Editing Cimmerians (section)

===The displacement of the Cimmerians===
====Arrival of the Scythians====
A second wave of migration of Iranic nomads corresponded with the arrival of the early [[Scythians]] from Central Asia into the Caucasian Steppe,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112-113}} which started 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 the Scythians,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=81-82}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=109}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=30}} or by another Central Asian people called the [[Issedones]],{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=81}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=76}} thus forcing the early Scythians to the west, across the Araxes river and into the Caspian and Ciscaucasian Steppes.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108-109}}

Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated in Central Asia{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=98-99}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108}} in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region, which is attested by the continuity of Scythian burial rites and weaponry types with the [[Karasuk culture]], as well as by the origin of the typically Scythian Animal Style art in the Mongolo-Siberian region.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112}}

Therefore, the Scythians and the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex were closely related populations who shared a common origin, culture, and language,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=98}} and the earliest Scythians were therefore part of a common Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia, with the early Scythian culture being materially indistinguishable from the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=36}}

This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC,{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=111}} and archaeologically corresponded to the movement of a population originating from [[Tuva]] in southern [[Siberia]] in the late 9th century BC towards the west, 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 general migration path as the first wave of Central Asian Iranic nomads who had formed the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=112-113}}

====Migration of the Cimmerians====
The westward migration of the Scythians brought them around {{c.|750 BC}}{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=6-7}}{{sfn|Cunliffe|2019|p=113}} to the lands of the Cimmerians,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=99}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=108}} who around this time were leaving their homelands in the Caspian Steppe to move into West Asia.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=102}}

The reasons for the departure of the Cimmerians are unknown,{{sfn|Adalı|2023|p=210}} although they might possibly have migrated under the pressure from the Scythians, similarly to how various nomadic peoples drove each other into the peripheries of the steppes in Europe, West Asia and the Iranian Plateau during Late Antiquity and afterwards.{{sfn|Petrenko|1995|p=8}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=94}}{{sfn|Adalı|2023|p=210}}

Ancient West Asia sources are however 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 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}}

The remnants of the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe were assimilated by the Scythians,{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|p=99}} with this absorption 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 between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west,{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=84}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=103}} in the Ciscaucasian Steppe where were located the Scythian kingdom's headquarters.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b|p=109}}

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}} by the early Scythian culture in southern Europe, which itself nevertheless still showed links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.{{sfn|Ivantchik|2018}}