--- Michael Smith <
mytoyneighborhood@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi George. Couldn't the Cimmerians have been a
> mixed Iranian-
> Thracian group.
****GK: I suspect that the Cimmerian political system
was just as polyethnic as the Scythian. There were
nomads and agriculturalists. Among the former
archaeology discerns two groups, one continuing local
pre-Cimmerian traditions, the other showing "Siberian"
affinities. The Thrakoid agriculturalists of the
Chornolis culture resisted the nomadic pressure by
erecting a series of forts near the Tyasmyn r.
(approximately the boundary between steppe and forest
steppe). These forts were conquered near the end of
the 8th c. ******
Or, couldn't they have been
> originally a Thracian
> people who absorbed incoming Iranian-speakers, maybe
> Scythians?
*****GK: I suppose one might argue that the nomadic
Cimmerians were both Thrakoid and Iranic, with the
latter dominant. The name "Cimmerian" remains
unexplained. There have been efforts to present
Phoenician and Greek etymologies, but "Gimirr" appears
in the Assyrian inscriptions (and becomes "Gomer" in
the Bible). The terms "gumir" "gmirri" mean "hero"
"warrior" "giant" in Georgian and Ossetic.*****
I
> think there's also the possibility that they were
> Thracian, but that
> Iranian names among them being common, just like
> Germanic cheifs had
> Celtic names.
>
> Strabo does mention the Thracian Treres tribe as a
> Cimmerian people.
>
> -Michael
*****GK: We know from Herodotus that there were
"Royal" Cimmerians, just as later there were "Royal"
Scythians. The latter were called Paralata. The
Scythian Foundation Legend is a very complex construct
which might repeat elements of the Cimmerian. We can
only speculate, unfortunately. Were the Royal
Cimmerians also Paralata (an appellation taken over by
the new masters?) or were they "Cimmerians" (a term
meaning "paralata" in their language)? Why is the
second Scythian brother ancestral to two groups? Were
the "Traspies" demoted Cimmerians? etc.******
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