The Cimmerians were an ancient people of possibly Iranian, Thracian or Phrygian origin, who lived in the south of modern-day Ukraine (Crimea and northern Black sea coast) and Russia (Black Sea coast and Caucasus), at least in the 8th and 7th century BC. Little is known about them, but they were mentioned in the writings of the Greek writer Homer, who says that they live in a land of fog and darkness at the borders of the known world. The historian Herodotus gives more details about their history, describing the savagery of their plunder raids and their attack on Lydia, when they occupied for a brief time the Lydian capital of Sardis. The Cimmerians as a distinctive people were almost completely wiped out by another group of Iranians, namely the Scythians, who had migrated from Central Asia under pressure from Altaic tribes. Nomad Scythian cavalry tactics completely crushed the Cimmerian soldiers, though it is thought that the Scythians had ultimately adopted their horse-riding skills from the Cimmerians. Many scholars think that originally Scythians and Cimmerians may have been ethnically related peoples. However, there is little evidence in support of this view, since so little is known about the Cimmerian language. After their defeat at the hands of the Scythians, a remnant of the Cimmerians took refuge in the mountains of the Crimean peninsula and became subsequently known as the Tauri.

Assyrian annals mention the Cimmerians in the time of Sargon II and Esarhaddon.

In the early twentieth century the home of the Cimmerians in the Caucasus led to their association with the ancient Aryans. This may be partially true. It seems that their leaders may have been of Iranian linguistic origin.

The reputation of the Cimmerians for savagery, combined with their mysteriousness, led the fantasy author Robert E. Howard to identify his character Conan the Barbarian as a Cimmerian. In the poem "Cimmeria" he describes the place as "land of darkness and the night", a gloomy place with dark woods, dusky silent streams and a leaden cloudy sky.

Some Celtic and Germanic peoples consider themselves descended from the Cimmerians and some of their ethnic names seem to bear out this belief (e.g. Cymru, Cwmry or Cumbria, Cimbri). This belief is, however, debated. The actual etymology of Cymru (i.e. Wales) and Cwmry (i.e. Cumbria) is firmly established as Celtic kom-broges, meaning "fellow countrymen". As for the Cimbri, it is not even known for certain whether they were Celtic, Germanic, or even, as a third alternative, from an earlier Western Indo-European layer connected with the Ligurians.

In Abrahamic religion, Gomer (גמר), Standard Hebrew Gómer, Tiberian Hebrew Gōmer is traditionally identified with the Cimmerians.

See also

• Gog and Magog
• Saka
• Celts
• Amazons
• Cimbri

External links

• http://members.tripod.com/great-bulgaria/Central-Asian-Nomads-Unite/cimmeria/
• http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/W.Europe/W.Europe4.html