Scythians and Sarmatians
Anup Rej
Massagetes (Sacae) lived to the north of the Oxus. When the forerunners of the Huns, Hsiung-Nu tribe was dislodged from their territory in the western China, they pushed Messagetes westward. It caused a chain reaction, causing successive displacement of different nomadic tribes towards the west. Massagetes pushed the Scythians, who, in turn, displaced the Cimmerians from the northern shores of the Black Sea.
The Aryans from the Pontic steppe of Russia entered the Aegean coasts as Acheans and Phrygians, and while pursuing the Cimmerians crossed over the Caucasus and came to the present-day Azerbaidzhan, and founded their capital at Sakiz, south of lake Urmia in the present day Kordestan. Later they became allies of the neighboring Assyrian empire. The Medes managed to evict these Scythians from their territories, and pushed them back to Urartu in Amazones from where they had entered Persia.
Then the Sarmatians - a tribe of very similar origin as the Scythians, but whose maidens rode, hunted and joined in wars with their men - pushed the Scythians from their eastern enclaves. Being pushed westward the Scythians entered Hungary and Bulgaria and established outposts in the Balkans.
Later Scythians and Sarmatians were evicted from the Black Sea area, first by the Romans, then by the Goth and the Huns. This caused the migration of the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes (Lombardi, Alani, Heruli people) towards Scandinavia. Thus Scytho-Sarmatian culture entered northern Europe and later became the cultures of the Varangians, and the Vikings.