Episode 8: Kimmerians: Through the Caucasus

02/19/22 • 33 min

Nomads and Empires

We finally start the narrative and introduce our first named historical group: the Kimmerians.

We finally start the narrative and introduce our first named historical group: the Kimmerians.

Previous Episode

Episode 7: The Khan of Arzhan 1

We assess environmental and sociocultural changes of the 1000s BCE and track how these changes would culminate in the kurgan of Arzhan 1.

Next Episode

Episode 9: Kimmerians: The Ancient Near Eastern Cold War

Today, we explore the years 720-714 BCE as the Near Eastern states of Assyria and Urartu duke it out in a grand geopolitical struggle. All the while, the Kimmerians are making their way further and further into the region.

Nomads and Empires - Episode 8: Kimmerians: Through the Caucasus

Transcript

Welcome back to the Nomads and Empires podcast, episode 8. The story above is one of the only pieces of information we know about the Kimmerians, and it is a tragic experience that also heralds many motifs we’ll see across steppe history. The emergence of an eastern invader displacing groups on the western steppes is one that we’ll see throughout history, and this may be the first recorded instance of such an event. However, before we dive further into that, we need to start off with a few