The people are Cimmerians. Forgotten Cimmerians - our direct ancestors
Historiography
Many scientists have studied the Cimmerian problem, from ancient travelers and philosophers to our contemporaries. For example, Artamonov, in his book “Cimmerians and Scythians”, researching and analyzing archaeological and written sources, restores the history of the Cimmerians: origin, ethnicity, their resettlement to Western Asia, return to the Northern Black Sea region. The author hypothetically connects reliable facts of the history of the Northern Black Sea region with the internal logic of the historical process and presents the Pre-Scythian period in a completely new and bright light, explaining the meaning and significance of important phenomena of the past of our country.
The book “From the Cimmerians to the Crimeans” (I.N. Khrapunov, A.G. Herzen) is a series of essays about the peoples who inhabited the Crimean peninsula from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. The authors are mainly scientists from the Taurida National University. Vernadsky, in a popular form they tell about the history of the ethnic groups who lived and are living in Crimea. The book is intended for teachers, students, secondary school students, and anyone interested in the history of Crimea.
The book “The Cimmerians” by A. Terenozhkin examines the material culture of the Cimmerians: burials, weapons, household items. Separate sections are devoted to Cimmerian art, their ethnic origin and social organization.
The most reliable sources that preserve information about the Cimmerians are various documents of the New Assyrian kingdom. These are official inscriptions on “cylinders” and “prisms” (the so-called “annals”), where the actions of the kings of Assyria are described in excellent terms, as well as correspondence with agents and requests to astrologers and oracles, where the events taking place are interpreted closer to the true situation business Correspondence was conducted in cuneiform in Akkadian. Unfortunately, many of the clay tablets are badly damaged. Data obtained from the analysis of the archives of Sargon II, Assarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.
The Cimmerians are mentioned by Homer and Callinus.
In Homer's Odyssey, the Cimmerians appear as a legendary people living in the far West near the ocean, where the rays of the Sun never penetrate. The philologists Aristarchus and Crates corrected Homer's spelling of Cimmerians in "Kerberia". Hecataeus spoke about the “Cimmerian city”. Ephorus places them near Lake Avernus in Italy.
Herodotus calls the Cimmerians the pre-Scythian population of the steppe part of the Northern Black Sea region.
The first part of A. I. Ivanchik’s book “Cimmerians and Scythians” is devoted to this problem: finding out what archaeological reality is hidden behind the messages from written sources about the Cimmerians. To solve it, one has to turn not only and not so much to material originating from the steppes, which were, apparently, the indigenous territory of the Cimmerians, but also, first of all, to the regions of Western Asia. These areas, which served as the object of military raids by the Cimmerians and, obviously, are quite marginal for their culture, have, however, the advantage that the overwhelming majority of written sources mentioning this people, and, moreover, the most reliable sources, are associated with them. Therefore, it is these areas that have priority in the analysis of problems that require the coordination of data from written and archaeological sources, and the question of the archaeological culture of the historical Cimmerians is precisely such a problem.
The famous Soviet scientist B. N. Grakov, back in the late 30s of the 20th century, came to the conclusion that in our steppes in pre-Scythian times, the Cimmerians and the direct ancestors of the Scythians, identified with the Timber-frame culture, simultaneously lived. He first expressed this hypothesis in his work “Scythians,” published in Kyiv in 1947 in Ukrainian. The scientist presented it more cogently in his work “Kamenskoye Settlement on the Dnieper” (Moscow, 1954)
One of the first who tried to determine the Cimmerian period in the ancient history of our country was the famous archaeologist D. Ya. Samokvasov. In a work published in Warsaw in 1892 entitled “Foundations of the chronological classification of antiquities of European Russia,” he identified the earliest ancient burials, accompanied by stone and bronze tools, and attributed them to the era, which he called Cimmerian. The scientist recognized this era as the time preceding the invasion of the bulk of the Scythians in the Northern Black Sea region, in accordance with how it was covered in the historical account of the Greek historian of the 5th century. BC. Herodotus.
Settlement
The Cimmerians are the oldest of the peoples known by their name who lived in Eastern Europe. An era is associated with them, which is illuminated not only by silent archaeological materials, but also by the evidence of written sources, which is of particular importance for historical science. They were left to us by early Greek writers and supported by data from Western Asian cuneiform writing.
The origin of the name "Cimmerians" is controversial. Some scientists derive it from the Phoenician word - “dark”. Other researchers believe that it comes from the Greek word “winter,” that is, people of countries in which, according to the Greeks, there were cold winters. They also tried to translate the name “Cimmerians” from the Thracian and Hittite languages. However, the greatest interest is the explanation of this name from the position of the ancient Iranian language as a self-name “a mobile detachment of the Iranian-speaking nomadic population of the Eurasian steppes”
The first news of the Cimmerians was preserved in the poems of Homer dating back to the 8th century. BC. “The sun set,” says the Odyssey, “and all the roads were covered with darkness, and our ship reached the limits of the deep Ocean. There the people and the region of the Cimmerian people are shrouded in darkness and clouds; and the shining sun never looks at them with its rays then, when it rises into the starry sky, nor when it bends down from the sky to the earth, but the impenetrable night is spread over miserable mortals" (Odyssey, XI, 12-19). Homer places the Cimmerians somewhere in the far north, depicting their abode as the threshold of the kingdom of the dead. More precisely, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, the “Father of History” Herodotus localizes the Cimmerians. From the Black Sea Greeks and Scythians, he learned that the entire country, which in his time (5th century BC) was occupied by nomadic Scythians, previously belonged to the Cimmerians, who left it under pressure from the Scythians who came from the east, from the depths of Asia. In support of his words, he writes: “and now there are still Cimmerian walls in Scythia, there are Cimmerian crossings, there is also an area called the Cimmerian, there is also the so-called Cimmerian Bosphorus (IV, 12).
The appearance of the Cimmerians in the historical arena was associated with many processes that took place at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. in the steppe regions of Eastern Europe. A significant factor that caused the formation of early nomadic formations in this territory was the deterioration of natural and climatic conditions. Along with other reasons, it contributed to the collapse of such large cultural communities of the Late Bronze Age as Srubnaya and Belozersk. Their population had a complex agricultural-pastoral economy, and the drying climate forced the wall inhabitants to switch to nomadic cattle breeding. However, with increasing aridity and decreasing productivity of steppe landscapes in the 10th-9th centuries. BC. The still fragile nomadic economy is also, apparently, beginning to experience a crisis. This forced a significant part of the population to leave the steppe regions and move to places with more favorable natural conditions.
This situation can be illustrated with some numbers. So, in the 12th-10th centuries. BC, compared with the previous period, in the steppe zone between the Don and Danube there is a tenfold decrease in the number of settlements and burials. The same trends of population decline manifest themselves in the steppe Black Sea region and in the subsequent Cimmerian era, which is reflected in the absence of settlements and stationary burial grounds in this territory. The settlement of the Cimmerians probably took place in several stages and in several directions. First of all, they moved to areas that were significantly less affected by the decrease in humidity levels, since they were located in an area with a positive moisture balance. This is the forest-steppe and adjacent areas of the right bank and left bank of the Dnieper, the territory of the foothills of the Crimea and the North Caucasus, in particular the Trans-Kuban region, where a sharp increase in burial grounds was noted in the Pre-Scythian period. Many of them bear features indicating contacts with steppe tribes. This circumstance was an important factor in the formation of one of the groups of Cimmerian monuments, which received the name “Novocherkassk” in science. It was named after a treasure of bronze objects found in 1939 in Novocherkassk. The main distribution area of the "Novocherkassk" group is the Ciscaucasia and the forest-steppe Dnieper Right Bank. The culture of this population was formed mainly in the process of close contacts between early nomads and the local population of the North Caucasus.
At the same time, it should be noted that the above relocations did not lead to the desolation of the steppes. Part of the nomadic population remained there, concentrating in places most suitable for life, for example, in the valleys of large rivers. It is with it that another group of Cimmerian monuments should be associated. It was named “Chernogorovskaya” after its burial in a mound near the Chernogorovsky farm in the Donetsk region. This group of monuments was localized over a wide area from the Volga region in the east to the lower reaches of the Danube in the west. It is the Montenegrin population that is more closely connected in burial rituals and the general appearance of material culture with the steppe cultures of the Late Bronze Age in the south of Eastern Europe.
Based on the above, we can conclude that the formation of the Cimmerian culture was a rather complex process. It was carried out under conditions of a radical restructuring of the economy and way of life, ethnic mixing and a high range of connections. The Cimmerians were the creators of the first large association of nomadic tribes in the south of Eastern Europe. Like many nomadic associations, they included a number of groups that had their own characteristics in material culture and, possibly, different origins. This most clearly demonstrates the existence of two large groups of monuments: Chernogorov and Novocherkassk.
Farm
The Srubnaya culture was settled and agricultural and is represented on the Volga and in the Northern Black Sea region by numerous settlements with dugout-type dwellings, often with a significant area - about 100 m 2. Such settlements in the steppe are located mostly in river valleys and contain numerous remains indicating that their inhabitants were engaged not only in agriculture, but also in the breeding of large and small livestock, horses and even pigs, as well as fishing and hunting. They were also engaged in household production, such as the manufacture of weapons, tools and household items from stone, wood, bone, horn and clay, spinning, weaving and processing for the needs of consumption of other products of their economy: grain, milk, meat, hides, leather etc.
The Cimmerians also knew the metallurgy of bronze - casting in solid forms carved from stone or using a wax model. However, the metal was expensive, it was obtained from outside - from the Urals or northwestern Black Sea region, and from Transylvania. Things that were broken or not suitable for their purpose were melted down. Foundry production was carried out by specialists, and therefore there is a significant number of treasures of scrap and casting molds intended for melting.
The most numerous finds in the settlements are fragments of ceramics, represented by hand-made straight-walled or slightly convex jar pots, as well as squat vessels with a wide mouth and convex sides with a ribbed bend, with a cut or stamped rectilinear geometric ornament located on the upper part of the walls. Over time, new forms appear in ceramics, although the most common for a long time remain jars with a molded bead in the upper part of the walls or under the very edge.
In the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. e. settled settlements in the steppe zone of Eastern Europe are disappearing, which can only mean one thing, namely the replacement of a complex agricultural-pastoral economy with a specialized pastoral economy and, in accordance with this, a sedentary lifestyle with a nomadic one. Breeding domestic animals has existed since the Mesolithic and since that time has always been combined with other types of economic activity: hunting, fishing, gathering and especially agriculture. Depending on geographical conditions and the set of economic activities, pastoralists led a sedentary or mobile lifestyle and, in accordance with this, raised certain types of animals. The sedentary population preferred cattle and pigs, while the mobile population preferred small cattle and horses. The primitive cart on wheels has been known since the Chalcolithic, and nomadism as a way of life has existed since ancient times, as a direct continuation of the wandering lifestyle of Paleolithic hunters. However, until the end of the Bronze Age, cattle breeding, both among relatively sedentary and more or less mobile communities, was only one of the areas of economic activity, combined with other industries within each individual farm. It could play a larger role in some cases and a smaller role in others, but it was not the only basis for their existence.
Predominant attention to livestock breeding and increasing its quantity beyond the current needs of a given economy arose when livestock and livestock products began to represent an exchange value, when it became possible to obtain products from other industries in exchange for them. Only since the development of regular exchange did specialized cattle breeding farms emerge. In the absence of significant feed supplies, keeping a large number of animals on pasture in one place was impossible. Driving cattle from one pasture to another, people themselves were forced to break with sedentary life and become nomads. In accordance with the natural environment, various forms of nomadism arise. In flat steppes, this is a more or less continuous movement in the meridional direction: from south to north and from north to south - depending on the seasons and the state of vegetation. In winter, cattle graze in snowless or little snow areas in the south with plenty of food, and in the summer, when the vegetation burns out from the heat, they are kept in the north, where the grass remains for a longer time. In semi-deserts and deserts, livestock is driven from pasture and to pasture over considerable distances; the possibility of keeping livestock here is determined by the availability of water - natural springs or wells, and the nomads' path runs between them. In the mountains, cattle graze in alpine meadows in the summer and are kept in valleys with little snow or in the foothills in winter. Depending on the capacity of the pastures, nomads live in either large or small communities and, in accordance with the food resources of the pastures, raise certain types of animals, with sheep predominating in all cases. In the steppes the horse plays an important role, in the deserts the camel plays an important role. The main transport animal in many places is the bull or yak. The movement of people and their property takes place, again, depending on geographical conditions, either on a cart suitable for the flat steppe, equipped in the form of a mobile home on wheels - a wagon, or in packs, characteristic of deserts and mountains. In the latter case, collapsible dwellings - yurts, consisting of a wooden frame and a felt shell - are installed at stopping places.
Despite the decisive importance of cattle breeding, nomadic farms, at the first opportunity, combined it with other types of production activities, including agriculture. In some cases, nomads cultivated small plots of land, but with minimal care for the crops, the harvest could not be significant. They paid more attention to hunting and processing of livestock products - wool, leather, but these activities rarely went beyond satisfying domestic needs. All types of economic activities during nomadic cattle breeding played a supporting role and in no way provided the nomads with the loss of their main source of livelihood, for example, when livestock died or was stolen by enemies. The pastoral nomadic economy could not provide all the means of subsistence to its owners with its resources; they had to acquire the missing products by exchanging the surplus of their production for the products of farms with another line of economic activity.
Culture
The steppe mounds of Chernogorovsky, Kamyshevakha, Malaya Tsymbalka, Obryvsky and some others, the pre-Scythian age of which was established first, do not actually contain any artifacts that could acquaint us with the peculiarities of the art of that historical time. This gap was felt very acutely, since it remained unknown whether this art was close to Scythian or different from it.
Materials from excavations of a warrior’s grave in a mound near the village helped solve the mystery. Zolsky near Simferopol, produced in 1962 by A. A. Shchepinsky. The mound contained a magnificent set of various bone ornaments and horse bridle accessories. It was complemented by a magnificent set of things, including local artistic work, from the Nosachevsky mound.
It soon became clear that various military and sometimes household items made according to Cimmerian models or in the spirit of Cimmerian applied art were found in the monuments of the Chernolesk, Proto-Meotian, Koban, ancient Ananyino and Thraco-Cimmerian cultures. Materials of this kind not only contribute to deepening knowledge about the art of the Cimmerians, but also expand the understanding of its special role in the development of culture among many peoples who lived in the vicinity of the steppe at that time.
Among the Cimmerians, flat relief and engraving predominated in bone carving. Bronze and gold casting was carried out using wax models, i.e. just like among the Chernoles tribes of the later period. At the same time, chasing, stamping and soldering (gold on gold) were used. Most typical of Cimmerian art are geometric patterns in the form of single and concentric circles, rosettes, heterogeneous spirals, meanders, diamond-shaped figures, etc. Zoomorphic images, known from individual items, were also not alien to this art.
Most often on Cimmerian things there is a figure in the form of a diamond-shaped badge with concave sides and a circle in the middle. Almost always, such an icon fits into a circle, resulting in a simple four-petal rosette. Badges of this kind were usually decorated on round bronze plaques with holes for crossing straps at the bridle. These badges were often placed on clearly cult objects and horse bridle accessories.
Another series of bone bridle accessories stood out, differing from those described above both typologically and in their artistic design. They were first identified as part of the Late Chernolesk complexes during excavations at the Subbotovsky settlement. In the predominant part, these plaques look like oval buttons with one or two holes for attachment to bridle straps. Most often, the plaques are smooth, less often with a groove cut along the edge. Exactly the same plaques were found as part of bridle sets from the Zhirnokleyevsky mound in the Volgograd region, as well as in mounds near the village. Veselaya Dolina and near the village of Novoluganskoye in the Donnechina region.
Cimmerian monuments are represented only by burials, usually burial mounds, known and non-mound burials.
They are distributed from the Danube (Istra) to the Volga (Araks). Two stages of culture are identified: Chernogorovskaya and Novocherkasskaya. At the first stage, they were buried in simple rectangular and oval pits, sometimes with a wooden ceiling (sometimes with linings) in a crouched position on their side. The men were accompanied by weapons (arrows with bronze and bone tips, a dagger with a bronze handle and an iron blade), harnesses (often stirrup-like bits), and women were accompanied by gold and bronze wires, beads, and pottery. The dishes preserved Belozersk traditions (thick-walled round-bodied pots, often decorated with a molded roller with “antennae”, goblets with cylindrical-metric necks and scoops decorated with flutes and knobs), but one-handed shards disappeared, polished goblets and wooden goblets with gold plates became widespread.
At the Novocherkassk stage, the funeral rite changed significantly: deep pits appeared, the famous rectangular pits with a wooden roof placed on wooden pillars. Objects began to be placed on the ceilings. Iron weapons became widespread, including iron arrowheads. Cups similar to Jabotinsky (decorated with geometric patterns) began to predominate in the dishes. An important feature of the Cimmerian culture is the steles, which, although they do not have a clearly recreated human head, contain images of clothing and weapons (similar to the steles of the Bronze Age in Ukraine).
Social structure of the Cimmerians
The duality of the types of settlements, burial grounds and a number of other signs of the Cimmerians gives reason to say that Cimmerian society had a fairly clear differentiation, both socially and economically. The forest-steppe and the northern part of the Zmievshchina steppe were inhabited by Cimmerian tribes, whose economy was based on agriculture. The pastoral part of them lived in the steppe. At the same time, both farmers and pastoralists clearly represented a single ethnocultural whole. The following facts speak about this. Firstly, burial mounds, characteristic primarily of nomadic pastoralists, are also found in areas inhabited by farmers. Secondly, short-term settlements (nomadic camps) of Cimmerian pastoralists are also found in floodplains. Some scientists do not exclude the possibility of simultaneous residence of pastoralists and farmers in the same settlements.
It is not without interest that throughout the entire territory of the Cimmerians’ distribution there are two regionally located groups of burials. In the set of things from the burials of the Steppe Volga region and the Middle Don, a military character is clearly expressed: spear and arrowheads, bronze knives, stone axes, cheekpieces, etc. The second group of burials, common in the Seversky Donets and the Dnieper region, has a peaceful, productive character. In the burials of both regional groups there are graves with wooden vessels covered with bronze plates.
First of all, the idea of the tripartite nature of Indo-European society, formulated by J. Dumézil, suggests itself. According to his assumption, Indo-European society consisted of warriors, priests and business executives. Based on this, it can be assumed that in the considered burials of the Steppe Volga region and the Middle Don, representatives of the military group of the Cimmerian population were buried, while in the corresponding burials of the Seversky Donets and the Dnieper region there were owners of a large number of livestock - business executives. And finally, priests were probably buried in graves with wooden vessels covered with bronze plates. Since in the same society it is impossible for representatives of the military class to live in one territory, and representatives of the economic class to live in another, then, consequently, these are not castes, but tribes. That is, for the Cimmerian tribes of the Cimmerians, who inhabited the Dnieper region and the Seversky Donets basin, including the Zmievshchina, the main occupation was cattle breeding and agriculture, while the Cimmerian tribe, living in the Steppe Volga region and the Middle Don, specialized in war . There were priests in both tribes.
The Iranian ethnicity of the Cimmerians is not in doubt. The historically attested names of the Cimmerian leaders, which look Iranian (Teushpa, Ligdamis, etc.), provide more or less reliable grounds for this. However, an authoritative specialist on the history of the Cimmerians, Askold Ivanchik, considers the Cimmerians to be a mysterious people with whom not everything is clear. Obviously, the issue will become clearer if grounds are found to connect the Cimmerians with any of the modern Iranian peoples. Reconstructing the routes of movement of Iranians to modern settlement sites will help to get closer to the answer to this question.
The reasons that forced the Iranians to leave their original habitats between the Dnieper and Don may be different. Perhaps the transition of the Balts and Anglo-Saxons to the left bank of the Dnieper set in motion the local Iranian population of the Srubnaya culture. However, we can talk about other reasons. The steppe regions could have been abandoned due to climate change, which led to a decrease in the productive capabilities of the steppe. In any case, archaeological data indicate the temporary desolation of the Azov and Black Sea regions:
... in the 12th-10th centuries. BC, compared with the previous period, in the steppe zone between the Don and Danube there is a tenfold decrease in the number of settlements and burials. The same trends of population decline manifest themselves in the steppe Black Sea region and in the subsequent Cimmerian era, which is reflected in the absence of settlements and stationary burial grounds in the same territory ( Makhortykh S.V.. 1997, 6-7)
Thus, the Iranian tribes moved in search of settlement sites with more favorable conditions. A historically attested fact is that at the end of the second millennium BC. they have already been spotted in Central Asia:
Iranian names appear in Assyrian written sources in the 11th – 10th centuries. BC, and are associated with the regions of Western Iran, which were in the sphere of political activity of the Assyrian kingdom. What was happening further east at that time - in Central and Eastern Iran - is not reflected in these sources ( Artamonov M.I., 1974, 10).
On right: Historical regions in Central and Western Asia during the Achamenid era (7-4 centuries BC)
The historical areas shown on the map help to reconstruct the migration routes of Iranian tribes from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.
There are two points of view about the routes of Iranian penetration into the Middle East - through Central Asia or through the Caucasus ( Pyankov I. V., 1979). At the very least, the migration of Iranians to Asia Minor must have occurred through the Caucasus (or even through the Balkans), as reflected in Hittite sources ( Sokolov S.N. 1979-2, 235). In North Ossetia there are a number of toponyms containing the Dzhimara element, which goes back to the ethnonym of the Cimmerians ( Tsagaeva A. Dz. 2010, 5).
Obviously, the resettlement of Iranians took place in several waves and routes, but the main route of movement of most of the Iranians was along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, and then along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to the south and south east, as described by Kuzmina ( Kuzmina E. E., 1986, 203-204), although the route through the Caucasus could also be used. Considering the location of the territories of settlements of Iranian-speaking peoples at the present time (see section) and in the historical ancestral home in Eastern Europe, it can be assumed that the last in the chain of settlers around the Caspian Sea were the Sogdians (ancestors of modern Yagnobis), since they occupied the extreme northern region of modern Iranian settlements in Central Asia next to the Afghans, with whom they were neighbors in their historical ancestral home, while their other neighbors in their ancestral home, the Ossetians, now live in the Caucasus mountains and, undoubtedly, have never been to Central Asia.
Some of the migrating Iranians remained in Southern Kazakhstan in the foothills of the Western Tien Shan among the local Turkic population, as evidenced by local toponymy: Madikent/Mankent, Orungent, Syutkent, Chimkent, which included Iranians. kent"city, village, area" ( Popova V.N., 2000, 53). This word was adopted by the Turks and was used for the names of settlements with Turkic components (for example, Tashkent from Turkic. taš"stone"). However, the settlement of Chimkent should have been founded by Iranians, most likely Sogdians (Yagn. čim"meadow, grass"). This interpretation is supported by the name of the village of Lugovoi, also located in this area, apparently covered in those days with thick grasses. Also in the orography of Southern Kazakhstan there are Iranian terms darbaza/darvaza"gate, entrance, mountain pass", yes/dešt"steppe, plain, desert" zax/zexab"source, spring" ( there).
The territory of modern settlements of the Kurds, other neighbors of the Sogdians in their ancestral home, gives reason to assume that they came to these places by a different route than the first wave of Iranians, namely through the Caucasus or the Balkans. If they were moving around the Caspian Sea, they would have to overtake many Iranian tribal groups in their movement, which seems incredible. We have already noted more than once that the expansion of the territories of settlements or resettlement of primary ethnic groups occurs in order of priority in accordance with their relative location in the previous territories. This important feature during the movement of Indo-European tribes, according to Gornung, was noted by Franz Specht ( Gornung B.V. 1963, 53). Since the ancestors of the Kurds and Sogdians were neighbors in their ancestral home, when moving along the same path, their new places of settlement should have been located, if not in the neighborhood, as we have, for example, for the Persians and Afghans, but not so far from one another , how the areas of the Kurds and Yagnobis are now located. The most likely route for the resettlement of the ancient Gilyans and Talysh to the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, where their descendants now live, was through the Derbent Passage. Firstly, this is the shortest path. Secondly, the area of Talysh settlements is currently located in close proximity to the Gilyan area and, what is very important, to the north of it, just like in the historical ancestral home, and if we moved in a different direction, the location of these areas would be different. But whatever the routes of migration of the ancestors of the Kurds, Talysh and Gilyans to the Middle East, there is reason to assume that until a certain time they, as well as the ancestors of the Ossetians, although they left their ancestral home under the pressure of the Balts and Anglo-Saxons, still remained in the East Europe, when most Iranians had already moved to Asia. Apparently, among these Iranian tribes were also the ancestors of the Baluchis and Mazenderans, whose closely related languages are included in the same group of northwestern Iranian languages as Kurdish, Talysh and Gilyan.
The beginning of Iranian migrations at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The names of the tribes that made up the first wave are marked in red.
Thus, it can be assumed that the first wave of Iranian migrants to Central Asia consisted of the ancestors of modern Sarykolts, Pamir Iranians (Shugnans, Bartangs, Yazgulyamtsevs, Wakhans, etc.), Persians, Afghans and Sogdians (Yagnobis), i.e. those Iranian tribes who had their settlements in the southern part of the general Iranian territory and in areas along the Dnieper.
It is natural to assume that the areas they left were immediately occupied by other Iranian tribes, who remained in Europe for some time and with which the historical Cimmerians should be associated. The above-mentioned climatic changes, which led to a decrease in the productivity of the steppe, could not lead to its complete desolation. Another thing is that the newly arrived population of the steppe could not be numerous and in order to maintain its existence, in addition to economic activity, it had to engage in robbery of the neighboring population of the forest-steppe zone.
General picture of Iranian expansion into Central and Asia Minor.
There is an opinion that the Cimmerians came to the Black Sea region from Central Asia or, more generally, “from the depths of Eurasia,” but this opinion is vigorously disputed, because there is no point in dwelling on this topic given that the ancestral home of the Iranians was in Europe and migration to Central Asia, and then the Cimmerians simply would not have had time to go back. In historically reliable times, the Cimmerians inhabited the Azov and Black Sea steppes and left traces of their stay in the steppes of Ukraine and the North Caucasus in archaeological sites that are combined into a common Cimmerian culture. It is logical to assume that it should continue the traditions of the Timber-frame culture, which we identified as Iranian, ( Stetsyuk Valentin, 1988, 82-85), and Ukrainian archaeologists see this tradition in the funeral rite of the Cimmerians:
"The later culture of the Cimmerians develops in the traditions of timbering..., which can be traced in the funeral rite" ( Archeology of the Ukrainian SSR, Vol. 2., 1986, 23).
The appearance of the Cimmerians in Asia, according to cuneiform sources, dates back to the end of the 8th century. BC, and the Scythians are known in Iran “no earlier than the 670s,” which contradicts Herodotus’ report about the persecution of the Cimmerians by the Scythians. Moreover, there are facts that speak of joint raids by both on the Assyrian provinces. In general, the sources report mainly on the Cimmerians, and the Scythians are mentioned for several years, and then only based on their actions in Iran ( Medvedskaya I.N., 2000)
According to Assyrian sources, King Rusa I of Urartu at the end of the 8th century. BC. was defeated in a battle with the army of the Gimirrai people, which historians associate with the Cimmerians ( Mason Richard, 2004, 13-15). In 679/678, the Cimmerians were defeated by the Assyrians and their leader Teushpa died in this battle, but nevertheless, after that they attacked Phrygia, Lydia and Cilicia, where their new leader Lygdamis also laid down his head:
... Akkadian sources allow us to establish that the most successful Cimmerian raid on Lydia, as a result of which King Gyges was killed, dates back to 644 BC. e. Apparently, this raid affected not only Lydia, but also Ionia, and it is this that Greek sources have in mind when they report the Cimmerian raid. The same Akkadian sources, describing the death of Lygdamis/Dugdamme, date it to 641 BC, i.e. three years later ( Ivanchik A.I. 2005, 123).
The issue of cases of the Cimmerians uniting with the Thracians for aggressive campaigns in Asia Minor from the Balkans is controversial. Strabo has information about such a campaign “from the Bosphorus to Ionia,” but for some reason he dates this event to the time of Homer or a little earlier ( Strabo, 1964, I, 1-10). Certain prerequisites for the assumption of the possibility of a military alliance between the Thracians and the Cimmerians are provided by uncertain evidence about the presence of the Cimmerians on the territory of Hungary, probably inspired by the same message from Strabo:
In Hungary, the presence of some kind of equestrian people, identified with the Cimmerians, is established on the basis of finds of bronze items of horse harness, as well as iron bridles, bronze cauldrons, weapons (swords and daggers) ( Shusharin V.P., 1971, 23).
Doubt about the Cimmerian origin of the finds is caused by the obvious penetration of Cimmerian products into the territory of Hungary through trade routes, since the Thracian culture was still dominant here. At best, one can only assume the possibility of a special Thracian-Cimmerian period from 750 to 550 AD. BC. ( there, 24).
In addition, the possibility of joint actions of the Thracians and Cimmerians in Asia Minor is completely excluded after studying Near Eastern sources. A. Ivanchik found in them only information about the rivalry between the Thracians and the Cimmerians in the struggle for the possession of Bithynia, which ended in the complete expulsion of the latter ( Ivanchik A.I. 2005, 131-132).
However, certain traces of the presence of Kurds in Hungary can be found in toponymy:
Devavanya, a city in the Bekesh region - Kurdish. dêw"div, evil spirit" wanî"similar".
Kecel, a city in the Bach-Kishkun region - Kurdish. keçel"bald".
Szelevény, a village in the Yas-Nagykun-Szolnok county - Kurdish. selfef"source".
Felgyö, a village in the Csongrad region - Kurdish. felg"curl".
Csengele, a village in Csongrad copper - Kurdish. cengel"forest".
On right: Kurdish place names in Hungary and the Balkans.
Some transcripts are convincing enough that searches for Kurdish place names in neighboring countries were carried out. They were found in Ukraine, Serbia and Bulgaria and as a whole formed a chain leading from Western Ukraine through the Balkans towards the Bosphorus. This arrangement may mark the path of the Kurds to Asia Minor.
A search for lexical correspondences between Hungarian and Kurdish was also carried out. They were found in small numbers, so some of them may be coincidental:
Eel. haború- Kurdish herb"war";
Hungarian vendég- Kurdish xwendi"guest";
Hungarian kor- Kurdish ger"circle";
Hungarian hús- Kurdish goşt"meat";
Hungarian ered- Kurdish sereta"Start";
Hungarian alacsony- Kurdish alçax"short";
Hungarian mező- Kurdish mezr"field";
Hungarian folyo- Kurdish felat"river".
Some of the Hungarian words given here could have been borrowed by the Magyars from other Iranian languages in their ancestral homeland between the Khoper and Medveditsa rivers. If the borrowing took place on the territory of modern Hungary, then it should be assumed that some of the Kurds still remained there before the arrival of the Hungarians.
Left: Northern Black Sea region and Western Asia in the era of migration of the Cimmerians and Scythians(VII-VI centuries BC) (Map from Mason Richard, 2004, 27).
One way or another, some of the Cimmerians advanced from Hungary to the Balkans, but did not stay there for long, because there are no noticeable Cimmerian traces on the territory of Bulgaria ( Melyukova A. I., 1979, 6). Thus, it should be considered that one stream of Cimmerians penetrated into Transcaucasia either through the Derbent Pass, or through the Daryal Gorge, or the Belorechensky Pass, and the second moved through Asia Minor from the west.
50-60 years after the appearance of the Cimmerians in Western Asia, the Scythians invaded here. Having passed through Derbent, they settled in Azerbaijan and founded their kingdom here in the area between the Kura and Araks rivers, that is, somewhere near lake. Sevan. And only then did they first encounter the Cimmerians, and the Cimmerians lost to the Scythians. There is evidence that the Scythians even reached Iran. Western Asian sources recall the Scythian kingdom back in the late 90s of the 6th century. BC, after which there is no longer any data about him in history. It is believed that the bulk of the Scythians retreated back to the North Caucasus.
Northern Black Sea region and Western Asia in the VII-VI centuries. to New York(Map from Mason Richard, 2004, 21).
Taking into account both historical data and the results of our research, we can confidently say that the general name Cimmerians must be understood primarily as the ancestors of the modern Talysh and Gilyans, as well as the ancestors of the closely related Baluchis and Mazenderans. Now the Baluchis live in Pakistan, but it is known that they came here from the southern coast of the Caspian Sea ( Frolova V. A., 1960, 68, Oransky I.M., 1979, 89), that is, earlier (in the 5th-6th centuries AD) their settlements were not far from the settlements of the Gilyans and Talyshs (the Mazenderans still live in these places). The Balochi migration path from north to south is marked by a chain of enclaves of the Balochi language (see Map of the distribution of modern Iranian languages)
Taking into account
Since there is reason to believe that some part of the Cimmerians penetrated into Asia Minor through the Balkans (obviously from Right Bank Ukraine), we can assume that this part of them could belong to a completely different Iranian tribe, whose settlements should have been in Right Bank Ukraine, i.e. i.e. somewhere near the settlements of the ancient Bulgars located in the Upper Dniester basin (see section). This could be some kind of Iranian tribe and it is possible to clarify which one
In the process of research, it was discovered that the Chuvash language has quite a few words that can be found correspondents in Iranian languages or even in several of them at once, but the most numerous are the Chuvash-Kurdish lexical parallels. Table 15 shows some of them, sometimes with equivalents in other Iranian languages:
Table15. Kurdish-Chuvash lexical parallels
| Kurdish and other Iranian | Chuvash |
| bet “bustard, partridge” | větel “dupel” |
| kere “oil”, Gil. kəre “oil” | kěrě “fat” |
| kerdî “furrow” | kěrče “wrinkled” |
| qarîk “crow”, qarîtk “partridge” | karăk “grouse” |
| qure “proud” | kÿren “to be offended” |
| nar “fire”, Pers. nar “fire” | nar “blush” |
| pek “fit” | baked “similar” |
| sap “bucket” | sapa “tuesok” |
| saman “wealth” | Semyon “wealth” |
| stûr “thick”, os. sutyr “thick” and other ir. | satur “strong” |
| soma “pupil” | săna “to observe” |
| sor “red”, Pers. sorx “red” | sără “paint” |
| sehre “witchcraft” | sehre "fear" |
| semer “darkness” | sěm “darkness” |
| çal “pit”, Pers. čal “pit” | çăl “well” |
| çîrt “pus” | çěrt “to rot” |
| çîban “pimple” | çăpan “boil” |
| çêl “cow” | çile “udder” |
| tar “pole” | tar “poplar” |
| taw “rain” | tăvăl “storm” |
| tobe “oath” | stupid “oath” |
| toraq “cottage cheese” | turăkh “Varenets” |
| xumar “gloomy”, xumari “darkness” | khămăr “brown” |
Without a doubt, the ancestors of the Kurds and Bulgars must have lived in close proximity for quite a long time. In the process of analyzing the toponymy of Ukraine, attention was drawn to the fact that many toponyms of Right Bank Ukraine are explained using the Kurdish language (see). Previously, on the basis of the Kurdish language, a certain part of the Scythian onomasticon had already been etymologized ( Stetsyuk, 1999, 89-93; Stetsyuk, 2000, 23-28). All this allows us to make the assumption that some part of the population of the Scythian era spoke a dialect of the Proto-Kurdish language, which for convenience we will further call simply Kurdish.
When searching for toponyms of Iranian origin, it was discovered that its large concentration is located in Podolia and it is deciphered using the Kurdish language.
Left Map of Kurdish settlements in Podolia
Kurdish place names are shown with black dots, Bulgar ones with red dots, and Anlo-Saxon ones with purple dots. The movement of the Kurds is indicated by arrows. The map also shows the boundaries of the Anglo-Saxon area through which the Kurds passed.
The presence of ancient Kurds on the Right Bank immediately raises the question of how they got there. Given the general movement of Iranian tribes from the territory of their primary settlement between the Dnieper and the Don to the south and southeast, it can be assumed that the ancestors of the Kurds came to the Azov steppes, and from there they crossed the Dnieper and then moved to the northwest, displacing older settlers, the Thracians , to the southwest, and the Bulgars to the west.
A strip of Kurdish settlements from Gaysin and further along the Dniester to the west may mark this path, but the presence of toponyms of Kurdish origin in the Chernigov, Kiev and Zhitomir regions gives reason to consider the option in which the ancestors of the Kurds from the place of their ancestral home descended along the Desna to the Dnieper, crossed it to aral of the Anglo-Saxons and moved west. This settlement could continue for quite a long time, and at the new sites there was always some part of the inhabitants who retained the old names of villages and rivers.
In itself, the amazing fact that the names of ancient Kurdish settlements have been preserved to this day cannot help us determine the chronological framework within which the Kurds stayed in Western Ukraine, but it is unlikely that they took part in those raids on Transcaucasia at the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 7th century. th century BC, which we mentioned above. However, there is reason to classify the Kurds as Cimmerians as well. The expeditions to Asia Minor, carried out by the Cimmerians together with the Thracians, could have been carried out by the ancestors of the Kurds. Their self-name "Kurmanj" includes a root that is somewhat reminiscent of the Cimmerians' name "Kimmer". The name of the city of Zhmerynka in the Vinnytsia region, where Kurdish toponymy has been preserved in large quantities, may have the same root.
It was in those places along the middle reaches of the Dniester where there is a concentration of Kurdish toponyms that treasures of gold objects were found twice, in 1878 and 1897, in the village of Mikhalkiv, Ternopil region, on the right bank of the Nichlava. The treasures date back to the 6th century. BC those. they are two centuries older than the finds from the famous Scythian mounds Kul Oba and Chertomlyk. The treasures, with a total weight of more than seven kilograms, include a diadem, a hryvnia, five bracelets, 12 brooches, seven plaques, a pyramidal pendant, four bowls and other items ( Petrovsky Oleksandr, 1993, 8). M.I. Artamonov believed that there was a certain similarity between some items of the Mikhalkov treasure and the finds in the Vysokaya Mogila mound near the village of Balki, Vasilkovsky district, Zaporozhye region and writes:
This strengthens the connection of the so-called Cimmerian culture with the Carpathian-Danubian Hallstatt and reinforces the assumption that this culture emerged on the basis of forms that spread to the Northern Black Sea region not from the North Caucasus, but from Central Europe, and the North Caucasus itself was in the area of their existence. ( Artamonov M.I. 1974, 37).
Thus, the strip of Kurdish settlements along the Dniester may indicate the advance of the Kurds not from the steppes, but into the steppes of the right bank of Ukraine, from where they, as Cimmerians, could make campaigns in Asia Minor together with the Thracians. Remaining there, they could participate in a wide variety of wars, including in alliance with those Cimmerians who passed through the Caucasus or even with the Scythians. However, allegedly after the defeat of Lydia in the war with Media and Neo-Babylonia, the Cimmerians and Scythians who supported Lydia, according to the terms of the peace, “had to go back to where they came from, i.e. to the Northern Black Sea region" ( Artamonov M.I.. 1974, 34).
The further fate of the Cimmerians M.I. Artamonov, based on the archeology of the Kuban burial mounds of the Scythian period, defines it as follows:
Having settled in the Maeotian environment, the Cimmerians, thanks to their higher culture and organization, occupied a leading position in the Kuban region, but, remaining in the minority, were unable to maintain ethnic independence and over time merged with the native population. It is possible that the direct descendants of the Cimmerians were the Sinds, who represented the most progressive part of the population of the Lower Kuban region - the Taman Peninsula and the adjacent part of the Black Sea coast. ( Artamonov M.I. 1974, 62).
The fact that the Cimmerians could actually populate the Kuban region is evidenced by the recorded ethnonym Δανδαριοι (name of the people in the lower part of the Kuban and Meotia). Given that the lower part of the Kuban lies between the Azov and Black Seas, the Kurd is well suited to explain the name of the people. derya/darya"sea" and dan“inside”, i.e. “surrounded by the sea”.
However, most of the Cimmerian Kurds remained in Podolia. At one time, Polish professor Tadeush-Sulimirski identified the Western Podolsk local group among the monuments of the Early Scythian period. Its specific features are:
...the use of stone together with wood in the construction of burial chambers; the complete absence of horses accompanying the dead in the graves; gray clay circular ceramics, which existed only in this area of the Scythian forest-steppe; the use of certain types of decorations unknown or little known in other regions... ( Smirnova Galina Ivanovna, 2004, 419)
Monuments of the Western Podolsk group of early Scythian times
The map was compiled according to data from G.I. Smirnova ( Smirnova Galina Ivanovna, 2004, 411, Fig. 1)
The red line outlines a cluster of place names of Kurdish origin in Podolia.
The following monuments are indicated by numbers on the map: 1. Bratyshev. 2. Beremyany. 3. Gorodnitsa. 4. Chanterelles. 5. Rakov Kut. 6. Grimailovskaya novosilka. 7. Dryness. 8. Myshkovites. 9. Nivra. 10. Shidlovtsy. 11. Licked. 12. Ladichin. 13. Bilche Gold. 14. Boots. 15. Ivan Pusta. 16. Zozulintsy. 17. Perebykovites. 18. Vikno. 19. Novosilka (near Chernivtsi). 20. Ivakhnovtsy. 21. Zavadintsy. 22. Servatines. 23. Skipche. 24. Shutkovtsy. 25. Tarasovka. 26. Upper Panivtsi. 27. Vrublevtsy. 28. Verkhniy Olchedaev. 29. Loevtsy. 30. Dolynyani (mounds). 31. Dolynyani (settlement). 32. Kruglik. 33. Oselivka. 34. Lenkava residents. 35. Ivanovo residents. 36. Selishche. 37. Noporotovo. 38. Belousovka.
The partial coincidence of the territories of distribution of monuments of the Western Podolsk group and Kurdish toponymy gives reason to assume that these monuments were left by the Kurds, that is, part of the population of this territory remained for some time in the old settlement sites. Subsequently, this part of the Kurds moved to Central Europe (see section).
The long-term presence of Cimmerian-Kurds on the territory of Ukraine is confirmed by Words of Kurdish origin in the Ukrainian language, which have no correspondence in other Slavic languages, indicating that some part of the Kurds remained on the territory of Ukraine until the Slavs appeared here. The epigraphy of the Northern Black Sea region speaks to the same thing, so one of the peoples mentioned by ancient historians, in particular Herodotus, can be associated with the Kurds. Apparently, such a people could have been the Alizons (Alazons), whom Herodotus placed somewhat south of the Scythian ploughmen, in an area where the Dniester (Tiras) and the Southern Bug (Gypanium) are not very far from each other ( Herodotus, IV, 52). It is in this place that the largest concentration of Kurdish place names is located (see the map above, where both rivers are highlighted in blue).
Herodotus, speaking about the myths and beliefs of the Scythians, nowhere mentions the cult of fire, the wheel and the chariot, which are necessarily present in the beliefs of various Iranian tribes. It is very doubtful that the Scythians, being of Iranian origin, would radically change their beliefs. Therefore, the absence of these cults among the Scythians provides an additional argument against identifying them with the Iranians. However, the Iranian element, if not among the Scythians, then at least among the other population of Scythia, is present. We have seen that in Petrov’s onomasticon, among the Iranian languages, the most matches were found in the Kurdish language (about six dozen). At the same time, more than twenty words of onomasticon have analogues only in the Kurdish language, and some of them are well suited for anthroponymy (see. Αβαβοσ , Αβλωνακοσ , Διζα-Ζελμισ and etc). Bearing in mind that not only Scythian words could be included in the onomasticon, we can confidently speak about the presence of Kurds in the territory of Southern Ukraine at the end of the first millennium BC. and at the beginning of the first millennium AD.
The Cimmerians, a mysterious people mentioned in ancient Greek and ancient Eastern sources, today have a definite place in history.
The Cimmerians emerged during the collapse of the so-called Timber archaeological culture that existed duringIImillennium BC in the steppe zone from the Urals to the Danube. In the Odyssey, created inVIIIcentury BC, flashes a description of the acquaintance of the ancient Greeks with this people, who live at the extreme limit of the inhabited earth. To the Greeks of the Odyssey, it must have seemed like this.
According to Herodotus, the Scythians who came from beyond the Volga attacked the Cimmerians and forced them to leave their native steppes. According to legend, the Cimmerians could not agree among themselves whether to resist the Scythians or flee and look for new places to settle. This dispute led to a fratricidal war between the Cimmerians, in which many people were killed, mainly the nobility, who stood in opposition to the Scythians. According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians buried all those who fell in this fateful battle somewhere in the area of the Dniester River (where even in the time of Herodotus one could allegedly see the burial mound of the Cimmerian kings), and those who remained had no choice but to leave the country. The exodus of the Cimmerians, pursued by the Scythians, took place along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.
At the endVIIIcentury BC Cimmerians appear in the Middle East. In 714 BC. they settle in a certain part of the state of Urartu, on the territory of modern Armenia. Urartian king RusaI triedsubjugate them, suffered a terrible defeat. After a while, at the endVIIcentury, the Cimmerians moved to Assyria, Cappadocia and Phrygia - kingdoms in Asia Minor. Somewhere they lost battles, somewhere they won victories. In Phrygia, in battle, they killed King Midas - the same one to whom, according to the myth, the god Apollo “gave” donkey ears for his insolence and stupidity. But in general, this area was densely populated even before the Cimmerians, and they did not manage to gain a strong foothold anywhere. In the second halfVIIcentury BC they apparently completely disappeared into the local population, losing their identity.
The Cimmerian expansion in western Asia Minor lasted longer. It occurred during the reign of King Ardis in LydiaII- the first statesman in history to begin minting coins of a certain weight and fineness. ArdisIIc678 to 644 BC was a co-ruler with his father Gyges, and then reigned independently until 629. It was during this period that the Cimmerians attacked his state and captured its capital, Sardis. The royal army managed to hold only the city's acropolis. According to eastern sources, Gyges fell in defense of Sardis. The Cimmerians ruled in Lydia until Ardis's son Sadiattu (629-617) managed to expel them from his country. Soon after this, the Cimmerians completely disappeared from the historical horizon.
The geographical memory of the Cimmerians remained with the Greeks in the then name of the Kerch Strait - Cimmerian Bosporus. They called some area Cimmeria - apparently, this is the current Kerch Peninsula. The Greeks believed that the entire country, which was later inhabited by the Scythians, was previously owned by the Cimmerians.
From the point of view of most historians, the Cimmerians were an Iranian-speaking people related to the Scythians. But there are also alternative opinions. According to one of them, the Cimmerians belonged to the Aryan community when it had not yet divided into Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches.
Also noteworthy is the consonance of the name of the Cimmerians with the Cimbri - the people who invaded the Roman Empire at the endIIcentury BC The Cimbri are usually considered Germanic. But here we can point to the distribution in ancient times of the same names of peoples in different territories. So, the Cimbri are also known - a tribe in ancient Britain. Moreover, this could not necessarily be a coincidence of words in sound.
For example, the first Slavs are named by ancient authors as Wends, and at the same time, Veneti tribes lived where Venice was later founded, as well as in the west of Gaul (France). Academician V.V. Sedov argued that the Veneti (Venedi) was the name of the not yet divided Central European community, from which the Italians, Celts, Germans, Balts and Slavs subsequently emerged (the latter retained this ancient name longer than others); and the Veneti of northern Italy and Gaul were also immigrants from this area. In the same way, the Nevri mentioned by Herodotus in the west of Scythia could be related to the Celtic tribe of Nervii, or their self-name developed from the same root (by the way, both of them worshiped snakes and practiced ritual werewolfism).
The names Cimmerians, Cimbri and Cimbrians could also be a legacy of the still undivided Indo-European community. Sometimes the self-name of a people long outlives the language in which it originally arose.
The name of the Cimmerians left an interesting mark in the Russian language. Through the Alan “gimir”, which meant “giant, giant”, it passed into the Russian language in the word “idol” (image, idol).
Immerians(Greek ?????????) - the name of the Iranian-speaking tribes that lived on the territory of the Northern Black Sea region in the 10th - 7th centuries BC. and traveled through the Caucasus to Asia Minor.1. First information about the Cimmerians. The first ethnic entity on the territory of Ukraine, which was mentioned in written sources, was the southern neighbors of the Proto-Slavs in the 9th - first half of the 7th centuries. BC. were Cimmerians They are first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey in the 8th century. BC. and “History” of Herodotus (5th century BC), and under the name “gamirra” in Assyrian texts of the 8th-7th centuries. BC. The Iranian-speaking tribes of the Cimmerians occupied a large territory between the Don and the Dniester, as well as the Crimean and Taman peninsulas.
2. Cimmerians - creators of the first nomadic culture of the region. The Cimmerians were descendants of the Srubnaya tribes. They were the first people who fully adapted to the natural conditions of the Eastern European steppes and, thanks to the nomadic method of production, made the most of the rich pastures available here. The Cimmerians created the first nomadic culture of their own in this region. The basis of their economy was nomadic cattle breeding, the leading role in which belonged to horse breeding, which provided “means of transportation” for Cimmerian warriors and shepherds.
3. Wars in the life of the Cimmerians. Wars played a big role in the life of the Cimmerians. Around the middle of the 8th century. BC. they took part in the destruction of the Phrygian kingdom, which was located in the center of modern Anatolia, and in the middle of the 7th century. BC. they captured the capital of the Lydian kingdom of Sardis, which existed at that time in the western part of Asia Minor. The Cimmerians also fought with Urartu and Assyria. Traveling to the distant countries of Western and Minor Asia opened up wide opportunities for nomads to obtain agricultural products and crafts. Some items of Western Asian production from this time have also been discovered in Ukraine.
The dominant position among the Cimmerians was occupied by mounted warriors. They were armed with a bow, dagger, sword, stone or bronze hammer. In close combat, the Cimmerians used swords made entirely of iron or equipped with bronze handles.
4. Material culture, economy, life, art. The material culture, economy and life of the Cimmerians are known mainly from burials, of which there are about a hundred. Leading a nomadic lifestyle, the Cimmerians did not leave long-term settlements. They often placed stone steles over their graves. The Cimmerians produced both simple steel iron and high carbon steel, and the blacksmiths were well versed in the basic techniques of their trade. Bronze, less often gold and glass jewelry, clay and metal utensils were widely used.
The art of the Cimmerians was of an applied nature. They decorated the handles of daggers, parts of bridles, and dishes with good ornaments (a combination of spirals, rhombuses, and squares). Sculptures and statues depicting warriors were also produced.
5. Public organization. In their social development, the Cimmerians experienced the process of separating a military nobility - leaders, whom Herodotus called kings. They often convened meetings of warriors, councils of elders, and allied tribal councils. However, they failed to create a full-fledged state.
6. Historical fate. In the second half of the 7th century. BC. a powerful wave of numerous Scythian tribes drove the Cimmerians out of the Black Sea region. Some of them settled in the Southern Black Sea region, some migrated to the Middle East. Historians believe that a certain part of the Cimmerians remained in Crimea under the name of the Tauri. Some Cimmerian tribes were apparently assimilated by the Scythians.
Such hats were worn by the Ingush, the Kurkhars.
CIMMERIANS The main pastime of this “mobile detachment” is robbery. The Cimmerians are a distinctly aggressive ethnic group. Without hesitation, they went into battle with an enemy superior in numbers, defeated him and plundered settlements.
Cimmerian language is the language of the ancient Cimmerians who lived around the 8th century BC. e. in the Azov region and pushed out from there to the west and south by the Scythians. Several proper names have been preserved from the language, found mainly in Assyrian texts. The names are attributed to Iranian origin and are considered close to the Scythians. The Assyrian Sandaksatru - the name of the Cimmerian king - corresponds to the Avestan candra-csaqra "possessing brilliant power"; Dugdamme corresponds to dugda-maesi "possessing milk sheep"; and Teuspa is compared with the Old Persian Caispis.
Sandaksatru - the name of the Cimmerian king
Sandaksatru- Sandak-sadaru "Star of the Ingush teip Sandakhoy/Ingush name Sandak. Star of Sandak. (Ing. language. San-dak "My-corpse")
Avestan candra-csaqra “possessing brilliant power / from the Ingush language Tsandara Sagar “Fiery, Pure Priest, Man, Ignite)
Dugdamme - from Ingush. Dug-damme "Eternal Heart" / Ingush. Burning Ashes
The word *kem-ro itself in this case gave rise to glory. *sebrъ (peasant, community member). This hypothesis allows us to localize the ancestral home of the Baltoslavic community in the steppes of the Black Sea region - there at the turn of the 1st-2nd millennium BC. e. her contacts with the Cimmerians could have occurred. At the same time, the Proto-Baltic dialects were further from the Cimmerians than the Proto-Slavic ones, since more Cimmerian borrowings are found in Proto-Slavic than in Proto-Baltic.
According to Holzer, this could be the language of the Cimmerians (kimbroi)
Kimbroy - has an analogue with Ingush, Chechen. by the birth of Sibara/Syarbara, Vashindar.
Kamb-roy "Ingush kaam "people"/Ingush kombaro "to itch"
The Cimmerians ruled the territory of Ukraine for about 400 years - from the 11th to the 6th centuries BC. What did the ancestors of Ukrainians “get” from them? And did you “get” anything at all? If so, is this something left in the gentleman’s kit of a modern Ukrainian?
First, let's figure out who the Cimmerians were and what kind of mentality they had.
The Cimmerians are the first of the Eastern European peoples who, thanks to Homer, became known to us by name. In the Odyssey, the poet places them somewhere in the far north. Herodotus clarifies: the Cimmerians lived not only in the north, but also near Pontus Euxine. And according to modern historians, they occupied the entire territory of present-day Ukraine - from the Carpathians to the Donetsk region.
The main pastime of this “mobile detachment” is robbery. The Cimmerians are a distinctly aggressive ethnic group. Without hesitation, they went into battle with an enemy superior in numbers, defeated him and plundered settlements. In the fight against the Cimmerians, Phrygia, Lydia, Bithynia were defeated; The Greek cities of Asia Minor were subjected to their raids for a long time. In 714 BC. The Cimmerians became completely insolent - they invaded Urartu, the most powerful state of Western Asia, comparable to Rome in its heyday, which owned Northern Mesopotamia, Syria, Transcaucasia, and present-day Turkish and Iranian territories. Troops were gathered against the Cimmerians from all over Asia. However, they inflicted a crushing defeat on all this combined power.
How did the Cimmerians win victories? I dare say, not least due to my mentality. While the military art of their near and distant neighbors was based on training, hierarchy and discipline, the mentality of the Cimmerians was distinguished by anarchism, arrogance, and “lawlessness.” Cimmerian warriors - choleric, psychopathic, behaved so impudently, unceremoniously and unpredictably that they baffled even the most notorious boors. They won thanks to tactics unusual for their time, the basis of which was mobility. They had no infantry - their troops consisted exclusively of mounted archers. Such an army was unusually maneuverable. And small arms were distinguished by unprecedented range and penetrating power - their arrows kept the enemy at a distance. The shooting was carried out at a gallop, and not over the heads of the horses, but in the opposite direction. This is the signature style of the Cimmerians: horses, flying from danger, did not need reins and could only be controlled by the legs of the riders - the detachment rushed past the enemy like a whirlwind, and a shower of arrows mowed down the enemy on the spot.
That is why the bulky, well-equipped troops could not cope with them. This tactic was adopted from the Cimmerians by the Scythians, who ousted them from the “Ukrainian” lands - some of the Cimmerian tribes became mercenaries of their former enemies, some migrated to the forest-steppe regions, assimilated with the settled agricultural population and became one of the links in the formation of the Slavs.
Cimmerians (Latin: Cimmerii, ancient Greek: ?????????) are tribes that invaded Transcaucasia in the second half of the 8th century BC. e. and in the 7th century BC. e. conquered some areas of Asia Minor. Also the conventional name of the so-called “Pre-Scythian” peoples of the Northern Black Sea region of the Iron Age.
Kimeri - from the Ingush language Brave, Daring"
other Iranian.language (garbage - stinking lying descendant) / Ingush language
qarik “crow” / from Ingush. harga "crow"/kaig "raven"
qure “proud”/ from Ingush. cura "proud"/ cural "pride"/ curial-meeting of patricians in Rome
nar “fire” / Ingush language Nar “at the entrance, at the door” “door”
semer “darkness/ from Ingush language. Samar "day before yesterday" / seir "evening" Sey-mur "evening horn"
Persian. cal “pit”/ Ingush language cal “from below” koag “pit”/
cel “cow” / Ingush language kal “female” / kal-ett “female cow” / kal-gavr “horse”
tobe “oath” / from Ingush Du bua “oath” (we eat a mortal)
bes/bis “forest”/ from Ingush besh, bish “garden”/ Serbian bashta “garden”
Eastern Iranian language abi-axsaya “to observe”/ from Ingush. habi-ziy "to make an observation"
Scythian-Sarmatian *j"uvaya "alive"/ from the Ingush language vakha, yakha "alive, alive"
Avestan language - debaes “to quarrel” / Ingush language. Dabiy from/Daviy from "kill him"
Scythian-Sarmatian *tarvaya/ Ingush.language. tarwa "similar"
to Scytho-Sarmatian *kata / Ingush language kata “to hit” “to fall”
Kurd. berd "stone" - Ukrainian berdo "rock, hill" / from Ingush. berd "cliff, shore"/ Proto-Slavic language. berd "shore, cliff"
Kurd. qac "shin" - Russian. gachi "thighs, trousers", Ukrainian. gacha "underpants", Bulgarian. gashi "pants", floor. gacie "pants" etc. slav. similar meanings./ From Ingush. Hachi "pants"
drumstick in English golenga "gola, gona, go "knee"
Ukrainian tyagar “heaviness, burden” - Kurdish. texar "weight";/ from Ingush. Tekhar “to drag”/Vez heavy”/ Tekaa “to drag”/Russian tekat
NONSENSE:
The earliest written sources call the Cimmerians the oldest people on the territory of Russia. In the Bible, Homer (that is, the "Cimmerian" - Kimer or Kimr) is recognized as the eldest son of Iapetus, the ancestor of those peoples who are now commonly called "Indo-European" (Aryan race). The eldest son of the “Cimmerian” was considered “Scythian”. The Cimmerian period lasted from 1600 to 1000 AD. BC. Archaeological studies have shown that in the late Bronze Age the steppe and forest-steppe zone of Eastern Europe was occupied by the so-called Srubnaya culture, which belonged to agricultural and pastoral peoples of the “Indo-European” (Aryan) type. Since it is in these places that written sources place the “place of residence” of the Cimmerians, it must be assumed that the Srubnaya culture represents a real trace of the “Cimmerian kingdom”. Hitler did not know that the name "aria", or more correctly "oria", came from the word "yell", which meant to plow. The plowman had to shout at the horse pulling the plow - yell at it: “Furrow, furrow!” so that the horse would follow the furrow and the plow would not take up too much layer. Back in the 19th century, peasants in Rus', going to the fields to plow, said: “I’m going to plow the field.” This suggests that we Russians are more Aryans than Germans. In German, the word “Aryans” has no meaning, which is why the Nazis associated the Aryans not with agriculture, but with war.
Everything Ingush has been divided up by the fucking descendants and is passed off as Aryan, Shmarian.