Editing Cimmerians (section)

====Reasons for southwards nomad expansion====
The involvement of the steppe nomads in [[West Asia]] happened in the context of the then growth of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], which under its kings [[Sargon II]] and [[Sennacherib]] had expanded from its core region of the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] valleys to rule and dominate a large territory ranging from [[Ḫiyawa|Que]] (Plain Cilicia) and the Central and Eastern Anatolian mountains in the north to the [[Syrian Desert]] in the south, and from the [[Taurus Mountains]] and North Syria and [[Levant|the coast of the Mediterranean Sea]] in the west to the [[Iranian plateau|Iranian Plateau]] in the east.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=65-66}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=107}}

Surrounding the Neo-Assyrian Empire were several smaller polities:{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=65}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=107}}
*in Anatolia to the northwest, were the kingdoms of:
**[[Phrygia]], with its capital at [[Gordion]], held hegemony over Central and Midwest Anatolia and parts of Cilicia;
**and [[Lydia]];
*[[Babylon]], conquered several times by the Assyrians, in the south;
*[[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] in the southwest;
*[[Elam]], whose capital was [[Susa]], in the southeast of West Asia and the southwest of the Iranian plateau, where they were the main power, with their ruling classes being divided into pro-Assyrian and pro-Babylonian factions;
*and to the immediate north laid the powerful kingdom of [[Urartu]] (centred around [[Tushpa|Ṭušpa]]), which had established several installations including a system of fortresses and provincial centres over regional communities in eastern Anatolia and the northwest Iranian Plateau, was contesting its southern borderlands with the Neo-Assyrian Empire;
*in the eastern mountains were several weaker polities:
**[[Ellipi]];
**[[Mannaea|Mannai]];
**the city-states of the [[Medes]], who were an Iranic people of West Asia to whom the Scythians and Cimmerians were distantly related.
Beyond the territories under the direct Assyrian rule, especially in its frontiers in [[Anatolia]] and the [[Iranian plateau|Iranian Plateau]], were local rulers who negotiated for their own interests by vacillating between the various rival great powers.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=65-66}}

This state of permanent [[social disruption]] caused by the rivalries of the great powers of West Asia thus proved to be a very attractive source of opportunities and wealth for the [[Eurasian nomads|steppe nomads]].{{sfn|Grayson|1991a|p=128}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=31}} And, as the populations of the nomads of the Ciscaucasian Steppe continued to grow, their aristocrats would lead their followers southwards across the Caucasus Mountains in search of adventure and plunder in the volatile status quo then prevailing in West Asia,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=114}} not unlike the later [[Ossetians|Ossetian]] tradition of the ritual plunder called the {{Transliteration|os|balc}} ({{lang|os|балц}}),{{sfn|Ivantchik|1999|p=503-504}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2006|p=150}} with the occasional raids eventually leading to longer expeditions, in turn leading to groups of nomads choosing to remain in West Asia in search of opportunities as mercenaries or freebooters.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=113-114}}

Thus, the Cimmerians and Scythians became active in West Asia in the 7th century BC,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=99}} where they would vacillate between supporting either the Neo-Assyrian Empire or other local powers, and serve them as mercenaries, depending on what they considered to be in their interests.{{sfn|Grayson|1991a|p=128}}{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=69}}{{sfn|Kõiv|2022|p=265}} Their activities would over the course of the late-8th to late-7th centuries BC disrupt the balance of power which had prevailed between the states of Elam, Mannai, the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Urartu on one side and the mountaineer and tribal peoples on the other, eventually leading to significant geopolitical changes in this region.{{sfn|Phillips|1972|p=129}}{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=91}}

Nevertheless, a 9th or 8th century BC barrow grave, belonging from [[Paphlagonia]] to a warrior, and containing typical steppe nomad equipment, suggests that nomadic warriors had already been arriving in West Asia since the 9th century BC.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=61}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=107}} Such burials imply that some small groups of steppe nomads from Ciscaucasia might have acted as [[Mercenary|mercenaries]], adventurers and [[Settler|settler groups]] in West Asia, which laid the ground for the later large scale movement of the Cimmerians and Scythians into West Asia.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=61}}

There appears to have been very little direct connection between the Cimmerians' migration into West Asia and the Scythians' later expansion into this same region.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=113}} Thus, the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after the Cimmerians did so suggests that there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account that it was under pressure from the Scythians migrating into their territories that the Cimmerians crossed the Caucasus and moved south into West Asia.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=83}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=96}}{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=60}}