Vitalii; Gorbenko, Kyrylo; Smyrnov, Oleksandr; Heiko, Anatolii; Reida, Roman; Sapiehin, Serheii; Sirotin, Sergey; Tairov, Aleksandr; Beisenov, Arman; Starodubtsev, Maksim; Vasilev, Vitali; Nechvaloda, Alexei; Atabiev, Biyaslan; Litvinov, Sergey; Ekomasova, Natalia; Dzhaubermezov, Murat; Voroniatov, Sergey; Utevska, Olga; Shramko, Irina; Khusnutdinova, Elza; Metspalu, Mait; Savelev, Nikita; Kriiska, Aivar; Kivisild, Toomas; Villems, Richard (22 July 2019).

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9422:, p. 3: "The Scythians lived in the Early Iron Age, and inhabited the northern areas of the Black Sea (Pontic) steppes. Though the 'Scythian period' in the history of Eastern Europe lasted little more than 400 years, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC, the impression these horsemen made upon the history of their times was such that a thousand years after they had ceased to exist as a sovereign people, their heartland and the territories which they dominated far beyond it continued to be known as 'greater Scythia'." 2899: 5896:, battle-axe, whetstone etc.). Based on numerous archeological findings, men and warrior women wore long-sleeved tunics that were always belted, often with richly ornamented belts. The Kazakhstan Saka (e.g. Issyk Golden Man/Maiden) wore shorter and closer-fitting tunics than the Pontic steppe Scythians. Some Pazyryk culture Saka wore short belted tunic with a lapel on the right side, with upright collar, 'puffed' sleeves narrowing at the wrist and bound in narrow cuffs of a color different from the rest of the tunic. 12423:"In addition to the continuation of Middle Persian in New Persian, three small modern languages show significant grammatical and lexical reflexes of other documented Middle Iranian languages: In Iran, Sangesari of the Semnan group shares a distinct set of features with Khwarezmian. In the east, Yaghnobi in Tajikistan continues a dialect of Sogdian, and Wakhi in the Pamirs shows distinct reflexes of Khotanese and Tumshuqese Saka. In fact, Wakhi is an example of the repeated invasions of Saka since antiquity." 3128: 531: 5058: 5763: 5577: 4211: 6268: 5977: 5673: 2632: 2170:/Massagetae could also be found in the Caspian Steppe. The imprecise description of where the Massagetae lived by ancient authors has however led modern scholars to ascribe to them various locations, such as the Oxus delta, the Iaxartes delta, between the Caspian and Aral seas or further to the north or northeast, but without basing these suggestions on any conclusive arguments. Other locations assigned to the Massagetae include the area corresponding to modern-day 5150: 123: 6082: 2604: 8264: 3810: 8269: 10392:. "The Early Iron Age nomadic Scythians have been described as a confederation of tribes of different origins, based on ancient DNA evidence . All samples of this study also possessed at least one additional eastern component, one of which was nearly at 100% in modern Nganasans (orange) and the other in modern Han Chinese (yellow; Figure S2). The eastern components were present in variable proportions in the samples of this study." 1785: 5360: 3583: 9428:, pp. 97–98: "From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes – the Scythians and Sarmatians "t may be confidently stated that from the end of the 7th century to the 3rd century B.C. the Scythians occupied the steppe expanses of the north Black Sea area, from the Don in the east to the Danube in the West." 3798: 2318: 6113: 3262: 2426:, and subsequent contact episodes with local Siberian and Eastern Asian populations, giving rise to the initial (Eastern) Scythian material cultures (Saka). It was however also found that the various later Scythian sub-groups of the Eurasian Steppe had local origins; different Scythian groups arose locally through cultural adaption, rather than via migration patterns from East-to-West or West-to-East. 9458:, pp. 36–37: "When we speak of Scythians, we refer to those Scytho-Siberians who inhabited the Kuban Valley, the Taman and Kerch peninsulas, Crimea, the northern and northeastern littoral of the Black Sea, and the steppe and lower forest steppe regions now shared between Ukraine and Russia, from the seventh century down to the first century B.C They almost certainly spoke an Iranian language " 4708: 3713:, and the tribute was to allow the invaders at certain appointed times to overrun the country and carry off booty. But when the invaders overran their country more than the agreement allowed, war ensued, and in turn their quarrels were composed and new wars were begun. Such is the life of the other nomads also, who are always attacking their neighbors and then in turn settling their differences. 4660: 4628: 4676: 4596: 4692: 4644: 4580: 4564: 4612: 6133: 4434:. In particular, the Classical Scythians of the western Eurasian steppe were not direct descendants of the local Bronze Age populations, but partly resulted from this east-west spread. This also suggests that Scythoïd cultural characteristics were not simply the result of the transfer of material culture, but were also accompanied by human migrations of Saka populations from the east. 2961:, "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power," according to the Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick. He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of Iranian." Furthermore, he argued that the early form of the name of Khotan, 16011:

Vanchigdash, Chuluunkhuu; Ochir, Battuga; Munkhbayar, Chuluunbat; Tumen, Dashzeveg; Kovalev, Alexey; Kradin, Nikolay; Bazarov, Bilikto A.; Miyagashev, Denis A.; Konovalov, Prokopiy B.; Zhambaltarova, Elena; Miller, Alicia Ventresca; Haak, Wolfgang; Schiffels, Stephan; Krause, Johannes; Boivin, Nicole; Erdene, Myagmar; Hendy, Jessica; Warinner, Christina (November 2020).

47: 9416:, p. 37: "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism." 8548:, p. 37 "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism." 5143:, a jacket decorated with 2,500 golden panther figurines, a gold-encrusted dagger on a belt, trousers sewn with golden beads, and gold-cuffed boots. The woman wore a red cloak that was also covered in 2,500 golden panther figurines, as well as a golden-hilted iron dagger, a gold comb, and a wooden ladle with a golden handle. 16407:. New York: Praeger. pp. 113–114. "The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India." 15147:

This type of composition is characteristic of the reliefs describing the Hu and Han war found in the Wurongci Temple and Wukaimingci Temple in Jiaxiang County, as well as of the image on the table at the entrance to the Yinan Beizhai tomb in the Linyi city. These works have a symmetrical composition

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This is compatible with a moderate westward increase of the Altaian genetic component in the Steppe during the Scythian period, implying the involvement of at least some degree of migration (east to west; the more complicated scenarios that have been proposed are not supported by our results) in the

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Dai, Shan-Shan; Sulaiman, Xierzhatijiang; Isakova, Jainagul; Xu, Wei-Fang; Abdulloevich, Najmudinov Tojiddin; Afanasevna, Manilova Elena; Ibrohimovich, Khudoidodov Behruz; Chen, Xi; Yang, Wei-Kang; Wang, Ming-Shan; Shen, Quan-Kuan; Yang, Xing-Yan; Yao, Yong-Gang; Aldashev, Almaz A; Saidov, Abdusattor

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Other noteworthy terracotta figurines were found in 1995 in a 4th-3rd century BCE tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, where the last Qin capital of the same name was located from 350 to 207 BCE. These are the earliest representations of cavalrymen in China discovered up to

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Notably, there is clear population continuity between the Uralic people such as Khants, Mansis and Nganasans, Paleo-Siberian people such as Yukaghirs and Chuvantsi, and the Pazyryk people even when considering just the two mtDNA and Y-STR haplotypes from the Ak-Alakha-1 mound 1 kurgan (Tables 1a, b,

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Of these, the Sakas were the descendants of Late Bronze Age (LBA) herders (such as the Andronovo, Srubnaya, and Sintashta) with additional ancestries derived from Lake Baikal (Shamanka_EBA) (EBA, Early Bronze Age) and BMAC populations (1, 17, 18). ... Further, although the spread of languages is not

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extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief's back

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wrote of the migration of the Saka: "the Saka, under pressure from the Yueh-chih , overran Sogdiana and then Bactria, there taking the place of the Greeks." Then, "Thrust back in the south by the Yueh-chih," the Saka occupied "the Saka country, Sakastana, whence the modern Persian Seistan." Some of

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led the tribe's main force against the Persians, defeated them, and placed the severed head of Cyrus in a sack full of blood. Some versions of the records of the death of Cyrus named the Derbices, rather than the Massagetae, as the tribe against whom Cyrus died in battle, because the Derbices were a

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Given the Steppe-related ancestry (e.g., Andronovo) existing in Scythians (i.e., Saka; Unterländer et al. 2017; Damgaard et al. 2018; Guarino-Vignon et al. 2022), the proposed linguistic and physical anthropological links between the Tajiks and Scythians (Han 1993; Kuz′mina and Mallory 2007) may be

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Recently, studies of ancient Scythian genomes have affirmed the confederate nature of the Scythian tribes, showing them to be genetically distinct from one another but finding little or no support for large-scale east-to-west movements, instead generally suggesting separate local origins of various

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Recently, evidence confirmed by the full-genomic analysis of a Scythian child's remains found in a coffin made of a larch trunk, which was discovered in Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva, revealed that the individual, previously thought to be male because it had items that were associated with the belief

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The Pazyryk groups analysed so far appear to be genetically homogeneous and they did not present significant genetic differences to current Altaians. These results suggest that roots of the current genetic diversity and admixture of the Altai region in Central Asia could be traced back to the Iron

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In anthropological terms, the buried show a peculiar mosaic of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. They are characterized by brachycephaly and dome-shaped head, with notably developed rugosity of the supercilium in the man and its absence in the woman. For the man, an average width of the face and a

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hese western Saka he distinguishes from eastern Saka who moved south through the Kashgar-Tashkurgan-Gilgit-Swat route to the plains of the sub-continent of India. This would account for the existence of the ancient Khotanese-Saka speakers, documents of whom have been found in western Sinkiang, and

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gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of

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Based on the Pazyryk findings (can be seen also in the south Siberian, Uralic and Kazakhstan rock drawings) some caps were topped with zoomorphic wooden sculptures firmly attached to a cap and forming an integral part of the headgear, similar to the surviving nomad helmets from northern China. Men

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Herodotus says Sakas had "high caps tapering to a point and stiffly upright." Asian Saka headgear is clearly visible on the Persepolis Apadana staircase bas-relief – high pointed hat with flaps over ears and the nape of the neck. From China to the Danube delta, men seemed to have worn a variety of

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The Śaka tribe was pasturing its herds in the Pamirs, central Tien Shan, and in the Amu Darya delta. Their gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the

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Men and women wore coats: e.g. Pazyryk Saka had many varieties, from fur to felt. They could have worn a riding coat that later was known as a Median robe or Kantus. Long sleeved, and open, it seems that on the Persepolis Apadana Skudrian delegation is perhaps shown wearing such coat. The Pazyryk

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Saka women dressed in much the same fashion as men. A Pazyryk burial, discovered in the 1990s, contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. Herodotus mentioned that Sakas had "high caps and … wore trousers." Clothing was sewn from plain-weave wool,

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These early studies have been elaborated by an increasing number of studies by Russian and western scholars. Conclusions are (i) an early, Bronze Age mixing of both west and east Eurasian lineages, with western lineages being found far to the east, but not vice versa; (ii) an apparent reversal by

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at the Beral site in Kazakhstan was analysed. The two individuals were found to be not closely related. The HV1 mitochondrial sequence of the male was similar to the Anderson sequence which is most frequent in European populations. The HV1 sequence of the female suggested a greater likelihood of

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In terms of formal characteristics and style of dress and adornment, the closest parallels to the Warring States-period Qin figurines are found in the Scythian culture. Wang Hui 王輝 has examined the exchanges between the cultures of the Yellow River valley and the Scythian culture of the steppe.

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Järve, Mari; Saag, Lehti; Scheib, Christiana Lyn; Pathak, Ajai K.; Montinaro, Francesco; Pagani, Luca; Flores, Rodrigo; Guellil, Meriam; Saag, Lauri; Tambets, Kristiina; Kushniarevich, Alena; Solnik, Anu; Varul, Liivi; Zadnikov, Stanislav; Petrauskas, Oleg; Avramenko, Maryana; Magomedov, Boris;

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Arzhan-1 was excavated by M. P. Gryaznov in the 1970s, establishing the origins of Scythian culture in the region in the 10th to 8th centuries BC: Arzhan-1 was carbon-dated to circa 800 BC. Many of the styles of the artifacts found in Arzhan 1 (such as the animal style images of deer, boar, and

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King Zheng of Qin (246–221 BC), who was to be the First Emperor (221–210 BC), took material from many regions. As he unified the territory, he employed steppe cavalry men in his army, as we now recognise from the terracotta warriors guarding his tomb (Khayutina 2013: cat. no. 314), whose dress

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written in Kharosthi, and coins from Khotan dated to the 1st century bear dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit, indicating links of Khotan to both India and China. Surviving documents however suggest that an Iranian language was used by the people of the kingdom for a long time.

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Other evidence to support our argument is that Western, Asian-style architectural elements such as Hu statue columns and arched doorways (Figure 35) indicate the influence of foreign styles in some of the large, high-grade Han pictorial stone tombs currently found in this region, such as the

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indigenous to Southern Central Asia, which display genetic continuity to Bronze and Iron age Central Asians. These genetic links are paralleled by previous proposed "linguistic and physical anthropological links between the Tajiks and Scythians". There is also increasing evidence for genetic

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Jeong, Choongwon; Wang, Ke; Wilkin, Shevan; Taylor, William Timothy Treal; Miller, Bryan K.; Bemmann, Jan H.; Stahl, Raphaela; Chiovelli, Chelsea; Knolle, Florian; Ulziibayar, Sodnom; Khatanbaatar, Dorjpurev; Erdenebaatar, Diimaajav; Erdenebat, Ulambayar; Ochir, Ayudai; Ankhsanaa, Ganbold;

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consisted of the graves of five women and one man with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BC, and probably related to that of Saka tribes normally living slightly to the north. Altogether the graves yielded several thousands of pieces of fine jewelry, usually made from

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By contrast, the Kyrgyz, together with other Turkic-speaking populations, originated from the admixture since the Iron Age. The Historical Era gene flow derived from the Eastern Steppe with the representative of Mongolia_Xiongnu_o1 made a more substantial contribution to Kyrgyz and other

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civilisation. Moreover, this study found that they were genetically more closely related to modern populations in eastern Europe than those of central and southern Asia. The ubiquity and dominance of the R1a Y-DNA lineage contrasted markedly with the diversity seen in the mtDNA profiles.

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maternal lineage, a geographically West Eurasian lineage. Another study by the same team, again of mtDNA from two Scytho-Siberian skeletons found in the Altai Republic, showed that they had been typical males "of mixed Euro-Mongoloid origin". One of the individuals was found to carry the

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Arzhan-2 was an undisturbed burial. Archaeologists found a royal couple, sixteen murdered attendants, and 9,300 objects. 5,700 of these artifacts were made of gold, weighing a Siberian record-breaking twenty kilograms. The male, who researchers guess was some sort of king, wore a golden

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The earliest studies could only analyze segments of mtDNA, thus providing only broad correlations of affinity to modern West Eurasian or East Eurasian populations. For example, in a 2002 study the mitochondrial DNA of Saka period male and female skeletal remains from a double inhumation

12433:

Carpelan, C.; Parpola, A.; Koskikallio, P. (2001). "Early Contacts Between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations: Papers Presented at an International Symposium Held at the Tvärminne Research Station of the University of Helsinki, 8–10 January, 1999".

5306: 10577:

It is still likely that the Xiongnu included an Eastern Iranian (Saka) component or were at least strongly influenced by the Iranians. It is also arguable that the Xiongnu learned the steppe nomadic model of economy from their Eastern Iranian neighbours (Beckwith, 2009: 72–73,

10450:

4499: 12081:

The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas) / Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North

10519:, p. 488: "Their royal tribes and kings (shan-yii) bore Iranian names and all the Hsiung-nu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from an Iranian language of Saka type. It is therefore clear that the majority of Hsiung-nu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language." 10313:

3937:

evidence suggest the Wakhi language is descended from Saka languages. According to the Indo-Europeanist Martin Kümmel, Wakhi may be classified as a Western Saka dialect; the other attested Saka dialects, Khotanese and Tumshuqese, would then be classified as Eastern Saka.

14464:

New Kilunovskaya, M. E., Semenov, V. A., Busova, V. S., Mustafin, Kh. Kh., Alborova, I. E., & Matzvai, A. D. (2018). The Unique Burial of a Child of Early Scythian Time at the Cemetery of Saryg-Bulun (Tuva). Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, 46(3),

5204:

In 2020, archaeologists excavated multiple burial mounds in the Eleke Sazy Valley in East Kazakhstan. Here, a large number of gold artifacts were found. These artifacts included golf harness fittings, pendants, chains, appliqués, and more – most of which are in the

5278: 14773: 5891:

Persepolis Apadana again serves a good starting point to observe the tunics of the Sakas. They appear to be a sewn, long-sleeved garment that extended to the knees and was girded with a belt, while the owner's weapons were fastened to the belt (sword or dagger,

624:" for all the steppe nomads, the name "Saka" is used specifically for the ancient nomads of the eastern steppe, while "Scythian" is used for the related group of nomads living in the western steppe. While the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as 10646:, the group depicted in this panel is "the Saka tigrakhauda (Pointed-hat Scythians). All are armed and wear the appropriate headgear. They are accompanied by a horse, and offer a bracelet and folded coats and trousers, apparently copies of their own costumes." 14076:

2003 Associate Professor of National University of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Professor Gani lobster Abde§ Tulebaev in East -Kazakhstan near Zaisan in place Baygetobe "Chilikti-3" number 1, the mound of the "golden man" (4262 gold find) (Figure

8783:

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)

15089:"The image of a barbarian with a high nose, deep eyes, and a pointed hat found in Shandong is likely to be some white ethnic group related to the Scythian culture, and it is speculated that it may be the Yuezhi or an ethnic group earlier than the Yuezhi." 9707:: "Apparently the Dahai represented an entity not identical with the other better known groups of the Sakai, i.e. the Sakai (Sakā) tigrakhaudā (Massagetai, roaming in Turkmenistan), and Sakai (Sakā) Haumavargā (in Transoxania and beyond the Syr Daryā)." 3355:

of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing. The scenes depicted on these drums sometimes represent these horsemen practising hunting. Animal scenes of felines attacking oxen are also at times reminiscent of

14452:

These graves at Tillya Tepe were initially regarded by the excavator as belonging to Yuezhi or Kushan nobility, but they are most likely to be tombs of a local tribal chief and his family who had strong connections with the Sakā cultures of Central

11197:

Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 197–198.

14612: 5711:

Ancient influences from Central Asia became identifiable in China following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories from the 8th century BC. The Chinese adopted the Scythian-style animal art of the

3305:(now in Afghanistan and Pakistan) became known as "Land of the Sakas", and was called Sakastāna in the Persian language of contemporary Iran, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the 6202: 5539: 13018:

always congruent with population histories (32), the presence of Saka ancestry in Xinj_IA populations supports an IA introduction of the Indo-Iranian Khotanese language, which was spoken by the Saka and later attested to in this region (19).

10495:, p. 103 "The dress of Iranian-speaking Saka and Scythians is easily reconstructed on the basis of... numerous archaeological discoveries from the Ukraine to the Altai, particularly at Issyk in Kazakhstan... at Pazyryk... and Ak-Alakha" 4373:

specimen, suggesting them to be recent migrants from further East. The same additional Eastern ancestry is found among the later groups of Huns (Hun Berel 300CE, Hun elite 350CE), and the Karakaba remains (830CE). At the same time, western

6162: 5196: 4346:) background with additional BMAC and East Eurasian-like ancestry. The Eastern ancestry among the Saka can also be represented by Lake Baikal (Shamanka_EBA-like) groups. The spread of Saka-like ancestry can be linked with the dispersal of 3502:, an Indian linguist, identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sakan influence in North India. According to historian Michael Mitchiner, the 9308: 5330: 2372: 4333:

Sakas had elevated Baikal_EBA ancestry, with a nearly non-existent BMAC component (32% Sintashta, 68% Baikal_EBA, and ~0% BMAC). Two other genetic studies published in 2021 and 2022 found that the Saka originated from a shared WSH-like

3407:

have alleged. The scholar Bryan Levman however criticised this hypothesis for resting on slim to no evidence, and maintains that the Shakyas were a population native to the north-east Gangetic plain who were unrelated to Iranic Sakas.

6177: 3470:, of modern-day India and Pakistan). In the Persian language of contemporary Iran the territory of Drangiana was called Sakastāna, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the 11182:, p. 185: Besides trade and exchange within the borders of the Achaemenid empire, it seems that the part of Central Asua under Achaemenid rule was in contact with the Saka tribes who were in touch with China (see the finds of 8511:

Fig. 5.70d Gold mail suit, crown and leg covers, from an Issik tomb, period of the Saka tribes, 5th to 4th century B.C., Institute of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan (after Shiruku rodo no yuihO, pl.

13030:

Kumar, Vikas; Bennett, E Andrew; Zhao, Dongyue; Liang, Yun; Tang, Yunpeng; Ren, Meng; Dai, Qinyan; Feng, Xiaotian; Cao, Peng; Yang, Ruowei; Liu, Feng; Ping, Wanjing; Zhang, Ming; Ding, Manyu; Yang, Melinda A (28 July 2021).

2529:, another nomadic Iranian tribe to whom they were closely related, after which they came to occupy large areas of the region beginning in the 6th century BC. The Massagetae forcing the Early Scythians to the west across the 5864:, 4th-3rd century BC. This is the earliest known representation of a cavalryman in China. The outfit is of Central Asian style, probably Scythian, and the rider with his high-pointed nose appears to be a foreigner. King 5928:

revealed that all five bodies discovered in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed. No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature

5508: 3118:

were still used in some areas in the vicinity of Kashgar, and Kanchaki is thought to belong to the Saka language group. It is believed that the Tarim Basin was linguistically Turkified before the 11th century ended.

3644:

and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They are all for the most part nomads. But the best known of the nomads are those who

11512:

Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–228.

5039:

panther) soon propagated to the west, probably following a migration mouvement from the east to the west in the 9th-7th centuries BC, and ultimately reaching European Scythia and influencing artistic styles there.

5294: 3631:

Strabo went on to list the names of the various tribes he believed to be "Scythian", and in so doing almost certainly conflated them with unrelated tribes of eastern Central Asia. These tribes included the Saka.

16561:

Unterländer, Martina; Palstra, Friso; Lazaridis, Iosif; Pilipenko, Aleksandr; Hofmanová, Zuzana; Groß, Melanie; Sell, Christian; Blöcher, Jens; Kirsanow, Karola; Rohland, Nadin; Rieger, Benjamin (3 March 2017).

12962:

Kumar, Vikas; Wang, Wenjun; Zhang, Jie; Wang, Yongqiang; Ruan, Qiurong; Yu, Jianjun; Wu, Xiaohong; Hu, Xingjun; Wu, Xinhua; Guo, Wu; Wang, Bo; Niyazi, Alipujiang; Lv, Enguo; Tang, Zihua; Cao, Peng (April 2022).

8638:

5473: 12817:, p. 42: "In other words, there is an apparent population continuity from the Scythians to the Xiongnu and then onto the Turkic people, possibly because the former two already bore proto-Turkic elements." 9446:, p. 547: "The name 'Scythian' is met in the classical authors and has been taken to refer to an ethnic group or people, also mentioned in Near Eastern texts, who inhabited the northern Black Sea region." 4453:(c.1000 BCE) became a region of intense ethnic and cultural interaction between European and Asian components. From the 7th century BCE, Early Saka nomads started to settle in the Southern Urals, coming from 3220:

The Heavenly Horse, commonly known as the Ferghana Horse, is an ancient ceremonial bronze finial. It originates from Bactria, dating back to the 4th-1st century BC, and was skillfully crafted by Saka tribes.

10480:, p. 94 "Analysis of the clothing, which has analogies in the complex of Saka clothes, particularly in Pazyryk, led Wang Binghua (1987, 42) to the conclusion that they are related to the Saka Culture." 9291:

The ethnonym Saka appears in ancient Iranian and Indian sources as the name of the large family of Iranian nomads called Scythians by the Classical Western sources and Sai by the Chinese (Gk. Sacae; OPers.

5786:, Sakas are depicted as wearing long trousers, which cover the uppers of their boots. Over their shoulders they trail a type of long mantle, with one diagonal edge in back. One particular tribe of Sakas ( 3196:

into Bactria. The Saka also moved southwards toward the Pamirs and northern India, where they settled in Kashmir, and eastward, to settle in some of the oasis-states of Tarim Basin sites, like Yanqi (焉耆,

14704: 13529:

spread of the Scythian culture. This fits the previous observation that the Iron Age nomads of the western Eurasian Steppe were not direct descendants of the Bronze Age population and suggests that the

8790:

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

2591:, after which the Parthians put their country and capital city under the protection of the Sakas. This was followed by a long war opposing the Medes to the Saka, the latter of whom were led by the queen 9434:: "Scythians, a nomadic people of Iranian origin who flourished in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 7th–4th centuries BC (Figure 1). For related groups in Central Asia and India, see " 3613:

The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or

3538: 3931:

runic alphabet. From Khotanese Saka, Harmatta translates the inscription as: "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on".

1175:

who from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC dominated the steppe and forest-steppe zones to the north of the Black Sea, Crimea, the Kuban valley, as well as the Taman and Kerch peninsulas,

5933:, and these were probably used for tattooing. The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of striking designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best preserved 5842: 14054:

Ainsi des bractrées d'or à l'effigie du sanglier qui étaient fixées aux vêtements ont été découvertes dans les Kourganes du 6eme siècle de Chilikti (Kazakhstan oriental) et d'Arzhan-2 (Touva)

4393:

The Sakas represent a unique period of West-East admixture along the Altai line during the Iron Age, which has been a defining characteristic of Central Asian populations until modern times.

4267:. Sakas of the Tasmola culture were found to be of about 56% WSH ancestry and 44% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gather ancestry. The peoples of the Tagar culture had about 83.5% WSH ancestry, 9% 13861:

p.23 "Dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating indicate that Arzhan dates to the end 9th - beginning 8th century BC (Zaitseva, Vasilev, Marsadolov, Sementsov, Dergachev, Lebedeva, 1996)."

4489:

formed in the area in the 5th–4th century BCE, with fairly uniformized cultural practices. This cultural complex, with notable ‘‘foreign elements’’, corresponds to the ‘‘royal’’ burials of

4251:, as well as between different Saka subgroups of southern Siberia, the central steppe and the Tian Shan. While Scythians (or "Hungarian Saka") harbored exclusively ancestry associated with 2926:

Archaeological evidence and documents from Khotan and other sites in the Tarim Basin provided information on the language spoken by the Saka. The official language of Khotan was initially

3628:

In the 1st century BC, the Greek-Roman geographer Strabo gave an extensive description of the peoples of the eastern steppe, whom he located in Central Asia beyond Bactria and Sogdiana.

11703:

Chang, Chun-shu. (2007). The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Volume II; Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 BC – AD 157. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 5–8

5988: 5455:

During the 18th century and the Russian expansion into Siberia, many Saka kurgans were plundered, sometimes by independent grave-robbers or sometimes officially at the instigation of

5161: 8802:

Zaitseva, G. I.; Chugunov, K. V.; Alekseev, A. Yu; Dergachev, V. A.; Vasiliev, S. S.; Sementsov, A. A.; Cook, G.; Scott, E. M.; Plicht, J. van der; Parzinger, H.; Nagler, A. (2007).

15797:. Studies From the Former Soviet Union. New Series. Edited by B. A. Litvinskii and Carol Altman Bromberg. Translation directed by Mary Fleming Zirin. Vol. 8, (1994), pp. 37–46. 12444:...descendants of these languages survive now only in the Ossete language of the Caucasus and the Wakhi language of the Pamirs, the latter related to the Saka once spoken in Khotan. 10066:

The middle of the third century b.c. saw the rise to power of a group of tribes consisting of the Parni (Aparni) and the Dahae, descendants of the Massagetae of the Aral Sea region.

5318: 5173: 8743:: "Horse-riding nomadism has been referred to as the culture of 'Early Nomads'. This term encompasses different ethnic groups (such as Scythians, Saka, Massagetae, and Yuezhi)..." 14557:"A Contextual Explanation for "Foreign" or "Steppic" Factors Exhibited in Burials at the Majiayuan Cemetery and the Opening of the Tianshan Mountain Corridor" 5272:) excavations of ancient burial mounds have revealed artefacts the sophistication of which are encouraging a revaluation of the nomadic cultures of the 3rd and 4th centuries BC. 4169:

According to Tikhonov, et al. (2019), the Eastern Scythians and the Xiongnu "possibly bore proto-Turkic elements", based on a continuation of maternal and paternal haplogroups.

5696:

illustrated Scythian animal-style gold that lacks the direct influence of Greek styles. Forty-four pounds of gold weighed down the royal couple in this burial, discovered near

8943:

Panyushkina, Irina; Grigoriev, Fedor; Lange, Todd; Alimbay, Nursan (2013). "Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Dates of the Bes-Shatyr #3 Saka Kurgan in the Semirechiye, Kazakhstan".

2729:

member tribe of the Massagetae confederation or identical with the whole of the Massagetae. After Cyrus had been mortally wounded by the Derbices/Massagetae, Amorges and his

13949: 9159: 3554: 9118:, p. 85 "The Saka, or Śaka, people then began their long migration that ended with their conquest of northern India, where they are also known as the Indo-Scythians." 4961: 14184: 6123:

barbarians, with bows and arrows and wearing pointed hats (left), against Han troops. Eastern Han Dynasty (151–153 AD). Tsangshan Han tomb in Linyi city. Also visible in

12943: 4523: 4033:

speakers, suggesting that future studies could determine the extent to which the Eastern Scythians were involved in the early formation of Turkic-speaking populations.

13153:

González-Ruiz, Mercedes; Santos, Cristina; Jordana, Xavier; Simón, Marc; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Gigli, Elena; Aluja, Maria Pilar; Malgosa, Assumpció (9 November 2012).

5554: 4382:(Konyr Tobe 300CE) displaying around 85% Sarmatian and 15% BMAC ancestry. Sarmatians are modeled to derive primarily from the preceding Western Steppe Herders of the 4271:(ANE) ancestry and 7.5% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gatherer ancestry. The study suggested that the Inner Asian Saka were the source of West Eurasian ancestry among the 2701:, as well as Parmises's three sons, whom Sparethra exchanged in return for her husband, after which Cyrus and Amorges became allies, and Amorges helped Cyrus conquer 18622: 10591: 4430:

Genetic data across Eurasia suggest that the Scythian cultural phenomenon was accompanied by some degree of migration from east to west, starting in the area of the

3574: 2477:

was of Saka origin, or at least significantly influenced by their Eastern Iranian neighbours. Some scholars contend that in the 8th century BC, a Saka raid from the

5644:

in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. This testifies to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.

14420:

Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia: Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017

14393:

Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia: Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017

12475:

Clisson, I.; et al. (2002). "Genetic analysis of human remains from a double inhumation in a frozen kurgan in Kazakhstan (Berel site, early 3rd century BC)".

4216:

Genetic makeup of Iron Age Central Asian Scythians. The three main ancestry components are shown in green, red and violet representing the ancestries maximized in

14994:

Murphy, Eileen; Gokhman, Ilia; Chistov, Yuri; Barkova, Ludmilla (2002). "Prehistoric Old World Scalping: New Cases from the Cemetery of Aymyrlyg, South Siberia".

3919:

is believed to be the earliest example of Saka, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. The inscription is in a variant of

14702: 14701:

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Photographic Archives. Persepolis – Apadana, E Stairway, Tribute Procession, the Saka Tigraxauda Delegation.

14622: 6012: 2803: 12596: 10616: 5876:

Pazyryk findings give the most almost fully preserved garments and clothing worn by the Scythian/Saka peoples. Ancient Persian bas-reliefs, inscriptions from

4485:

settled in the western part of the southern Urals, who also assimilated into the Early Sarmatians. As a result, a large-scale integrated union of nomads from

5045: 4422:

peoples. The admixture with West Eurasian sources was found to be "in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages".

2686: 1421:'s campaign of 520 to 518 BC against the Asian nomads, they were differentiated into two groups, both living in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea: 10662: 5801: 5735:

in southern China. Saka warriors could also have served as mercenaries for the various kingdoms of ancient China. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the

12614:

González-Ruiz, Mercedes; Santos, Cristina; Jordana, Xavier; Simón, Marc; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Gigli, Elena; Aluja, Maria Pilar; Malgosa, Assumpció (2012).

8851:

Caspari, Gino; Sadykov, Timur; Blochin, Jegor; Hajdas, Irka (1 September 2018). "Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0) – an early Scythian kurgan in Tuva Republic, Russia".

9004:

Beisenov, Àrman Z.; Duisenbay, Daniyar; Akhiyarov, Islam; Sargizova, Gulzada (1 October 2016). "Dromos Burials of Tasmola Culture in Central Kazakhstan".

3522: 12233: 6000: 12704:

Keyser, C; Bouakaze, C; Crubézy, E; et al. (September 2009). "Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people".

4029:

Unterländer, et al. (2017) found genetic evidence that the modern-day descendants of Eastern Scythians are found "almost exclusively" among modern-day

1767:, they may have differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians. 628:, they may have differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians. 14089:

Chugunov, K. V.; Parzinger, H.; Nagler, A. (2005). "Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data".

13909:

Chugunov, K. V.; Parzinger, H.; Nagler, A. (2004). "Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data".

13873:

Chugunov, K. V.; Parzinger, H.; Nagler, A. (2004). "Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data".

13837:

Chugunov, K. V.; Parzinger, H.; Nagler, A. (2004). "Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data".

13384:"On The Genetic Continuity of the Iron Age Pazyryk Culture: Geographic Distributions of the Paternal and Maternal Lineages from the Ak-Alakha-1 Burial" 13280:"On The Genetic Continuity of the Iron Age Pazyryk Culture: Geographic Distributions of the Paternal and Maternal Lineages from the Ak-Alakha-1 Burial" 4263:(WSH) ancestry, 25% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gatherer ancestry and 5% Iranian Neolithic ancestry. The Iranian Neolithic ancestry was probably from the 4061:. The authors suggest that their data shows that between the Bronze and the Iron Ages the constellation of populations known variously as Scythians, 3364:

of the 2nd and 1st century BC have left traces in Sogdia and Bactria, but they cannot firmly be attributed to the Saka, similarly with the sites of

5468: 4279:

probably emerged through minor male-driven geneflow into the Saka through westward migrations by the Xiongnu. A genetic study published in 2020 in

4026:

lineages in the Western steppe; (iii) the possible role of migrations from the south, the Balkano-Danubian and Iranian regions, toward the steppe.

2806:, with Polyaenus's account being based on accurate Persian historical records. After Darius's administrative reforms of the Achaemenid Empire, the 2735:

army helped the Persian soldiers defeat them. Cyrus told his sons to respect their own mother as well as Amorges above everyone else before dying.

1755:" for all the steppe nomads, modern scholars now use the term Saka to refer specifically to Iranian peoples who inhabited the northern and eastern 6227: 2774:, and replaced him with a ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid rule. The territories of the Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of 16901: 9464:, p. 924: "The first historical steppe nomads, the Scythians, inhabited the steppe north of the Black Sea from about the eight century B.C." 4414:-speaking groups, which formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between local Saka groups and geneflow from the Eastern Steppe, but also 2418:

and modern-day China in the 10th century BC. Genetic evidence corroborates archaeological findings, suggesting an initial eastwards expansion of

9594: 5716:(descriptions of animals locked in combat), particularly the rectangular belt-plaques made of gold or bronze, and created their own versions in 8053: 4202:

Map of Scythian cultures, including different Saka populations with genetic profiles, combining Steppe_MLBA, BMAC, and Khövsgöl LBA ancestries.

3619:. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians. 12377:

the modern Wakhi language of Wakhan in Afghanistan, another modern branch of descendants of Saka speakers parallel to the Ossetes in the west.

4255:, Inner Asian Saka displayed additional Neolithic Iranian (BMAC) and Southern Siberian hunter-gatherer (represented through a proxy of modern 11486:

The territory of Yārkand is for the first time mentioned in the Hanshu (1st century BCE), under the name Shache (Old Chinese, approximately,

9564: 2791: 11144: 8017: 5235: 4247:

The 2018 in study detected significant genetic differences between analyzed Inner Asian Saka-associated samples and Scythian samples of the

18801: 12518:

Ricaut F.; et al. (2004). "Genetic Analysis of a Scytho-Siberian Skeleton and Its Implications for Ancient Central Asian Migrations".

5459:, but usually without any archaeological records being taken. Only the general location where they were excavated is known, between modern 4115:. Four samples of Y-DNA extracted from central Steppe sakas belonged to haplogroup R1 and R1a, while one individual belonged to haplogroup 2679:

on the Iaxartes river as well as seven fortresses to protect the northern frontier of his empire against the Saka. Cyrus then attacked the

14296: 12395:

It is noteworthy that the Wakhi language of Wakhan has features, phonetics, and vocabulary the nearest of Iranian dialects to Khotan Saka.

18840: 18059: 16949: 16553:

Tremblay, Xavier (2007), "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in

14959: 7215: 4310: 4264: 2690: 593: 16845: 11760:, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, pp. 13–14, 21–22. 5831:

s; trousers could have been wider or tight fitting depending on the area. Materials used depended on the wealth, climate and necessity.

17994: 13429:"Extensive ethnolinguistic diversity at the crossroads of North China and South Siberia reflects multiple sources of genetic diversity" 5524: 5405:

from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist

4469:(7th-5th century BCE) is one of these Early Saka cultures, based in the eastern foothills of the Urals, which was assimilated into the 3859: 2799: 2795: 2694: 14528: 10229:

of Strabo one can infer that the four tribes of the Asii and others came from these valleys (the so-called "land of the Sai 塞" in the

4065:, etc. were blue- (or green-) eyed, fair-skinned and light-haired people who might have played a role in the early development of the 2545:, who were also nomadic Iranian peoples closely related to the Massagetae and the Scythians, conquered their territories, and invaded 18212: 16865: 13707: 8529:, p. 68 "Modern scholars have mostly used the name Saka to refer specifically to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and Tarim Basin" 8092: 5746:

Saka influences have been identified as far as Korea and Japan. Various Korean artifacts, such as the royal crowns of the kingdom of

2957:

attested in later Khotanese documents. This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given as the Khotanese

1791: 14861: 9389:. Handbuch der Orientalistik / hrsg. von B. Spuler ... Abt. 8. Handbook of Uralic studies. Leiden New York Köln: Brill. p. 31. 9091: 9058: 8758:: the Persians called "Saka" all the northern nomads, just as the Greeks called them "Scythians", and the Babylonians "Cimmerians". 3246:– came from land north of the Syr Darya where the Ili and Chu valleys are located. Identification of these four tribes varies, but 3216: 2096: 16419: 9528:

Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.

8729:

Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.

5447: 5057: 3035:(northeast of Kashgar). Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in the 620:; and although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and " 17083: 16382:

History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250

15403:

History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250

11786:

History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250

11430:

Xavier Tremblay, "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in

3086:, the Saka split and formed several states in the region. These Saka states may include two states to the northwest of Kashgar, 1586: 18777: 13561:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 13482:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 13427:

He, Guang-Lin; Wang, Meng-Ge; Zou, Xing; Yeh, Hui-Yuan; Liu, Chang-Hui; Liu, Chao; Chen, Gang; Wang, Chuan-Chao (January 2023).

10316:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 9832:

This is Kingdom which I hold, from the Scythians who are beyond Sogdiana, thence unto Ethiopia ; from Sind, thence unto Sardis.

2449:

in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC are thought to be of Saka chieftains. These burials show striking similarities with the earlier

18733: 18314: 14359:"Presenting the Warrior Iron Age Scythian Materials and Gender Identity at the British Museum, American Journal of Archaeology" 5515: 5499: 5442: 4968: 2525:

rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, when they migrated from the east into Central Asia, from where they expelled the

18781: 14341:"Presenting the Warrior Iron Age Scythian Materials and Gender Identity at the British Museum American Journal of Archaeology" 5149: 4556: 1778: 116: 16808: 16746: 16718: 16693: 16671: 16653: 16519: 16483: 16433: 16361: 16330: 16276: 16236: 16220: 16126: 15986: 15928: 15902: 15848: 15785: 15719: 15624: 15488: 15453: 15435: 15392: 15349: 15321: 15291: 15257: 15232: 14756: 14646: 14516: 14428: 14401: 14280: 14253: 14143: 12829:"АНТРОПОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ РЕКОНСТРУКЦИЯ ВНЕШНЕГО ОБЛИКА "ЦАРЯ" И "ЦАРИЦЫ" РАННЕСКИФСКОГО ПОГРЕБАЛЬНО-ПОМИНАЛЬНОГО КОМПЛЕКСА АРЖАН-2" 12690: 12416: 12320: 12204: 12153: 11943: 11708: 11691: 11670: 11569: 11542: 11518: 11458: 11375: 11337: 11317: 11279: 11224: 11203: 11152: 11074: 10969: 10929: 10889: 10820: 10387: 10287: 10269: 10250: 10121: 10094: 10059: 10006: 9913: 9825: 9759: 9394: 9322: 9263: 9209: 8504: 8479: 8452: 8425: 8395: 8024: 7996: 5433:. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived well-preserved from the 5th to 4th century BC. 15083:上述石雕像为胡人形象，对此学者们均无异议。胡人是我国古代中原汉人对北方和西方异族的通称。在汉人的认知领域，胡人的概念比较模糊，大致也有个变化的过程。先秦时的胡，专指匈奴，汉晋时期泛指匈奴、鲜卑、羯、氐、羌，"胡人"的范围已由北方逐渐扩大到西部族群。 3677:

that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. And as for the Däae, some of them are called

2819:

During the period of Achaemenid rule, Central Asia was in contact with Saka populations who were themselves in contact with

1751:

Although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and "

14159: 6875: 3693:

and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to

11349:

Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 36, 146.

10601: 5688:

The art of the Saka was of a similar styles as other Iranian peoples of the steppes, which is referred to collectively as

18830: 18269: 16894: 14207: 11118: 7981: 5750:, are said to be of "Scythian" design. Similar crowns, brought through contacts with the continent, can also be found in 5425:

Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous

1566:", a term was used by Darius for the people who formed the north-eastern limits of his empire at the opposite end to the 15508:

History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A. D. 250

8804:"Chronology of Key Barrows Belonging to Different Stages of the Scythian Period in Tuva (Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 Barrows)" 5920:

tattoos, but not his face. Parts of the body had deteriorated, but much of the tattooing was still clearly visible (see

18825: 18264: 17265: 16202: 16098: 15049: 13877:. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 42. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. pp. 24–32. 11594: 9236: 8046: 8003: 6934: 3974: 16766:. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 106. September 2000. Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania. 6036:

shows evidence of scalping. It lends physical evidence to the practice of scalp taking by the Scythians living there.

5957:

decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a

4079:

examined the remains of twenty-eight Inner Asian Sakas buried between ca. 900 BC to AD 1, compromising eight Sakas of

18347: 17675: 16544: 15747: 15697: 15663: 15645: 15410: 15367: 14492: 14106: 13926: 13890: 13854: 12369: 12281: 12074: 11826: 11793: 11646: 11354: 9363: 9167: 8363: 6267: 704: 83: 13694: 12329: 10621: 10596: 10110:

Coatsworth, John; Cole, Juan; Hanagan, Michael P.; Perdue, Peter C.; Tilly, Charles; Tilly, Louise (16 March 2015).

9514: 9477: 8715: 5369:

horseman in a felt painting from a burial around 300 BC. The Pazyryks appear to be closely related to the Scythians.

4325:

Sakas had an elevated BMAC proportion at 24% (50% Sintashta, 26% Baikal_EBA, and 24% BMAC). The eastern Uyuk Sakas (

2852: 1111:, which, according to Herodotus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians. Other sound changes have produced 18845: 16118: 13913:. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 42. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p. 24. 13841:. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 42. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p. 23. 8010: 6774: 5312:

Tigergriffin arthor work based on Scytian- saka animal style, burial mound Berel (5th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.

2363:

in the early 1st millennium BC. Their origins has long been a source of debate among archaeologists. The

8894:

Dergachev, V. A.; Vasiliev, S. S.; Sementsov, A. A.; Zaitseva, G. I.; Chugunov, K. A.; Sljusarenko, I. Ju (2001).

2396:

of the 1st millennium BC, are to be found among Eastern Scythians rather than their Western counterparts: eastern

18645: 18274: 17544: 16924: 11686:, 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 377–388, 391, 10673: 6285: 2127:

both lived in the steppe and highland areas located in northern Central Asia and to the east of the Caspian Sea.

16759:. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 80. July 1998. Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania. 16725:

Young, Tyler Cuyler (1988). "The Consolidation of the Empire and its Limits of Growth under Darius and Xerxes".

15446:

The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Volume II; Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 B.C. – A.D. 157

14725: 11332:

Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). History of the Turks (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, p. 596-598.

10223:: "The Daxia 大夏 people in the valley of the Amu Darya came from the valleys of the rivers Ili and Chu. From the 4378:-like and minor additional BMAC-like ancestry spread eastwards, with a Saka-associated sample from southeastern 3188:, who conquered the area in 177–176 BC. In turn the Yuehzhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai ( 2724:

in 530 BC. According to Herodotus, Cyrus captured a Massagetaean camp by ruse, after which the Massagetae queen

732: 18309: 18254: 17504: 16887: 16447: 16294: 16176: 16150: 15979:

Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd centuries CE

15520: 14093:. NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences. Vol. 42. Springer Netherlands. pp. 1–7. 12293: 12043: 7866: 7641: 7045: 5530: 4832: 4634: 3160: 2337: 16303:

Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.): At the Crossroads of Iranian, Hellenistic, and Central Asian History

13033:"Genetic Continuity of Bronze Age Ancestry with Increased Steppe-Related Ancestry in Late Iron Age Uzbekistan" 12218: 11389: 9150: 5888:

and warrior women wore tunics, often embroidered, adorned with felt applique work, or metal (golden) plaques.

5825:

Men and women wore long trousers, often adorned with metal plaques and often embroidered or adorned with felt

18761: 17798: 17260: 16451: 15812: 13948:

Panyushkina, Irina P; Slyusarenko, Igor Y; Sala, Renato; Deom, Jean-Marc; Toleubayev, Abdesh T (March 2016).

12561:

Ricaut, F.; et al. (2004). "Genetic Analysis and Ethnic Affinities From Two Scytho-Siberian Skeletons".

8694:

Khotanese language, which was spoken in southern Xinjiang before spreading to other parts of the region (19).

8072: 8039: 7611: 6880: 6817: 6618: 6504: 5502:. Their estimated datation ranges from the 7th century BC to the 1st century BC, depending on the artefacts. 4317:

were found to be of about 43% Sintashta ancestry, 50% Baikal_EBA ancestry and 7% BMAC ancestry. Tagar Sakas (

4225: 2533:

river and into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes started a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the

2328: 1499: 1167:

used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian Steppe,

20: 8136: 6171:

relief, depicting an attack by Hu barbarians with pointed hats, bow and arrows. 2nd century AD, Eastern Han.

5976: 5101:

The Kurgans contained vast quantities of precious golden jewelry. Remains of a "golden man" (similar to the

1313: 1178:

while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern

18259: 14067: 11219:, 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 410–411. 7299: 6802: 6613: 6608: 6603: 6498: 3143: 2976:(r. 626–649). From the late eighth to ninth centuries, the region changed hands between the rival Tang and 2786:

rivers, and the Saka then supplied the Achaemenid army with a large number of mounted bowmen. According to

12952:, Visualization: Figure 3C Statistics: Table S5. Population Modeling, Related to Figures 3, 4, and 5. (D). 9509: 8710: 5835:

soft headgear – either conical like the one described by Herodotus, or rounder, more like a Phrygian cap.

4321:) were found to have an elevated Sintashta proportion (69% Sintashta, 24% Baikal_EBA, and 7% BMAC), while 14376: 9550: 8300: 7616: 7111: 6812: 6691: 6677: 6658: 4235: 4217: 4147: 4139: 3897: 57: 16353: 10022:

Zadneprovskiy, Y. A. (1994). "The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After the Invansion of Alexander". In

3442:

The region in modern Afghanistan and Iran where the Saka moved to became known as "land of the Saka" or

17524: 16738: 16536: 16475: 16425: 16268: 15840: 15777: 15739: 15480: 15384: 15283: 14011:

International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering

10921: 10812: 9905: 9747: 8442: 6954: 6912: 6512: 3361: 3102:

during the Han dynasty, but in its later history, Kashgar was controlled by various empires, including

15163:

Guan, Liu; Bing, Huang (2023). "The hybrid origin of the dragon-wrapped column in Han dynasty China".

18740: 17760: 17054: 14511:

tombs of the Kingdom of Silla, in South-East Korea. "Afganistan, les trésors retrouvés", 2006, p282,

13950:"Calendar Age of the Baigetobe Kurgan from the Iron Age Saka Cemetery in Shilikty Valley, Kazakhstan" 11414: 9602: 7656: 7621: 7294: 6598: 5798:

in his description of the Persian army mentions the Sakas as wearing trousers and tall pointed caps.

5094:. Carbon-14 dating suggests date of 730-690 BC for the kurgans, and a broad contemporaneity with the 4383: 4347: 4030: 3881: 3827: 3351:

in southern China following their expulsion by the Yuezhi. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the

3290: 3077: 3012: 2595:. At the end of this war, the Parthians accepted Median rule, and the Saka and the Medes made peace. 2364: 609: 12257:

Sarah Iles Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, Harvard University Press, 2004. pg 197

5336:

Frontal decoration (harness), burial mound Berel (4th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan, Pazyryk culture.

2927: 2512:

The Saka are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century BC.

18207: 17780: 17494: 17484: 17479: 17074: 17064: 17029: 16834: 15939: 15878: 13673:"Reconstruction of Female Costume From the Elite Burial Ground Taksay-I: a View of the Archaeology" 13090:"Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians" 12174: 11032: 10035: 9982: 9228:

History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750

8572:"Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians" 8077: 7916: 7806: 7626: 7157: 6989: 6940: 6836: 6638: 6593: 6588: 6508: 4302: 4196: 4182: 4058: 3373: 492: 162: 15132:"Stone Reliefs of the Han Tombs in Shandong Province: Relationship Between Motifs and Composition" 15106:"Stone Reliefs of the Han Tombs in Shandong Province: Relationship Between Motifs and Composition" 14774:"Sino-Western Cultural Exchange as Seen through the Archaeology of the First Emperor's Necropolis" 14635:

Betts, Alison; Vicziany, Marika; Jia, Peter Weiming; Castro, Angelo Andrea Di (19 December 2019).

10465:, p. 443 "The rich kurgan burials in Pazyryk, Siberia probably were those of Saka chieftains" 9572: 5416:

The Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BC in the area associated with the

18835: 18716: 18304: 18192: 18069: 17974: 17818: 17700: 17109: 17059: 16910: 16213:

The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222

15616: 15374: 15313: 14664:"The Study on the Scythian Costume III -Focaused on the Scythian of the Pazyryk region in Altai-" 13618:"New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka (Southern Ural Region, Russia)" 12095: 11929: 8067: 7811: 7538: 6648: 6643: 6633: 6277: 5921: 5426: 4777: 4366: 3404: 3016: 2973: 2820: 2434: 15994: 14507:"appear later, during the 5th and 6th century at the eastern edge of the Asia continent, in the 14245: 12361: 12100: 11480: 11041: 10998: 10774: 9656: 9472: 9347: 9285: 9195: 8777: 3662: 3462:, roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of 3329:, roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of 3254:

is possibly the Yuezhi, and while the Asioi had been proposed to be groups such as the Wusun or

2760:

waged wars against the eastern Sakas during a campaign of 520 to 518 BC where, according to his

1353: 18711: 18698: 18550: 18284: 18044: 17069: 17004: 16803:, 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 16771: 16108: 16080: 15633: 9304: 7801: 7773: 7557: 7459: 7225: 7071: 6695: 6533: 6425: 6364: 6319: 6259: 6251: 5814: 4419: 4306: 4290: 4268: 4252: 4005: 3650: 3286: 2419: 16194: 16168: 15070: 14636: 14418: 14391: 12339: 12310: 11448: 11305: 11269: 11064: 10111: 10082: 9817: 9751: 9226: 8415: 4155: 4143: 4131: 3947: 2675:

accepted him as the heir of Astyages and submitted to him, after which he founded the city of

18657: 18340: 18119: 18094: 18004: 17635: 17469: 16662:

Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds.

16370: 15427: 14663: 14270: 13155:"Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia)" 12616:"Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia)" 12126: 11910:

Attwood, Jayarava (2012). "Possible Iranian Origins for the Śākyas and Aspects of Buddhism".

11818: 11812: 11638: 11629: 11559: 11532: 11366:

Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds.

10913: 10804: 9253: 8896:"Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Dating Methods in Archaeological Studies of Scythian Sites" 8469: 8385: 8109: 7948: 7777: 6685: 6681: 6666: 6662: 5225: 4954: 4370: 4260: 4151: 3228:

noted that the four tribes that took down the Bactrians in the Greek and Roman account – the

2999: 2505: 2493: 737: 65: 35: 16254: 16229:

The Tarim mummies : ancient China and the mystery of the earliest peoples from the West

15802:

The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1

11310:

The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1

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The art of the Scythians: the interpenetration of cultures at the edge of the Hellenic world

4981: 4053:

dated from between the middle of the 2nd millennium BC and the 4th century AD (Scythian and

4045:

in 2009. They studied the haplotypes and haplogroups of 26 ancient human specimens from the

2549:, where their presence had an important role in the history of the ancient civilisations of 18054: 17901: 17436: 17234: 16779: 16575: 15808: 15556: 15263: 14532: 14304: 14026:"Images du combat contre le sanglier en Asie centrale (3 ème au 1 er millénaire av. J.-C.)" 13961: 13797:"Images du combat contre le sanglier en Asie centrale (3 ème au 1 er millénaire av. J.-C.)" 13572: 13493: 13166: 13101: 12976: 12870: 12763: 12627: 10327: 10113:

Global Connections: Volume 1, To 1500: Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History

8952: 8907: 8815: 8652: 8583: 7894: 7859: 7172: 6855: 6807: 6744: 6714: 6672: 6652: 6516: 6370: 5925: 5126: 4397:

The most closely related modern population to the Saka (and other Scythian groups) are the

4163: 4159: 4135: 4127: 4104: 3999: 3995: 3990: 3978: 3870: 3451: 3422: 3318: 3298: 3036: 2761: 2497: 2308: 1377: 16862: 16853: 11450:

History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750

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have included some spectacularly preserved Sakas of the "Pazyryk culture" – including the

2473:

has also been connected with the Saka. It has been suggested that the ruling elite of the

751: 8: 18463: 18294: 18228: 18084: 17509: 17499: 17229: 17154: 16685: 16493: 16186: 16160: 15820: 15800:

Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed),

15498: 15380:

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present

14865: 14601: 12122: 11857: 11771: 9739: 9083: 9054: 7167: 7162: 7058: 6982: 6947: 6870: 6860: 6719: 6420: 6415: 6384: 6019: 5967: 4389: 3866: 3765: 3499: 3340: 3209:, in 133–132 BC, moved, again, from the Ili and Chu valleys, and occupied the country of 3107: 3028: 3023:

in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century

2981: 2980:. However, by the early 11th century the region fell to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the 2872: 2827: 2775: 1964: 668: 504: 313: 16801:

The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220

16579: 15560: 13965: 13576: 13497: 13170: 13105: 12980: 12874: 12767: 12631: 12219:"The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave" 11390:"The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave" 11217:

The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220

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cultural and artistic influences appear in many of the forms and human depictions (from

3888:, which had two varieties, corresponding to the major settlements at Khotan (now called 18662: 18244: 18197: 18064: 17979: 17964: 17921: 17876: 17740: 17529: 17315: 17204: 17164: 17089: 16934: 16604: 16563: 16443: 16411: 16068: 16055: 16012: 15959: 15590: 15180: 15131: 15105: 15019: 15011: 14839: 14796: 14236: 14212: 14045: 13987: 13816: 13653: 13645: 13456: 13400: 13383: 13355: 13322: 13301: 13296: 13251: 13218: 13189: 13130: 13089: 13065: 13032: 13008: 12904: 12797: 12729: 12650: 12615: 12543: 12500: 12354: 12060: 10563: 10530: 10436: 10403: 10361: 9969:

Abetekov, A.; Yusupov, H. (1994). "Ancient Iranian Nomads in Western Central Asia". In

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was a Saka city state on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. As a consequence of the

1977: 1879: 1171:

the name "Scythian" in contemporary modern scholarship generally refers to the nomadic

1083: 1058: 929: 648: 605: 16388: 16215:. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 14476:

The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West

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The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC – A.D. 220

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The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West

11434:, eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, p. 77. 9717: 9647: 8640: 6039: 5868:(246–221 BC) is known to have employed steppe cavalry men in his army, as seen in his 3959: 2833:

At least by the late 2nd century BC, the Sakas had founded states in the Tarim Basin.

1685: 428:) and main Saka polities throughout their history. The affiliation of the easternmost 18667: 18299: 17408: 17250: 17224: 17219: 17119: 17104: 16994: 16989: 16959: 16939: 16804: 16742: 16714: 16689: 16667: 16649: 16609: 16591: 16540: 16515: 16479: 16463: 16429: 16357: 16326: 16290: 16272: 16232: 16216: 16198: 16172: 16146: 16122: 16094: 16072: 16060: 16042: 16037: 15982: 15963: 15924: 15898: 15844: 15781: 15757: 15743: 15715: 15693: 15659: 15641: 15620: 15582: 15516: 15484: 15449: 15431: 15406: 15388: 15363: 15345: 15317: 15287: 15253: 15228: 15184: 15045: 15023: 14843: 14819: 14800: 14752: 14642: 14512: 14488: 14424: 14397: 14276: 14249: 14139: 14131: 14102: 14037: 13991: 13922: 13886: 13850: 13808: 13746:"Chronology of Eurasian Scythian Antiquities Born by New Archaeological and 14C Data" 13657: 13637: 13598: 13590: 13519: 13511: 13460: 13448: 13405: 13360: 13342: 13305: 13279: 13256: 13238: 13194: 13154: 13135: 13117: 13070: 13052: 13012: 13000: 12992: 12896: 12789: 12721: 12655: 12578: 12535: 12492: 12412: 12365: 12316: 12289: 12200: 12149: 12070: 11982: 11939: 11822: 11789: 11704: 11687: 11666: 11642: 11590: 11565: 11538: 11514: 11454: 11371: 11350: 11333: 11313: 11275: 11220: 11199: 11148: 11070: 10965: 10925: 10885: 10816: 10617:"The Steppe – Military and political developments among the steppe peoples to 100 bc" 10568: 10550: 10441: 10423: 10365: 10353: 10345: 10117: 10090: 10055: 10002: 9909: 9821: 9755: 9390: 9318: 9259: 9232: 9205: 9163: 9021: 8990: 8978: 8925: 8880: 8868: 8833: 8688: 8676: 8668: 8617: 8599: 8500: 8475: 8448: 8421: 8391: 8164: 7887: 7853: 7845: 7789: 7783: 7765: 7736: 7715: 7701: 7693: 7463: 7324: 7264: 7246: 7187: 7182: 7177: 7144: 7139: 6968: 6831: 6480: 6473: 6466: 6452: 6438: 6398: 6377: 6314: 6306: 6100: 5848: 5285: 4490: 4343: 4339: 4116: 4062: 3885: 3816: 2892: 2868: 2847: 2830:

conquered the Achaemenid Empire, the Saka resisted his incursions into Central Asia.

2660: 2638: 2618: 2501: 2430: 2423: 2199: 1999: 1840: 1809: 1764: 1746: 1358: 1255: 1234: 1206: 969: 708: 700: 644: 625: 585: 581: 577: 488: 151: 16839: 15912: 15870: 15594: 15538: 15502: 12908: 12858: 12801: 12751: 12733: 12547: 12504: 10139:"Жазба Және Археологиялық Деректер Негізінде Савромат-Сармат Тайпаларының Шығу Тегі" 10027: 9974: 9033: 4481:

settled in the southern Urals. Circa 500 BCE, other groups from the area of Ancient

19:"Sacae" redirects here. For the South Australian College of Advanced Education, see 18797: 18786: 18766: 18721: 18652: 18333: 18289: 18217: 17838: 17725: 17534: 17519: 17368: 17214: 17174: 17129: 17114: 16645: 16621: 16599: 16583: 16564:"Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe" 16459: 16455: 16415: 16392: 16322: 16090: 16050: 16032: 16024: 15951: 15866: 15816: 15761: 15685: 15572: 15564: 15543: 15464: 15460: 15417: 15331: 15172: 15003: 14831: 14788: 14675: 14575: 14094: 13977: 13969: 13914: 13878: 13842: 13775: 13725: 13629: 13580: 13501: 13440: 13395: 13350: 13334: 13291: 13246: 13230: 13184: 13174: 13125: 13109: 13060: 13044: 12984: 12886: 12878: 12779: 12771: 12713: 12645: 12635: 12570: 12527: 12484: 11972: 11756:

Yu Taishan (June 2010), "The Earliest Tocharians in China" in Victor H. Mair (ed),

11140: 10881: 10558: 10542: 10431: 10415: 10335: 10150: 10023: 9970: 9505: 9338: 9201: 9017: 9013: 8968: 8960: 8915: 8860: 8823: 8706: 8660: 8607: 8591: 8362:

Davis-Kimball, Jeannine; Bashilov, V. A.; I︠A︡blonskiĭ, Leonid Teodorovich (1995).

8204: 7881: 7831: 7648: 7454: 7342: 7282: 7259: 7202: 7197: 7134: 7121: 7116: 7106: 6779: 6392: 6340: 6332: 6325: 5966:

was tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column. The

5861: 5775: 5495: 5491: 5487: 5131: 5121: 4415: 4411: 4335: 4080: 4075: 3863: 3545: 3115: 2757: 2576: 2383: 1951: 1669: 1418: 589: 537:-style parade armour of a Saka royal, also known as "The Golden Warrior", from the 445: 401: 16342:"Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations" 15689: 15176: 10769: 9342: 8171: 4586: 3609:(IV.64) describes them as Scythians, although they figure under a different name: 3578:

Distribution of Iranic peoples in Central Asia during the Iron Age. Saka included.

3273: 2898: 18756: 18577: 18279: 18222: 18162: 18152: 18114: 17856: 17549: 17348: 17305: 17287: 17124: 17094: 16999: 16974: 16929: 16869: 16679: 16530: 16137: 16112: 16084: 15733: 15729: 15707: 15653: 15610: 15552: 15506: 15421: 15378: 15335: 15267: 15202: 14708: 13748:, © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona, 13179: 12666: 12640: 12456:

Novak, L. (2014). "Question of (Re)classification of Eastern Iranian Languages".

12143: 12069:. Ancient peoples and places. Vol. 73. New York: Praeger. pp. 113–114. 12064: 12003:"Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam)" 11933: 11475: 10155: 10138: 9889: 9312: 7962: 7931: 7926: 7921: 7902: 7838: 7817: 7795: 7380: 7269: 7192: 7101: 7034: 6975: 6841: 6573: 6558: 6548: 6543: 6459: 6431: 5909: 5869: 5640:

kingdom in the same area until around 140 BC, and the continued existence of the

5633: 5483: 5464: 5456: 5402: 5394: 5378: 5365: 5354: 5010: 5006: 4892: 4602: 4505:

Warriors with daggers and bows. Dagger blade decoration from Kurgan 4, Burial 2,

4478: 4431: 4407: 4402: 4362: 4358: 4330: 4314: 4248: 4092: 4010: 3847: 3831: 3561: 3507: 3278: 3091: 2876: 2664: 2562: 2534: 2478: 2442: 2438: 2356: 2230: 2226: 2210: 2153: 2149: 1927: 1866: 1853: 1756: 1400: 1179: 1172: 1140: 858: 676: 636: 562: 558: 500: 496: 433: 386: 343: 233: 138: 16626:

The Rise and Organisation of the Achaemenid Empire: The Eastern Iranian Evidence

15955: 15915:(1996). "10.4.1. The Scythians". In Hermann, Joachim; de Laet, Sigfried (eds.). 11036: 10945: 10531:"Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West" 10404:"Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West" 9721: 9651: 8189: 6044:

Numerous depictions of foreigners of Saka appearance appear in China around the

5451:

Approximate location of the finds of the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great.

3955: 3636:

Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called

3192:

Saka) west into Sogdiana, where, between 140 and 130 BC, the latter crossed the

18452: 18239: 18202: 18024: 17959: 17833: 17685: 17670: 17640: 17403: 17398: 17393: 17358: 17209: 17199: 17159: 16944: 16857: 16734: 16264: 16246: 16028: 15874: 15836: 15824: 15773: 15476: 15279: 14680: 12965:"Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history" 11114: 10957: 10905: 10796: 10031: 9978: 9901: 9183: 9050: 8641:"Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history" 7707: 7574: 7449: 7007: 6961: 6929: 6865: 6356: 6095:

man, with Saka-type caftan and conical hat reminiscent of early 3rd century AD

5693: 5637: 5406: 5386: 5033: 4792: 4762: 4732: 4698: 4650: 4530: 4326: 4281: 4259:) components in varying degrees. Tian Shan Sakas were found to be of about 70% 4112: 4088: 4014: 3986: 3901: 3896:). Tumshuqese and Khotanese varieties of Saka contain many borrowings from the 3851: 3736: 3702: 3694: 3602: 3587: 3529: 3471: 3459: 3455: 3417: 3400: 3392: 3344: 3322: 3306: 3095: 3020: 2977: 2920: 2738:

Possibly shortly before the 520s BC, the Saka expanded into the valleys of the

2693:, defeated Cyrus with a large army of both men and women warriors and captured 2614: 1829: 1567: 1298: 1152: 712: 672: 371: 298: 16664:

The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I

16139:

History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.

15735:

Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History

15712:

Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History

15568: 15401:

Bernard, P. (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia". In Harmatta, János.

13585: 13560: 13506: 13481: 12882: 12828: 12775: 12717: 12488: 11784:

Bernard, P. (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia". In Harmatta, János.

11368:

The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I

10340: 10315: 8964: 8920: 8895: 8864: 8828: 8803: 5467:. ru Many of these artefacts were part of the archaeological presents sent by 3951: 18820: 18814: 18683: 18582: 18234: 18187: 18079: 17911: 17896: 17828: 17587: 17353: 17325: 17310: 17270: 17169: 17024: 17009: 16964: 16641: 16637: 16595: 16318: 16046: 15238: 14638:

The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads

14041: 13812: 13641: 13594: 13515: 13452: 13409: 13346: 13338: 13242: 13234: 13121: 13056: 13048: 12996: 12597:"Legal bid fails to rebury remains of 2,500 year old tattooed 'ice princess'" 11986: 11136: 11132: 10993: 10917: 10877: 10873: 10808: 10554: 10427: 10349: 9805: 9191: 9187: 9025: 8982: 8929: 8872: 8837: 8672: 8603: 8315: 8250: 7967: 7431: 7347: 7064: 6922: 6784: 6538: 6209: 6184: 6120: 6104: 6057: 6052:. They may have appeared in relation with the conflicts against the Scythoïd 6033: 5958: 5681: 5546: 5409:. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large 5300:

Deer in Griffin's beak, burial mound Berel (4th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.

5251: 5237: 4847: 4807: 4570: 4466: 4318: 4108: 4084: 3874: 3782: 3646: 3177: 3067: 3008: 2985: 2940: 2558: 2470: 2466: 2450: 2415: 2298: 1938: 1914: 1894: 1306: 1164: 1021: 864: 617: 601: 518: 466: 437: 328: 248: 192: 15463:(1985). "The Rise of the Achaemenids and Establishment of Their Empire". In 14098: 13918: 13882: 13846: 12988: 8664: 8143: 6754: 4357:

A later different Eastern influx is evident in three outlier samples of the

4103:

extracted from the Tian Shan Saka belonged to the West Eurasian haplogroups

3127: 2807: 2790:, Darius fought against three armies led by three kings, respectively named 2765: 2730: 2719: 2709: 2680: 2603: 2520: 2193: 2187: 2178: 2165: 2131: 2122: 2116: 1732: 1715: 1701: 1679: 1663: 1643: 1614: 1577: 1571: 1547: 1529: 1512: 1481: 1464: 1444: 1427: 1412: 1390: 1214: 1196: 1113: 1014: 959:

form, was descended the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as

939:, meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word 848: 826: 802: 787: 759: 530: 18640: 18565: 18432: 18157: 18124: 18104: 18009: 17916: 17871: 17848: 17765: 17660: 17577: 17567: 17459: 17194: 17189: 17179: 17139: 17079: 17044: 16969: 16874: 16613: 16064: 15586: 14268: 14160:"850 gold artefacts belonging to the Scythian-Saka era found in Kazakhstan" 13697:. Nur-sultan - National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 23 July 2017. 13602: 13523: 13364: 13260: 13198: 13139: 13113: 13074: 13004: 12900: 12793: 12725: 12659: 12582: 12539: 12496: 11977: 10572: 10445: 10357: 8680: 8621: 8595: 8104: 7586: 7424: 6898: 6769: 6568: 6563: 6553: 6234: 6092: 5917: 5913: 5884:

and archaeological findings give visual representations of these garments.

5865: 5791: 5762: 5736: 5692:. In 2001, the discovery of an undisturbed royal Scythian burial-barrow at 5689: 5667: 5610: 5576: 5430: 5206: 5102: 4922: 4907: 4877: 4618: 4486: 4454: 3927:

language, while Christopher Baumer has said that they closely resemble the

3912: 3835: 3548:

ruled in northern India until their replacement by the Kushans circa 150 AD

3510: 3503: 3357: 3352: 3103: 2546: 2458: 2454: 2446: 2410: 2392: 2376: 2368: 2171: 2054: 2019: 2008: 1986: 1450: 1386: 684: 640: 612:. However, the Sakas of the Asian steppes are to be distinguished from the 538: 522: 462: 449: 261: 177: 16879: 14835: 13633: 12531: 5908:

Men and women are known to have been extensively tattooed. The men in the

5436: 4210: 3205:). The Yuehzhi, themselves under attacks from another nomadic tribe, the 1731:) people of Central Asia, who might possibly have been identical with the 18602: 18468: 18249: 18182: 18134: 18099: 18074: 18039: 18034: 18029: 18019: 18014: 17969: 17949: 17941: 17770: 17755: 17705: 17695: 17650: 17607: 17383: 17378: 17343: 17144: 17099: 17039: 16875:

Indian, Japanese and Chinese Emperors – The Sakas/Parthians, 97 BC-125 AD

16633: 16557:, eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. 16526: 16384:. Harmatta, János, ed., 1994. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, pp. 191–207. 16310: 16250: 15341: 15301: 14504: 13780: 13763: 13730: 13713: 13278:

Tikhonov, Dmitrii; Gurkan, Cemal; Peler, Gökçe; Dyakonov, Viktor (2019).

11128: 10869: 9885: 9813: 8215: 8128: 7562: 7548: 7512: 7220: 6214: 6189: 6168: 6153: 6144: 6124: 6071: 6045: 5853: 5818: 5672: 5621: 5593: 5589: 5584:

and reconstitution of their use on the man and woman found in these tombs

5581: 5571: 5390: 4937: 4714: 4510: 4470: 4458: 4438: 4298: 4066: 4046: 3850:, where Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to 3846:. Evidence of the Middle Iranian "Scytho-Khotanese" language survives in 3759: 3487: 3381: 3377: 3326: 3282: 3185: 3082: 3072:

Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, the people of

2888: 2743: 2739: 2569: 2568:

During the 7th century BC itself, Saka presence started appearing in the

2550: 2278: 2259: 2255: 2141: 1760: 1653: 1210: 1183: 1001: 911: 835: 748: 696: 652: 566: 97: 16587: 15680:

Di Cosmo, Nicola (1999). "The Northern Frontier in Pre–Imperial China".

15577: 14792: 14751:(1. Aufl ed.). Zürich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. p. cat. no. 314. 14136:

Empire of Horses: The First Nomadic Civilization and the Making of China

14049: 14025: 13982: 13973: 13820: 13796: 13764:"The Saka 'Animal Style' in Context: Material, Technology, Form and Use" 13714:"The Saka 'Animal Style' in Context: Material, Technology, Form and Use" 13649: 13617: 12891: 12784: 11961:"Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Buddhist Scriptures" 10910:

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

10801:

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

10546: 10419: 8973: 6749: 4002:

lineage, both of which are characteristic of East Eurasian populations.

2631: 1205:

to refer to all the Iranian nomadic tribes living to the north of their

122: 18518: 18488: 18459: 18447: 18410: 18390: 18129: 17954: 17886: 17881: 17808: 17790: 17750: 17735: 17715: 17680: 17665: 17627: 17617: 17602: 17592: 17559: 17446: 17373: 17149: 17049: 16979: 16863:

Article by Kivisild et al. on genetic heritage of early Indian settlers

15795:

Bulletin of the Asia Institute: The Archaeology and Art of Central Asia

12574: 12148:. Hawkins Publications ; distributed by B. A. Seaby. p. 634. 8283: 7525: 7439: 7317: 7082: 5930: 5783: 5632:

and her name inscribed in Greek), attributable to the existence of the

5617: 5460: 5229: 5087: 5002: 4862: 4666: 4462: 4379: 4375: 4294: 4221: 3934: 3928: 3916: 3747: 3666: 3641: 3431: 3139: 3135: 3027:

Later Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to

2969: 2861: 2715: 2698: 2538: 2516: 2482: 2462: 2267: 2263: 2254:, that is the Saka who were in contact with the Chinese, inhabited the 2242: 2218: 2069: 1752: 1426: 1382: 1156: 1136: 825:, "go, roam" (related to "seek") and thus meaning "nomad" was the term 621: 546: 534: 470: 207: 17333: 15638:

Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines

15015: 13444: 10715: 10713: 8209: 5545:

Belt plaque from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great, probably

4309:

ancestries), with varying degrees of an additional Neolithic Iranian (

940: 18771: 18555: 18535: 18498: 18493: 18483: 18442: 18427: 18375: 18049: 17999: 17931: 17866: 17813: 17803: 17775: 17710: 17655: 17645: 17582: 17572: 17418: 17295: 17255: 17184: 17034: 16730: 16471: 16260: 15832: 15769: 15472: 15275: 12921: 12919: 12279: 11446: 10961: 9897: 8326: 8263: 8149: 8097: 8087: 7728: 7505: 7497: 7490: 7483: 7469: 7337: 6140: 5950: 5810: 5795: 5767: 5751: 5740: 5606: 5597: 4514: 4474: 4446: 4322: 4301:

early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers, a profile consisting of about 80%

4286: 4096: 4054: 3924: 3920: 3911:

The Issyk inscription, a short fragment on a silver cup found in the

3770: 3674: 3606: 3447: 3314: 3302: 3193: 3165: 3155: 2911: 2903: 2787: 2783: 2779: 2751: 2676: 2542: 2526: 2222: 2214: 2203: 2161: 2157: 2041: 1763:; and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as 1535: 1511: 1463: 1372: 1368: 1363: 1345: 1332: 1319: 1222: 1160: 1144: 1132: 1099: 1045: 1032: 875: 774: 741: 613: 597: 573: 441: 429: 274: 16824: 16560: 16349: 16341: 15804:(reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 265–266. 14978: 14936: 14888: 14556: 14445: 14324: 14006: 13672: 13428: 12672: 11960: 11935:

Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia

11120:

Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature

10300: 8557: 8268: 8132: 5200:

Recumbent stag plaque, Eleke Sazy, Kazakhstan; 8th to 6th century BC

3900:, but also share features with the modern Eastern Iranian languages 3809: 2367:

was initially thought to have been their place of origin, until the

1722: 1553: 1519: 1471: 1434: 1119: 1005: 965:(roughly "archer"). From this were descended the following exonyms: 839: 807: 792: 764: 18728: 18693: 18503: 18405: 18395: 18109: 18089: 17690: 17514: 17428: 17363: 17134: 15612:

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art

15007: 14905: 12002: 11492:, which is probably related to the name of the Iranian Saka tribes. 10710: 9003: 8471:

Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia: Shepherds, Farmers, and Nomads

8279: 8246: 7671: 7662: 7553: 7354: 7329: 7233: 6724: 6300: 6149: 6065: 6049: 5881: 5857: 5806: 5721: 5095: 5081: 4998: 4747: 4450: 4442: 4256: 4240: 3839: 3753: 3741:

The Sakas receive numerous mentions in Indian texts, including the

3690: 3640:, but those who are situated more to the east than these are named 3564:

was a Saka dynasty which ruled in western India until circa 400 AD

3479: 3443: 3294: 3266: 3198: 3169: 2989: 2949: 2944: 2932: 2668: 2657: 2642: 2622: 2592: 2588: 2554: 2360: 2238: 2234: 2145: 2137: 1903: 1784: 1710: 1404: 1202: 1148: 895: 854: 16013:"A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia's Eastern Steppe" 16004:: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. 12916: 10950:

The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period

10688: 10686: 8893: 6152:, featuring people with a high nose, deep eyes and a pointed hat. 5359: 5209:

of the Scythian-Saka era dating back to the 5th–4th centuries BC.

5005:

circa 700 BC, and are associated with the Early Sakas. Burials at

4285:, modeled the ancestry of several Saka groups as a combination of 3705:, which they traversed by long marches and then overran Hyrcania, 3582: 2030: 34:, the endonym of the Yakut people of Siberia. For other uses, see 18587: 18545: 18528: 18513: 18385: 18356: 17989: 17984: 17926: 17861: 17745: 17730: 17597: 17474: 17464: 17413: 17019: 16421:

The Cambridge History of Iran: The Median and Achaemenian Periods

14508: 14272:

Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen

11312:. Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition. pp. 265–266. 9152:

Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian – Skudra – Sogdian – Saka

8801: 8361: 8192: 8174: 7721: 7685: 7678: 7476: 7096: 6729: 6096: 6061: 5954: 5893: 5877: 5779: 5701: 5479: 5398: 5167:

Pectoral plate, from burial mound Arzhan (7-6th century BC) Tuva.

5091: 4482: 4425: 4272: 4050: 3742: 3710: 3698: 3686: 3682: 3658: 3615: 3591: 3495: 3467: 3435: 3334: 3181: 3150:

The Saka were pushed out of the Ili and Chu River valleys by the

3094:

south in the Pamirs. Kashgar also conquered other states such as

3073: 2884: 2771: 2725: 2672: 2653: 2610: 2580: 2474: 2397: 2387: 2382:

Archaeological evidence now tends to suggest that the origins of

1490:(around the fire)", which can be interpreted as "Saka who revere 1226: 1163:" for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as 1073: 716: 664: 514: 15252:. Cambridge University Press. 1979. 1st Paperback edition 2010. 14623:

13.5. Statuette of warrior (a), and bronze cauldron (b), Saka...

13933:

p.24 "Figure.2. Royal barrow Arzhan 1: funeral artifacts. 36-39"

13323:"The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians" 13219:"The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians" 8942: 3347:

speculate that some Sakas may also have migrated to the area of

18703: 18688: 18592: 18523: 18508: 18400: 18380: 18370: 17891: 17823: 17454: 17388: 17300: 17014: 16629: 16314: 16306: 16142: 15920: 15894: 15890: 15512: 15309: 13152: 12613: 11879: 11124: 10953: 10865: 10683: 10644:

Persepolis, The Archaeology of Parsa, Seat of the Persian Kings

10051: 10047: 9998: 9994: 8226: 8082: 7444: 7398: 6917: 6734: 6088: 6053: 5942: 5938: 5934: 5732: 5728: 5713: 5677: 5629: 5382: 5374: 5324:

Griffins, burial mound Berel (5th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.

4997:, have been dated from about 800 BC onward, and the kurgans of 4990: 4493:, and define the "Prokhorovka period" of the Early Sarmatians. 4398: 4329:) had 50% Sintashta, 44% Baikal_EBA, and 6% BMAC ancestry. The 3966: 3923:. Harmatta suggests that the inscriptions are a variant of the 3905: 3893: 3855: 3797: 3678: 3670: 3483: 3475: 3427: 3388: 3369: 3365: 3348: 3310: 3225: 3151: 3132: 3087: 3032: 3004: 2914:

legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.

2880: 2857: 2747: 2401: 2346: 2140:

and in the lowlands of Central Asia located to the east of the

1820: 1563: 1503: 1411:

The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed a single group of

1218: 1112: 956: 688: 680: 660: 656: 632: 542: 220: 31: 27: 14906:"Tattooed Mummies From The Large Pazyryk Mounds: New findings" 13947: 13677:

Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya (The Volga River Region Arcaheology)

9669: 9667: 9303: 8236: 8230: 8198: 8180: 6119:

Eastern Han tombs sometimes have depiction of battles between

3709:, and the plains of the Parthians. And these people agreed to 3261: 2875:

spanning from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin (now Xinjiang,

2714:

of his ally Amorges, later carried out a campaign against the

2317: 1695: 1689: 1673: 1657: 1623: 1594: 18612: 18597: 18570: 18560: 18478: 18473: 18420: 18415: 17720: 17612: 17539: 17489: 17338: 16984: 15886: 15190:

afore-mentioned Wu Baizhuang 吳白莊 tomb in Linyi 臨沂, Shandong.

15139:

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

15113:

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

12199:. Edited by J.P. Mallory. Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 381–382. 12169: 12167: 12165: 12025: 11626: 10043: 9990: 8447:. New York : Barnes & Noble Books. pp. Map 22. 8332: 8319: 7543: 7417: 7411: 7393: 6764: 6739: 6218: 6193: 5916:. A Pazyryk chief in burial mound 2, had his body covered in 5747: 5697: 5625: 5418: 5410: 5373:

Saka burials documented by modern archaeologists include the

4449:(c. 2000–1150 BCE) ancestry ancestry, but, starting with the 4123: 4100: 4023: 4022:

Iron Age times, with an increasing presence of East Eurasian

3982: 3889: 3637: 3595: 3491: 3255: 3210: 3206: 3202: 3173: 3099: 3046:(于闐), another more native Iranian name occasionally used was 2993: 2813: 2746:

in eastern Central Asia. Around 30 Saka tombs in the form of

2702: 2584: 2530: 2082: 1800: 1714: 1538:," who were the Pontic Scythians of the East European steppes 1491: 1487: 1396: 1338: 1325: 1310: 1104: 1038: 1025: 882: 868: 779: 692: 358: 289: 129: 15539:"137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes" 12859:"137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes" 12752:"137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes" 5856:

terracotta figurine from a tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near

5565: 5184: 5179:

Akinak (dagger) burial mound Arzhan (7-6th century BC) Tuva.

3724:, 11.8.1; transl. 1903 by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer.) 3399:"Sage of the Shakyas", belonged, were also likely Sakas, as 3058:, the names of the town and region around it, respectively. 18607: 18540: 18144: 17906: 16838: 15337:

The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors

15306:

Rome and the Nomads: The Pontic-Danubian Realm in Antiquity

15087:山东发现的这种高鼻深目、头戴尖帽的胡人形象，很可能是与斯基泰人文化有关的某些白种民族，并推测可能是月氏或早于月氏的民族 15044:. Paris, Gand: Musée Guimet, Editions Snoeck. p. 144. 14993: 13277: 12814: 12055: 12053: 11188:

II and V of Pazyryk and of Xinyuan and Alagou in Xinjiang).

10841: 10185: 10183: 10181: 10168: 10166: 10109: 9773: 9771: 9664: 8850: 7935: 5962: 5946: 5717: 5705: 5602: 5140: 5130:

Arzhan 2 kurgan (7th-6th centuries BC, associated with the

5051:

Arzhan-1, dated to circa 800 BC, partly looted in Antiquity

4994: 4276: 3654: 3230: 2405: 1542:

An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:

18325: 16373:

1970. "The Wu-sun and Sakas and the Yüeh-chih Migration."

12432: 12162: 9844: 9842: 9840: 9630: 9628: 9626: 9624: 9622: 9620: 5994:

Tattoos of the chief's right arm, with zoomorphic symbols.

4985:

Compative timeline of Scythian kurgans in Asia and Europe.

3269:("Land of the Sakas"), where the Sakas resettled c. 100 BC 2697:, the brother-in-law of Cyrus and the brother of his wife 2349:

kurgan and early Saka artifacts, dated to 8–7th century BC

2183:

lived around the Pamir Mountains and the Ferghana Valley.

1086:

sound change from /δ/ to /l/ resulted in the evolution of

1067: 16375:

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 33

14674:(4). Korea Institute of Science and Technology: 424–437. 11891: 11867: 11487: 11161: 10749: 10498: 9788: 9786: 8219: 6040:

Later depictions of "Sakas" in China (1st-3rd century AD)

5068: 3506:

were a Saka people cited in the Gunda inscription of the

3164:. The Yuehzhi, who originally lived between Tängri Tagh ( 3154:. An account of the movement of these people is given in 2943:"), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the 2422:

towards the Altai region and Western Mongolia, spreading

2271: 2249: 1367:("beyond the sea", presumably between the Greeks and the 920: 580:, through which they ultimately derived from the earlier 26:

For the land of the Saka under the Sassanid dynasty, see

16512:

Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History

14192: 13533:

cannot be described solely in terms of material culture.

12050: 11663:

Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History

11534:

Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources

11095: 10829: 10725: 10178: 10163: 9866: 9810:

From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire

9768: 9364:"Histories by Herodotus, Book 4 Melpomene [4.6]" 8751: 8749: 8380: 8378: 5284:

Catlike predator with protomas of two elk, burial mound

4441:

and of the Southern Urals originally had populations of

4188:

Genetic makeup of Bronze and Iron Age Steppe populations

3973:

More recent studies have been able to type for specific

2217:, as well as in the regions corresponding to modern-day 1576:

have been suggested to have been the same people as the

16405:

The Sarmatians. Volume 73 of Ancient peoples and places

15981:. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. 14417:

Pankova, Svetlana; Simpson, St John (21 January 2021).

14390:

Pankova, Svetlana; Simpson, St John (21 January 2021).

14091:

Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia

14088: 14007:"Royal Mound Baygetobe from the Burial Ground Shilikty" 13911:

Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia

13908: 13875:

Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia

13872: 13839:

Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia

13836: 13825:

Dans le kourgane plus ancien d'Arzhan-1 (8-10ème s.)...

13695:"Golden Man from Shilikty and Golden Woman from Taksai" 10257: 10143:

BULLETIN Series Historical and Socio-political Sciences

9952: 9950: 9837: 9688: 9686: 9684: 9682: 9617: 9160:

Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

5900:

felt tapestry shows a rider wearing a billowing cloak.

5739:

civilisation of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of

5437:

Southern Siberian kurgans excavated in the 18th century

3384:

are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka.

3110:

in the 10th century. In the 11th century, according to

655:. In the 2nd century BC, many Sakas were driven by the 16823: