Cimmerians: A forgotten people of the ancient world
Cimmerians: A forgotten people of the ancient world

Summary/Abstract: The paper addresses the problem of the ethnicity of the ancient Cimmerians by reconsidering the scarce evidence of their language as attested in Greek, Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources. They include a single gloss árgilla ‘underground house’, which proved not to be genuine; three names of rulers, that can be best explained from Old Iranian; and the etymologically unclear ethnic name itself. The name might reflect the ethnic (and linguistic) division of the Cimmerians reported by Herodotus: into a ruling class (basilées), presumably a nomadic Iranian superstratum, and the common people (dêmos) as its (probably Indo‑European) substratum.

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