# Names of the Scythians

The names of the Scythians are a topic of interest for classicists and linguists. The Scythians were an Iranic people best known for dominating much of the Pontic steppe from about 700 BC to 400 BC. The name of the Scythians is believed to be of Indo-European origin and to have meant "archer". The Scythians gave their name to the region of Scythia. The Persians referred to all Iranic nomads of the steppes, including the Scythians, as Sakas. Some modern scholars apply the name Scythians to all peoples of the Scytho-Siberian world, but this terminology is controversial.

## Etymology

Linguist Oswald Szemerényi studied synonyms of various origins for Scythian and differentiated the following terms: Skuthēs (Σκυθης), Skudra (𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼), Sugᵘda (𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭) and Sakā (𐎿𐎣𐎠).
From the Indo-European root (s)kewd-, meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word shoot), of which *skud- is the zero-grade form, was descended from the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as *Skuẟa (roughly "archer"). The collective endonym of the Scythians, *Skuẟatā, was formed by the addition of the suffix *-tā, which denoted the plural form.
From *Skuẟa were descended the following exonyms:
* Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀, romanized: Iškuzaya, and 𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 Askuzaya, used by the Assyrians
* Old Persian: 𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼, romanized: Skudra
* Ancient Greek: Σκυθης, romanized: Skuthēs (plural Σκυθαι, Skuthai), used by the Ancient Greeks
   * The Old Armenian: սկիւթ, Skiwtʰ, is based on itacistic Greek
A late Scythian sound change from /δ/ to /l/ resulted in the evolution of *Skuẟa into *Skula, from which was derived the collective endonym of the Scythians at a later date, *Skulatā, formed by the addition of the plural suffix *-tā. This designation was recorded in Greek as Skōlotoi Σκωλοτοι, which, according to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians.
Due to the sound change of /δ/ into /l/, the derivation of Old Persian Skudra was instead likely done indirectly from the Median language, which had preserved the older Scythian form Skuẟa due to early contacts between the Medes and the Scythians during the 7th century BC, before the sound change from /δ/ to /l/ was complete.
Other sound changes have produced Sugᵘda 𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭.
From an Iranian verbal root sak-, "go, roam" and thus meaning "nomad" was derived the term Saka, from which came the names:
* Old Persian: 𐎿𐎣𐎠, romanized: Sakā, used by the ancient Persians to designate all nomads of the Eurasian steppe, including the Scythians
** Old Persian: 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹, romanized: Sakā tayaiy paradraya, meaning "the Sakā who live beyond the (Black) Sea," was used specifically to designate the Pontic Scythians
* Ancient Greek: Σακαι, romanized: Sakai
* Latin: Sacae
* Sanskrit: शक, romanized: Śaka
* Old Chinese: 塞, romanized: Sək

## Identification

The name Sakā was used by the ancient Persians to refer to all the Iranian nomadic tribes living to the north of their empire, including both those who lived between the Caspian Sea and the Hungry steppe, and those who lived to the north of the Danube and the Black Sea. The Assyrians meanwhile called these nomads the Ishkuzai (𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀 Iškuzaya, 𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 Asguzaya), and the Ancient Greeks called them Skuthai (Σκυθης Skuthēs, Σκυθοι Skuthoi, Σκυθαι Skuthai).
The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed a single group of Sakā. However, following Darius I's campaign of 520 to 518 BC against the Asian nomads, they were differentiated into two groups, both living in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea:
* the Sakā tigraxaudā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠) – "Sakā who wear pointed caps," who have been identified with the Massagetae, and possibly with the Dahae as well.
* the Sakā haumavargā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠) – interpreted as "Sakā who lay hauma (around the fire)", which can be interpreted as "Sakā who revere hauma."
A third name was added after the Darius's campaign north of the Danube:
* the Sakā tayaiy paradraya (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹) – "Sakā who live beyond the (Black) Sea", who were the Pontic Scythians of the East European steppes
An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:
* the Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam (𐎿𐎣𐎡𐎲𐎡𐏁 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼 𐏐 𐎿𐎢𐎥𐎭𐎶) – "Sakā who are beyond Sogdia", a term was used by Darius for the people who formed the north-eastern limits of his empire at the opposite end to satrapy of Kush (the Ethiopians). These Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam have been suggested to have been the same people as the Sakā haumavargā
Moreover, Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions mention two group of Sakas:
* the Sꜣg pḥ (𓐠𓎼𓄖𓈉) – "Sakā of the Marshes"
* the Sk tꜣ (𓋴𓎝𓎡𓇿𓈉) – "Sakā of the Land"
The scholar David Bivar had tentatively identified the Sk tꜣ with the Sakā haumavargā, and John Manuel Cook had tentatively identified the Sꜣg pḥ with the Sakā tigraxaudā. More recently, the scholar Rüdiger Schmitt has suggested that the Sꜣg pḥ and the Sk tꜣ might have collectively designated the Sakā tigraxaudā/Massagetai.

## Late antiquity

In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic "barbarians" living on the Pontic-Caspian steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians, such as the Huns, Goths, Ostrogoths, Turkic peoples, Pannonian Avars, Slavs, and Khazars. For example, Byzantine sources referred to the Rus' raiders who attacked Constantinople in 860 AD in contemporary accounts as "Tauroscythians" because of their geographical origin, and despite their lack of any ethnic relation to Scythians.

## Modern terminology

The Scythians were part of the wider Scytho-Siberian world, stretching across the Eurasian Steppes of Kazakhstan, the Russian steppes of the Siberian, Ural, Volga and Southern regions, and eastern Ukraine. In a broader sense, Scythians has also been used to designate all early Eurasian nomads, although the validity of such terminology is controversial, and other terms such as "Early nomadic" have been deemed preferable.
Although the Scythians, Saka and Cimmerians were closely related nomadic Iranian peoples, and the ancient Babylonians, ancient Persians and ancient Greeks respectively used the names "Cimmerian," "Saka," and "Scythian" for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as Edward Gibbon mistakenly used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian steppe, the name "Scythian" in contemporary modern scholarship generally refers to the nomadic Iranian people who dominated the Pontic steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin; and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian, they formed a different tribe from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians in the Pontic Steppe.
The Scythians shared several cultural similarities with other populations living to their east, in particular similar weapons, horse gear and Scythian art, which has been referred to as the Scythian triad. Cultures sharing these characteristics have often been referred to as Scythian cultures, and its peoples called Scythians. Peoples associated with Scythian cultures include not only the Scythians themselves, who were a distinct ethnic group, but also Cimmerians, Massagetae, Saka, Sarmatians and various obscure peoples of the forest steppe, such as early Slavs, Balts and Finnic peoples.
Within this broad definition of the term Scythian, the actual Scythians have often been distinguished from other groups through the terms Classical Scythians, Western Scythians, European Scythians or Pontic Scythians. Nevertheless, the archaeologist Maurits Nanning van Loon in 1966 instead used the term Western Scythians to designate the Cimmerians and referred to the Scythians proper as the Eastern Scythians.
Scythologist Askold Ivantchik notes with dismay that the term "Scythian" has been used within both a broad and a narrow context, leading to a good deal of confusion. He reserves the term "Scythian" for the Iranian people dominating the Pontic steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC. Nicola Di Cosmo writes that the broad concept of "Scythian" to describe the early nomadic populations of the Eurasian steppe is "too broad to be viable," and that the term "early nomadic" is preferable.