Everything about Thraco-cimmerian totally explained
Thraco-Cimmerian is a historiographical and archaeological term, composed of the names of the
Thracians and the
Cimmerians. It refers to
8th to
7th century BC cultures that are linked in Eastern
Central Europe and in the area north of the
Black Sea.
Cimmerians are known from historical records to have invaded
Anatolia around this period, while the Thracians are mentioned as far back as the
Iliad and
Odyssey, where they participate in the
Trojan War; Thracologists and archaeologists generally trace back the Thracians to the Balkan/
Carpatho-
Danubian Chalcolithic period (Hoddinott et al.).
It is sometimes assumed that the migration of the Cimmerians was triggered by an
Iranian expansion, from the area of the former
Srubna culture, into the steppes of what is now the
Ukraine. Virtually nothing is known about the Cimmerian language, but they're usually speculated to belong to the
Satem group on the basis of royal names such as
Sandrakshatra. The Thracian language is poorly attested, but available vocabulary suggests a Satem branch, though theories of a Thracian-Iranian branch have been all but discarded, and no close link between Thracian and Iranian has been demonstrated. The
Sigynnae, reported by classical authors as a tribe of the Black Sea steppes related to the
Medes, may have invaded the area about the time of the Cimmerian expansion.
Archaeologically, "Thraco-Cimmerian" artefacts are metal (usually bronze) items, particularly parts of
horse tacks, found in a late
Urnfield context, but without local Urnfield predecessors for their type. They appear rather to spread from the
Koban culture of the
Caucasus and northern
Georgia, which together with the Srubna culture, blends into the
9th to 7th centuries pre-
Scythian Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures, and by the 7th century, "Thraco-Cimmerian" objects are spread further west over most of Eastern and Central Europe, locations of finds reaching to
Denmark and eastern
Prussia in the north and to
Lake Zürich in the west. Together with these bronze artefacts, earliest
Iron items appear, ushering in the European
Iron Age, corresponding to the
Proto-Celtic expansion from the
Hallstatt culture.
The artifacts labelled "Thraco-Cimmerian" all belong to a category of upper class, luxury objects, like weapons, horse tacks and jewelry, and they're recovered only from a small percentage of graves of the period. From this it's assumed that the "Thraco-Cimmerian" migration didn't consist of large populations, but rather of relatively small groups who installed themselves as ruling class over the indigenous
Urnfield/
Hallstatt population.
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