into the northern Pontic region through Crimea, archaeological evidence instead suggests that the Royal
Scythians migrated northwards into western Ciscaucasia,[136] and from there into the country of those
Scythians who had previously established themselves in the Pontic steppe.[89][43]
Some of the Scythian groups who had settled in the eastern Pontic steppe to the east of the Dnipro river
were displaced by the arrival of the Royal Scythians from West Asia, and they moved north into the
region of the forest-steppe zone,[137] outside of the Pontic Scythian kingdom itself. These groups formed
the tribes of the Androphagi, Budini, and Melanchlaeni.[136]
During this early phase of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, the hold of the Royal Scythians on the western
part of the steppe located to the west of the Dnipro was light, and they were largely satisfied with the
tribute they levied on the sedentary agriculturist population of the region. Meanwhile, the tribe of the
Aroteres, which consisted of a settled Thracian population over which ruled an Iranic Scythian ruling
class, imported Greek pottery, jewellery and weapons in exchange of agricultural products, and in turn
offered them in tribute to their Scythian overlords.[138][90] However, the country of the Alazones tribe
appears to have become poorer during this time, in the early 6th century BC, when many of the rebuilt
pre-Scythian settlements in their territory were destroyed by the Royal Scythians arriving from West
Asia.[53]
In Crimea, the Royal Scythians took over most of the territory up to the Cimmerian Bosporus in the
east.[139] In western Ciscaucasia, where the Scythians were not large in number enough to spread
throughout the region, they instead took over the steppe to the south of the Kuban river's middle
course, where they reared large herds of horses.[89]
It was at this time[83] that the Scythians brought the knowledge of working iron which they had acquired
in West Asia with them and introduced it into the Pontic Steppe, whose peoples were still Bronze Age
societies until then.[77] Some West Asian blacksmiths might also have accompanied the Scythians during
their nortwards retreat and become employed by Scythian kings, after which the practice of ironworking
soon spread to the neighbouring populations.[77]
During this period, the tribe of the Royal Scythians would primarily bury their dead at the edges of the
territories they occupied, especially in the western Cisaucasian region, instead of within the steppe
region that was the centre of their kingdom; due to this, several Scythian kurgan nekropoleis were
located in Ciscaucasia, with some of them being significantly wealthy and belonging to aristocrats or
royalty, and the Royal Scythians' burials in the Kuban Steppe were the most lavish of all Scythian
funerary monuments during the Early Scythian period.[140][19] [89] During the early 6th century BC, the
some groups of Transcaucasian Scythians migrating northwards would arrive into the Pontic Steppe to
reinforce the Royal Scythians who had already arrived there.[89]
Meanwhile, the Median, Lydian, Egyptian, and Neo-Babylonian empires that the Scythians had
interacted with during their stay in West Asia were replaced at this time by the Persian Achaemenid
Empire founded by the Persian Cyrus II. The Persians were an Iranic people just like the Scythians and
the Medes, and, during the early phase of the Achaemenid empire, their society still preserved many
archaic Iranic aspects which they had in common with the Scythians.[141] The formation of the
Achaemenid empire appears to have pressured the Scythians into remaining to the north of the Black
Sea.[131]
Soon after, during the Early Scythian period itself, the centre of power of the Royal Scythians shifted
from the eastern Pontic steppe to the north-west, in the country of the Aroteres tribe, where was