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8th century BC

Cimmerians — tribes inhabiting the Northeastern Black Sea region in the 8th-7th centuries BC. The ethnonym Cimmerians appeared in ancient Greek literature already in Homer. According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians occupied the territory of the Northern Black Sea region up to Thrace, but were driven out from there. The Cimmerians pursued an expansionist policy in the territory of Phrygia, Lydia, and Cappadocia, where they assimilated with the local population. The question of the Indo-European origin of the Cimmerians remains open. The ethnonym 'Cimmerians' is used by ancient and early medieval authors to designate the steppe Black Sea tribes. From the 2nd century AD, the works of ancient authors held the opinion of the Cimmerian land as the afterlife and of the Cimmerians as a mythical people at the entrance to the underworld.

The Cimmerians penetrated Transcaucasia from the steppe zone and in 714 BC were recorded in Assyrian texts under the name of the people "Gimirru." The data obtained from the analysis of the archives of Sargon II, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal are as follows. In 714 BC, the Cimmerians are recorded in the region north or northwest of Lake Sevan, and that in the previous period they paid tribute to Urartu. The Urartian king Rusa I undertook a campaign against the nomads and suffered a major defeat, as a result of which many noble persons were taken captive. At the same time, the Cimmerians attacked the region of Uasi, neighboring Mannaea, in the Lake Urmia area. After these events, the Cimmerians are not mentioned in Assyrian texts for 35 years. During this time, part of them advanced into the western part of Asia Minor, while another group remained near the eastern borders of Assyria. The Asia Minor Cimmerians, in alliance with Tabal, Hilakku, and the Mushki tribe, were hostile to Assyria. In 679 BC, Esarhaddon defeated the army of the Cimmerian king Teushpa in Cappadocia, but this victory had no particular consequences. Soon the Cimmerians attacked and partially subjugated Phrygia, killing King Midas, namesake of the legendary Phrygian ruler. The eastern group of nomads took part in the uprising of Kashtariti in 671-669 BC, which resulted in the formation of the Median Kingdom. Apparently, soon after this, the eastern Cimmerians assimilated with the local population and disappeared from the historical arena, which cannot be said of their western tribesmen. In the 660s BC, they intensified their pressure on Lydia, as a result of which King Gyges turned to Assyria for help. Soon the Lydians managed to defeat the Cimmerians, which for some time secured the kingdom. At this time, the nomads managed to wrest a number of western territories from Assyria, which forced Ashurbanipal to consider them very dangerous opponents. Having grown stronger, the Cimmerians, led by King Dugdammi (Lyghdamis of Greek texts), attacked Lydia again in 644 BC, resulting in the capture of Sardis and the death of King Gyges. At this time, the only clash between the Greeks and the Cimmerians occurs, who managed to capture some cities of Ionia, in particular Magnesia on the Maeander and, apparently, Ephesus. Soon new attacks were launched on Assyria, but during one of these campaigns, King Dugdammi died of illness, and the Cimmerians retreated. His successor Sandakurru is mentioned as an enemy of Assyria in one of Ashurbanipal's texts, but the nomads could no longer restore their power. They are no longer mentioned in Assyrian documents.

In the Bible, the Cimmerians are known as the Japhetic people Gomer. Herodotus calls the Cimmerians the pre-Scythian population of the steppe part of the Northern Black Sea region. They are also mentioned by Homer and Callinus. In the Odyssey, the Cimmerians appear as a legendary people living in the far West by the Ocean, where the rays of the Sun never penetrate. The philologists Aristarchus and Crates corrected Homer's spelling of Cimmerians to "Kerberians" (see Cerberus). Hecataeus spoke of the "Cimmerian city." Ephorus of Cyme places them near Lake Avernus in Italy.

The archaeological cultures of the Northern Black Sea region related to the early Iron Age are often called Cimmerian, and accordingly, this time is called the "Cimmerian era" (11th-7th centuries BC). The origin of the Cimmerians is associated with the tribes of the Srubnaya culture of the Late Bronze Age. A. I. Terenozhkin identified two chronological stages in the "Cimmerian" culture: the first (early) was called Chernogorovka (after the name of the burial mound near the Chernogorovka farmstead in Ukraine), the second (late) — Novocherkassk (after the city of Novocherkassk, near which a hoard of items was found) (Terenozhkin, 1976). Burials are characterized by a crouched position of the skeletons, and numerous finds of horse harness (bits, stirrups). Also, the historical Cimmerians are identified with representatives of the Belozerka culture, as well as the Bilohrudivka and Chornoliska cultures. It should be noted that attempts to connect the historical Cimmerians with the cultures under consideration are highly hypothetical. The renowned German archaeologist Renata Rolle stated that no one has shown archaeological evidence of the presence of Cimmerians in the southern part of Russia and in other countries. In Asia Minor, burials have been discovered that can be confidently linked to the historical Cimmerians, some details of their history have been clarified, and Herodotus' version of the appearance of the Cimmerians in Transcaucasia has been rejected. The material culture of the Cimmerians may be analogous to the tribes of the Scythian community. D. A. Avdusin believed that the intrusive burial No. 5 in the Vysokaya Mogila mound in the Zaporozhye region is Cimmerian. According to radiocarbon analysis, the mound dates to the turn of the 10th and 9th centuries BC.

Most often on Cimmerian items, there is a figure in the form of a diamond-shaped badge with concave sides and a circle in the middle. Almost always such a badge is inscribed in a circle, resulting in a simple four-petal rosette. Such badges were usually used to decorate round bronze plaques with holes for crossing straps of the bridle. The badge could also be given the meaning of amulets. The next series consists of round plaques with an inscribed straight equilateral or, more often, Maltese cross. Currently, all information about the Cimmerian language is highly hypothetical, since only a few proper names in Assyrian transcription (Te-ush-pa, Dug-dam-me, Sandaksatru) have survived from their language, as well as the name of the people themselves. From the point of view of I. M. Diakonov, the name of the Cimmerian king Sandaksatru is absolutely analogous to the Iranian "Artaxerxes" and can be interpreted as "the power of the god Sandon" (a Luwian deity). This suggests an Indo-Iranian affiliation of the Cimmerians. The self-name of the Cimmerians probably sounded like "Gimer" or "Gimir."

There is also a version that the Cimmerians were close to the Thracians.

Based on the visual art of neighboring peoples, the clothing of the Cimmerians is reconstructed. They wore leather jackets, trousers, boots, and pointed caps.

Toponymy and known characters: - Cimmerick — an ancient port city (Crimea, Kerch Peninsula); - Cimmerian rampart on the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas (built by the Greeks after the Cimmerians); - Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait); - Cimmerian crossings; - Cimmerian plate; - Teushpa (died around 679 BC); - Tugdammi (Dugdammi, Lyghdamis) (died in 640 BC); - Sandakurru (Shandakurru) (after 640 BC); - In popular culture, the fictional Cimmerian Conan is known.

According to Khudaverdyan 2012, craniological and dental studies reveal a direct familial relationship between subjects from the following burial grounds:

• 2000-1500 BC — 99 Volga-Ural region, Spiridonovka II, Rozhdestveno I. Abashevo culture. Figure 2
• 1800-1100 BC — 144 Ukraine, Shirochansky. Thracians, Cimmerians. Srubnaya and Belozerka cultures. Figures 2, 3
• 1100-600 BC — 20 Georgia, Mtskheta, Samtavro, Tserovani. Figures 2, 3
• 600-300 BC — 129 Don Estuary, Beglitsa. Scythians, Maeotians. Figure 2

Judging by the Abkhaz-Adyghe G2a2b, which prevailed in the Northern Black Sea region before the Caucasian War, there are direct grounds to consider G2a2b as one of the main haplogroups of the Cimmerians.

VARIANT NAMES: Latin Cimmerii, Himeres, Greek Κιμμεριοι, Assyrian Gimiri, Russian Cimmerians, Gimirru, Kerberii.


Sources:

Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015


Written records about the Cimmerians:

1200 BC — Cimmerians mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey (11.14), referring to approximately 1250 BC.

1000 - 700 BC — Cimmerians in Thrace

9th or 8th century BC — Homer speaks of Cimmerians living on the shores of the Ocean at the edge of the known world, apparently referring to the northern shores of the Black Sea

900 - 650 BC — traces of Cimmerians found in the ancient pre-Scythian cultures of Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk

800 BC — Herodotus: Cimmerians approximately in today's Ukraine, north of the Black Sea. Retreating from the Scythians, they moved south through the Caucasus and stopped in the country of Mannaea (in the area of the modern city of Mahabad).

721 - 715 BC — Sargon II mentions the country of Gamir, near Urartu. Sennacherib also mentions the land of Gamir, near Urartu

714 BC — Assyrian sources mention the Cimmerians as Gimirri, who invaded Assyrian lands from the far north. The Cimmerians helped the Assyrian king Sargon II defeat Urartu. It is also said that their homeland in the country of Mannaea is called either Gamir or Uishdish, north of Assyria

714 - 626 BC — Cimmerians kill the Assyrian king in battle, plunder Phrygia and Lydia

714 BC — King Rus I of Urartu kills himself after defeat by the Assyrians and Cimmerians

705 BC — Cimmerians rebelled against Sargon II of Assyria. Sargon dies in battle against Kulummu. The Cimmerians advance east from Mannaea, through Mede settlements into the Zagros mountains, and then south into Elam

700 BC — Scythians drive the Cimmerians out of Crimea, the Cimmerians retreat to the area around Lake Van (Turkey)

700 BC — Scythians invade Thrace

696 - 695 BC — Cimmerians devastate Phrygia, causing the Phrygian king Midas to take poison to avoid capture. The Cimmerians sack the capital — Gordion

695 BC — Cimmerians destroy Phrygia. King Midas dies

679 - 678 BC — Cimmerians under King Teushpa invade Assyria and attack Cilicia and Tabal, but are defeated by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon in the area of Hubuschna (Cappadocia?)

676 - 674 BC — Cimmerians devastate Phrygia and reach Paphlagonia

654 or 652 BC — Cimmerians attack the kingdom of Lydia, sack Sardis. The Lydian king Gyges dies in battle against the Cimmerians. The Cimmerians, together with the Thracians, plunder the Ionian Greek colonies in western Asia Minor. The Greek poets Callinus and Archilochus described these events with horror

644 BC — During the reign of Gyges' son Ardys II. The Cimmerians return to Lydia and occupy Sardis (except the citadel). The Cimmerians soon retreat, possibly due to an outbreak of plague

634 BC — Scythians invade Thrace and defeat the Cimmerians

637 - 626 BC — Cimmerians are defeated by the Lydian king Alyattes II. They no longer appear in Asia. Possibly, the Cimmerians eventually settled in Cappadocia.

515 BC — Mention of the Cimmerians in the Behistun Inscription, carved by order of King Darius

50 BC — Mentions by Roman authors (Pliny c. 50 AD, Ovid c. 10 AD, etc.) place the Cimmerians near Lake Avernus (Italy).


The first historical account of the Cimmerians appears in the Assyrian chronicle, which dates to 714 BC. They are described as people called Gimirri, who helped the forces of Sargon II of Assyria defeat the kingdom of Urartu. Their original homeland, called Gamir or Uishdish, seems to have been located within the buffer state of Mannaea. The later geographer Ptolemy placed the Cimmerian city of Gomara in this area. After their conquests of Colchis and Iberia in the First Millennium BC, the Cimmerians also became known as Gimirri in the Georgian language. According to Georgian historians, the Cimmerians played an influential role in the development of both Colchian and Iberian culture. The modern Georgian word for hero — gmiri — is derived from the word Gimirri, a direct reference to the Cimmerians who settled in the area after initial conquests.

Some modern authors claim that the Cimmerians included mercenaries whom the Assyrians knew as Khumri, who were resettled in Assyria by Sargon. However, later Greek sources describe the Cimmerians as people who previously lived in the steppe between the Tyras (Dniester) and the Tanais (Don). Several kings of the Cimmerians are mentioned in Greek and Mesopotamian sources.

According to Herodotus' Histories (440 BC), the Cimmerians were driven from the steppes at some point by the Scythians, but who nevertheless ensured burial on their ancestral homeland for the men of the Cimmerian royal family. The Cimmerian common people buried the bodies of their relatives along the Tyras River and fled from the Scythian advance through the Caucasus to Anatolia and the Middle East.

The movements of the Cimmerians were recorded by the Assyrians, whose king, Sargon II, died in battle against them in 705 BC. They subsequently conquered Phrygia in 696 BC – 695 BC.

Historians know the names of three Cimmerian kings — Teushpa, Sandakshatra, and Dugdamis. Teushpa certainly derives from the Mitannian god Teshub.

According to Herodotus, the pre-Scythian population of the steppe part of the Northern Black Sea region was a people of Iranian origin — the Cimmerians. Homer also mentions the Cimmerians in his Odyssey. The Cimmerians had contacts with Urartu, Assyria, Phrygia, and Lydia. In Assyrian archives from 714 BC, the Cimmerians are called "Gimirri," and in the Bible, the Cimmerians are called "Gomer." Several names of Cimmerian kings in Assyrian transcription have been preserved: — Te-ush-pa (Teushpa) — Cimmerian king. Teushpa in 668 BC founded the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia. He was married to the daughter of the Scythian king Ishpakaya — Shpako; from their marriage was born the future king of the Persians, Cyrus I. The ancient Greeks called the tribes of the Northern Black Sea region Cimmerians in the 6th century BC, and the Kerch Strait — the "Cimmerian Bosporus." Greek historians and geographers sometimes confused the Cimmerians with the Scythians, who expelled the Cimmerians from the Northern Black Sea region. The Cimmerians and Scythians were related tribes with similar burial mound customs. Burial mounds discovered in Transcaucasia and the Northern Black Sea region are characteristic of the Cimmerian and Scythian tribes. Excavations of the Uashkhitu mound in Adygea, near the village of Koshekhabl in the Fars River valley, revealed 42 burials and 7 ritual horse burials, covering a vast historical time span of 3 thousand years — from the 3rd millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Among other burials in the mound, a Cimmerian burial of a leader and a team of four horses harnessed to a wooden chariot was found. A site of a large "feast," a funeral repast, in honor of the Cimmerian leader was discovered.

One of the first in Russian historiography to write about the Cimmerian origin of the Circassians was F.A. Shcherbina. F.A. Shcherbina states that the Cimmerians are the first historically known people to inhabit the territories of the North Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region. Further, citing Uslar, he speaks of the Cimmerians as the ancestors of the Ossetians. Similarly, citing Uslar, but already in the second volume, he derives the Cimmerian origin of the Circassians. After the Scythian invasion, according to Shcherbina, the Cimmerians left the Northern Black Sea region but held out in the mountains. At the same time, the author refers to Dionysius, an author of the 2nd century AD, who lists the Cimmerians themselves among the peoples of the Western Caucasus. In sum, the Cimmerians appear in Shcherbina as an independent Aryan ethnos, the most ancient inhabitant of the territory of Circassia, which ceased its state existence in the 7th century BC as a result of Scythian expansion and dissolved into the North Caucasian Circassian environment.

The most comprehensive version of the Cimmerian origin of the Abkhaz-Adygs was proposed by L.I. Lavrov. He included the Tauri, Kerketi, Maeotians, Zygii, Achaeans, and Sindi in the Cimmerian tribal union. But it should be noted the later origin of these ethnonyms. V.P. Shilov classified the Maeotians as remnants of the Cimmerians, believing that this most ancient ethnic massif of the Western Caucasus was "Adyghe-Abkhaz-speaking." A similar opinion was expressed by S.A. Tokarev. Regarding the Adyghe-Abkhaz-speaking nature of the most ancient inhabitants of the Western Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region, productive observations were made by Ivane Javakhishvili, who distinguished among the names of Black Sea epigraphy (mainly Bosporan) names ending in -agos, -akos. In these endings, the Georgian academician saw the typically Adyghe endings of names -ago, -ako, -akva, -akuo, with the addition of Greek -s. Ivane Javakhishvili's research served as a basis for a number of subsequent works. Thus, M.I. Artamonov expressed the idea that the Bosporan dynasts of the Spartocids were not of Thracian origin and "the possibility that Spartocus was not even a Thracian by name is not excluded," — this author considered the Maeotians to be "remnants of the Cimmerian union, if not the Cimmerians themselves." In connection with the concept of I.A. Javakhishvili — M.I. Artamonov, the collection of names of Thracian dynasts, also having a specific Adyghe formation, is of significant interest: Met-Metoko, Rez-Rezoko, Amatokho, Sarat-Saratoko, Sparad-Sparadoko. Taking into account the monograph by Met Izzet-pasha Jenatuko "The Ancient Thracians and the Circassians" and the second volume of "The Origin of the Circassians" by Aytek Namitok, also devoted to historical and ethnographic parallels between the Thracians and the Circassians, it can be stated that the Thracian theme is relevant in the context of the Cimmerian version of the origin of the Abkhaz-Adygs. More detailed disclosure of the material here.