Scythians

Scythians are the forebears of most Indo- European nations today, and yet we know so little about them. A list of nations :

In Europe

Celtic - lived in Scythia, as per ancient Irish annals; the Tuatha de Danann even brought back a contingent of Scythians with them

Germanic tribes - descended from Scythian tribes that wandered over into Europe from little Scythia, which was near the Black Sea; prior to that these Scythians had lived in what is today Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but after fighting the Scythian tribe of Massagetae (i.e. 'great getae'), they migrated west. They were chasing another mysterious people,the Cimmerians, from whom the Welsh(Cymru) claim,  and certain Germanic tribes (Sugambri) trace, their descent.

Scandinavia - most of the pantheon worshipped by the Svearna (ancestors of the Swedes) were people called the Aesir. They came from the East and fought with the extant Vanir. Odin (Wotan) and Thor were from this family. Additionally the Gotarna of Southern Sweden were Goths and related to the Getae of Thrace, the Visigoth and Ostrogoths and the Massagetae of Asia.

Saxons - a tribe not mentioned by name in ancient history of tribes but evident that Sakson could be another spelling ie sons of Saka (the ancient and proper spelling of Scythian). Even Saxon historians described the men sent back to mainland Europe to get more men for the invasion and settlement of Briton as returning to Scythia

Sarmatians - the lands of the Poles and Russians was ancient Sarmatia; Sarmatians were the product of Scythian men and Amazon women, hence the cultural and language differences between Germanics and Slavs

In Asia

Parthians - originally united around the Pars tribe, Iran was also ruled by a Scythian dynasty in the form of the Parthians, who were a clan from the Dahae tribe. The Dahae are linked to the Goths, as per a strange paragraph in the the Annals and Deeds of the Goths. 

Jat & Rajput tribes - of northern India, especially the Punjab have been linked by British ethnographers to Scythian origins, although heavily mixed with the pre-Indo European Dravidian population; probably have Kushan, Chionite, & Massagetae blood.

Afghans - still settled in the area where the Sakas (i.e. Scythian) migrated; probably more likely to be descended from the Massagetae, Scythians and especially the Hephthalites (another Scythic nation), a brutal, warlike people that savaged both the Persians and the Turks till the two united and destroyed their kingdom.

 In essence, the nation of Scyths (Sakas) spread from the western coast of Ireland to the bay of Bengal.

Misconception - central asia was exclusively turco-mongol in ancient times

Reality - the nascent Turks (Gok Turk back then) and the Mongols were living near the Tien Shan and Altai range. This is not to say that populations did not mix. The finding of red-haired mummies in the Gobi proves this, but it is clear that central Asia, especially between the Oxus and Jaxartes river and most of Afghanistan was Ancient Scythia, and that the Scythians were nomadic caucosoids.

There really isnt any proof that they are descendants of the Massagatae more than say the Saka.  The Homavargan Saka migrated from their lands North of the Oxus into what is today Afghanistan around the 2nd century BC.  Prior to them, the Greeks mentioned the "Paktyes."  In Greek, the "Y" usually means the letter "U" and we come to the "Paktues"  In Avestan the word "Apaxtara" was used to describe "Northern" , similar to the word, "A-paktra". Apaxtara can also mean "Behind" Or people 'behind' the mountains.  I think these people were originally Scythians pushed farther into the mountains by migrations of the Aryans and other Scythians after them.

I have read somewhere that Scythian and Askenazian/Ashkenazi are ethimologically the same words. Scythians are Indo-european. Kurds are also Indo-Europeans and come from Meds. New genetical research results show that Ashkenazi Jewish male genes have similarities with Kurdish genes in the Middle East. Can we say that Hazarian population was a mixture of Jewish Turkish and Scythian populations?

Arfunda

From the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi

"The word "Ashkenaz" first appears in the genealogy in the Tanakh (Genesis 10) as a son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth. It is thought that the name originally applied to the Scythians (Ishkuz), who were called Ashkuza in Assyrian inscriptions, and lake Ascanius and the region Ascania in Anatolia derive their names from this group"

I have also a book in Turkish telling that they were called as Scythe in Greek and A�kuzai/A�kuza in Assyrian. (K�rz�o�lu, F.,1992)

Well lets be realisitic about Scythian, this is the greek name, more appropriate name is Saka, Chinese called them Sia (Xia). They are central Asia, Germans can trace back to them due to mixing of nrothmen tribes and Saka, ie Visa Goths and Goths, Saka's are an Iranian tribe, there is exactly 80 Iranian tribes, Persians, Medes being like Saka one out of 80. Their linguistic ties is in Ancient Iranian. there is no such thing as a European tribe because europe did not exist nor are they from this part of the world originally. More appropriate name is Iranian, sicne even though being a central Asian tribe does nto share a commonality with Chinese or Mongolian tribes.

I can provide more info for those who wish to know more or give a link to some websites with reliable information. Work done by Archaeologists.

The second group of nomads known to have gone south, is the tribe of the Cimmerians. Their name Gimirru -given to them by the Assyrians- means 'people traveling back and forth'; this name still exists in our word 'Crimea'. The Cimmerians destroyed the kingdoms of Urartu (an old name for Armenia) and Phrygia (in Turkey) in the first quarter of the seventh century BCE; other Scythians reached Ascalon in Palestine. According to Herodotus, they ruled the northwest of Iran (which Herodotus calls Media) for twenty-eight years.

In the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries BCE, the Persians discerned several nomad tribes on the Central-Asian steppe. As we have seem, they called them Sak�. We know the names of these tribes from Persian royal inscriptions and can add information from Herodotus and other Greek authors.

• The Sak� haumavarg� ('haoma-drinking Sacae') were subjected by Cyrus the Great. Herodotus calls them Amyrgian Scythians. Haoma was a trance inducing drink, made from fly agaric. This mushroom does not occur south of the river Amudar'ya (Oxus). Consequently, we may assume that these nomads lived in Uzbekistan. Herodotus informs us that they wore trousers and pointed caps; they fought as archers. He also mentions their use of the battle ax (which they called sagaris).
  
  
• The Sak� tigrakhaud� ('Sacae with pointed hats') were defeated in 520/519 BCE by the Persian king Darius I the Great, who gave this tribe a new leader. One of the earlier leaders was killed, the other, named Skunkha, was taken captive and is visible on the relief at Behistun. (It is possible that Darius created a new tribe from several earlier tribes.) Herodotus calls the Sak� tigrakhaud� the Orthocorybantians ('pointed hat men'), and informs us that they lived in the same tax district as the Medes. This suggests that the Sak� tigrakhaud� lived on the banks of the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya, which used to have a mouth in the Caspian Sea south of Krasnovodsk. The pointed hat is a kind of turban.

• The Ap� Sak� ('Water Sacae') are also known as the Pausikoi, as Herodotus prefers to call them. Later authors, like Arrian of Nicomedia (in his Anabasis) and Ammianus Marcellinus (in his Roman history) call them the Abian Scythians; still later, we encounter them as the Apasiaki, first east and later southwest of Lake Aral. They must be situated along the ancient lower reaches of the Amudar'ya.
  
  
• The tribe that Herodotus calls 'Massagetes' must have been called something like M�h-Sak� in Persian, which means 'Moon Sacae', but this is confusing. Ma-Sak� means Moon Sacae, and it is known that the Massagetes venerated only one god, the Sun. The Massagetes were responsible for the death of the Persian king Cyrus the Great (in December 530). From Herodotus' description, it is clear that they lived along the Syrdar'ya (Jaxartes).
  
  
• The nomad tribe known as Dah�, which means 'robbers', is mentioned for the first time in the Daiva inscription of Xerxes; he must have subjected them. Herodotus calls the Dai a Persian nomad tribe (above), but they can not have lived in Persia proper, because they are mentioned in the Anabasis of Arrian as living along the lower reaches of the Syrdar'ya. In the days of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, they were famous for their mounted archers. It is possible that this tribe desintegrated after the fall of the Achaemenid empire; one of the tribes that came into being, was that of the Parni, who went south in the third century BCE and founded the Parthian empire.
  
  
• The Sak� paradray� ('Sacae across the sea') were living in Ukraine. These are the nomads that the Greeks called Scythians. In (514 or) 513 BCE, king Darius launched a disastrous campaign against the Sak� paradray�. Herodotus gives a long description of their way of life and discerns many tribes in the neighborhood

The steppe nomads frequently attacked the urbanized regions to the east, south or west. Usually, this created great havoc, but after some time, they went back to their homeland. However, it was necessary for the attacked states to defend themselves. The Indians thought that they did not need walls because they were was protected by the Himalayas; c.110 BCE, the valley of the Indus was run over. The Chinese built the 'Wall of ten thousand miles' to protect themselves. The rulers of the Achaemenid empire, from Cyrus the Great to Alexander the Great, may have built walls as well. These walls are mentioned in the eighteenth sura of the Quran and in medieval legend, but cannot be identified with known archaeological remains. It is certain, however, that both Cyrus and Alexander built garrison towns along the river Syrdar'ya or Jaxartes; our sources call them Cyreschata and Alexandria Eschat�.

Nomadism continued to exist into the first and second millennium CE. Several tribes may be mentioned. The Alani -whose language lives on in modern Ossetian- are known from the first century CE; they lived in modern Kazakhstan. Later, they moved to the west, being pushed forward by the Huns, which are known from Chinese texts as the Xiung-nu. Later tribal formations were the Avars, the Chasars, the Bulgars, the Turks, the Magyars, the Cumans, the Tatars, the Mongols and the Cossacks.

Literature:

• J. Harmatta, 'Herodotus, historian of the Cimmerians and the Scythians' in: H�rodote et les peuples non Grecs. Neuf expos�s suivis de discussions (Entretiens sur l' Antiquit� classique, tome XXV) (1990 Gen�ve), pages 115-130.
• Renate Rolle, Die Welt der Skythen. Stutenmelker und Pferdebogner: ein antikes Reitervolk in neuer Sicht, 1980 Lucerne.
• T. Sulimivski, 'The Scyths' in: Ilya Gershevitch (ed.): The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. II: The Median and Achaemenian Periods, 1985 Cambridge, pages 149-199.
• Stephanie West, "Scythians" in: Egbert Bakker, Irene de Jong and Hans van Wees (eds.), Brill's Companion to Herodotus (2002 Leiden), pages 437-456.

Taken from an article by By: Jona Lendering