Kimmerians and Skythians in anterior Asia

155 ABSTRACT The mounted Migratory tribes who have appeared on the stage of history in VIIth century B.C. by spreading into the world of Anterior Asia over Caucasus, have caused substantial changes in political and cultural lives of the tribes existing here. The Kimmerians who spreaded towards south and east as a result of the press of Skythians coming from the east have been in relation with Urartu, Frigians, Lydians and Assyrians during migrations, either via wars or by means of agreements and have caused a great deal of changes in the life styles of these nations. Followed by the Kimmerians we understand that Skythians had also left the same impacts by having communicated with Urartu, Assyrians and Persians in its proximity. The most valuable sources to learn the history and cultures of the mounted tribes are the graves, rock images and domestics found in archeological diggings.The prettiest samples of the " animal style" being a form of art pecular to the migrators are being seen in all material findings. Should particularly the tombs and false hills be compared, it is observed that they contain great similarities in respect to their functions and architectural properties. The similarities amongst the tombs and false hills discussed and compositions of the motives, when the necklaces, the harness equipments, the plates etc. Taken out of these false hills are common in all is that they reflect "animal style" in the best manner. Pazırık Tombs and Yedi Kardeş False Hills, Altay and Gordion false hills represent the prettiest examples of their construction methods, functions, findings and these similarities.156 Outside the tombs and false hills, when the studies performed in the regions where Skythians and Kimmerians have spread into and in the places belonging to the tribes with whom they had relations and the data given in the philological sources are compared and when the important work of arts and war tools which also verify these informations are investigated, the cultural and political traces of the mounted nations and the influences they had created in the world of Anterior Asia is being better perceived. These consist of the findings discovered mostly in the cities they had plundered. For instance, Skythian type of arrow points found on Agraptepe in Northwest on Zendan-ı Süleymen in the west and Turgeng Hill in Northern Iran and acquired in Iron Age settlements are the archeological findings which clearly bring out how much Skythians had been effective within these regions in question. Similarly, the horse skeletons discovered in Ziwiye region, Hasanlu settlement around Urmiye Lakebronze dish pieces with Skythian warrior embellishment and the horse harness equipments also point out the same existence. The materials brought out as a result of the Karmir-Blur and Çavuştepe diggings are in the quality of verifying the existences of Skythians and Kimmerians. When Skythian type arrow points, war axes, socket hills and similar fighting tools found in many numbers nearby Haymana town of Ankara, at Gavur Castle, at Sultanhan in the proximity of Kayseri are examined in details by being compared with their paraleles discovered in other regions and these knowledges are compared with the data given in written sources, it has been concluded that Skythians and Kimmerians had substantial effects over the cultural and political mlives of the nations in the world of the Anterior Asia.