Re: Cimmerians

--- In cybalist@..., george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

> AFAIK the Cimmerians disappear from history in the
> late 7th c. BC, and the last mention of this people is
> made in connection with Lydian politics. I only know
> three "royal" names associated with them, two of which
> have clear Iranic affinities (SANDANKSHATRU (but
> SANDAN also has Thracian possibilities) and TSUSHPA)
> while another (LYGDAMIS, -DUGDAM in Assyrian
> sources-)is uncertain to me (Herodotus mentions two
> Greek personages called LYGDAMIS). The leading
> theories are that the Cimmerians were either Iranic
> speakers or Thracian speakers.

So far three names to (possibly) back that up. Further evidence?

>Ukrainian and Russian
> sources I have read suggest that (pace Herodotus)most
> Cimmerians stayed behind and were assimilated by the
> incoming Scythians, or blended in with the
> pre-Scythian (and pre-Cimmerian) ethna.

The Cimmerians held out in Tauris, on the Cimmerian Bosporus, Kerch.

>I am exploring
> the possibility that the famous Scythian Foundation
> Legend may have had an earlier variant in which
> Cimmerians played the same role as the subsequent
> Royal Scythians (a late and dominant "younger
> brother"). This has some support in the archaeology
> but is as yet not ready for comprehensive
> presentation.== Frankly I don't see how the Cimmerians
> can be viewed as Celts or Germans. There is nothing to
> substantiate this in the eastern materials.

Anything to disprove it?

>I know of
> nothing in the Hallstatt culture which would prove
> that the Cimmerians of the East were a leading
> component or indeed any kind of component here.
>

And to disprove it?

Torsten