Some of the earliest Scythian artefacts in Animal style, Arzhan kurgan, Southern Siberia, dated to 8-7th
century BC.
Arrowheads from the 1st kurgan of the Arzhan burials suggests that the typical Scythian socketed arrows
made of copper alloy might have originated during this period.[68][69]
Over the course of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Scythians migrated into the Caucasian and Caspian
Steppes in several waves, becoming the dominant population of the region,[41] where they assimilated
most of the Cimmerians and conquered their territory,[43] with this absorption of the Cimmerians by the
Scythians being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles,[70] after which the Scythians
settled in the area between the Araxes, the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis.[67][40][43][41][42]
Archaeologically, the westwards migration of the Early Scythians from Central Asia into the Caspian
Steppe constituted the latest of the two to three waves of expansion of the Srubnaya culture to the
west of the Volga. The last and third wave corresponding to the Scythian migration has been dated to
the 9th century BC.[71] The Scythians were already skilled at goldsmithing at these early dates.[72]
Materially, the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk culture with which the Cimmerians are associated
showed strong influences originating from the east in Central Asia and Siberia (more specifically from
the Karasuk, Arzhan, and Altai cultures), as well as from the Kuban culture of the Caucasus which
contributed to its development,[41] thus making it difficult to distinguish from the Late Srubnaya culture
of the early Scythians who became dominant in the Pontic steppe and replaced the Cimmerians in the
Caucasian steppe, with both the Cimmerians and the Scythians being part of the larger Chernagorovsk-
Arzhan cultural complex,[73] and both Scythians and the Cimmerians used Novocherkassk objects when
the Scythians initially arrived into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes.[70] The transition from the
Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk culture to the Scythian culture appears to have itself been a continuous
process,[73] and the Cimmerians cannot be distinguished from the Scythians during the period of
transition from the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk culture to the Scythian culture.[74]
During this early migratory period, some groups of Scythians settled in Ciscaucasia and the Caucasus
Mountains' foothills to the east of the Kuban river, where they settled among the native populations of
this region, and did not migrate to the south into West Asia.[47]
Arrival into West Asia
Under Scythian pressure, the displaced Cimmerians migrated to the south along the coast of the Black
Sea and reached Anatolia, and the Scythians in turn later expanded to the south, following the coast of
the Caspian Sea and arrived in the Ciscaucasian steppes, from where they settled in the area between
the Araxes and Kura rivers before further expanding into the region to the south of the Kuros river in
what is present-day Azerbaijan, where they settled around what is today Mingəçevir, Gəncə and