Editing Dacians (section)

==Origins and ethnogenesis==
{{See also|Prehistoric Balkans#Iron Age}}
Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in the prehistoric period depends on the remains of [[material culture]]. It is generally proposed that a proto-Dacian or proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture of [[Neolithic Europe|indigenous peoples]] and [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-Europeans]] from the time of [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Proto-Indo-European]] expansion in the [[Early Bronze Age]] (3,300–3,000 BC)<ref>Hoddinott, p. 27.</ref> when the latter, around 1500 BC, conquered the indigenous peoples.<ref>Casson, p. 3.</ref> The indigenous people were Danubian farmers, and the invading people of the 3rd millennium BC were Kurgan warrior-herders from the Ukrainian and Russian steppes.{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=58}}

Indo-Europeanization was complete by the beginning of the Bronze Age. The people of that time are best described as proto-Thracians, which later developed in the Iron Age into Danubian-Carpathian Geto-Dacians as well as Thracians of the eastern Balkan Peninsula.{{sfn|Dumitrescu|Boardman|Hammond|Sollberger |1982|p=53}}

Between 15th–12th century BC, the Dacian-Getae culture was influenced by the Bronze Age Tumulus-Urnfield warriors who were on their way through the Balkans to Anatolia.{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=59}}

In the 8th to 7th centuries BC, the migration of the [[Scythians]] from the east into the Pontic Steppe pushed westwards and away from the steppes the related [[Scythian cultures|Scythic]] [[Agathyrsi]] people who had previously dwelt on the [[Pontic-Caspian steppe|Pontic Steppe]] around the [[Sea of Azov|Lake Maeotis]].{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=202–203 }} Following this, the Agathyrsi settled in the territories of present-day [[Moldova]], [[Transylvania]] and possibly [[Oltenia]], where they mingled with the indigenous population of [[Thracians|Thracian]] origins.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=202–203 }} When the Agathyrsi were later completely assimilated by the Geto-Thracian populations;,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} their fortified settlements became the centres of the Getic groups who would later transform into the Dacian culture; an important part of the Dacian people descended from the Agathyrsi.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} When the La Tène Celts arrived in the 4th century BC, the Dacians were under the influence of the Scythians.{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=59}}

[[Alexander the Great]] attacked the Getae in 335 BC on the lower Danube, but by 300 BC they had formed a state founded on a military democracy, and began a period of conquest.{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=59}} More Celts arrived during the 3rd century BC, and in the 1st century BC the people of [[Boii]] tried to conquer some of the Dacian territory on the eastern side of the Teiss river. The Dacians drove the Boii south across the Danube and out of their territory, at which point the Boii abandoned any further plans for invasion.{{sfn|Mountain|1998|p=59}}

Some Hungarian historians consider the Dacians and Getae the same as the Scythian tribes of the [[Dahae]], [[Massagetae]], also the exonym [[Daxia]] one with Dacia.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hollósy |first=István |url=http://mtda.hu/books/hollosy_istvan_magyarorszag_oslakoi.pdf |title=Magyarország őslakói és az oláhok eredete |date=1913 |publisher=Mór Ráth |trans-title=Natives of Hungary and the origin of the Vlachs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215072201/http://mtda.hu/books/hollosy_istvan_magyarorszag_oslakoi.pdf |archive-date=2013-12-15 |url-status=live}}</ref>