Editing Cimmerians (section)

=====Division of the Cimmerians=====
During the period corresponding to the rule of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon ({{reign|681|669 BC}}), the Cimmerians split into two major divisions:<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|1993a|p=86}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=62}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=65}}|{{harvnb|Kõiv|2022|p=263}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2023|p=221}}|{{harvnb|Fuchs|2023|p=750}}}}</ref>
*the bulk of the Cimmerians migrated from Transcaucasia into [[Anatolia]] under the leadership of the king Teušpâ, becoming the western division of the Cimmerians;
*a smaller group of the Cimmerians, called the Indaraeans ({{lang|akk-x-neoassyr|{{cuneiform|11|𒇽𒅔𒁕𒊒𒀀𒀀}}}}, {{Transliteration|akk-x-neoassyr|Indaruāya}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Indaraya [1] (EN) |url=https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/qpn-x-ethnic/x000000260 |department=Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars |website=State Archives of Assyria Online |series=[[Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus]] |publisher=[[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]] }}</ref>) in Neo-Assyrian sources, remained on the [[Iranian plateau|Iranian Plateau]] in the area near Mannai, where they had been settled since the time of Sargon II, thus forming the eastern division of the Cimmerians.
The two groups of the Cimmerians might themselves have continued to remain part of the same steppe nomad polity, which was itself nevertheless organised along various divisions depending on political changes. Such a structure was also present among:{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=62-63}}
*the ancient [[Xiongnu]], whose princes and nobles were divided into Eastern and Western groups;{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=64}}
*the mediaeval [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[Oghuz Turks|Oguz people]], who were organised into a single kingdom ruled through two divisions, each of which was composed of several tribes and was ruled by a member of the same dynasty.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=63-63}}

The Cimmerian and Scythians movements into Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau would act as catalysts for the adoption of Eurasian nomadic military and equestrian equipments by various West Asian states:{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=69}} it was during the 7th and 6th centuries BC that "Scythian-type" socketed arrowheads and sigmoid bows ideal for use by mounted warriors, which were the most advanced shooting weapon of their time and were both technically and ballistically superior to native West Asian archery equipment, were adopted throughout West Asia.{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=92}}{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=69}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}

Cimmerian and Scythian trading posts and settlements on the borders of the various West Asian states at this time also supplied them with goods such as animal husbandry products, not unlike the trade relations which existed the mediaeval period between the eastern steppe nomads and the Chinese Tang Empire.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=69-70}}