Cimmerians

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
The maximum extent of the Scythian kingdom in West Asia and East Europe

Cimmerians were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people originating in the Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were culturally Scythian Jats, they formed an ethnic unit separate from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.[1]

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Name

The English name Cimmerians is derived from Latin Cimmerii, itself derived from the Ancient Greek Κιμμεριοι (Kimmerioi),[16]) of an ultimately uncertain origin for which there have been various proposals:

  • according to János Harmatta, it was derived from Old Iranian *Gayamira, meaning "union of clans."[17]
  • Sergey Tokhtasyev [ru] and Igor Diakonoff derived it from an Old Iranian term *Gāmīra or *Gmīra, meaning "mobile unit."[18][19]
  • Askold Ivantchik derives the name of the Cimmerians from an original form *Gimĕr- or *Gimĭr-, of uncertain meaning.[20]

The name of the Cimmerians is attested in Akkadian as (mat Gimirrāya),[21] [22] and in the form גֹּמֶר‎ (Gōmer) in Hebrew.[23][24]

Identification

The Cimmerians were a nomadic Iranian people of the Eurasian Steppe.[25][26][27] Archaeologically, there was no difference between the material cultures of the pre-Scythian populations living in the areas corresponding to the Caucasian steppe and the Volga and Don river regions around it, and there were also no other significant differences between the Cimmerians and the Scythians, who were related populations indistinguishable from each other in terms of culture and origins.[28][29]

Other suggestions for the ethnicity for the Cimmerians include the possibility of their being Thracian,[30] or Thracians with an Iranian ruling class, or a separate group closely related to Thracian peoples, as well as a Maeotian origin.[31]However, the proposal of a Thracian origin of the Cimmerians has been criticised as arising from a confusion by Strabo between the Cimmerians and their allies, the Thracian tribe of the Treri.[32][33]

Location

The original homeland of the Cimmerians before they migrated into West Asia was in the steppe situated to the north of the Caspian Sea and to the west of the Araxēs river until the Cimmerian Bosporus, and some Cimmerians might have nomadised in the Kuban steppe; the Cimmerians thus originally lived in the Caspian and Caucasian steppes, in the area corresponding to present-day Southern Russia.[34][35] The region of the Pontic Steppe until the Lake Maiōtis was instead inhabited by the Agathyrsi, who were another nomadic Iranian tribe related to the Cimmerians.[36] The later claim by Greek authors that the Cimmerians lived in the Pontic Steppe around the Tyras river was a retroactive invention dating from after the disappearance of the Cimmerians.[37]

During the initial phase of their presence in West Asia, the Cimmerians lived in a country which Mesopotamian sources called Gamir, that is the Land of the Cimmerians, located around the Kuros river, to the north and north-west of Lake Sevan and the south of the Darial or Klukhor passes, in a region of Transcaucasia to the east of Colchis corresponding to the modern-day Gori, in southern Georgia.[38][39]

The Cimmerians later split into two groups, with a western horde located in Anatolia, and an eastern horde which moved into Mannaea and later Media.[40]

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[41] mentions Nations in the vicinity of the Scythian Ocean....Beyond these we come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi, the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons.11 These last extend to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea.12

11 Ansart thinks that the Cicianthi, the Georgi, and the Amazons, inhabited the modern governments of Archangel and Vologda. It seems almost akin to rashness to hazard a conjecture.

12 It has been already stated that the Caspian Sea was, in one portion of it, so called, and in another the Hyrcanian Sea .

Origins

The Cimmerians were originally part of a larger group of Central Asian nomadic populations who migrated to the west and formed new tribal groupings in the Pontic and Caspian steppes, with their success at expanding into Eastern Europe happening thanks to the development of mounted nomadic pastoralism and the adoption of effective weapons suited to equestrian warfare by these nomads. The steppe cultures to which the Cimmerians belonged in turn influenced the cultures of Central Europe such as the Hallstatt culture, and the Cimmerians themselves lived in the steppe situated to the north of the Caspian Sea and to the west of the Araxēs river, while the region of the Pontic Steppe until the Lake Maiōtis was instead inhabited by the Agathyrsi, who were another nomadic Iranian tribe related to the Cimmerians.[42][43]

The Cimmerians are first mentioned in the 8th century BC in Homer's Odyssey as a people living beyond the Oceanus, in a land permanently deprived of sunlight at the edge of the world and close to the entrance of Hades; this mention is poetic and contains no reliable information about the real Cimmerians. Homer's story might however have used as its source the story of the Argonauts, which itself focused on the kingdom of Colchis, on whose eastern borders the Cimmerians were living in the 8th century BC.[44] This corresponds to the 6th century BC records of Aristeas of Proconnesus and the later writings of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, according to whom the Cimmerians lived in the steppe to the immediate north of the Caspian Sea, with the Araxēs river forming their eastern border which separated them from the Scythians,[45][46][47][48] although some tribes of the Scythians, a nomadic Iranian tribe living in Central Asia related to the Cimmerians, nomadised in the Caspian Steppe along the Cimmerians.[49] The Cimmerians thus never formed the mass of the population of the Pontic Steppe, and neither Aristeas nor Hesiod ever recorded them as living in this area.[50]

The social structure of the Cimmerians, according to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, comprised two groups of roughly equal numbers: the Cimmerians proper, or "commoners", and the "kings" or "royal race" – implying that the ruling classes and lower classes originally constituted two different peoples, who retained distinct identities as late as the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Hence the "kings" may have originated as an element of an Iranian-speaking people (such as the Scythians), who had imposed their rule on a section of the people of the Catacomb culture, who were the Cimmerian "commoners."[51]

In the 8th to 7th centuries BC, the Cimmerians were disturbed by a significant movement of the nomads of the Eurasian Steppe: this movement started when the bulk of the Scythians migrated westwards across the Araxēs river,[52] under the pressure of another related Central Asian nomadic Iranian tribe, either the Massagetae[53] or the Issedones,[54] following which the Scythians moved into the Caspian and Caucasian Steppes, assimilated most of the Cimmerians and conquered their territory, while the rest of the Cimmerians were displaced and forced to migrate to the south into West Asia.[55] This displacement of the Cimmerians by the Scythians is attested archaeologically in a disturbance of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk culture associated with the Cimmerians.[56][57][58]

Under Scythian pressure, the Cimmerians migrated to the south into West Asia.[59] The story recounted by Greek authors, according to which the Cimmerian aristocrats, unwilling to leave their lands, killed each other and were buried in a kurgan near the Tyras river, after which only the Cimmerian "commoners" migrated to West Asia, is contradicted by how powerful the Cimmerians were according to Assyrian sources contemporaneous with their presence in West Asia; this story was thus was either a Pontic Greek folk tale which originated after the disappearance of the Cimmerians[60]or a later Scythian legend reflecting the motif of vanished ancient lost peoples which is widespread in folk traditions.[61]

History

The Cimmerians themselves left no written records, and most information about them is largely derived from Assyrian records of the 8th to 7th centuries BC and from Graeco-Roman authors from the 5th century BC and later.

In West Asia

The Cimmerians who migrated into West Asia fled through the Klukhor [ru], Alagir and Darial Gorge passes in the Greater Caucasus mountains,[62][63] that is through the western Caucasus and Georgia into Kolkhis, where the Cimmerians initially settled during the 720s BC.[64] During this period, Cimmerians lived in a country which Mesopotamian sources called Gamir, the Land of the Cimmerians, located around the Kuros river, to the north and north-west of Lake Sevan and the south of the Darial or Klukhor passes, in a region of Transcaucasia to the east of Kolkhis corresponding to the modern-day Gori, in southern Georgia.[65][66] Transcaucasia would remain the Cimmerians' centre of operations during the early phase of their presence in West Asia until the early 660s BC.[67]

The Scythians later also expanded to the south, appearing in West Asia forty years after the Cimmerians, although they followed the coast of the Caspian Sea and arrived in the region of present-day Azerbaijan.[68]

The inroads of the Cimmerians and the Scythians into West Asia over the course of the 8th to 6th centuries BC would destabilise the political balance which had prevailed in the region between the states of Assyria, Urartu, Mannaea and Elam on one side and the mountain and tribal peoples on the other.[69]

रूस निवासियों का भारतीय जाटों से सम्बन्ध

दलीप सिंह अहलावत[70] लिखते हैं- ..... “इण्डिया एण्ड रस्सिया, लिंगुइस्टिक एण्ड कल्चरल अफीनिटी” लेखक डब्ल्यू० आर० ऋषि के अनुसार भारतीयों एवं भारतीय जाटों के रूस निवासियों से सम्बन्ध निम्न प्रकार से हैं -

आर्यों और पूर्वी स्लाव लोगों की भाषा, धर्म तथा धार्मिक त्यौहारों की समानता में विचित्र सम्बन्ध रहे हैं। यह सम्बन्ध मात्र दैवयोग या संयोग से नहीं हो सकते। यह दृढ़ कथन या यथार्थता है कि किसी समय संस्कृत भाषा बोलने वाले और रूसी भाषी लोग अवश्य साथ रहे हैं। रूस के इतिहास के अनुसार रूस के प्रथम निवासी काला सागर के उत्तर में पोनटिक मैदानों (Pontic steppes) में थे जो कि समेरियन्स (Cimmerians) कहलाते थे। ये समेरियन्स, आर्य लोग ही थे जिसके ठोस प्रमाण हैं। ईस्वी पूर्व 11वीं - 8वीं शताब्दियों में इन समेरियन्स के स्थान पर सीथियन या शक लोग आ गए थे। इन शक लोगों ने वहां पर उच्चकोटि की एवं प्राचीन संस्कृति उत्पन्न की जिसका पूर्वी और मध्य यूरोप की जनता पर गहरा प्रभाव पड़ा। इन सीथियन्स या शक लोगों का योगदान रूस के इतिहास पर इतना महान् एवं प्रभावशाली है कि यह सारा समय रूस के इतिहास में “सीथियन विशिष्ट युग” कहलाता है। यूनानी इतिहासकार हैरोडोटस ने सीथिया की सीमा डेन्यूब (Danube) नदी से डॉन (Don) नदी तक जिसमें क्राइमियन के मैदान (Crimean steppes) शामिल हैं, लिखी है। परन्तु प्रसिद्ध भारतीय विद्वान् राहुल सांकृत्यायन ने रूसी वैज्ञानिकों द्वारा हाल में की गई खुदाइयों से प्राप्त प्राचीनकालीन रूसी वस्तुओं का अध्ययन करके लिखा है कि सीथियन या शक लोगों का निवास एवं अस्तित्व कार्पेथियन पर्वतमाला (Carpathian Mountains) से गोबी मरुस्थल (Gobi Desert) तक 2000 ई० पू० से सिकन्दर [p.349]: महान् के समय तक (चौथी शताब्दी ई० पू०) था। यह देश शकद्वीप या शकटापू कहलाता था (पृ० 140-141)।

References

  1. ↑ Tokhtas’ev, Sergei R. [in Russian] (1991). "Cimmerians". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York City, United States: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers.
  2. ↑ Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). "Media". In Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 36-148. ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2.
  3. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  4. ↑ Diakonoff 1985.
  5. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  6. ↑ Diakonoff 1985.
  7. ↑ Ivantchik, Askold (1993). Les Cimmériens au Proche-Orient [The Cimmerians in the Near East] (PDF) (in French). Fribourg, Switzerland; Göttingen, Germany: Editions Universitaires Fribourg (Switzerland); Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Germany). ISBN 978-3-727-80876-0.
  8. ↑ Parpola, Simo (1970). Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. Kevelaer, Germany: Butzon & Bercker. pp. 132–134.
  9. ↑ "Gimirayu [CIMMERIAN] (EN)". Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. University of Pennsylvania.
  10. ↑ Phillips, E. D. (1972). "The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology". World Archaeology. 4 (2): 129–138. doi:10.1080/00438243.1972.9979527. JSTOR 123971.
  11. ↑ Barnett, R. D. (1975). "Phrygia and the Peoples of Anatolia in the Iron Age". In Edwards, I. E. S.; Gadd, C. J.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.). History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c. 1380-1000 B.C. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 417–442. ISBN 978-0-521-08691-2.
  12. ↑ Tokhtas’ev, Sergei R. [in Russian] (1991). "Cimmerians". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York City, United States: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers.
  13. ↑ Prof. B.S. Dhillon: History and study of the Jats/Chapter 2, p. 31
  14. ↑ Phillips, E. D. (1972). "The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology". World Archaeology. 4 (2): 129–138. doi:10.1080/00438243.1972.9979527. JSTOR 123971.
  15. ↑ Barnett, R. D. (1975). "Phrygia and the Peoples of Anatolia in the Iron Age". In Edwards, I. E. S.; Gadd, C. J.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.). History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c. 1380-1000 B.C. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 417–442. ISBN 978-0-521-08691-2.
  16. ↑ Tokhtas’ev, Sergei R. [in Russian] (1991). "Cimmerians". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York City, United States: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers.
  17. ↑ Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). "Media". In Gershevitch, Ilya (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 36-148. ISBN 978-0-521-20091-2.
  18. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  19. ↑ Diakonoff 1985.
  20. ↑ Ivantchik, Askold (1993). Les Cimmériens au Proche-Orient [The Cimmerians in the Near East] (PDF) (in French). Fribourg, Switzerland; Göttingen, Germany: Editions Universitaires Fribourg (Switzerland); Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Germany). ISBN 978-3-727-80876-0.
  21. ↑ Parpola, Simo (1970). Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. Kevelaer, Germany: Butzon & Bercker. pp. 132–134.
  22. ↑ "Gimirayu [CIMMERIAN] (EN)". Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. University of Pennsylvania.
  23. ↑ Phillips, E. D. (1972). "The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology". World Archaeology. 4 (2): 129–138. doi:10.1080/00438243.1972.9979527. JSTOR 123971.
  24. ↑ Barnett, R. D. (1975). "Phrygia and the Peoples of Anatolia in the Iron Age". In Edwards, I. E. S.; Gadd, C. J.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.). History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region c. 1380-1000 B.C. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 2. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 417–442. ISBN 978-0-521-08691-2.
  25. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  26. ↑ 1. von Bredow, Iris (2006). "Cimmeriin". Brill's New Pauly, Antiquity volumes. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e613800. "(Κιμμέριοι; Kimmérioi, Lat. Cimmerii). Nomadic tribe probably of Iranian descent, attested for the 8th/7th cents. BCE." 2. Liverani, Mario (2014). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. Routledge. p. 604. ISBN 978-0415679060. "Cimmerians (Iranian population)" 3. Kohl, Philip L.; Dadson, D.J., eds. (1989). The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, by Muhammad A. Dandamaev and Vladimir G. Lukonin. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0521611916. "Ethnically and linguistically, the Scythians and Cimmerians were kindred groups (both people spoke Old Iranian dialects) (...)"
  27. ↑ Harmatta, János (1996). "10.4.1. The Scythians". In Hermann, Joachim; Zürcher, Erik; Harmatta, János; Litvak, J. K.; Lonis, R. [in French]; Obenga, T.; Thapar, R.; Zhou, Yiliang (eds.). From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Seventh Century A.D. History of Humanity. Vol. 3. London, United Kingdom; New York City, United States; Paris, France: Routledge; UNESCO. ISBN 978-9-231-02812-0.
  28. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  29. ↑ Melyukova, A. I. (1990). Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 97–117. ISBN 978-0-521-24304-9.
  30. ↑ Frye, Richard Nelson (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. Verlag C.H. Beck. p. 70. ISBN 978-3406093975. "The Cimmerians lived north of the Caucasus mountains in South Russia and probably were related to the Thracians, but they surely were a mixed group by the time they appeared south of the mountains, and we hear of them first in the year 714 B.C. after they presumably had defeated the Urartians"
  31. ↑ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 555.
  32. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  33. ↑ Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2000a). "The Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined: the Evidence of the Classical Sources". In Pstrusińska, Jadwiga [in Polish]; Fear, Andrew (eds.). Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka. pp. 71–100. ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8.
  34. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a. 2. Barnett 1982, pp. 333–356.
  35. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  36. ↑ Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2000b). "Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations". In Pstrusińska, Jadwiga [in Polish]; Fear, Andrew (eds.). Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka. pp. 101–140. ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8.
  37. ↑ Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2000a). "The Cimmerian Problem Re-Examined: the Evidence of the Classical Sources". In Pstrusińska, Jadwiga [in Polish]; Fear, Andrew (eds.). Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka. pp. 71–100. ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8.
  38. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  39. ↑ Ivantchik 1993, p. 19-55.
  40. ↑ Ivantchik 1993, p. 57-94.
  41. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 14
  42. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  43. ↑ Olbrycht 2000b.
  44. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  45. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  46. ↑ Olbrycht 2000b.
  47. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  48. ↑ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 556.
  49. ↑ Melyukova 1990, pp. 97–110.
  50. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  51. ↑ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 556.
  52. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  53. ↑ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 553.
  54. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  55. ↑ Melyukova 1990, pp. 97–110.
  56. ↑ Harmatta 1996.
  57. ↑ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 553.
  58. ↑ Olbrycht 2000b.
  59. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  60. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  61. ↑ Ivantchik 2001.
  62. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 93.
  63. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  64. ↑ Barnett 1982, p. 355.
  65. ↑ Olbrycht 2000a.
  66. ↑ Ivantchik 1993, p. 19-55.
  67. ↑ Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  68. ↑ 1. Diakonoff 1985, p. 97. 2. Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 562. 3. Olbrycht 2000a.
  69. ↑ Diakonoff 1985, p. 89-109.
  70. ↑ Jat History Dalip Singh Ahlawat/Chapter IV,pp.346-349

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