Editing Scythians (section)

== History ==
{{overly detailed|section|date=June 2024}}
There are two main sources of information on the historical Scythians:<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|pp=97–98}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1995|p=28}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|2006|p=146}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=60}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|2018}}}}</ref> [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[cuneiform]] texts from [[Mesopotamia]] which deal with early Scythian history from the 7th century BC; and [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman]] sources which cover all of Scythian history, most prominently those written by [[Herodotus|Herodotus of Halicarnassus]], which are less reliable because the information they contain is mixed with folk tales and learnt constructs of historians.{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=149}}

===Proto-Scythian period===
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| header            = Aržan [[kurgan]] (8-7th century BC)
| image1            = Arzhan deer.jpg
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| image2            = 6. Pectorale burial mound Arzhan (VIII. - VII. B. C.) Tuva.JPG
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| image3            = 8. Akinak (dagger) bural mound Arzhan (VIII.-VII. B.C.) Tuva.JPG
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| footer            = Some of the earliest Scythian artefacts in [[Animal style]], [[Aržan]] kurgan, Southern [[Siberia]], dated to 8-7th century BC.
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[[File:Arzhan animal ring.jpg|thumb|Curled-up feline animal from [[Aržan-1]], circa 800 BC.<ref>{{cite book |title=Impact of the environment on human migration in Eurasia |date=2004 |pages=1–7 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |location=Dordrecht |isbn=1-4020-2655-2 |doi=10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |quote=p.24 "Figure.2. Royal barrow Arzhan 1: funeral artifacts. 36-39" |archive-date=30 October 2023 |access-date=15 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030231118/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The arrival of the Scythians in [[Europe]] was part of the larger process of westwards movement of [[Central Asia]]n [[Iranian peoples|Iranic]] nomads towards [[Southeast Europe|Southeast]] and [[Central Europe|Central]] Europe which lasted from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, and to which also participated other Iranic nomads such as the [[Cimmerians]], [[Sauromatians]], and [[Sarmatians]].{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=101}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=130}}{{sfn|Parzinger|2004|p=24}}

Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated, along with the [[Saka|Early Sakas]], in Central Asia and Siberia<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Grousset|1970|pp=6–7}}|{{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|pp=98–99}}|{{harvnb|Jacobson|1995|p=31}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108}}|{{harvnb|Parzinger|2004|p=24}}|{{harvnb|Unterländer|2017|p=2}}}}</ref> in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112}} The Scythians were already acquainted with quality [[goldsmith]]ing and sophisticated [[bronze]]-[[casting]] at this time, as attested by gold pieces found in the 8th century BC Aržan-1 kurgan.{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=5-6}}{{sfn|Armbruster|2009|p=187-188}}

===Migration out of Central Asia===
The second wave of migration of Iranic nomads corresponded to the early Scythians' arrival from Central Asia into the Caucasian Steppe,{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=31}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112-113}} which begun in the 9th century BC,{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=205}} when a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started after the early Scythians were expelled out of Central Asia by either the [[Massagetae]], who were a powerful nomadic Iranic tribe from Central Asia closely related to them,<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Diakonoff|1985|p=1985}}|{{harvnb|Sulimirski|1985|p=167}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000a|pp=81–82}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000b|p=109}}|{{harvnb|Cunliffe|2019|p=30}}}}</ref> or by another Central Asian people called the [[Issedones]],{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=81}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=76}} forcing the early Scythians to the west, across the [[Volga|Araxes river]] and into the Caspian and Ciscaucasian Steppes.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108-109}}

This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=111}} and archaeologically corresponded to the westward movement of a population originating from [[Tuva]] in southern Siberia in the late 9th century BC, and arriving in the 8th to 7th centuries BC into Europe, especially into Ciscaucasia, which it reached some time between {{c.|750}} and {{c.|700 BC}},{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}}{{sfn|Tokhtas’ev|1991}} thus following the same migration general path as the first wave of Iranic nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112-113}}

====Displacement of the Cimmerians====
The Scythians' westward migration brought them to the Caspian Steppe,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=123}} in the lands of the Cimmerians,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108}} who had themselves originated in the first westward wave of proto-Scythian migrations{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=130}} of nomadic populations who had arrived from Central Asia{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=102}} into the Pontic-Caspian Steppe regions during the 10th century BC.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=130}}

The Cimmerians at this time were leaving their homelands in the Caspian Steppe to move into [[West Asia]]:{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=102}} the Cimmerians might have migrated under the pressure from the Scythians,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=94}} although sources are lacking for any such pressure on the Cimmerians by the Scythians or of any conflict between these two peoples at this early period.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=60}} Moreover, the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after the Cimmerians did so suggests there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account that it was under pressure from 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}}

The remnants of the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe were assimilated by the Scythians,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=99}} with this absorption of the Cimmerians by the Scythians being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles,{{sfn|Bouzek|2001|p=43}} thus transferring the dominance of this region from the Cimmerians to the Scythians who were assimilating them,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=95}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=130}} after which the Scythians settled in the [[Kuban steppe|Ciscaucasian Steppe]] where were located the their kingdom's headquarters,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=109}} between the Araxes river to the east, the [[Caucasus Mountains]] to the south, and the [[Sea of Azov|Maeotian Sea]] to the west.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=84}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}}

The arrival of the Scythians and their establishment in this region in the 7th century BC{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=98}} corresponded to a disturbance of the development of the Cimmerian peoples' Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}} which was thus replaced through a continuous process{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=36}} over the course of {{c.|750}} to {{c.|600 BC}} in southern Europe by the early Scythian culture which nevertheless still showed links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2001|p=333}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}} Some aspects of the Scythian culture, such as elements of funerary rituals, ceramics, horse gear, and some weapon types, also showed links to the older [[Srubnaya culture|Timber Grave culture]] which had existed in the north Pontic region in the Bronze Age.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=99}}