View source for Saka

{{Short description|Historical group of nomadic Iranian peoples}}
{{Redirect|Sacae|the South Australian College of Advanced Education|University of South Australia}}
{{Hatnote|For the land of the Saka under the Sassanid dynasty, see [[Sistan|Sakastān]].
Not to be confused with the [[Sakha (people) | Sakha]], the endonym of the Yakut people of Siberia. For other uses, see [[Saka (disambiguation)]].}}
{{For|the footballer|Bukayo Saka}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Sakas
| map          = 
{{Location map+
|Continental Asia
|overlay_image= Map of the Saka realm.png
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| float = center
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| places  = 
{{Annotation|125|50|[[Sakas|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">SAKAS</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=7|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|162|41|[[Pazyryk culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">''Pazyryk<br />culture''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|145|78|[[Kingdom of Khotan|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">''Khotan''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|253|58|[[Upper Xiajiadian culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Upper<br />Xiajiadian'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6.5|color=#000000}}

{{Annotation|190|30|[[Uyuk culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Uyuk<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6.5|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|170|23|[[Tagar culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Tagar<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6.5|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|103|60|[[Massagetae|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Massagetae'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|103|73|[[Kangju|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Kangju'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|175|62|[[Subeshi culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Subeshi<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|225|73|[[Ordos culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Ordos'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|212|116|[[Dian Kingdom|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Dian'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}

{{Annotation|215|80|[[Majiayuan|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Majia-<br />yuan'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}

{{Annotation|125|50|[[Sakas|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">SAKAS</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=7|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|110|30|[[Sargat culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Sargat<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}

{{Annotation|50|40|[[Sauromatian culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Sauromatian<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|90|35|[[Itkul culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Itkul<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|135|32|[[Tasmola culture|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Tasmola<br />culture'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|82|67|[[Dahae|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Dahae'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|100|90|[[Indo-Scythians|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Indo-<br />Scythians'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|120|113|[[Western Satraps|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Western<br />Satraps'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|130|97|[[Northern Satraps|<span class="mw-no-invert" style="color:#4F311CFF">'''''Northern<br />Satraps'''''</span>]]|text-align=center|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=6|color=#000000}}
| caption=
}}
| mapcaption   = {{center|Map of the Saka realm (<small>{{Colorsample|rgba(255, 140, 0, 0.5)|0.6|0.6}}</small>) and main Saka polities throughout their history.<ref>{{cite book |last1 =Davis-Kimball |first1 =Jeannine |last2 =Bashilov |first2 =V. A. |last3 =I︠A︡blonskiĭ |first3 =Leonid Teodorovich |title =Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age |date =1995 |page=IX, Map 1 |url =https://www.podgorski.com/main/assets/documents/Nomads_of_the_Eurasian_Steppes.pdf |publisher =Zinat Press |language =en}}</ref><ref name="Atlas of World History">{{cite book |title =Atlas of World History |date =2002 |publisher =Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-521921-0 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA51}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1 =Fauve |first1 =Jeroen|title =The European Handbook of Central Asian Studies |date =2021 |isbn=978-3-8382-1518-1 |page=403 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=KPBIEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA406}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1 =Haywood |first1 =John |title =Atlas of world history |date=1997 |publisher =New York : Barnes & Noble Books |isbn =978-0-7607-0687-9 |pages =Map 22 |url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldhist00hayw/page/n58/mode/1up}}</ref> The affiliation of the easternmost [[Scythians|Scythoïd]] cultures ([[Subeshi culture]], [[Ordos culture]], [[Majiayuan]], [[Upper Xiajiadian]] or [[Dian Kingdom|Dian]]) remains uncertain.}}
|mapalt      =
|altnames    = 
|horizon     =
|region      = [[Central Asia]], [[South Siberia]], [[South Asia]]
|period      = 
|dates       = 9th century BC to 5th century AD
|typesite    =
|majorsites  = 
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Andronovo culture]], [[Seima-Turbino phenomenon]], [[Karakol culture]], [[Karasuk culture]], [[Deer stones culture]]
|followedby  = [[Xiongnu]], [[Kushan Empire]], [[Gupta Empire]]}}
[[File:Golden Man (Issyk kurgan).jpg|thumb|200px|[[Cataphract]]-style parade-armour of a Saka royal, also known as "The Golden Warrior", from the [[Issyk kurgan]], a historical burial site near [[Almaty]], [[Kazakhstan]], {{Circa}} 400–200 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1 =Chang |first1 =Claudia |title=Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia: Shepherds, Farmers, and Nomads |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-70158-7 |page=72 |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=QR0xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT72}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1 =Rhie |first1 =Marylin M. |title =Early Buddhist art of China and Central Asia |date =2002 |publisher =Brill |location =Leiden |isbn =978-90-04-11499-9| page =Fig. 5.70d |quote =Fig. 5.70d Gold mail suit, crown and leg covers, from an Issik tomb, period of the Saka tribes, 5th to 4th century B.C., Institute of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan (after Shiruku rodo no yuihO, pl. 18) }}</ref>]]
{{Indo-European}}

The '''Saka'''{{efn|[[Old Persian]]:{{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|[[wiktionary:𐎿𐎣𐎠|𐎿𐎣𐎠]]}}}}}} {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}}; [[Kharoṣṭhī]]: {{lang|pgd|𐨯𐨐}} {{transliteration|pgd|Saka}}; [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]]: {{lang|egy|{{script|Egyp|[[wiktionary:sk#Etymology 2|𓋴𓎝𓎡]] [[𓈉]]|italic=no}}}} {{transliteration|egy|sk}}, {{lang|egy|{{script|Egyp|[[wiktionary:sꜣg|𓐠𓎼]] [[𓈉]]}}}} {{transliteration|egy|sꜣg}}; {{lang-zh|{{linktext|塞}}}}, <small>[[Old Chinese|old]]</small> {{transliteration|och|*Sək}}, <small>[[Pinyin|mod.]]</small> {{transliteration|cmn|Sè}}, {{transliteration|cmn|Sāi}}), '''Shaka''' ([[Sanskrit]] ([[Brāhmī]]): {{lang|sa|{{script|Brah|𑀰𑀓}}}}, [[File:Gupta_allahabad_sh.svg|12x12px]] [[File:Gupta_allahabad_k.svg|12x12px]], {{transliteration|sa|Śaka}}; [[Sanskrit]] ([[Devanāgarī]]): {{lang|sa|शक}} {{transliteration|sa|Śaka}}, {{lang|sa|[[wiktionary:शाक#Sanskrit|शाक]]}} {{transliteration|sa|Śāka}}), or '''Sacae''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σάκαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Sákai}}; [[Latin]]: {{lang|la|{{script|Latn|Sacae}}}}}} were a group of nomadic [[Iranian peoples|Eastern Iranian peoples]] who lived in the [[Eurasian Steppe]] and the [[Tarim Basin]] from the 9th century BC to the 5th century AD.<ref name="B_68">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|p=68}} "Modern scholars have mostly used the name ''Saka'' to refer specifically to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and Tarim Basin"</ref><ref name="D_37">{{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994|p=37}} "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."</ref> The Saka were closely related to the [[Scythians]], and both groups formed parts of the wider [[Scythian cultures]].<ref>{{harvnb|Unterländer|Palstra|Lazaridis|Pilipenko|2017}}: "During the first millennium BC, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin... Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BCE chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive 'Animal Style' artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture..."</ref> However, both groups have differing specific geographical and cultural traits.<ref name="D_37" /><ref name="SK"/> The [[Saka languages]] formed part of the [[Scythian languages|Scythian phylum]], a branch of the [[Eastern Iranian languages]].

Derived from the earlier [[Andronovo]], [[Sintashta culture|Sintashta]] and [[Srubnaya culture]]s, the Saka were later influenced by the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Culture]] and Iron-Age [[East Asia]]n genetic influx.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last =Gnecchi-Ruscone |first =Guido Alberto |date=26 March 2021 |title =Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians |journal =Science Advances |language =en |volume =7 |issue =13 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abe4414 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc =7997506 |pmid =33771866 |bibcode=2021SciA....7.4414G }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1 =Kumar |first1 =Vikas |last2 =Wang |first2 =Wenjun |last3 =Zhang |first3 =Jie |last4=Wang |first4=Yongqiang |last5=Ruan |first5 =Qiurong |last6 =Yu |first6 =Jianjun |last7 =Wu |first7 =Xiaohong |last8 =Hu |first8 =Xingjun |last9 =Wu |first9 =Xinhua |last10 =Guo |first10 =Wu |last11 =Wang |first11 =Bo |last12 =Niyazi |first12 =Alipujiang |last13 =Lv |first13 =Enguo |last14 =Tang |first14 =Zihua |last15 =Cao |first15 =Peng |date =April 2022 |title=Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk1534 |journal =Science |language =en |volume =376 |issue =6588 |pages =62–69 |doi =10.1126/science.abk1534 |pmid =35357918 |bibcode =2022Sci...376...62K |s2cid =247855352 |issn=0036-8075 |quote=Of these, the Sakas were the descendants of Late Bronze Age (LBA) herders (such as the Andronovo, Srubnaya, and Sintashta) with additional ancestries derived from Lake Baikal (Shamanka_EBA) (EBA, Early Bronze Age) and BMAC populations (1, 17, 18). Sakas have been associated with the Indo-Iranian Khotanese language, which was spoken in southern Xinjiang before spreading to other parts of the region (19).|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and "[[Cimmerian]]" for all the [[steppe nomads]]. However, the name "Saka" is used specifically for the ancient nomads of the [[History of the eastern steppe | eastern steppe]], while "Scythian" is used for the related group of nomads living in the [[History of the western steppe | western steppe]].<ref name="D_37"/><ref name="DM_156">{{harvnb|David|McNiven|2018}}: "Horse-riding nomadism has been referred to as the culture of 'Early Nomads'. This term encompasses different ethnic groups (such as Scythians, Saka, Massagetae, and Yuezhi)..."</ref><ref name="DiakonoffNomenclature">{{harvnb|Diakonoff|1985}}: the Persians called "Saka" all the northern nomads, just as the Greeks called them "Scythians", and the Babylonians "Cimmerians".</ref>

Prominent archaeological remains of the Sakas include [[Arzhan culture|Arzhan]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zaitseva |first1=G. I. |last2=Chugunov |first2=K. V. |last3=Alekseev |first3=A. Yu |last4=Dergachev |first4=V. A. |last5=Vasiliev |first5=S. S. |last6=Sementsov |first6=A. A. |last7=Cook |first7=G. |last8=Scott| first8=E. M. |last9=Plicht |first9=J. van der |last10=Parzinger |first10=H. |last11=Nagler |first11=A. |date=2007 |title=Chronology of Key Barrows Belonging to Different Stages of the Scythian Period in Tuva (Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 Barrows) |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=645–658 |doi=10.1017/S0033822200042545 |bibcode=2007Radcb..49..645Z |issn=0033-8222 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Tunnug,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Caspari |first1=Gino |last2=Sadykov |first2=Timur |last3=Blochin |first3=Jegor |last4=Hajdas |first4=Irka |date=1 September 2018 |title=Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0) – an early Scythian kurgan in Tuva Republic, Russia |journal=Archaeological Research in Asia |volume=15 |pages=82–87 |doi=10.1016/j.ara.2017.11.001 |s2cid=135231553 |issn=2352-2267}}</ref> the [[Pazyryk burials]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dergachev |first1=V. A. |last2=Vasiliev |first2=S. S. |last3=Sementsov |first3=A. A. |last4=Zaitseva |first4=G. I. |last5=Chugunov |first5=K. A. |last6=Sljusarenko |first6=I. Ju |date=2001 |title=Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Dating Methods in Archaeological Studies of Scythian Sites |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=43 |issue=2A |pages=417–424 |doi=10.1017/S0033822200038273 |bibcode=2001Radcb..43..417D |issn=0033-8222 |doi-access=free}}</ref> the [[Issyk kurgan]], [[Saka Kurgan tombs]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Panyushkina |first1=Irina |last2=Grigoriev |first2=Fedor |last3=Lange |first3=Todd |last4=Alimbay |first4=Nursan |date=2013 |title=Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Dates of the Bes-Shatyr #3 Saka Kurgan in the Semirechiye, Kazakhstan |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=1297–1303 |issn=0033-8222 |doi=10.1017/S0033822200048207 |bibcode=2013Radcb..55.1297P |hdl=10150/628658 |s2cid=220661798 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> the [[Barrows of Tasmola]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Beisenov |first1=Àrman Z. |last2=Duisenbay |first2=Daniyar |last3=Akhiyarov |first3=Islam |last4=Sargizova |first4=Gulzada |date=1 October 2016 |title=Dromos Burials of Tasmola Culture in Central Kazakhstan |journal=The Anthropologist |volume=26 |issue=1–2 |pages=25–33 |doi=10.1080/09720073.2016.11892125 |s2cid=80362028 |issn=0972-0073}}</ref> and possibly [[Tillya Tepe]]. In the 2nd century BC, many Sakas were driven by the [[Yuezhi]] from the steppe into [[Sogdia]] and [[Bactria]] and then into the northwest of the [[Indian subcontinent]], where they became known as the [[Indo-Scythians]].<ref name="Benjamin">{{cite web |url =http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html |title =The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia |last =Benjamin |first=Craig |author-link =Craig Benjamin |date =March 2003 |publisher =Ērān ud Anērān Webfestschrift Marshak |access-date=1 March 2015 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150218204941/http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html |archive-date=18 February 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ChineseHistory">{{cite web |url =http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html|title=Chinese History – Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians |website =Chinaknowledge|access-date=1 March 2015|url-status=live|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150119210419/http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html |archive-date=19 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="Beckwith85">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|p=85}} "The Saka, or Śaka, people then began their long migration that ended with their conquest of northern India, where they are also known as the Indo-Scythians."</ref> Other Sakas invaded the [[Parthian Empire]], eventually settling in [[Sistan]], while others may have migrated to the [[Dian Kingdom]] in [[Yunnan]], [[China]]. In the [[Tarim Basin]] and [[Taklamakan Desert]] of today's [[Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region]], they settled in [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]], [[Yarkand]], [[Kashgar]] and other places.<ref name="Sinor_173" />

== Name ==
===Etymology===
[[File:Scythian helmet, copper alloy, Samarkand, 6th-1st century BCE.jpg|thumb|Scythian helmet, copper alloy, [[Afrasiyab (Samarkand)|Afrasiyab]], [[Samarkand]], 6th–1st century BC.]]
[[Linguist]] [[Oswald Szemerényi]] studied synonyms of various origins for ''Scythian'' and differentiated the following terms: {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠}}}}}}, {{transliteration|grc|Skuthēs}} {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθης}}}}, {{transliteration|peo|Skudra}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼}}}}}}, and {{transliteration|peo|Sugᵘda}} {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭}}}}}}.<ref name="Szemerényi">{{cite book |last=Szemerényi |first=Oswald |author-link=Oswald Szemerényi |year=1980 |title=Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian – Skudra – Sogdian – Saka |url=http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/fouroldiranianethnicnames.pdf |publisher=[[:de:Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften|Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften]] |isbn=0-520-06864-5 }}</ref>

Derived from an Iranian verbal root {{transliteration|ira|sak-}}, "go, roam" and thus meaning "nomad" was the term {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}}, from which came the names:
* [[Old Persian]]: {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠}}}}}} {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}}, used by the ancient [[Persians]] to designate all nomads of the [[Eurasian steppe]], including the Pontic Scythians<ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=Stephanie |author-link=Stephanie West |year=2002 |chapter=Scythians |editor-last1=Bakker |editor-first1=Egbert J. |editor-link1=Egbert Bakker |editor-last2=de Jong |editor-first2=Irene J. F. |editor-link2=Irene de Jong |editor-last3=van Wees |editor-first3=Hans |title=Brill's Companion to Herodotus |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004217584/BP000020.xml |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=437–456 |isbn=978-90-04-21758-4 }}</ref>
* [[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σάκαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Sákai}}
* [[Latin]]: {{lang|la|{{script|Latn|Sacae}}}}
* [[Sanskrit]]: {{lang|sa|शक}} {{transliteration|sa|Śaka}} 
* [[Old Chinese]]: {{lang|och|塞}} {{transliteration|och|Sək}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&pg=PA283 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750 | page=283 |first= Zhang |last= Guang-da |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-81-208-1540-7 |year=1999 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OOK-fBNwZ7kC&pg=PA67 |title= Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts|author= H. W. Bailey |page=67 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 978-0-521-11873-6 |date= 7 February 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/sakas-in-afghanistan |title=SAKAS: IN AFGHANISTAN |last=Callieri |first=Pierfrancesco |date=2016 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |quote=The ethnonym Saka appears in ancient Iranian and Indian sources as the name of the large family of Iranian nomads called Scythians by the Classical Western sources and Sai by the Chinese (Gk. Sacae; OPers. Sakā). }}</ref>

From the [[Indo-European root]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|(s)kewd-}}, meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word [[:wikt:shoot|{{transliteration|en|shoot}}]]), of which {{lang|ine-x-proto|skud-}} is the [[ablaut|zero-grade]] form, was descended the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as {{transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}} (roughly "archer"). From this were descended the following exonyms:
* [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{Transliteration|akk|Iškuzaya}} and {{Lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒊍𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{Transliteration|akk|Askuzaya}}, used by the Assyrians
* [[Old Persian]]: {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼}}}}}} {{transliteration|peo|Skudra}}
* [[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθης}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthēs}} (plural {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthai}}), used by the Ancient Greeks<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis-Kimball |first1=Jeannine |author-link1=Jeannine Davis-Kimball |last2=Bashilov |first2=Vladimir A. |last3=Yablonsky |first3=Leonid T. |author-link3=:ru:Яблонский, Леонид Теодорович |year=1995 |title=Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgSAQAAIAAJ |pages=27–28 |publisher=Zinat Press |isbn= 978-1-885979-00-1}}</ref>
:*The [[Old Armenian]]: {{lang|xcl|սկիւթ}} {{transliteration|xcl|Skiwtʰ}} is based on [[itacism|itacistic]] Greek

A late [[Scythian languages|Scythian]] sound change from {{IPA|/ð/}} to {{IPA|/l/}} resulted in the evolution of {{transliteration|xsc|*Skuδa}} into {{transliteration|xsc|*Skula}}. From this was derived the Greek word {{transliteration|grc|Skṓlotoi}} {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκώλοτοι}}}}, which, according to Herodotus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/scythians |title=SCYTHIANS |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |date=25 April 2018 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/reference/herodotus_histories4.htm | title= Histories by Herodotus, Book 4 Melpomene [4.6] |publisher= Zoroastrian Heritage | author= K. E. Eduljee | access-date= 20 October 2020}}</ref> Other sound changes have produced [[Sogdia|{{transliteration|peo|Sugᵘda}}]] {{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭}}}}}}.<ref name="Szemerényi" />

Although the [[Scythians]], Saka and [[Cimmerians]] were closely related nomadic [[Iranic]] peoples, and the ancient [[Babylonia]]ns, 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]] 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 [[Iranic people]] who, from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, dominated the steppe and forest-steppe zones to the north of the Black Sea, Crimea, the Kuban valley, as well as the Taman and Kerch peninsulas,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Esther |title=The art of the Scythians: the interpenetration of cultures at the edge of the Hellenic world |date=1995 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09856-5 |series=Handbuch der Orientalistik / hrsg. von B. Spuler ... Abt. 8. Handbook of Uralic studies |location=Leiden New York Köln |page=31}}</ref><ref name="nomenclature3">*{{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994|p=37}}: "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."
*{{harvnb|Cernenko|2012|p=3}}: "The Scythians lived in the Early Iron Age, and inhabited the northern areas of the Black Sea (Pontic) steppes. Though the 'Scythian period' in the history of Eastern Europe lasted little more than 400 years, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC, the impression these horsemen made upon the history of their times was such that a thousand years after they had ceased to exist as a sovereign people, their heartland and the territories which they dominated far beyond it continued to be known as 'greater Scythia'."
*{{harvnb|Melyukova|1990|pp=97–98}}: "From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes – the Scythians and Sarmatians [...] "[I]t may be confidently stated that from the end of the 7th century to the 3rd century B.C. the Scythians occupied the steppe expanses of the north Black Sea area, from the Don in the east to the Danube in the West."
*{{harvnb|Ivantchik|2018}}: "Scythians, a nomadic people of Iranian origin who flourished in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 7th–4th centuries BC (Figure 1). For related groups in Central Asia and India, see [...]"
*{{harvnb|Sulimirski|1985|pp=149–153}}: "During the first half of the first millennium B.C., c. 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, the southern part of Eastern Europe was occupied mainly by peoples of Iranian stock [...] The main Iranian-speaking peoples of the region at that period were the Scyths and the Sarmatians [...] [T]he population of ancient Scythia was far from being homogeneous, nor were the Scyths themselves a homogeneous people. The country called after them was ruled by their principal tribe, the "Royal Scyths" (Her. iv. 20), who were of Iranian stock and called themselves "Skolotoi" (iv. 6); they were nomads who lived in the steppe east of the Dnieper up to the Don, and in the Crimean steppe [...] The eastern neighbours of the "Royal Scyths," the Sauromatians, were also Iranian; their country extended over the steppe east of the Don and the Volga."
*{{harvnb|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=547}}: "The name 'Scythian' is met in the classical authors and has been taken to refer to an ethnic group or people, also mentioned in Near Eastern texts, who inhabited the northern Black Sea region."
*{{harvnb|West|2002|pp=437–440}}: "Ordinary Greek (and later Latin) usage could designate as Scythian any northern barbarian from the general area of the Eurasian steppe, the virtually treeless corridor of drought-resistant perennial grassland extending from the Danube to Manchuria. Herodotus seeks greater precision, and this essay is focussed on his Scythians, who belong to the North Pontic steppe [...] These true Scyths seems to be those whom he calls Royal Scyths, that is, the group who claimed hegemony [...] apparently warrior-pastoralists. It is generally agreed, from what we know of their names, that these were people of Iranian stock [...]"
*{{harvnb|Jacobson|1995|pp=36–37}}: "When we speak of Scythians, we refer to those Scytho-Siberians who inhabited the Kuban Valley, the Taman and Kerch peninsulas, Crimea, the northern and northeastern littoral of the Black Sea, and the steppe and lower forest steppe regions now shared between Ukraine and Russia, from the seventh century down to the first century B.C [...] They almost certainly spoke an Iranian language [...]"
*{{harvnb|Di Cosmo|1999|p=924}}: "The first historical steppe nomads, the Scythians, inhabited the steppe north of the Black Sea from about the eight century B.C."
*{{cite web |last=Rice |first=Tamara Talbot |author-link=Tamara Talbot Rice |title=Central Asian arts: Nomadic cultures |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Central-Asian-arts/Visual-arts |access-date=4 October 2019 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |quote=[Saka] gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.}}</ref>while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern [[Eurasian Steppe]] and the [[Tarim Basin]].<ref name="nomenclature3" /><ref name="SK">{{cite web |last=Kramrisch |first=Stella |author-link=Stella Kramrisch |title=Central Asian Arts: Nomadic Cultures |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Central-Asian-arts/Visual-arts#ref314168 |access-date=1 September 2018 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |quote=The Śaka tribe was pasturing its herds in the Pamirs, central Tien Shan, and in the Amu Darya delta. Their gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.}}</ref>

===Identification===
The name {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} was used by the ancient [[Persians|Persian]] to refer to all the Iranian nomadic tribes living to the north of their [[Achaemenid Empire|empire]], including both those who lived between the [[Caspian Sea]] and the [[Mirzachoʻl|Hungry steppe]], and those who lived to the north of the [[Danube]] and the [[Black Sea]]. The [[Assyria]]ns meanwhile called these nomads the '''Ishkuzai''' ([[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{transliteration|akk|Iškuzaya}}<ref name="Parpola">{{cite book |last=Parpola |first=Simo |date=1970 |title=Neo-Assyrian Toponyms |url=https://archive.org/details/neoassyriantopon0000parp |location=Kevaeler |publisher=Butzon & Bercker |page=[https://archive.org/details/neoassyriantopon0000parp/page/178/mode/2up 178] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Iškuzaya [SCYTHIAN] (EN) |website=oracc.museum.upenn.edu |url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/cbd/qpn/x00000280.html |access-date=14 July 2022 |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921140721/http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/cbd/qpn/x00000280.html }}</ref>) or '''Askuzai''' ([[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{transliteration|akk|Asguzaya}}, {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒆳𒊍𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀}}}} {{transliteration|akk|mat Askuzaya}}, {{lang|akk|{{cuneiform|11|𒆳𒀾𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀}} {{transliteration|akk|mat Ášguzaya}}}}<ref name="Parpola"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Asguzayu [SCYTHIAN] (EN) |website=oracc.museum.upenn.edu |url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/cbd/qpn-x-ethnic/x00000690.html |access-date=14 July 2022 |archive-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925135705/http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/cbd/qpn-x-ethnic/x00000690.html }}</ref>), and the [[Ancient Greeks]] called them '''Skuthai''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|[[wiktionary:Σκύθης|Σκύθης]]}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthēs}}, {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθοι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthoi}}, {{lang|grc|{{script|Grek|Σκύθαι}}}} {{transliteration|grc|Skúthai}}).{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}

[[File:Xerxes detail three types of Sakas cleaned up.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|For the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]], there were three types of Sakas: the ''[[Scythians|Sakā tayai paradraya]]'' ("beyond the sea", presumably between the Greeks and the [[Thracians]] on the Western side of the [[Black Sea]]), the ''[[Sakā Tigraxaudā]]'' (the [[Massagetae]], "with [[Phrygian cap|pointed caps]]"), the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} ("[[Haoma|Hauma]] drinkers", furthest East). Soldiers of the [[Achaemenid army]], [[Xerxes I]] tomb detail, circa 480 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/haumavarga |title=HAUMAVARGĀ |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Schmitt |date=2003 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] }}</ref>]]

The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed a single group of {{transliteration|peo|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:{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994|p=44-46}}
* the [[Massagetae|{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}]] ({{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠}}}}}}) – "{{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} who wear [[Phrygian cap|pointed caps]]," who were also known as the {{transliteration|la|Massagetae}}.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}<ref>{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2021}}: "Apparently the Dahai represented an entity not identical with the other better known groups of the Sakai, i.e. the Sakai (Sakā) tigrakhaudā (Massagetai, roaming in Turkmenistan), and Sakai (Sakā) Haumavargā (in Transoxania and beyond the Syr Daryā)."</ref>
* the [[Amyrgians|{{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}}]] ({{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠}}}}}}) – interpreted as "{{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} who lay [[haoma|hauma]] (around the fire)",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/haumavarga |title=HAUMAVARGĀ |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Schmitt |date=2003 |website=Encyclopædia Iranica |publisher= |quote=}}</ref> which can be interpreted as "Saka who revere [[haoma|hauma]]."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dandamaev |first1=Muhammad A. |author-link1=Muhammad Dandamayev |last2=Lukonin |first2=Vladimir G. |date=1989 |title=The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran |url= |location= |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=g7N74BFaC90C&pg=PA334 334] |isbn=978-0-521-61191-6 }}</ref>

A third name was added after the [[Scythian campaign of Darius I|Darius's campaign]] north of the [[Danube]]:{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}
* the [[Scythians|{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tayaiy paradraya}}]] ({{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹}}}}}}) – "the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} who live beyond the [[Black Sea|(Black) Sea]]," who were the Pontic Scythians of the East European steppes

An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=173}}{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}
* the {{transliteration|peo|Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam}} ({{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎿𐎣𐎡𐎲𐎡𐏁 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼 𐏐 𐎿𐎢𐎥𐎭𐎶}}}}}}) – "Saka 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 the [[Kush (satrapy)|satrapy of Kush]] (the Ethiopians).{{sfn|Bailey|1983|p=1230}}<ref>{{cite book |first= Pierre |last=Briant |author-link=Pierre Briant |title=From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&pg=PA178 178] |publisher=[[Eisenbrauns]] |date=29 July 2006 |isbn=978-1-57506-120-7 |quote= This is Kingdom which I hold, from the Scythians [Saka] who are beyond Sogdiana, thence unto Ethiopia [Cush]; from Sind, thence unto Sardis.}}</ref> These {{transliteration|peo|Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam}} have been suggested to have been the same people as the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}}{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=254-255}}

Moreover, [[Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions]] mention two groups of Saka:{{sfn|Young|1988|p=89}}{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=177}}
* the {{transliteration|egy|Sꜣg pḥ}} ({{lang|egy|{{huge|{{script|Egyp|𓐠𓎼𓄖𓈉}}}}}}) – "{{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} of the Marshes"
* the {{transliteration|egy|Sk tꜣ}} ({{lang|egy|{{huge|{{script|Egyp|𓋴𓎝𓎡𓐰𓇿𓈉}}}}}}) – "{{transliteration|peo|Sakā}} of the Land"

The scholar [[David Bivar]] had tentatively identified the {{transliteration|egy|Sk tꜣ}} with the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}},<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Yarshater |editor-first=Ehsan| editor-link=Ehsan Yarshater |last=Bivar |first=A. D. H. |author-link=David Bivar |date=1983 |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |volume=3 |chapter=The History of Eastern Iran |issue=1 |url= |location=[[Cambridge]], [[United Kingdom]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=181–231 |isbn=978-0-521-20092-9 }}</ref> and [[John Manuel Cook]] had tentatively identified the {{transliteration|egy|Sꜣg pḥ}} with the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}.{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=254-255}} More recently, the scholar [[Rüdiger Schmitt]] has suggested that the {{transliteration|egy|Sꜣg pḥ}} and the {{transliteration|egy|Sk tꜣ}} might have collectively designated the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}/Massagetae.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}}

The Achaemenid king [[Xerxes I]] listed the Saka coupled with the [[Dahae|{{transliteration|peo|Dahā}}]] ({{lang|peo|{{script|Xpeo|{{small|𐎭𐏃𐎠}}}}}}) people of Central Asia,{{sfn|Bailey|1983|p=1230}}{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=254-255}}{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=173}} who might possibly have been identical with the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}.{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}}<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta | editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last1=Abetekov |first1=A. |last2=Yusupov |first2=H. |date=1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter=Ancient Iranian Nomads in Western Central Asia |url= |location=[[Paris]], [[France]] |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |pages=24–34 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta | editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last=Zadneprovskiy |first=Y. A. |date=1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter=The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After the Invansion of Alexander |url= |location=[[Paris]], [[France]] |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |pages=448–463 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 |quote=The middle of the third century b.c. saw the rise to power of a group of tribes consisting of the Parni (Aparni) and the Dahae, descendants of the Massagetae of the Aral Sea region. }}</ref>

=== Modern terminology ===
{{See also|Scythian cultures}}
Although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and "[[Cimmerian]]" for all the steppe nomads, modern scholars now use the term Saka to refer specifically to Iranian peoples who inhabited the northern and eastern [[Eurasian Steppe]] and the [[Tarim Basin]];<ref name="B_68" /><ref name="eolss">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwueDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA380 |title=ARCHAEOLOGY – Volume I |chapter= The Archaeology of Eurasian Nomads |editor-first= Donald L. |editor-last= Hardesty |page=383 |author=L. T. Yablonsky |publisher= EOLSS |isbn=978-1-84826-002-3|date=15 June 2010 }}</ref><ref name="D_37"/><ref name="DiakonoffNomenclature"/> and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as [[Scythian cultures|culturally Scythian]], they may have differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.<ref name="Cimmerians">{{cite web |last=Tokhtas'ev |first=Sergei R. |date=1991 |title=Cimmerians |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/cimmerians-nomads |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |quote=As the Cimmerians cannot be differentiated archeologically from the Scythians, it is possible to speculate about their Iranian origins. In the Neo-Babylonian texts (according to D'yakonov, including at least some of the Assyrian texts in Babylonian dialect) {{transliteration|akk|Gimirri}} and similar forms designate the Scythians and Central Asian Saka, reflecting the perception among inhabitants of Mesopotamia that Cimmerians and Scythians represented a single cultural and economic group}}</ref>

==Location==
{{Continental Asia in 325 BCE|right|{{center|The Sakas  (<small>{{Colorsample|#FFA500|0.6}}</small>), and main Asian polities, circa 325 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coatsworth |first1=John |last2=Cole |first2=Juan |last3=Hanagan |first3=Michael P. |last4=Perdue |first4=Peter C. |last5=Tilly |first5=Charles |last6=Tilly |first6=Louise |title=Global Connections: Volume 1, To 1500: Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History |date=16 March 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-29777-3 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w5vlBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA138}}</ref><ref name="Atlas of World History"/><ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gursoy |first1=M. |title=Жазба Және Археологиялық Деректер Негізінде Савромат-Сармат Тайпаларының Шығу Тегі |journal=BULLETIN Series Historical and Socio-political Sciences |date=28 February 2023 |volume=1 |issue=72 |page=157 |doi=10.51889/2022-1.1728-5461.16 |doi-access=free }}</ref>}}||Map of the Sakas.png}}
The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} and {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} both lived in the steppe and highland areas located in northern Central Asia and to the east of the Caspian Sea.{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994|p=44-46}}{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=168}}

The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}/Massagetae more specifically lived around [[Chorasmia]]{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=184}} and in the lowlands of Central Asia located to the east of the [[Caspian Sea]] and the south-east of the [[Aral Sea]], in the [[Kyzylkum Desert]] and the [[Ustyurt Plateau]], most especially between the [[Amu Darya|Araxes]] and [[Iaxartes]] rivers.{{sfn|Harmatta|1999}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}/Massagetae could also be found in the Caspian Steppe.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} The imprecise description of where the Massagetae lived by ancient authors has however led modern scholars to ascribe to them various locations, such as the Oxus delta, the Iaxartes delta, between the Caspian and Aral seas or further to the north or northeast, but without basing these suggestions on any conclusive arguments.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} Other locations assigned to the Massagetae include the area corresponding to modern-day [[Turkmenistan]].{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021}}

The {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} lived around the Pamir Mountains and the Ferghana Valley.{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=184}}

The {{transliteration|peo|Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam}}, who may have been identical with the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}}, lived on the north-east border of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] on the [[Iaxartes]] river.{{sfn|Cook|1985|p=252-255}}

Some other Saka groups lived to the east of the [[Pamir Mountains]] and to the north of the [[Syr Darya|Iaxartes river]],{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=168}} as well as in the regions corresponding to modern-day [[Kyrgyzstan|Qirghizia]], [[Tian Shan]], [[Altai Mountains|Altai]], [[Tuva Depression|Tuva]], [[Mongolia]], [[Xinjiang]], and [[Kazakhstan]].{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=184}}

The {{transliteration|och|Sək}}, that is the Saka who were in contact with the Chinese, inhabited the [[Ili (river)|Ili]] and [[Chu (river)|Chu]] valleys of modern [[Kyrgyzstan]] and [[Kazakhstan]], which was called the "land of the {{transliteration|och|Sək}}", i.e. "land of the Saka", in the ''[[Book of Han]]''.<ref name="yu 2010 p13" />

== History ==
=== Origins ===
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2/2
| total_width       = 400
| caption_align     = center
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| header            = [[Arzhan kurgan]]s (9–7th century BC)
| image1            = Аржаан - 2.JPG
| caption1          = 
| image2            = Arzhan deer.jpg
| caption2          = 
| image3            = 6. Pectorale burial mound Arzhan (VIII. - VII. B. C.) Tuva.JPG
| caption3          = 
| image4            = 8. Akinak (dagger) bural mound Arzhan (VIII.-VII. B.C.) Tuva.JPG
| caption4          = 
| footer            = [[Arzhan culture|Arzhan]] kurgan and early Saka artifacts, dated to 8–7th century BC
}}
The Scythian/Saka cultures emerged on the [[Eurasian Steppe]] at the dawn of the [[Iron Age]] in the early 1st&nbsp;millennium&nbsp;BC. Their origin has long been a source of debate among archaeologists.{{sfn|Järve|2019}} The [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] was initially thought to have been their place of origin, until the [[Soviet]] archaeologist [[:ru:Тереножкин, Алексей Иванович|Aleksey Terenozhkin]] suggested a [[Central Asia]]n origin.{{sfn|Unterländer|Palstra|Lazaridis|Pilipenko|2017}}<ref name="Krzewińska 2018">{{harvnb|Krzewińska|2018}}</ref>

Archaeological evidence now suggests that the origins of [[Scythian culture]], characterized by its [[kurgans]] (a type of burial mound) and its ''[[Animal style]]'' of the 1st millennium BC, are to be found among Eastern Scythians rather than their Western counterparts: eastern [[kurgans]] are older than western ones (such as the Altai kurgan [[Arzhan culture|Arzhan 1]] in [[Tuva]]), and elements of the ''[[Animal style]]'' are first attested in areas of the [[Yenisei river]] and modern-day China in the 10th century BC.<ref name="ADD2">{{harvnb |Unterländer |Palstra |Lazaridis |Pilipenko |2017}} "The origin of the widespread Scythian culture has long been debated in Eurasian archaeology. The northern Black Sea steppe was originally considered the homeland and centre of the Scythians until Terenozhkin formulated the hypothesis of a Central Asian origin. On the other hand, evidence supporting an east Eurasian origin includes the kurgan Arzhan 1 in Tuva, which is considered the earliest Scythian kurgan. Dating of additional burial sites situated in east and west Eurasia confirmed eastern kurgans as older than their western counterparts. Additionally, elements of the characteristic 'Animal Style' dated to the tenth century BCE were found in the region of the Yenisei river and modern-day China, supporting the early presence of Scythian culture in the East."</ref> Genetic evidence corroborates archaeological findings, suggesting an initial eastwards expansion of [[Western Steppe Herders]] towards the [[Altai Mountains|Altai region]] and [[Western Mongolia]], spreading [[Iranian languages]], and subsequent contact episodes with local Siberian and Eastern Asian populations, giving rise to the initial (Eastern) Scythian material cultures (Saka). It was, however, also found that the various later Scythian sub-groups of the Eurasian Steppe had local origins; different Scythian groups arose locally through cultural adaption, rather than via migration patterns from East-to-West or West-to-East.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Järve |first1=Mari |last2=Saag |first2=Lehti |last3=Scheib |first3=Christiana Lyn |last4=Pathak |first4=Ajai K. |last5=Montinaro |first5=Francesco |last6=Pagani |first6=Luca |last7=Flores |first7=Rodrigo |last8=Guellil |first8=Meriam |last9=Saag |first9=Lauri |last10=Tambets |first10=Kristiina |last11=Kushniarevich |first11=Alena |last12=Solnik |first12=Anu |last13=Varul |first13=Liivi |last14=Zadnikov |first14=Stanislav |last15=Petrauskas |first15=Oleg |date=22 July 2019 |title=Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance |journal=Current Biology |language=en |volume=29 |issue=14 |pages=2430–2441.e10 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.019 |pmid=31303491 |s2cid=195887262 |issn=0960-9822 |quote=Recently, studies of ancient Scythian genomes have affirmed the confederate nature of the Scythian tribes, showing them to be genetically distinct from one another but finding little or no support for large-scale east-to-west movements, instead generally suggesting separate local origins of various Scythian groups [1, 2, 3].|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019CBio...29E2430J }}</ref><ref name="Järve">{{harvnb|Järve|2019}}. "The Early Iron Age nomadic Scythians have been described as a confederation of tribes of different origins, based on ancient DNA evidence [1, 2, 3]. All samples of this study also possessed at least one additional eastern component, one of which was nearly at 100% in modern Nganasans (orange) and the other in modern Han Chinese (yellow; Figure S2). The eastern components were present in variable proportions in the samples of this study."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Savelyev |first1=Alexander |last2=Jeong |first2=Choongwon |date=7 May 2020 |title=Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |volume=2 |article-number=e20 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.18 |issn=2513-843X |pmc=7612788 |pmid=35663512 |quote=It is still likely that the Xiongnu included an Eastern Iranian (Saka) component or were at least strongly influenced by the Iranians. It is also arguable that the Xiongnu learned the steppe nomadic model of economy from their Eastern Iranian neighbours (Beckwith, 2009: 72–73, 404).}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The Sakas spoke a language belonging to the [[Iranian languages|Iranian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]]. The [[Pazyryk burials]] of the [[Pazyryk culture]] in the [[Ukok Plateau]] in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC are thought to be of Saka chieftains.<ref name="LH_443">{{harvnb|de Laet|Herrmann|1996|p=443}} "The rich kurgan burials in Pazyryk, Siberia probably were those of Saka chieftains"</ref><ref name="K_94">{{harvnb|Kuzmina|2008|p=94}} "Analysis of the clothing, which has analogies in the complex of Saka clothes, particularly in Pazyryk, led Wang Binghua (1987, 42) to the conclusion that they are related to the Saka Culture."</ref><ref name="K_103">{{harvnb|Kuzmina|2007|p=103}} "The dress of Iranian-speaking Saka and Scythians is easily reconstructed on the basis of... numerous archaeological discoveries from the Ukraine to the Altai, particularly at Issyk in Kazakhstan... at Pazyryk... and Ak-Alakha"</ref> These burials show striking similarities with the earlier [[Tarim mummies]] at [[Lop Nur#Qäwrighul|Gumugou]].<ref name="K_94" /> The [[Issyk kurgan]] of south-eastern [[Kazakhstan]],<ref name="K_103" /> and the [[Ordos culture]] of the [[Ordos Plateau]] has also been connected with the Saka.{{sfn|Lebedynsky|2007|p=125}} It has been suggested that the ruling elite of the [[Xiongnu]] was of Saka origin, or at least significantly influenced by their Eastern Iranian neighbours.<ref>{{harvnb|Harmatta|1996|p=488}}: "Their royal tribes and kings (shan-yii) bore Iranian names and all the Hsiung-nu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from an Iranian language of Saka type. It is therefore clear that the majority of Hsiung-nu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Savelyev |first1=Alexander |last2=Jeong |first2=Choongwon |date=7 May 2020|title=Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West |journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences |language=en |volume=2 |article-number=e20 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.18 |issn=2513-843X |pmc=7612788 |pmid=35663512 |quote=It is still likely that the Xiongnu included an Eastern Iranian (Saka) component or were at least strongly influenced by the Iranians. It is also arguable that the Xiongnu learned the steppe nomadic model of economy from their Eastern Iranian neighbours (Beckwith, 2009: 72–73, 404).}}</ref> Some scholars contend that in the 8th century BC, a Saka raid from the [[Altai Mountains|Altai]] may be "connected" with a raid on [[Zhou China]].<ref name="EBThe_Steppe">{{cite encyclopedia|first=William H.|last=McNeill|title=The Steppe – Scythian successes |url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565551/the-Steppe/10302/Scythian-successes |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|access-date=31 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130715064441/http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565551/the-Steppe/10302/Scythian-successes|archive-date=15 July 2013}}<br />{{cite encyclopedia|title=The Steppe – Military and political developments among the steppe peoples to 100 bc|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/the-Steppe/Military-and-political-developments-among-the-steppe-peoples-to-100-bc#ref10302|access-date=23 September 2019}}</ref>

=== Early history ===
[[File:Saka tribute-bearers, Apadana staircase 12.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|[[Sakā Tigraxaudā]] tribute bearers to the [[Achaemenid Empire]], [[Apadana of Persepolis|Apadana]], Staircase 12.<ref>According to Donald N. Wilber's book ''Persepolis, The Archaeology of Parsa, Seat of the Persian Kings'', the group depicted in this panel is "the Saka tigrakhauda (Pointed-hat Scythians). All are armed and wear the appropriate headgear. They are accompanied by a horse, and offer a bracelet and folded coats and trousers, apparently copies of their own costumes."</ref>]]
The Saka are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century BC.<ref name="mallory">{{cite web |url=http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf |title=Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin |author=J. P. mallory |work=Penn Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909231531/http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf |archive-date=9 September 2016 }}</ref>

The Saka tribe of the [[Massagetae]]/{{transliteration|peo|Tigraxaudā}} rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, when they migrated from the east into Central Asia,{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} from where they expelled the [[Scythians]], another nomadic Iranian tribe to whom they were closely related, after which they came to occupy large areas of the region beginning in the 6th century BC.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}} The Massagetae forcing the Early Scythians to the west across the [[Volga|Araxes]] river and into the Caucasian and Pontic steppes started a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the [[Eurasian Steppe]],{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=553}} following which the Scythians displaced the [[Cimmerians]] and the [[Agathyrsi]], who were also nomadic Iranian peoples closely related to the Massagetae and the Scythians, conquered their territories,{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=553}}{{sfn|Harmatta|1996}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560-590}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=202-203}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985}} and invaded [[Western Asia]], where their presence had an important role in the history of the ancient civilisations of [[Mesopotamia]], [[Anatolia]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], and [[History of Iran|Iran]].{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560-590}}

During the 7th century BC itself, Saka presence started appearing in the [[Tarim Basin]] region.<ref name="mallory" />

According to the ancient Greek historian [[Diodorus Siculus]], the [[Parthia]]ns rebelled against the [[Medes]] during the reign of [[Cyaxares]], after which the Parthians put their country and capital city under the protection of the Sakas. This was followed by a long war opposing the Medes to the Saka, the latter of whom were led by the queen [[Zarinaea]]. At the end of this war, the Parthians accepted Median rule, and the Saka and the Medes made peace.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2021|p=17-18}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zarinaia |title=ZARINAIA |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |date=2000 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher= |access-date=8 July 2022 |quote= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |author-link=Adrienne Mayor |date=2014 |title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World |url= |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]], [[United States]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=379–381 |isbn=978-0-691-14720-8 }}</ref>

{{multiple image
| direction         = horizontal
| total_width       = 275
| image1            = Behistun.Inscript.Skunkha.jpg
| caption1          = Captured Saka king [[Skunkha]], from [[Mount Behistun]], Iran, [[Achaemenid]] stone relief from the reign of [[Darius I]] (r. 522–486 BC)
| image2            = Darius I Statue Sakas.jpg|thumb
| caption2          = The Sakas as subjects of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] on the statue of [[Darius I]], circa 500 BC.
}}

According to the Greek historian [[Ctesias]], once the [[Persians|Persian]] [[Achaemenid Empire]]'s founder, [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]], had overthrown his grandfather the Median king [[Astyages]], the [[Bactria]]ns accepted him as the heir of Astyages and submitted to him, after which he founded the city of [[Cyropolis]] on the Iaxartes river as well as seven fortresses to protect the northern frontier of his empire against the Saka. Cyrus then attacked the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}}, initially defeated them and captured their king, [[Amorges (Saka king)|Amorges]]. After this, Amorges's queen, [[Sparethra]], defeated Cyrus with a large army of both men and women warriors and captured [[Parmises]], the brother-in-law of Cyrus and the brother of his wife [[Cassandane|Amytis]], as well as Parmises's three sons, whom Sparethra exchanged in return for her husband, after which Cyrus and Amorges became allies, and Amorges helped Cyrus conquer [[Lydia]].{{sfn|Francfort|1988|p=171}}{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994|pages=35–64}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Gera |first=Deborah Levine |date=2018 |title=Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus De Mulieribus |url= |location=[[Leiden]], [[Netherlands]]; [[New York City]], [[United States]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |pages=199–200 |isbn=978-9-004-32988-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |author-link=Adrienne Mayor |date=2014 |title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World |url= |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]], [[United States]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=382–383 |isbn=978-0-691-17027-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kuhrt |first=Amélie |author-link=Amélie Kuhrt |date=2013 |title=The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period |url= |location=[[London]], [[United Kingdom]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=58 |isbn=978-1-136-01694-3 }}</ref><ref name="SchmittAmorges">{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/amorges |title=AMORGES |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |date=1989 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher= |access-date=8 July 2022 |quote= }}</ref>

Cyrus, accompanied by the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} of his ally Amorges, later carried out a campaign against the [[Massagetae]]/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} in 530 BC.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} According to Herodotus, Cyrus captured a Massagetaean camp by ruse, after which the Massagetae queen [[Tomyris]] led the tribe's main force against the Persians, defeated them, and placed the severed head of Cyrus in a sack full of blood. Some versions of the records of the death of Cyrus named the Derbices, rather than the Massagetae, as the tribe against whom Cyrus died in battle, because the Derbices were a member tribe of the Massagetae confederation or identical with the whole of the Massagetae.{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}} After Cyrus had been mortally wounded by the Derbices/Massagetae, Amorges and his {{transliteration|peo|Sakā haumavargā}} army helped the Persian soldiers defeat them. Cyrus told his sons to respect their own mother as well as Amorges above everyone else before dying.<ref name="SchmittAmorges"/>

Possibly shortly before the 520s BC, the Saka expanded into the valleys of the [[Ili (river)|Ili]] and [[Chu (river)|Chu]] in eastern Central Asia.<ref name="yu 2010 p13" /> Around 30 Saka tombs in the form of [[kurgan]]s (burial mounds) have also been found in the [[Tian Shan]] area dated to between 550 and 250 BC.<ref name="mallory" />

[[Darius I]] waged wars against the eastern Sakas during a campaign of 520 to 518 BC where, according to his [[Behistun Inscription|inscription at Behistun]], he conquered the Massagetae/{{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}}, captured their king [[Skunkha|Skunxa]], and replaced him with a ruler who was loyal to Achaemenid rule.{{sfn|Schmitt|2018}}<ref name="SchmittAmorges"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/darius-iii |title=DARIUS iii. Darius I the Great |last=Shahbazi|first=A. Shapur |author-link=Alireza Shapour Shahbazi |date=1989 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher= |access-date=12 July 2022 |quote= }}</ref> The territories of the Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of [[Chorasmia (satrapy)|Chorasmia]] that included much of the territory between the [[Oxus]] and the [[Iaxartes]] rivers,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osQ9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |title=By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia |first= Barry |last=Cunliffe |page=235 |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=24 September 2015|isbn= 978-0-19-968917-0 }}</ref> and the Saka then supplied the Achaemenid army with a large number of mounted bowmen.<ref name="D_44">{{harvnb|Dandamayev|1994|pp=44–46}}</ref> According to [[Polyaenus]], Darius fought against three armies led by three kings, respectively named [[Sacesphares]], [[Homarges|Amorges]] or [[Homarges]], and [[Thamyris (Saka king)|Thamyris]], with Polyaenus's account being based on accurate Persian historical records.<ref name="SchmittAmorges"/>{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=131}}<ref>{{cite book |last=De Jong |first=Albert |author-link=Albert de Jong |date=1997 |title=Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/TraditionsOfTheMagiZoroastrianismInGreekAndLatinLiterature |location=[[Leiden]], [[Netherlands]]; [[New York City]], [[United States]] |publisher=[[BRILL]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/TraditionsOfTheMagiZoroastrianismInGreekAndLatinLiterature/page/n307/mode/2up 297] |isbn=978-9-004-10844-8 }}</ref> After Darius's administrative reforms of the Achaemenid Empire, the {{transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} were included within the same tax district as the [[Medes]].{{sfn|Vogelsang|1992|page=160}}

During the period of Achaemenid rule, Central Asia was in contact with Saka populations who were themselves in contact with [[History of China#Ancient China|China]].<ref>{{harvnb|Francfort|1988|page=185}}: Besides trade and exchange within the borders of the Achaemenid empire, it seems that the part of Central Asua under Achaemenid rule was in contact with the Saka tribes who were in touch with China (see the finds of {{transliteration|en|kurgans}} II and V of Pazyryk and of Xinyuan and Alagou in Xinjiang).</ref>

After [[Alexander the Great]] conquered the Achaemenid Empire, the Saka resisted his incursions into Central Asia.<ref name="eolss" />

At least by the late 2nd century BC, the Sakas had founded states in the Tarim Basin.<ref name="Sinor_173">{{harvnb|Sinor|1990|pp=173–174}}</ref>

=== Kingdoms in the Tarim Basin ===
==== Kingdom of Khotan ====
{{Main|Kingdom of Khotan}}
[[File:Saka horserider with bow, 2nd-1st century BCE, Almaty, Kazakhstan.jpg|thumb|Saka hunter with bow, 2nd–1st century BC, [[Almaty]], [[Kazakhstan]]]]

The [[Kingdom of Khotan]] was a Saka city state on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. As a consequence of the [[Han–Xiongnu War]] spanning from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin (now Xinjiang, [[Northwest China]]), including [[Khotan]] and [[Kashgar]], fell under [[Han Chinese]] influence, beginning with the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han]] (r. 141–87 BC).<ref>Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 103–222. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 197–198. {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 410–411. {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref>

[[File:KingGurgamoyaKhotan1stCenturyCE.jpg|thumb|left|Coin of [[Gurgamoya]], king of Khotan. Khotan, first century.<br />
''Obv:'' [[Kharosthi]] legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.<br />
''Rev:'' Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin". [[British Museum]]]]

Archaeological evidence and documents from Khotan and other sites in the Tarim Basin provided information on the language spoken by the Saka.{{sfn|Bailey|1983}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Windfuhr |first=Gernot |title=Iranian Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtpQZ1DD6tEC&pg=PA377|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79704-1|page=377}}</ref>
The official language of Khotan was initially [[Gandhari Prakrit]] written in Kharosthi, and coins from Khotan dated to the 1st century bear dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit, indicating links of Khotan to both India and China.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko_RafMSGLkC&pg=PA265 |author=Emmerick, R. E. |publisher=Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition |date=14 April 1983|isbn=978-0-521-20092-9|chapter =Chapter 7: Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs|editor-first=Ehsan |editor-last=Yarshater |title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1 |pages= 265–266 }}</ref> Surviving documents however suggest that an Iranian language was used by the people of the kingdom for a long time. Third-century AD documents in Prakrit from nearby [[Shanshan]] record the title for the king of Khotan as ''hinajha'' (i.e. "[[generalissimo]]"), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the [[Sanskrit]] title ''[[senapati]]'', yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Saka ''hīnāysa'' attested in later Khotanese documents.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265" /> This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given as the Khotanese ''kṣuṇa'', "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power," according to the Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265" /> He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of Iranian."<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265" /> Furthermore, he argued that the early form of the name of Khotan, ''hvatana'', is connected semantically with the name Saka.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265" />

The region once again came under Chinese [[suzerainty]] with the campaigns of conquest by [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]] (r. 626–649).<ref>Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). History of the Turks (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, p. 596-598. {{ISBN|978-7-5004-0432-3}}; OCLC 28622013</ref> From the late eighth to ninth centuries, the region changed hands between the rival Tang and [[Tibetan Empire]]s.<ref>Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 36, 146. {{ISBN|0-691-05494-0}}.</ref><ref>Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. ''The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–227. {{ISBN|978-0-521-21446-9}}.</ref> However, by the early 11th century the region fell to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]], which led to both the [[Turkification]] of the region as well as its conversion from [[Buddhism]] to [[Islam]].
[[File:Khotanese animal zodiac BLI6 OR11252 1R2 1.jpg|thumb|A document from [[Khotan]] written in [[Khotanese Saka]], part of the [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]], listing the animals of the [[Chinese zodiac]] in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century]]

Later Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to [[Buddhist literature]], have been found in Khotan and [[Tumshuq]] (northeast of Kashgar).{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |title=The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave|first=Valerie |last=Hansen |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute|volume= 19|date=2005|pages= 37–46}}</ref>

Although the ancient Chinese had called Khotan ''Yutian'' (于闐), another more native Iranian name occasionally used was ''Jusadanna'' (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian ''Gostan'' and ''Gostana'', the names of the town and region around it, respectively.<ref name="theobald 2011 yutian">Ulrich Theobald. (16 October 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/citystates.html#yutian City-states Along the Silk Road]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.</ref>

==== Shule Kingdom ====
{{Main|Shule Kingdom}}
Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, the people of [[Kashgar]], the capital of Shule, spoke Saka, one of the [[Eastern Iranian languages]].<ref>Xavier Tremblay, "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in ''The Spread of Buddhism'', eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, p. 77.</ref> According to the ''[[Book of Han]]'', the Saka split and formed several states in the region. These Saka states may include two states to the northwest of Kashgar, [[Tumshuq]] to its northeast, and [[Tashkurgan Town|Tushkurgan]] south in the Pamirs.<ref name="DaniLitvinsky1996" /> Kashgar also conquered other states such as [[Yarkand]] and [[Kucha]] during the Han dynasty, but in its later history, Kashgar was controlled by various empires, including [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] China,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yarkand |title=YARKAND |last=Lurje |first=Pavel |date=2009 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |quote=The territory of Yārkand is for the first time mentioned in the Hanshu (1st century BCE), under the name Shache (Old Chinese, approximately, {{transliteration|och|*s³a(j)-ka)}}, which is probably related to the name of the Iranian Saka tribes. }}</ref><ref>Whitfield 2004, p. 47.</ref><ref name="wechsler">Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–228. {{ISBN|978-0-521-21446-9}}.</ref> before it became part of the Turkic [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] in the 10th century. In the 11th century, according to [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]], some non-Turkic languages like Kanchaki and [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] were still used in some areas in the vicinity of Kashgar,<ref name="LeviSela2010 2">{{cite book |author1=Scott Cameron Levi|first2=Ron|last2=Sela|title=Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA72 |year=2010|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-35385-6|pages=72–}}</ref> and Kanchaki is thought to belong to the Saka language group.<ref name="DaniLitvinsky1996">{{cite book|author1=Ahmad Hasan Dani|author2=B. A. Litvinsky|author3=Unesco|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=883OZBe2sMYC&pg=PA283|year=1996 |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103211-0|pages=283–}}</ref> It is believed that the Tarim Basin was linguistically Turkified before the 11th century ended.<ref name="Akiner2013">{{cite book|author=Akiner|title=Cultural Change & Continuity In|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udjWAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|date=28 October 2013 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-15034-0|pages=71–}}</ref>

=== Southern migrations ===
[[File:Kalchayan Prince (armour).jpg|thumb|Model of a Saka/[[Kangju]] [[cataphract]] armour with neck-guard, from [[Khalchayan]]. 1st century BC. [[Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan]], nb 40.<ref name="SPL56">{{cite book |last1=Frantz |first1=Grenet |title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-84-125278-5-8 |page=56}}</ref>]]
The Saka were pushed out of the Ili and Chu River valleys by the [[Yuezhi]].<ref name="B_290">{{harvnb|Baumer|2012|p=290}}</ref><ref name="Benjamin" /><ref name="ChineseHistory" /> An account of the movement of these people is given in [[Sima Qian]]'s ''[[Records of the Grand Historian]]''. The Yuehzhi, who originally lived between Tängri Tagh ([[Tian Shan]]) and [[Dunhuang]] of [[Gansu]], China,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Mallory, J. P. |author2=Mair, Victor H. |name-list-style=amp |page=[https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/58 58] |year=2000 |title=''The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West'' |publisher=Thames & Hudson. London |isbn=0-500-05101-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/58 }}</ref> were assaulted and forced to flee from the [[Hexi Corridor]] of Gansu by the forces of the [[Xiongnu]] ruler [[Modu Chanyu]], who conquered the area in 177–176 BC.<ref>Torday, Laszlo. (1997). ''Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History''. Durham: The Durham Academic Press, pp. 80–81, {{ISBN|978-1-900838-03-0}}.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC – A.D. 220'', 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 377–388, 391, {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref><ref>Chang, Chun-shu. (2007). The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Volume II; Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 BC – AD 157. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 5–8 {{ISBN|978-0-472-11534-1}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Di Cosmo|2002|pp=174–189}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Di Cosmo|2004|pp=196–198}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Di Cosmo|2002|pp=241–242}}</ref> In turn the Yuehzhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai (''i.e.'' Saka) west into Sogdiana, where, between 140 and 130 BC, the latter crossed the [[Syr Darya]] into Bactria. The Saka also moved southwards toward the Pamirs and northern India, where they settled in Kashmir, and eastward, to settle in some of the oasis-states of Tarim Basin sites, like Yanqi (焉耆, [[Karasahr]]) and Qiuci (龜茲, [[Kucha]]).<ref>Yu Taishan (June 2010), "The Earliest Tocharians in China" in Victor H. Mair (ed), ''Sino-Platonic Papers'', Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, pp. 13–14, 21–22.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html |title= The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia |first=Craig |last=Benjamin }}</ref> The Yuehzhi, themselves under attacks from another nomadic tribe, the [[Wusun]], in 133–132 BC, moved, again, from the Ili and Chu valleys, and occupied the country of [[Daxia]], (大夏, "Bactria").<ref name="yu 2010 p13">{{harvnb|Yu|2010}}: "The Daxia 大夏 people in the valley of the Amu Darya came from the valleys of the rivers Ili and Chu. From the {{transliteration|en|Geography}} of Strabo one can infer that the four tribes of the Asii and others came from these valleys (the so-called "land of the Sai 塞" in the {{transliteration|zh|Hanshu}} 漢書, ch. 96A). "</ref><ref>Bernard, P. (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia". In Harmatta, János. ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250''. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 96–126. {{ISBN|92-3-102846-4}}.</ref>
[[File:Cult of Heavenly horse bronze horse ancient finial Bucephalus Ancient Akhal Teke.jpg|thumb|The Heavenly Horse, commonly known as the Ferghana Horse, is an ancient ceremonial bronze finial. It originates from Bactria, dating back to the 4th-1st century BC, and was skillfully crafted by Saka tribes.]]
The ancient Greco-Roman geographer [[Strabo]] noted that the four tribes that took down the Bactrians in the Greek and Roman account – the ''[[Asioi]]'', ''Pasianoi'', ''Tokharoi'' and ''Sakaraulai'' – came from land north of the Syr Darya where the Ili and Chu valleys are located.<ref name=Rene>{{Cite book |last=Grousset |first=Rene |title=The Empire of the Steppes |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1970 |isbn=0-8135-1304-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/29 29–31] |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/29 }}</ref><ref name="yu 2010 p13" /> Identification of these four tribes varies, but ''Sakaraulai'' may indicate an ancient Saka tribe, the ''Tokharoi'' is possibly the Yuezhi, and while the Asioi had been proposed to be groups such as the Wusun or [[Alans]].<ref name=Rene /><ref>{{harvnb|Baumer|2012|p=296}}</ref>

[[File:SakastanMap.jpg|thumb|Map of [[Sakastan]] ("Land of the Sakas"), where the Sakas resettled c. 100 BC]]
[[René Grousset]] wrote of the migration of the Saka: "the Saka, under pressure from the Yueh-chih [Yuezhi], overran Sogdiana and then Bactria, there taking the place of the Greeks." Then, "Thrust back in the south by the Yueh-chih," the Saka occupied "the Saka country, Sakastana, whence the modern Persian Seistan."<ref name=Rene /> Some of the Saka fleeing the Yuezhi attacked the [[Parthian Empire]], where they defeated and killed the kings [[Phraates II]] and [[Artabanus I of Parthia|Artabanus]].<ref name="B_290" /> These Sakas were eventually settled by [[Mithridates II of Parthia|Mithridates II]] in what become known as [[Sakastan]].<ref name="B_290" /> According to [[Harold Walter Bailey]], the territory of [[Drangiana]] (now in Afghanistan and Pakistan) became known as "Land of the Sakas", and was called Sakastāna in the Persian language of contemporary Iran, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the [[Middle Persian]] tongue used in [[Turfan]], Xinjiang, China.{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} This is attested in a contemporary [[Kharosthi]] inscription found on the [[Mathura lion capital]] belonging to the Saka kingdom of the [[Indo-Scythians]] (200 BC – 400 AD) in [[North India]],{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of ''Jibin'' 罽賓 (i.e. [[Kashmir]], of modern-day India and Pakistan).<ref name="theobald 2011 saka">Ulrich Theobald. (26 November 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html Chinese History – Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.</ref>

[[Iaroslav Lebedynsky]] and [[Victor H. Mair]] speculate that some Sakas may also have migrated to the area of [[Yunnan]] in southern China following their expulsion by the Yuezhi. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the [[Dian Kingdom]] of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing.{{sfn|Lebedynsky|2006|p=73}} The scenes depicted on these drums sometimes represent these horsemen practising hunting. Animal scenes of felines attacking oxen are also at times reminiscent of [[Scythian art]] both in theme and in composition.{{sfn|Mallory|Mair|2008|pp=329–330}}
[[Pre-modern human migration|Migrations]] of the 2nd and 1st century BC have left traces in Sogdia and Bactria, but they cannot firmly be attributed to the Saka, similarly with the sites of [[Sirkap]] and [[Taxila]] in [[outline of ancient India|ancient India]]. The rich graves at [[Tillya Tepe]] in [[Afghanistan]] are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka.{{sfn|Lebedynsky|2006|p=84}}

The [[Shakya]] clan of India, to which [[Gautama Buddha]], called ''Śākyamuni'' "Sage of the Shakyas", belonged, were also likely Sakas, as [[Michael Witzel]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Attwood|first1=Jayarava|title=Possible Iranian Origins for the Śākyas and Aspects of Buddhism|journal=Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies|date=2012|volume=3}}</ref> and [[Christopher I. Beckwith]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Beckwith|first=Christopher I.|author-link=Christopher I. Beckwith|title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlCUBgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-6632-8|pages=1–21}}</ref> have alleged. The scholar Bryan Levman however criticised this hypothesis for resting on slim to no evidence, and maintains that the Shakyas were a population native to the north-east Gangetic plain who were unrelated to Iranic Sakas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Levman |first1=Bryan Geoffrey |title=Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Buddhist Scriptures |journal=Buddhist Studies Review |date=2014 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=145–180 |doi=10.1558/bsrv.v30i2.145 |url=https://www.academia.edu/27981814 |issn=1747-9681|doi-access=free }} "The evidence for this final wave is however, very slim and there is no evidence for it in the Vedic texts; for their western origin, Witzel relies on a reference in Pāṇini (4.2.131, madravṛjyoḥ) to the Vṛjjis in dual relation with the Madras who are from the northwest, and to the Mallas in the Jaiminīya Brāhamaṇa (§198) as arising from the dust of Rajasthan. Neither the Sakyas nor any of the other eastern tribes are mentioned, and of course there is no proof that any of these are Indo-Aryan groups. I view the Sakyas and the later Śakas as two separate groups, the former being aboriginal."</ref>

=== Indo-Scythians ===
{{Main|Indo-Scythians}}
[[File:Saka warrior Termez Achaeological Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|Head of a Saka warrior, as a defeated enemy of the [[Yuezhi]], from [[Khalchayan]], northern [[Bactria]], 1st century BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Kazim |title=Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam) |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2007 |volume=133 |pages=87–98 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6864202}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iranicaonline.org/|title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica|first=Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Foundation|website=iranicaonline.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/c2/42/bfc242271c38d714044837d179faab53.jpg|title=Also a Saka according to this source}}</ref>]]
The region in modern Afghanistan and Iran where the Saka moved to became known as "land of the Saka" or [[Sakastan]].{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} This is attested in a contemporary [[Kharosthi]] inscription found on the [[Mathura lion capital]] belonging to the Saka kingdom of the [[Indo-Scythians]] (200 BC – 400 AD) in [[northern India]],{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of ''Jibin'' 罽賓 (i.e. [[Kashmir]], of modern-day India and Pakistan).<ref name="theobald 2011 saka" /> In the Persian language of contemporary Iran the territory of Drangiana was called Sakastāna, in Armenian as Sakastan, with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the [[Middle Persian]] tongue used in [[Turfan]], Xinjiang, China.{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} The Sakas also captured [[Gandhara]] and [[Taxila]], and migrated to [[North India]].<ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114">{{cite book |title=The Sarmatians |volume=73 |series=Ancient peoples and places |pages=113–114 |last=Sulimirski |first=Tadeusz |author-link=Tadeusz Sulimirski |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |year=1970 |isbn=978-90-800572-7-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdjhuAAACAAJ |quote=The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas) / Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India.}}</ref> The most famous Indo-Scythian king was [[Maues]].<ref name="I_Kushan">{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kushan-dynasty-i-history |title=KUSHAN DYNASTY i. Dynastic History |last=Bivar |first=A. D. H. |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |access-date=31 August 2018 }}</ref> An Indo-Scythian kingdom was established in [[Mathura]] (200 BC – 400 AD).{{sfn|Bailey|1983}}<ref name="Beckwith85" /> [[Weer Rajendra Rishi]], an Indian linguist, identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sakan influence in North India.<ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114" /><ref>{{cite book |title= India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity |page=95 | last=Rishi |first=Weer Rajendra |author-link=Weer Rajendra Rishi |publisher=Roma |year=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vns_AAAAMAAJ&q=Getae}}</ref> According to historian Michael Mitchiner, the [[Abhira tribe]] were a Saka people cited in the Gunda inscription of the [[Western Satrap]] [[Rudrasimha I]] dated to AD 181.<ref name="Mitchiner1978">{{cite book|last=Mitchiner|first=Michael|title=The ancient & classical world, 600 B.C.-A.D. 650|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuQLAQAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Hawkins Publications; distributed by B. A. Seaby|isbn=978-0-904173-16-1|page=634}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="3" caption="Later Saka polities">
File:Map_of_the_Indo-Scythians.png|The [[Indo-Scythians]] ruled in northwestern South Asia from circa 100 BC
File:Map_of_the_Northern_Satraps_(Northern_Sakas).jpg|The [[Northern Satraps]] ruled in northern India until their replacement by the Kushans circa 150 AD
File:Map_of_the_Western_Satraps.png|The [[Western Satraps]] was a Saka dynasty which ruled in western India until circa 400 AD 
</gallery>

== Historiography ==
[[File:Assimilation of Baltic and Aryan Peoples by Uralic Speakers in the Middle and Upper Volga Basin (Shaded Relief BG).png|thumb|Distribution of Iranic peoples in Central Asia during the Iron Age. Saka included.]]
[[File:Coin of Azes II.jpg|thumb|Silver coin of the [[Indo-Scythians|Indo-Scythian]] King [[Azes II]] (ruled c. 35–12 BC). Note the royal [[tamga]] on the coin.]]

[[Persians]] referred to all northern nomads as Sakas. [[Herodotus]] (IV.64) describes them as Scythians, although they figure under a different name:

{{Blockquote|The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or ''[[sagaris]]''. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians.}}

=== Strabo ===
In the 1st century BC, the Greek-Roman geographer Strabo gave an extensive description of the peoples of the eastern steppe, whom he located in Central Asia beyond Bactria and Sogdiana.<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1">{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.8.1 |title=Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=13 September 2012}}</ref>

Strabo went on to list the names of the various tribes he believed to be "Scythian",<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1" /> and in so doing almost certainly conflated them with unrelated tribes of eastern Central Asia. These tribes included the Saka.

{{Blockquote|Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called [[Däae]], but those who are situated more to the east than these are named [[Massagetae]] and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They are all for the most part nomads. But the best known of the nomads are those who [[Kushan Empire|took away Bactriana]] from the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greeks]], I mean the [[Asii]], [[Pasiani]], [[Bactria#Daxia, Tukhara and Tokharistan|Tochari]], and [[sacaraucae|Sacarauli]], who originally came from the [[Dayuan|country on the other side]] of the [[Syr Darya|Iaxartes River]] that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. And as for the Däae, some of them are called [[Aparni]], some [[Xanthii]], and some [[Pissuri]]. Now of these the Aparni are situated closest to [[Hyrcania]] and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]].

Between them and Hyrcania and [[Parthia]] and extending as far as the Arians is a [[Karakum Desert|great waterless desert]], which they traversed by long marches and then overran Hyrcania, [[Nisa, Turkmenistan|Nesaea]], and the plains of the Parthians. And these people agreed to [[tribute|pay tribute]], and the tribute was to allow the invaders at certain appointed times to overrun the country and carry off booty. But when the invaders overran their country more than the agreement allowed, war ensued, and in turn their quarrels were composed and new wars were begun. Such is the life of the other nomads also, who are always attacking their neighbors and then in turn settling their differences.|Strabo, ''Geography'', 11.8.1; transl. 1903 by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer.<ref name="Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1" />}}

=== Indian sources ===
{{Main|Indo-Scythians}}

The Sakas receive numerous mentions in Indian texts, including the [[Purāṇas]], the ''[[Manusmriti|Manusmṛiti]]'', the ''[[Rāmāyaṇa]]'', the ''[[Mahābhārata]]'', and the ''[[Mahābhāṣya]]'' of [[Patanjali]].

== Language ==
{{Main|Saka language}}
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Modern scholarly consensus is that the [[Eastern Iranian language]], ancestral to the [[Pamir languages]] in [[Central Asia]] and the medieval Saka language of [[Xinjiang]], was one of the [[Scythian languages]].<ref>Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007). ''The Origin of the Indo Iranians''. Edited by J.P. Mallory. Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 381–382. {{ISBN|978-90-04-16054-5}}.</ref> Evidence of the Middle Iranian "Scytho-Khotanese" language survives in [[Northwest China]], where Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to [[Buddhist texts]], have been found primarily in Khotan and [[Tumshuq]] (northeast of Kashgar).{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} They largely predate the [[Islamization of Xinjiang]] under the [[Turkic languages|Turkic-speaking]] [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]].{{sfn|Bailey|1983}} Similar documents, the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]], were discovered written in the Khotanese [[Saka language]] and date mostly from the tenth century.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |title=The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave |first=Valerie |last=Hansen |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |volume=19 |date=2005 |pages=37–46 |access-date=23 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031701/http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Attestations of the Saka language show that it was an [[Eastern Iranian language]]. The linguistic heartland of Saka was the [[Kingdom of Khotan]], which had two varieties, corresponding to the major settlements at Khotan (now called [[Hotan]]) and Tumshuq (now titled [[Tumxuk]]).<ref>Sarah Iles Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, Harvard University Press, 2004. pg 197</ref><ref>Edward A Allworth,''Central Asia: A Historical Overview'', Duke University Press, 1994. pp 86.</ref> Tumshuqese and Khotanese varieties of Saka contain many borrowings from the [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages]], but also share features with the modern Eastern Iranian languages [[Wakhi language|Wakhi]] and [[Pashto]].<ref>{{cite conference|book-title=History of civilizations of Central Asia|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=81-208-1540-8|title=Religions and religious movements|last=Litvinsky|first=Boris Abramovich|author2=Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, M.I|author-link2=Margarita Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya|pages=421–448|year=1999}}</ref>

It is suggested by some that the [[Pashto]] language may have originated in the [[Badakhshan]] region and is connected to a [[Saka language]] akin to Khotanese.<ref>{{Cite web|quote=lt is, however, possible that the original home of Pasto may have been in Badaksan, somewhere between Munji and Sangl. and Shugh., with some contact with a Saka dialect akin to Khotanese.|title=Encolypedia Iranica, AFGHANISTAN vi. Pastö|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/afghanistan-vi-pasto}}</ref> In fact major linguist [[Georg Morgenstierne]] has described Pashto as a [[Saka language|Saka]] dialect and many others have observed the similarities between Pashto and other Saka languages as well, suggesting that the original Pashto speakers might have been a Saka group.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Indo-Iranica|publisher=Iran Society|year=1946|location=Kolkata, India|pages=173–174|quote=... and their language is most closely related to on the one hand with Saka on the other with Munji-Yidghal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Becka|first=Jiriltitle=A Study in Pashto Stress|publisher=Academia|year=1969|page=32|quote=Pashto in its origin, is probably a Saka dialect.}}</ref> Furthermore, Pashto and [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]], another Saka-descending language, share cognates in their vocabulary which other Eastern Iranian languages lack.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cheung|first=Jonny|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb|publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series) |year=2007}}</ref> Cheung suggests a common isogloss between Pashto and Ossetian which he explains by an undocumented Saka dialect being spoken close to reconstructed Old Pashto which was likely spoken north of the [[Amu Darya|Oxus]] at that time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cheung|first=Jonny|title=Etymological dictionary of the Iranian verb|publisher=(Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series)year=2007}}</ref>

The Issyk inscription, a short fragment on a silver cup found in the [[Issyk kurgan]] in [[Kazakhstan]] is believed to be the earliest example of Saka, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language.<ref name="CBAUMER">{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set |date=18 April 2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-868-2 |page=206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA206 |language=en}}</ref> The inscription is in a variant of [[Kharosthi]]. Harmatta suggests that the inscriptions are a variant of the [[Kharosthi]] language, while Christopher Baumer has said that they closely resemble the [[Old Turkic]] runic alphabet. From Khotanese Saka, Harmatta translates the inscription as: "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on".{{sfn|Harmatta|1996|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9U6RlVVjpakC&pg=PA421 420–421]}}

[[Linguistic]] evidence suggest the Wakhi language is descended from Saka languages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frye |first1=R.N. |title=The History of Ancient Iran |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient0000frye |url-access=registration |date=1984 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofancient0000frye/page/192 192]|publisher=C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-09397-5 |quote=[T]hese western Saka he distinguishes from eastern Saka who moved south through the Kashgar-Tashkurgan-Gilgit-Swat route to the plains of the sub-continent of India. This would account for the existence of the ancient Khotanese-Saka speakers, documents of whom have been found in western Sinkiang, and the modern Wakhi language of Wakhan in Afghanistan, another modern branch of descendants of Saka speakers parallel to the Ossetes in the west.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bailey |first1=H.W. |title=The culture of the Sakas in ancient Iranian Khotan |date=1982 |publisher=Caravan Books |pages=7–10 |quote=It is noteworthy that the Wakhi language of Wakhan has features, phonetics, and vocabulary the nearest of Iranian dialects to Khotan Saka.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Windfuhr |first1=G. |title=Iranian Languages |date=2013 |publisher=Routeledge |isbn=978-1-135-79704-1 |page=15}} "In addition to the continuation of Middle Persian in New Persian, three small modern languages show significant grammatical and lexical reflexes of other documented Middle Iranian languages: In Iran, Sangesari of the Semnan group shares a distinct set of features with Khwarezmian. In the east, Yaghnobi in Tajikistan continues a dialect of Sogdian, and Wakhi in the Pamirs shows distinct reflexes of Khotanese and Tumshuqese Saka. In fact, Wakhi is an example of the repeated invasions of Saka since antiquity."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carpelan |first1=C. |last2=Parpola |first2=A. |last3=Koskikallio |first3=P. |title=Early Contacts Between Uralic and Indo-European: Linguistic and Archaeological Considerations: Papers Presented at an International Symposium Held at the Tvärminne Research Station of the University of Helsinki, 8–10 January, 1999 |journal=Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura |date=2001 |volume=242 |page=136 |quote=...descendants of these languages survive now only in the Ossete language of the Caucasus and the Wakhi language of the Pamirs, the latter related to the Saka once spoken in Khotan.}}</ref> According to the Indo-Europeanist Martin Kümmel, Wakhi may be classified as a Western Saka dialect; the other attested Saka dialects, Khotanese and Tumshuqese, would then be classified as Eastern Saka.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Novak |first1=L. |title=Question of (Re)classification of Eastern Iranian Languages |journal=Linguistica Brunensia |date=2014 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=77–87}}</ref>

== Genetics ==
{{See also|Scythian cultures#Genetics|Scythians#Genetics|Sarmatians#Genetics|Tagar culture#Genetics}}
The earliest studies could only analyze segments of mtDNA, thus providing only broad correlations of affinity to modern West Eurasian or East Eurasian populations. For example, in a 2002 study the mitochondrial DNA of Saka period male and female skeletal remains from a double inhumation [[kurgan]] at the Beral site in Kazakhstan was analysed. The two individuals were found to be not closely related. The HV1 mitochondrial sequence of the male was similar to the Anderson sequence which is most frequent in European populations. The HV1 sequence of the female suggested a greater likelihood of Asian origins.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Clisson, I. |display-authors=etal |date=2002 |title= Genetic analysis of human remains from a double inhumation in a frozen kurgan in Kazakhstan (Berel site, early 3rd century BC). |journal=International Journal of Legal Medicine |volume= 116 |issue=5 |pages=304–308 |pmid=12376844 |doi= 10.1007/s00414-002-0295-x |s2cid=27711154 }}</ref>

More recent studies have been able to type for specific [[human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mtDNA lineages]]. For example, a 2004 study examined the [[hypervariable region|HV1 sequence]] obtained from a male "Scytho-Siberian" at the [[Kyzyl|Kizil]] site in the [[Altai Republic]]. It belonged to the [[haplogroup N (mtDNA)|N1a]] maternal lineage, a geographically West Eurasian lineage.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Ricaut F. |display-authors=etal | year = 2004 | title = Genetic Analysis of a Scytho-Siberian Skeleton and Its Implications for Ancient Central Asian Migrations | journal = Human Biology | volume = 76 | issue = 1| pages = 109–125 | doi=10.1353/hub.2004.0025 | pmid=15222683|s2cid=35948291 }}</ref> Another study by the same team, again of mtDNA from two Scytho-Siberian skeletons found in the Altai Republic, showed that they had been typical males "of mixed Euro-Mongoloid origin". One of the individuals was found to carry the [[Haplogroup F (mtDNA)|F2a]] maternal lineage, and the other the [[Haplogroup D (mtDNA)|D]] lineage, both of which are characteristic of East Eurasian populations.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Ricaut, F. |display-authors=etal |date=2004 |title= Genetic Analysis and Ethnic Affinities From Two Scytho-Siberian Skeletons|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume= 123|issue=4 |pages=351–360 |pmid = 15022363 |doi= 10.1002/ajpa.10323 |bibcode=2004AJPA..123..351R }}</ref>

[[File:Pazyryk man (reconstruction, Anokhin Museum).jpg|thumb|left|upright|A Saka man from the [[Pazyryk culture]], 6th to 3rd centuries BC (reconstruction from burials, [[Anokhin Museum]]).<ref name="ST">{{cite journal |title=Legal bid fails to rebury remains of 2,500 year old tattooed 'ice princess' |journal=The Siberian Times |date=2016 |url=https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0574-legal-bid-fails-to-rebury-remains-of-2500-year-old-tattooed-ice-princess/}}</ref>]]
These early studies have been elaborated by an increasing number of studies by Russian and western scholars. Conclusions are (i) an early, Bronze Age mixing of both west and east Eurasian lineages, with western lineages being found far to the east, but not vice versa; (ii) an apparent reversal by Iron Age times, with an increasing presence of East Eurasian [[mtDNA]] lineages in the Western steppe; (iii) the possible role of migrations from the south, the Balkano-Danubian and Iranian regions, toward the steppe.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia) |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=11 |article-number=e48904 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0048904 |pmid=23152818 |pmc=3494716 |year=2012 |last1=González-Ruiz |first1=Mercedes |last2=Santos |first2=Cristina |last3=Jordana |first3=Xavier |last4=Simón |first4=Marc |last5=Lalueza-Fox |first5=Carles |last6=Gigli |first6=Elena |last7=Aluja |first7=Maria Pilar |last8=Malgosa |first8=Assumpció |bibcode=2012PLoSO...748904G |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{sfn|Unterländer|Palstra|Lazaridis|Pilipenko|2017}}

Unterländer, et al. (2017) found genetic evidence that the modern-day descendants of Eastern Scythians are found "almost exclusively" among modern-day [[Siberian Turkic]] speakers, suggesting that future studies could determine the extent to which the Eastern Scythians were involved in the early formation of Turkic-speaking populations.<ref>{{harvnb|Unterländer|2017|p=69|ps=: "Thirdly, contemporary populations with the highest likelihood of being directly descended from eastern Scythian groups are almost exclusively Turkic language speakers (Supplementary Fig. 10b). Particularly high statistical support was documented for some Turkic speaking groups geographically located close to the archaeological sites of the eastern Scythians (e.g. Telenghits, Tubular, Tofalar), but also among Turkic speaking populations located in Central Asia (e.g. Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Karakalpaks) (Supplementary Fig. 11). These same results were found for some Turkic groups located even further to the West, such as the Kazan Volga-Tatars. Finally, contemporary populations likely to share a common ancestor with eastern Scythians were mainly found among Turkic, Mongolian and Siberian groups located in eastern Eurasia (Supplementary Fig. 10d and Supplementary Fig. 11). In summary, these results provide further support for a multi-regional origin of the various Scythian groups from the Iron Age."}}</ref>

===Haplogroups===
Ancient Y-DNA data was finally provided by Keyser ''et al.'' in 2009. They studied the haplotypes and haplogroups of 26 ancient human specimens from the [[Krasnoyarsk]] area in [[Siberia]] dated from between the middle of the 2nd millennium BC and the 4th century AD (Scythian and [[Sarmatian]] timeframe). Nearly all subjects belonged to [[haplogroup R-M17]]. The authors suggest that their data shows that between the Bronze and the Iron Ages the constellation of populations known variously as Scythians, [[Andronovo culture|Andronovians]], etc. were blue- (or green-) eyed, fair-skinned and light-haired people who might have played a role in the early development of the [[Tarim Basin]] civilisation. Moreover, this study found that they were genetically more closely related to modern populations in eastern Europe than those of central and southern Asia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keyser |first1=C |last2=Bouakaze |first2=C |last3=Crubézy |first3=E |display-authors=etal |date=September 2009 |title=Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-009-0683-0 |journal=Human Genetics |volume=126 |issue=3 |pages=395–410 |doi=10.1007/s00439-009-0683-0 |pmid=19449030 |s2cid=21347353|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The ubiquity and dominance of the R1a Y-DNA lineage contrasted markedly with the diversity seen in the mtDNA profiles.

In May 2018, a genetic study published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' examined the remains of twenty-eight Inner Asian Sakas buried between ca. 900 BC to AD 1, compromising eight Sakas of [[southern Siberia]] ([[Tagar culture]]), eight Sakas of the [[central steppe]] ([[Tasmola culture]]), and twelve Sakas of the [[Tian Shan]]. The six samples of [[Y-DNA]] extracted from the Tian Shan Saka belonged to the West Eurasian haplogroups [[Haplogroup R (Y-DNA)|R]] (four samples), [[Haplogroup R1|R1]] and [[R1a1]]. Four samples of Y-DNA extracted from central Steppe sakas belonged to haplogroup R1 and R1a, while one individual belonged to haplogroup [[Haplogroup E-M123|E1b1b]].<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal |last1=Damgaard |first1=Peter de Barros |title=137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes |journal=Nature |date=May 2018 |volume=557 |issue=7705 |pages=369–374 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2 |pmid=29743675 |bibcode=2018Natur.557..369D |hdl=1887/3202709 |s2cid=13670282 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0094-2 |language=english|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

The samples of [[mtDNA]] extracted from the Tian Shan Saka belonged to [[Haplogroup C (mtDNA)|C4]], [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)#H4|H4d]], [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T2a1]], [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5a1d2b]], [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)#H2|H2a]], [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5a1a1]], [[Haplogroup HV (mtDNA)|HV6]] (two samples), [[Haplogroup D (mtDNA)#D4|D4j8]] (two samples), [[Haplogroup W (mtDNA)|W1c]] and [[Haplogroup G (mtDNA)|G2a1]].<ref name="nature.com"/>

According to Tikhonov, et al. (2019), the Eastern Scythians and the Xiongnu "possibly bore proto-Turkic elements", based on a continuation of maternal and paternal haplogroups.<ref>{{harvnb|Tikhonov|Gurkan|Peler|Dyakonov|2019|p=42|ps=: "In other words, there is an apparent population continuity from the Scythians to the Xiongnu and then onto the Turkic people, possibly because the former two already bore proto-Turkic elements."}}</ref>

===Autosomal DNA===
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 231
| image1            = Bronze to Iron Age Steppe peoples genetic makeup.png
| caption1          = Genetic makeup of Bronze and Iron Age Steppe populations
| image2            = Genetic makeup of the Saka and Scythian cultures.png
| caption2          = Map of Scythian cultures, including different Saka populations with genetic profiles, combining Steppe_MLBA, BMAC, and Khövsgöl LBA ancestries.
| image3            = Scythian genetic makeup.png
| caption3          = Genetic makeup of Iron Age Central Asian Scythians. The three main ancestry components are shown in green, red and violet representing the ancestries maximized in [[Anatolian Neolithic Farmers|Anatolian farmers]], [[Ganj Dareh|Iranian farmers]], and [[West Siberian hunter-gatherer|Hunter Gatherers from West Siberia]], respectively.
}}
[[File:Arzhan-2 forensic reconstruction of the King and Queen.jpg|thumb|Forensic reconstruction of the Saka King and Queen of [[Arzhan-2]], in their burial costumes (650-600 BC).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Веселовская |first1=Е.В. |last2=Галеев |first2=Р.М. |title=АНТРОПОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ РЕКОНСТРУКЦИЯ ВНЕШНЕГО ОБЛИКА "ЦАРЯ" И "ЦАРИЦЫ" РАННЕСКИФСКОГО ПОГРЕБАЛЬНО-ПОМИНАЛЬНОГО КОМПЛЕКСА АРЖАН-2 |journal=Вестник археологии, антропологии и этнографии |date=2020 |volume=2 |issue=49 |url=http://www.ipdn.ru/_private/a49/112-122.pdf |quote=In anthropological terms, the buried show a peculiar mosaic of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. They are characterized by brachycephaly and dome-shaped head, with notably developed rugosity of the supercilium in the man and its absence in the woman. For the man, an average width of the face and a narrow forehead of medium height are noted. The woman has broad face and forehead, the height of the forehead is average. Both portraits are characterized by prominent position of eyeballs and large eyes. Man's nose is short, prominent, with convex dorsum. Woman's nose has a wavy dorsum, and is slightly prominent. On the male portrait, the cheekbones are moderate, on the female one — high and prominent. Faces of the «royal» persons are flattened in the upper part, with a certain degree of alveolar prognathism. The lower jaw of the man is medium in size, narrow in the corners. For the woman, some gracility of the lower jaw can be noted.}}</ref>]]
A 2018 study detected significant genetic differences between analyzed Inner Asian Saka-associated samples and Scythian samples of the [[Pannonian Basin]], as well as between different Saka subgroups of southern Siberia, the central steppe and the Tian Shan. While Scythians (or "Hungarian Saka") harbored exclusively ancestry associated with [[Western Steppe Herders]], Inner Asian Saka displayed additional Neolithic Iranian (BMAC) and Southern Siberian hunter-gatherer (represented through a proxy of modern [[Altaians]]) components in varying degrees. Tian Shan Sakas were found to be of about 70% [[Western Steppe Herder]] (WSH) ancestry, 25% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gatherer ancestry and 5% Iranian Neolithic ancestry. The Iranian Neolithic ancestry was probably from the [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex]]. Sakas of the Tasmola culture were found to be of about 56% WSH ancestry and 44% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gather ancestry. The peoples of the Tagar culture had about 83.5% WSH ancestry, 9% [[Ancient North Eurasian]] (ANE) ancestry and 7.5% Southern Siberian Hunter-Gatherer ancestry. The study suggested that the Inner Asian Saka were the source of West Eurasian ancestry among the [[Xiongnu]], and that the [[Huns]] probably emerged through minor male-driven geneflow into the Saka through westward migrations by the Xiongnu.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Damgaard |first1=Peter de Barros |title=137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes |journal=Nature |date=May 2018 |volume=557 |issue=7705 |pages=369–374 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2 |pmid=29743675 |bibcode=2018Natur.557..369D |hdl=1887/3202709 |s2cid=13670282 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0094-2 |language=english|hdl-access=free }} "Principal component analyses and D-statistics suggest that the Xiongnu individuals belong to two distinct groups, one being of East Asian origin and the other presenting considerable admixture levels with West Eurasian sources... Principal Component Analyses and D-statistics suggest that the Xiongnu individuals belong to two distinct groups, one being of East Asian origin and the other presenting considerable admixture levels with West Eurasian sources... We find that Central Sakas are accepted as a source for these 'western-admixed' Xiongnu in a single-wave model. In line with this finding, no East Asian gene flow is detected compared to Central Sakas as these form a clade with respect to the East Asian Xiongnu in a D-statistic, and furthermore, cluster closely together in the PCA (Figure 2)... Overall, our data show that the Xiongnu confederation was genetically heterogeneous, and that the Huns emerged following minor male-driven East Asian gene flow into the preceding Sakas that they invaded... As such our results support the contention that the disappearance of the Inner Asian Scythians and Sakas around two thousand years ago was a cultural transition that coincided with the westward migration of the Xiongnu. This Xiongnu invasion also led to the displacement of isolated remnant groups related to Late Bronze Age pastoralists that had remained on the southeastern side of the Tian Shan mountains."</ref> A genetic study published in 2020 in ''[[Cell (journal)|Cell]]'',{{sfn|Jeong|Wang|Wilkin|Taylor|2020}} modeled the ancestry of several Saka groups as a combination of [[Sintashta]] ([[Western Steppe Herders]]) and [[Baikal EBA]] ancestry ([[Lake Baikal|Western Baikal]] early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers, a profile consisting of about 80% [[Ancient Northeast Asian]] and 20% [[Ancient North Eurasian]] ancestries),{{sfn|Jeong|Wang|Wilkin|Taylor|2020|loc="Previously, we reported a shared genetic profile among EBA western Baikal hunter-gatherers (Baikal_EBA) and Late Bronze Age (LBA) pastoralists in northern Mongolia (Khövsgöl_LBA) (Jeong et al., 2018). This genetic profile, composed of major and minor ANA and ANE ancestry components, respectively, is also shared with the earlier eastern Baikal (Fofonovo_EN) and Mongolian (centralMongolia_preBA) groups analyzed in this study (Figures 3A, 3B, and 4A), suggesting a regional persistence of this genetic profile for nearly three millennia." (...) "Ancient ANA individuals fall close to the cluster of present-day Tungusic- and Nivkh-speaking populations in northeast Asia, indicating that their genetic profile is still present in indigenous populations of the Far East today"}} with varying degrees of an additional Neolithic Iranian ([[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|BMAC]]) component.{{sfn|Jeong|Wang|Wilkin|Taylor|2020}} Specifically, Central Sakas of the [[Tasmola culture]] were found to be of about 43% Sintashta ancestry, 50% Baikal_EBA ancestry and 7% BMAC ancestry. Tagar Sakas ([[Tagar culture]]) were found to have an elevated Sintashta proportion (69% Sintashta, 24% Baikal_EBA, and 7% BMAC), while [[Tian Shan]] Sakas had an elevated BMAC proportion at 24% (50% Sintashta, 26% Baikal_EBA, and 24% BMAC). The eastern Uyuk Sakas ([[Arzhan culture]]) had 50% Sintashta, 44% Baikal_EBA, and 6% BMAC ancestry. The [[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]] Sakas had elevated Baikal_EBA ancestry, with a nearly non-existent BMAC component (32% Sintashta, 68% Baikal_EBA, and ~0% BMAC).{{sfn|Jeong|Wang|Wilkin|Taylor|2020|loc=Visualization: Figure 3C Statistics: Table S5. Population Modeling, Related to Figures 3, 4, and 5. (D)}} Two other genetic studies published in 2021 and 2022 found that the Saka originated from a shared WSH-like ([[Srubnaya]], [[Sintashta culture|Sintashta]], and [[Andronovo culture]]) background with additional BMAC and East Eurasian-like ancestry. The Eastern ancestry among the Saka can also be represented by Lake Baikal (Shamanka_EBA-like) groups. The spread of Saka-like ancestry can be linked with the dispersal of [[Eastern Iranian languages]] (such as [[Khotanese language|Khotanese]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Vikas |last2=Wang |first2=Wenjun |last3=Zhang |first3=Jie |last4=Wang |first4=Yongqiang |last5=Ruan |first5=Qiurong |last6=Yu |first6=Jianjun |last7=Wu |first7=Xiaohong |last8=Hu |first8=Xingjun |last9=Wu |first9=Xinhua |last10=Guo |first10=Wu |last11=Wang |first11=Bo |last12=Niyazi |first12=Alipujiang |last13=Lv |first13=Enguo |last14=Tang |first14=Zihua |last15=Cao |first15=Peng |date=April 2022 |title=Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk1534 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=376 |issue=6588 |pages=62–69 |bibcode=2022Sci...376...62K |doi=10.1126/science.abk1534 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=35357918 |s2cid=247855352 |quote=Of these, the Sakas were the descendants of Late Bronze Age (LBA) herders (such as the Andronovo, Srubnaya, and Sintashta) with additional ancestries derived from Lake Baikal (Shamanka_EBA) (EBA, Early Bronze Age) and BMAC populations (1, 17, 18). ... Further, although the spread of languages is not always congruent with population histories (32), the presence of Saka ancestry in Xinj_IA populations supports an IA introduction of the Indo-Iranian Khotanese language, which was spoken by the Saka and later attested to in this region (19).|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Vikas |last2=Bennett |first2=E Andrew |last3=Zhao |first3=Dongyue |last4=Liang |first4=Yun |last5=Tang |first5=Yunpeng |last6=Ren |first6=Meng |last7=Dai |first7=Qinyan |last8=Feng |first8=Xiaotian |last9=Cao |first9=Peng |last10=Yang |first10=Ruowei |last11=Liu |first11=Feng |last12=Ping |first12=Wanjing |last13=Zhang |first13=Ming |last14=Ding |first14=Manyu |last15=Yang |first15=Melinda A |date=28 July 2021 |title=Genetic Continuity of Bronze Age Ancestry with Increased Steppe-Related Ancestry in Late Iron Age Uzbekistan |url=|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=38 |issue=11 |pages=4908–4917 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msab216 |issn=0737-4038 |pmc=8557446 |pmid=34320653}}</ref>

A later different Eastern influx is evident in three outlier samples of the [[Tasmola culture]] (Tasmola Birlik) and one of the [[Pazyryk culture]] (Pazyryk Berel), which displayed c. 70-83% additional [[Ancient Northeast Asian]] ancestry represented by the Neolithic [[Devil's Gate Cave]] specimen, suggesting them to be recent migrants from further East. The same additional Eastern ancestry is found among the later groups of Huns (Hun Berel 300CE, Hun elite 350CE), and the Karakaba remains (830CE). At the same time, western [[Sarmatian]]-like and minor additional BMAC-like ancestry spread eastwards, with a Saka-associated sample from southeastern [[Kazakhstan]] (Konyr Tobe 300CE) displaying around 85% Sarmatian and 15% BMAC ancestry. Sarmatians are modeled to derive primarily from the preceding Western Steppe Herders of the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Gnecchi-Ruscone |first=Guido Alberto |date=26 March 2021 |title=Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=7 |issue=13 |bibcode=2021SciA....7.4414G |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abe4414 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=7997506 |pmid=33771866}}</ref>[[File:Central Asian haplogroups through time.png|thumb|left|upright=1.5|The Sakas represent a unique period of West-East admixture along the Altai line during the Iron Age, which has been a defining characteristic of Central Asian populations until modern times.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=González-Ruiz |first1=Mercedes |last2=Santos |first2=Cristina |last3=Jordana |first3=Xavier |last4=Simón |first4=Marc |last5=Lalueza-Fox |first5=Carles |last6=Gigli |first6=Elena |last7=Aluja |first7=Maria Pilar |last8=Malgosa |first8=Assumpció |title=Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia) |journal=PLOS ONE |date=9 November 2012 |volume=7 |issue=11 |article-number=e48904 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0048904 |pmid=23152818 |pmc=3494716 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...748904G |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233389263 |quote=The Pazyryk groups analysed so far appear to be genetically homogeneous and they did not present significant genetic differences to current Altaians. These results suggest that roots of the current genetic diversity and admixture of the Altai region in Central Asia could be traced back to the Iron Age. |doi-access=free }}</ref>]]The most closely related modern population to the Saka (and other Eastern Scytho-Sarmatian groups) are the [[Bashkirs]], a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic people]] which display genetic continuity to Bronze and Iron Age Central Asians.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maróti |first=Zoltán |last2=Neparáczki |first2=Endre |last3=Schütz |first3=Oszkár |last4=Maár |first4=Kitti |last5=Varga |first5=Gergely I. B. |last6=Kovács |first6=Bence |last7=Kalmár |first7=Tibor |last8=Nyerki |first8=Emil |last9=Nagy |first9=István |last10=Latinovics |first10=Dóra |last11=Tihanyi |first11=Balázs |last12=Marcsik |first12=Antónia |last13=Pálfi |first13=György |last14=Bernert |first14=Zsolt |last15=Gallina |first15=Zsolt |date=2022-07-11 |title=The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians |url=https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(22)00732-1 |journal=Current Biology |language=English |volume=32 |issue=13 |pages=2858–2870.e7 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.093 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=35617951}}</ref> There is also increasing evidence for genetic affinities between the Eastern Scythians (such as the [[Pazyryk culture]]) and [[Turkic languages|Turkic]]-speaking groups,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tikhonov |first1=Dmitrii |last2=Gurkan |first2=Cemal |last3=Peler |first3=Gökçe |last4=Dyakonov |first4=Viktor |date=2019 |title=On The Genetic Continuity of the Iron Age Pazyryk Culture: Geographic Distributions of the Paternal and Maternal Lineages from the Ak-Alakha-1 Burial |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331179436 |journal=International Journal of Human Genetics |volume=19 |issue=1 |doi=10.31901/24566330.2019/19.01.709 |s2cid=202015095|doi-access=free }} "The substantial presence of the Ak-Alakha-1 mtDNA and Y-STR haplotypes in the contemporary Anatolian populations may be attributed to two major historical events: (a) the less likely being the Scythian invasion of Anatolia around 7th century BCE and settlement for around 30 years near the Aras or Araxes River (Herodotus 1920), and (b) the more likely being the Central Asiatic Turkic migrations into Anatolia from around 11th century CE onwards, keeping in mind the ever growing support for a strong genetic continuity between the ancient eastern Scythians and the proto-Turkic tribes (Unterlander et al. 2017)."</ref> which formed via admixture events during the Iron Age between local Saka groups and geneflow from the Eastern Steppe,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Shan-Shan |last2=Sulaiman |first2=Xierzhatijiang |last3=Isakova |first3=Jainagul |last4=Xu |first4=Wei-Fang |last5=Abdulloevich |first5=Najmudinov Tojiddin |last6=Afanasevna |first6=Manilova Elena |last7=Ibrohimovich |first7=Khudoidodov Behruz |last8=Chen |first8=Xi |last9=Yang |first9=Wei-Kang |last10=Wang |first10=Ming-Shan |last11=Shen |first11=Quan-Kuan |last12=Yang |first12=Xing-Yan |last13=Yao |first13=Yong-Gang |last14=Aldashev |first14=Almaz A |last15=Saidov |first15=Abdusattor |date=25 August 2022 |title=The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians |url=|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=39 |issue=9 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msac179 |issn=0737-4038 |pmc=9469894 |pmid=36006373 |quote=By contrast, the Kyrgyz, together with other Turkic-speaking populations, originated from the admixture since the Iron Age. The Historical Era gene flow derived from the Eastern Steppe with the representative of Mongolia_Xiongnu_o1 made a more substantial contribution to Kyrgyz and other Turkic-speaking populations (i.e., Kazakh, Uyghur, Turkmen, and Uzbek; 34.9–55.2%) higher than that to the Tajik populations (11.6–18.6%; fig. 4A), suggesting Tajiks suffer fewer impacts of the recent admixtures (Martínez-Cruz et al. 2011). Consequently, the Tajik populations generally present patterns of genetic continuity of Central Asians since the Bronze Age. Our results are consistent with linguistic and genetic evidence that the spreading of Indo-European speakers into Central Asia was earlier than the expansion of Turkic speakers (Kuz′mina and Mallory 2007; Yunusbayev et al. 2015).}}</ref> but also [[Uralic]] and [[Ancient Paleo-Siberian|Paleo-Siberian]] peoples.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gurkan |first=Cemal |date=8 January 2019 |title=On The Genetic Continuity of the Iron Age Pazyryk Culture: Geographic Distributions of the Paternal and Maternal Lineages from the Ak-Alakha-1 Burial |journal=International Journal of Human Genetics |volume=19 |issue=1 |doi=10.31901/24566330.2019/19.01.709 |issn=0972-3757 |quote=Notably, there is clear population continuity between the Uralic people such as Khants, Mansis and Nganasans, Paleo-Siberian people such as Yukaghirs and Chuvantsi, and the Pazyryk people even when considering just the two mtDNA and Y-STR haplotypes from the Ak-Alakha-1 mound 1 kurgan (Tables 1a, b, Table 2, Fig. 1).|doi-access=free }}</ref> The admixture with West Eurasian sources was found to be "in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=He |first1=Guang-Lin |last2=Wang |first2=Meng-Ge |last3=Zou |first3=Xing |last4=Yeh |first4=Hui-Yuan |last5=Liu |first5=Chang-Hui |last6=Liu |first6=Chao |last7=Chen |first7=Gang |last8=Wang |first8=Chuan-Chao |date=January 2023 |title=Extensive ethnolinguistic diversity at the crossroads of North China and South Siberia reflects multiple sources of genetic diversity |url=https://zenodo.org/record/8179175|journal=Journal of Systematics and Evolution |language=en |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=230–250 |doi=10.1111/jse.12827 |bibcode=2023JSyEv..61..230H |s2cid=245849003 |issn=1674-4918}}</ref>

===East–West migrations and cultural transmission===
Genetic data across Eurasia suggest that the Scythian cultural phenomenon was accompanied by some degree of migration from east to west, starting in the area of the [[Altai Mountains|Altai region]].<ref name="MJ"/> In particular, the Classical Scythians of the western Eurasian steppe were not direct descendants of the local Bronze Age populations, but partly resulted from this east–west spread.<ref name="MJ"/> This also suggests that Scythoïd cultural characteristics were not simply the result of the transfer of material culture, but were also accompanied by human migrations of Saka populations from the east.<ref name="MJ">{{cite journal |last1=Järve |first1=Mari |last2=Saag |first2=Lehti |last3=Scheib |first3=Christiana Lyn |last4=Pathak |first4=Ajai K. |last5=Montinaro |first5=Francesco |last6=Pagani |first6=Luca |last7=Flores |first7=Rodrigo |last8=Guellil |first8=Meriam |last9=Saag |first9=Lauri |last10=Tambets |first10=Kristiina |last11=Kushniarevich |first11=Alena |last12=Solnik |first12=Anu |last13=Varul |first13=Liivi |last14=Zadnikov |first14=Stanislav |last15=Petrauskas |first15=Oleg |last16=Avramenko |first16=Maryana |last17=Magomedov |first17=Boris |last18=Didenko |first18=Serghii |last19=Toshev |first19=Gennadi |last20=Bruyako |first20=Igor |last21=Grechko |first21=Denys |last22=Okatenko |first22=Vitalii |last23=Gorbenko |first23=Kyrylo |last24=Smyrnov |first24=Oleksandr |last25=Heiko |first25=Anatolii |last26=Reida |first26=Roman |last27=Sapiehin |first27=Serheii |last28=Sirotin |first28=Sergey |last29=Tairov |first29=Aleksandr |last30=Beisenov |first30=Arman |last31=Starodubtsev |first31=Maksim |last32=Vasilev |first32=Vitali |last33=Nechvaloda |first33=Alexei |last34=Atabiev |first34=Biyaslan |last35=Litvinov |first35=Sergey |last36=Ekomasova |first36=Natalia |last37=Dzhaubermezov |first37=Murat |last38=Voroniatov |first38=Sergey |last39=Utevska |first39=Olga |last40=Shramko |first40=Irina |last41=Khusnutdinova |first41=Elza |last42=Metspalu |first42=Mait |last43=Savelev |first43=Nikita |last44=Kriiska |first44=Aivar |last45=Kivisild |first45=Toomas |last46=Villems |first46=Richard |title=Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance |journal=Current Biology |date=July 2019 |volume=29 |issue=14 |pages=2430–2441.e10 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.019 |pmid=31303491 |issn=0960-9822 |quote=This is compatible with a moderate westward increase of the Altaian genetic component in the Steppe during the Scythian period, implying the involvement of at least some degree of migration (east to west; the more complicated scenarios that have been proposed [11] are not supported by our results) in the spread of the Scythian culture. This fits the previous observation that the Iron Age nomads of the western Eurasian Steppe were not direct descendants of the Bronze Age population [2] and suggests that the '<nowiki />'Scythian world'' cannot be described solely in terms of material culture.|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019CBio...29E2430J }}</ref>

The region between the [[Caspian Sea]] and of the Southern Urals originally had populations of [[Srubnaya]] (1900 BC–1200 BCE) and [[Andronovo]] (c. 2000–1150 BCE) ancestry, but, starting with the [[Iron Age]] (c.1000 BCE) became a region of intense ethnic and cultural interaction between European and Asian components.<ref name="MJE4">{{cite journal |last1=Järve |first1=Mari |last2=Saag |first2=Lehti |last3=Scheib |first3=Christiana Lyn |last4=Pathak |first4=Ajai K. |last5=Montinaro |first5=Francesco |last6=Pagani |first6=Luca |last7=Flores |first7=Rodrigo |last8=Guellil |first8=Meriam |last9=Saag |first9=Lauri |last10=Tambets |first10=Kristiina |last11=Kushniarevich |first11=Alena |last12=Solnik |first12=Anu |last13=Varul |first13=Liivi |last14=Zadnikov |first14=Stanislav |last15=Petrauskas |first15=Oleg |last16=Avramenko |first16=Maryana |last17=Magomedov |first17=Boris |last18=Didenko |first18=Serghii |last19=Toshev |first19=Gennadi |last20=Bruyako |first20=Igor |last21=Grechko |first21=Denys |last22=Okatenko |first22=Vitalii |last23=Gorbenko |first23=Kyrylo |last24=Smyrnov |first24=Oleksandr |last25=Heiko |first25=Anatolii |last26=Reida |first26=Roman |last27=Sapiehin |first27=Serheii |last28=Sirotin |first28=Sergey |last29=Tairov |first29=Aleksandr |last30=Beisenov |first30=Arman |last31=Starodubtsev |first31=Maksim |last32=Vasilev |first32=Vitali |last33=Nechvaloda |first33=Alexei |last34=Atabiev |first34=Biyaslan |last35=Litvinov |first35=Sergey |last36=Ekomasova |first36=Natalia |last37=Dzhaubermezov |first37=Murat |last38=Voroniatov |first38=Sergey |last39=Utevska |first39=Olga |last40=Shramko |first40=Irina |last41=Khusnutdinova |first41=Elza |last42=Metspalu |first42=Mait |last43=Savelev |first43=Nikita |last44=Kriiska |first44=Aivar |last45=Kivisild |first45=Toomas |last46=Villems |first46=Richard |title=Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance |journal=Current Biology |date=22 July 2019 |volume=29 |issue=14 |pages=e4–e5 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.019 |issn=0960-9822|doi-access=free |pmid=31303491 |bibcode=2019CBio...29E2430J }}</ref> From the 7th century BCE, Early Saka nomads started to settle in the Southern Urals, coming from [[Central Asia]], the [[Altai-Sayan]] region, and Central and Northern [[Kazakhstan]].<ref name="MJE4"/> The [[Itkul culture]] (7th-5th century BCE) is one of these Early Saka cultures, based in the eastern foothills of the Urals, which was assimilated into the [[Sauromatian]] and Early [[Sarmatian]] cultures.<ref name="MJE4"/> Circa 600 BCE, groups from the Saka [[Tasmola culture]] settled in the southern Urals.<ref name="MJE4"/> Circa 500 BCE, other groups from the area of Ancient [[Khorezm]] settled in the western part of the southern Urals, who also assimilated into the Early Sarmatians.<ref name="MJE4"/> As a result, a large-scale integrated union of nomads from [[Central Asia]] formed in the area in the 5th–4th century BCE, with fairly uniformized cultural practices.<ref name="MJE4"/> This cultural complex, with notable ''foreign elements'', corresponds to the ''royal'' burials of [[Filippovka kurgan]], and define the "Prokhorovka period" of the Early Sarmatians.<ref name="MJE4"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Filippovka, individuals on a dagger blade, Kurgan 4, Burial 2.jpg|Warriors with daggers and bows. Dagger blade decoration from Kurgan 4, Burial 2, [[Filippovka kurgans]], Late [[Sauromatian]]-Early [[Sarmatian]], 5th-4th century BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yablonsky |first1=Leonid Teodorovich |title=New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka (Southern Ural Region, Russia) |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=2010 |volume=114 |issue=1 |page=137, Fig.13 |doi=10.3764/aja.114.1.129 |jstor=20627646 |s2cid=191399666 |issn=0002-9114}}</ref>
File:Taksai-1_Barrow_6_lady_(reconstruction,_detail).jpg|"Golden Lady " from the [[Taksai kurgans]], c. 500 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lukpanova |first1=Ya.A. |title=Reconstruction of Female Costume From the Elite Burial Ground Taksay-I: a View of the Archaeology. |journal=Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya (The Volga River Region Arcaheology) |date=2017 |volume=1 |issue=19 |url=https://www.academia.edu/32899848}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Golden Man from Shilikty and Golden Woman from Taksai |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/9228922@N03/36214368340/in/album-72157684182450632/ |publisher=Nur-sultan - National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan |date=23 July 2017}}</ref>
</gallery>

== Archaeology ==
{{Saka kurgans}}
[[Image:ScythianC14AsiaEuropeFig6SketchEn 3dGraph.gif|thumb|Compative timeline of Scythian kurgans in Asia and Europe.<ref>Alekseev A.Yu. et al., ''"Chronology of Eurasian Scythian Antiquities Born by New Archaeological and 14C Data"'', © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona, ''Radiocarbon'', Vol .43, No 2B, 2001, p 1085-1107 Fig.6</ref>]]
The spectacular grave-goods from [[Arzhan culture|Arzhan]], and others in [[Tuva]], have been dated from about 800 BC onward, and the kurgans of [[Shilikty]] in eastern [[Kazakhstan]] circa 700 BC, and are associated with the Early Sakas.<ref name="Amir">{{cite journal |last1=Amir |first1=Saltanat |last2=Roberts |first2=Rebecca C. |title=The Saka 'Animal Style' in Context: Material, Technology, Form and Use |journal=Arts |date=2023 |volume=12 |page=23 |doi=10.3390/arts12010023 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Burials at [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]] in the [[Altay Mountains]] have included some spectacularly preserved Sakas of the "Pazyryk culture" – including the [[Pazyryk Ice Maiden|Ice Maiden]] of the 5th century BC.

===Arzhan 1 kurgan ({{circa|800 BC}})===
{{main|Arzhan culture}}
Arzhan-1 was excavated by M. P. Gryaznov in the 1970s, establishing the origins of Scythian culture in the region in the 10th to 8th centuries BC:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Francfort |first1=Henri-Paul |title=Images du combat contre le sanglier en Asie centrale (3 ème au 1 er millénaire av. J.-C.) |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=2002 |volume=16 |page=118 |jstor=24049162 |issn=0890-4464|quote=Dans le kourgane plus ancien d'Arzhan-1 (8-10ème s.)...}}</ref> Arzhan-1 was carbon-dated to circa 800 BC.<ref>{{cite book |date=2004 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |location=Dordrecht |isbn=1-4020-2655-2 |page=23 |doi=10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |chapter-url=|quote=p.23 "Dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating indicate that Arzhan dates to the end 9th - beginning 8th century BC (Zaitseva, Vasilev, Marsadolov, Sementsov, Dergachev, Lebedeva, 1996)." |chapter=Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data |title=Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia |series=NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences |last1=Chugunov |first1=K. V. |last2=Parzinger |first2=H. |last3=Nagler |first3=A. |volume=42 }}</ref> Many of the styles of the artifacts found in Arzhan 1 (such as the animal style images of deer, boar, and panther) soon propagated to the west, probably following a migration mouvement from the east to the west in the 9th to 7th centuries BC, and ultimately reaching European Scythia and influencing artistic styles there.<ref>{{cite book |date=2004 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |location=Dordrecht |isbn=1-4020-2655-2 |pages=24–32 |doi=10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |chapter-url=|quote="We can only note certain elements in the culture of European Scythia which doubtless have an Asiatic origin and are connected with the cultures of Asia." "In many scholars' opinion it is necessary to distinguish the following cultural components of European Scythia genetically tied with the East: daggers with butterfly-shaped guards, arrowheads early forms, helmets of the Kelermes type, spiked battle-axes, horse-bits, cheek-pieces of the Chernogorovo and Zhabotinsk type, bordered mirrors, bronze cauldrons of the Beshtaugor type and "stag-stones". We can follow the development of some animal style images (deer, boar, and panther) from east to west. There are elements of stylization and degradation on the objects from the western part of the Scythian World |chapter=Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data |title=Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia |series=NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences |last1=Chugunov |first1=K. V. |last2=Parzinger |first2=H. |last3=Nagler |first3=A. |volume=42 }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Аржаан-1.JPG|Arzhan-1, dated to circa 800 BC, partly looted in Antiquity
File:Arzhan animal ring.jpg|Curled-up feline animal from Arzhan-1, circa 800 BC.<ref>{{cite book |date=2004 |publisher=Kluwer Academic |location=Dordrecht |isbn=1-4020-2655-2 |page=24 |doi=10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |chapter-url=|quote=p.24 "Figure.2. Royal barrow Arzhan 1: funeral artifacts. 36-39" |chapter=Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data |title=Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia |series=NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences |last1=Chugunov |first1=K. V. |last2=Parzinger |first2=H. |last3=Nagler |first3=A. |volume=42 }}</ref>
</gallery>

===Shilikty/ Baigetobe kurgan ({{circa|700 BC}})===
<!--[[File:26. Flying deer Chilikti (VII. - VI. B. C.) Kazakhstan.JPG|thumb|Flying deer, Shilikty (7th-6th centuries BC) Kazakhstan.<ref>{{cite book |title="Roter Altai, gib dein Echo!" Festschrift für Erika Taube zum 65. Geburtstag |date=2005 |page=37 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327393095|publisher=Leipziger Universitätsverlag}}</ref>]]-->
{{main|Shilikty}}
Shilikty is an archaeological site in eastern [[Kazakhstan]] with numerous 8-6th century BC Early Saka [[kurgans]].<ref name="Pan"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhumatayev |first1=Rinat |title=Royal Mound Baygetobe from the Burial Ground Shilikty |journal=International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering |date=1 January 2013 |url=https://www.academia.edu/45623946}}</ref> Carbon-14 dating suggests date of 730-690 BC for the kurgans, and a broad contemporaneity with the [[Arzhan-2]] kurgan in Tuva.<ref name="Pan">{{cite journal |last1=Panyushkina |first1=Irina P |last2=Slyusarenko |first2=Igor Y |last3=Sala |first3=Renato |last4=Deom |first4=Jean-Marc |last5=Toleubayev |first5=Abdesh T |title=Calendar Age of the Baigetobe Kurgan from the Iron Age Saka Cemetery in Shilikty Valley, Kazakhstan |journal=Radiocarbon |date=March 2016 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=157–167 |doi=10.1017/RDC.2015.15 |bibcode=2016Radcb..58..157P |hdl=10150/628658 |s2cid=131703468 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Location-of-the-Shilikty-burial-site-in-the-Altai-Mountains-of-southeastern-Kazakhstan_fig2_289407150|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

The Kurgans contained vast quantities of precious golden jewelry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Francfort |first1=Henri-Paul |title=Images du combat contre le sanglier en Asie centrale (3 ème au 1 er millénaire av. J.-C.) |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=2002 |volume=16 |page=118 |jstor=24049162 |issn=0890-4464|quote=Ainsi des bractrées d'or à l'effigie du sanglier qui étaient fixées aux vêtements ont été découvertes dans les Kourganes du 6eme siècle de Chilikti (Kazakhstan oriental) et d'Arzhan-2 (Touva)}}</ref> Remains of a "golden man" (similar to the [[Issyk kurgan]] golden man) were found in 2003, with 4262 gold finds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noyanuly |first1=Noyanov Edyl |title=THE "GOLDEN PEOPLE" OF KAZAKHSTAN |journal=World Science |date=2016 |page=47 |url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/the-golden-people-of-kazakhstan/viewer|quote="2003 Associate Professor of National University of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Professor Gani lobster Abde§ Tulebaev in East -Kazakhstan near Zaisan in place Baygetobe "Chilikti-3" number 1, the mound of the "golden man" (4262 gold find) (Figure 4)"}}</ref>

===Arzhan 2 ({{circa|650 BC}})===
{{see also|Aldy-Bel culture}}
[[File:Аржаан - 2.JPG|thumb|Arzhan 2 kurgan (7th-6th centuries BC, associated with the [[Aldy-Bel culture]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chugunov |first1=K. V. |last2=Parzinger |first2=H. |last3=Nagler |first3=A. |title=Impact of the Environment on Human Migration in Eurasia |chapter=Chronology and Cultural Affinity of the Kurgan Arzhan-2 Complex According to Archaeological Data |series=NATO Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Sciences |date=2005 |volume=42 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1007/1-4020-2656-0_1 |chapter-url=|publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=1-4020-2655-2 |language=en}}</ref>]]
Arzhan-2 was an undisturbed burial.<ref name="Man20">{{cite book |last=Man |first=John |author-link=John Man (author) |date=2020 |title=Empire of Horses: The First Nomadic Civilization and the Making of China |location=New York |publisher=Pegasus Books |page=20 |isbn=978-1-64313-327-0}}</ref> Archaeologists found a royal couple, sixteen murdered attendants, and 9,300 objects.<ref name="Man20"/> 5,700 of these artifacts were made of gold, weighing a Siberian record-breaking twenty kilograms.<ref name="Man20"/> The male, who researchers guess was some sort of king, wore a golden [[torc]], a jacket decorated with 2,500 golden panther figurines, a gold-encrusted dagger on a belt, trousers sewn with golden beads, and gold-cuffed boots.<ref name="Man20"/> The woman wore a red cloak that was also covered in 2,500 golden panther figurines, as well as a golden-hilted iron dagger, a gold comb, and a wooden ladle with a golden handle.<ref name="Man20"/>

<gallery widths="180px" heights="180px" perrow="4">
File:Arzhan deer.jpg|"Animal style" deer, (7-6th century BC) Tuva.
File:6. Pectorale burial mound Arzhan (VIII. - VII. B. C.) Tuva.JPG|Pectoral plate, from burial mound Arzhan (7-6th century BC) Tuva.
File:8. Akinak (dagger) bural mound Arzhan (VIII.-VII. B.C.) Tuva.JPG|Akinak (dagger) burial mound Arzhan (7-6th century BC) Tuva.
</gallery>

=== Eleke Sazy Burial Complex ({{circa|800-400 BC}})===
[[File:Recumbent stag plaque (EKRM inv. no. KПO93-38625); gold with turquoise and lapis lazuli inlays; Kurgan 4, group II, Eleke Sazy, Tarbagatai mountains, Kazakhstan; 8th to 6th century BC.jpg|thumb|Recumbent stag plaque, Eleke Sazy, Kazakhstan; 8th to 6th century BC]]
In 2020, archaeologists excavated multiple burial mounds in the Eleke Sazy Valley in East Kazakhstan. Here, a large number of gold artifacts were found. These artifacts included golf harness fittings, pendants, chains, appliqués, and more – most of which are in the [[Animal Style]] of the Scythian-Saka era dating back to the 5th–4th centuries BC.<ref>{{Cite web|title=850 gold artefacts belonging to the Scythian-Saka era found in Kazakhstan|url=https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/09/850-gold-artefacts-belonging-to.html|access-date=27 September 2021|website=The Archaeology News Network|archive-date=27 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927225716/https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/09/850-gold-artefacts-belonging-to.html}}</ref>

===Berel burial mound ({{circa|350–300 BC}})===
Near the selo of Berel in the [[Katonkaragay District]] of eastern [[Kazakhstan]] ({{coord|49.3732082|86.4380264|scale:20000|format=dms|display=inline|name=Berel}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wikimapia.org/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070623073958/http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=49.3732082&lon=86.4380264&z=15&l=9&m=s&v=9|title=Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!|archive-date=23 June 2007|website=wikimapia.org}}</ref>) excavations of ancient burial mounds have revealed artefacts the sophistication of which are encouraging a revaluation of the nomadic cultures of the 3rd and 4th centuries BC.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/science/from-their-graves-ancient-nomads-speak.html|title=Artifacts Show Sophistication of Ancient Nomads|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=12 March 2012 |access-date=1 March 2014|last1=Wilford |first1=John Noble }}</ref>

<gallery>
File:31. Catlike predator with protomas of two elk burial mound Berel (IV.-III. B.C.) Kazakhstan.JPG|Catlike predator with protomas of two elk, burial mound [[Berel, Kazakhstan|Berel]] (4th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan, Pazyryk culture.
File:1. Deer in Griffin's beak, burial mound Berel (IV-III. B.C.) Kazakstan.JPG|Deer in Griffin's beak, burial mound Berel (4th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.
File:12. Tigergriffin arthor work based on Scytian- saka animal style burial mound Berel (V. - III. B.C.) Kazakstan.JPG|Tigergriffin arthor work based on Scytian- saka animal style, burial mound Berel (5th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.
File:28. Griffins burial mound Berel (V.-III. B.C.) Kazakhstan.JPG|Griffins, burial mound Berel (5th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan.
File:34. Frontal decoration (harness) burial mound Berel (IV.-III. B.C.) Kazakhstan.JPG|Frontal decoration (harness), burial mound Berel (4th-3rd centuries BC) Kazakhstan, Pazyryk culture.
</gallery>

=== Pazyryk culture ({{circa|300 BC}})===
{{Main|Pazyryk culture}}
[[File:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|thumb|upright|right|A ''[[Pazyryk culture|Pazyryk]]'' horseman in a felt painting from a burial around 300 BC. The Pazyryks appear to be closely related to the Scythians.<ref name=Parragon>{{cite book |author=Dr. Aaron Ralby|title=Atlas of Military History|chapter=Scythians, c. 700 BCE—600 CE: Punching a Cloud|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldmili0000ralb|chapter-url-access=registration|year=2013 |publisher=Parragon|isbn=978-1-4723-0963-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldmili0000ralb/page/224 224–225]}}</ref>]]

Saka burials documented by modern archaeologists include the [[kurgan]]s at [[Pazyryk burials|Pazyryk]] in the [[Ulagan]] (Red) district of the [[Altai Republic]], south of [[Novosibirsk]] in the [[Altai Mountains]] of southern [[Siberia]] (near Mongolia). Archaeologists have extrapolated the [[Pazyryk culture]] from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist [[Sergei Rudenko]]. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large [[cairn]]s of boulders and stones.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBydRHyHN10C&pg=PR29 |title=Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen |author=Сергей Иванович Руденко (Sergei I. Rudenko) |isbn=978-0-520-01395-7 |date=1970 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>

The Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd century BC in the area associated with the ''[[Sacae]]''.

Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous [[:File:Scythiancarpet.jpg|Pazyryk Carpet]], the oldest surviving wool-pile [[oriental rug]]. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived well-preserved from the 5th to 4th century BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_0_17_0.html |title= Chariot |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010706232807/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_0_17_0.html |archive-date=6 July 2001 |work=Hermitage Museum}}</ref>

===Southern Siberian kurgans excavated in the 18th century===
{{main|Siberian Collection of Peter the Great}}
[[File:Approximate location of the finds of the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great.png|thumb|left|Approximate location of the finds of the Siberian Collection of Peter the Great.<ref name="BM">{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Presenting the Warrior Iron Age Scythian Materials and Gender Identity at the British Museum American Journal of Archaeology |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=July 2018 |url=https://www.ajaonline.org/online-museum-review/3680 |language=en}}</ref>]]

During the 18th century and the Russian expansion into Siberia, many Saka kurgans were plundered, sometimes by independent grave-robbers or sometimes officially at the instigation of [[Peter the Great]], but usually without any archaeological records being taken.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Presenting the Warrior Iron Age Scythian Materials and Gender Identity at the British Museum, American Journal of Archaeology |website=www.ajaonline.org |date=July 2018 |url=https://www.ajaonline.org/online-museum-review/3680 |language=en}}</ref> Only the general location where they were excavated is known, between modern [[Kazakhstan]] and the [[Altai Mountains]].<ref name="BM"/>

Many of these artefacts were part of the archaeological presents sent by {{ill|Matvey Gagarin|ru|Гагарин, Матвей Петрович}}, Governor of Siberia based in [[Tobolsk]], to [[Peter the Great]] in [[Saint-Petersburg]] in 1716.<ref>{{cite web |title=Museum notice |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/68423546@N08/48574017982/in/photostream/ |date=19 August 2019}}</ref> They are now located in the [[Hermitage Museum]] in [[Saint-Petersburg]], and form the [[Siberian Collection of Peter the Great]]. Their estimated datation ranges from the 7th century BC to the 1st century BC, depending on the artefacts.<ref name="BM"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Siberian Collection of Peter the Great An aigrette. State Hermitage. Inv. Si 1727 1-131.jpg|Aigrette, 4th-3rd century BC. [[Siberian Collection of Peter the Great]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia: Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017 |date=21 January 2021 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-648-6 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6MWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 |language=en}}</ref>
Steppes horseman hunting.jpg|[[Boar hunter (Hermitage Museum)]], 2nd-1st century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Masters of the Steppe: The Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia: Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017 |date=21 January 2021 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-648-6 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W6MWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 |language=en}}</ref>
File:Ингальская долина-3.jpg|Belt plaque from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great, probably [[Ingala Valley]]
File:Siberian gold, Siberian Collection of Peter the Great.jpg|Siberian gold, Siberian Collection of Peter the Great
</gallery>

=== Tillia Tepe treasure (2nd-1st century BC) ===
{{Main|Tillia Tepe}}
[[File:TilliaTepeReconstitution.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Artifacts found the tombs 2 and 4 of [[Tillya Tepe]] and reconstitution of their use on the man and woman found in these tombs]]

A site found in 1968 in [[Tillia Tepe]] (literally "the golden hill") in northern [[Afghanistan]] (former Bactria) near [[Shebergan]] consisted of the graves of five women and one man with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BC, and probably related to that of Saka tribes normally living slightly to the north.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |page=66, Item 25 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231 |quote=These graves at Tillya Tepe were initially regarded by the excavator as belonging to Yuezhi or Kushan nobility, but they are most likely to be tombs of a local tribal chief and his family who had strong connections with the Sakā cultures of Central Asia.}}</ref> Altogether the graves yielded several thousands of pieces of fine jewelry, usually made from combinations of [[gold]], [[turquoise]] and [[lapis-lazuli]].

A high degree of cultural [[syncretism]] pervades the findings, however. [[Hellenistic]] cultural and artistic influences appear in many of the forms and human depictions (from [[Putto|amorini]] to rings with the depiction of [[Athena]] and her name inscribed in Greek), attributable to the existence of the [[Seleucid empire]] and [[Greco-Bactrian]] kingdom in the same area until around 140 BC, and the continued existence of the [[Indo-Greek kingdom]] in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. This testifies to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.

== Culture ==
=== Gender roles ===
Recently, evidence confirmed by the full-genomic analysis of a Scythian child's remains found in a coffin made of a larch trunk, which was discovered in Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva, revealed that the individual, previously thought to be male because it had items that were associated with the belief that Scythian society was male-dominated, was actually female. Along with the leather skirt, the burial also contained a leather headdress painted with red pigment, a coat sewn from jerboa fur, a leather belt with bronze ornaments and buckles, a leather quiver with arrows with painted ornaments on the shafts, a fully-preserved battle pick, and a bow. These items provide valuable insights into the material culture and lifestyle of the Scythians, including their hunting and warfare practices, and their use of animal hides for clothing.<ref>New Kilunovskaya, M. E., Semenov, V. A., Busova, V. S., Mustafin, Kh. Kh., Alborova, I. E., & Matzvai, A. D. (2018). The Unique Burial of a Child of Early Scythian Time at the Cemetery of Saryg-Bulun (Tuva). Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, 46(3), 379–406.</ref>

=== Art ===
{{Further|Scythian art}}
[[File:Orlat plaque encounter.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Battle scenes between "[[Kangju]]" Saka warriors, from the [[Orlat plaques]]. 1st century AD.]]
The art of the Saka was of a similar styles as other Iranian peoples of the steppes, which is referred to collectively as [[Scythian art]]. In 2001, the discovery of an undisturbed royal Scythian burial-barrow at [[Arzhan culture|Arzhan]] illustrated Scythian animal-style gold that lacks the direct influence of Greek styles. Forty-four pounds of gold weighed down the royal couple in this burial, discovered near [[Kyzyl]], capital of the [[Siberia]]n republic of [[Tuva]].

Ancient influences from and to Central Asia became identifiable in China following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories from the 8th century BC. The Chinese adopted the Scythian-style animal art of the [[steppe]]s (descriptions of animals locked in combat), particularly the rectangular belt-plaques made of gold or bronze, and created their own versions in [[jade]] and [[steatite]].<ref>Mallory and Mair, ''The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West'', 2000</ref>

Following their expulsion by the [[Yuezhi]], some Saka may also have migrated to the area of [[Yunnan]] in southern China. Saka warriors could also have served as mercenaries for the various kingdoms of ancient China. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the [[Dian Kingdom|Dian]] civilisation of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of [[Caucasoid]] horsemen in Central Asian clothing.<ref>"Les Saces", Iaroslav Lebedynsky, p.73 {{ISBN|2-87772-337-2}}</ref>

Saka influences have been identified as far as Korea and Japan. Various Korean artifacts, such as the royal crowns of the kingdom of [[Silla]], are said to be of "Scythian" design.<ref>Crowns similar to the Scythian ones discovered in [[Tillia Tepe]] "appear later, during the 5th and 6th century at the eastern edge of the Asia continent, in the [[tumulus]] tombs of the Kingdom of Silla, in South-East Korea. "Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés", 2006, p282, {{ISBN|978-2-7118-5218-5}}</ref> Similar crowns, brought through contacts with the continent, can also be found in [[Kofun era]] Japan.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sgkohun.world.coocan.jp/GUNMA/maebasi/kinkan.html |title=金冠塚古墳 – Sgkohun.world.coocan.jp |access-date=14 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722101738/http://sgkohun.world.coocan.jp/GUNMA/maebasi/kinkan.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 }}</ref>

=== Clothing ===
[[File:Majiayuan tomb figurines.jpg|thumb|Saka-style [[Majiayuan|Majiayuan culture]] tomb figurines (3rd-2nd century BC).<ref>See {{cite journal |last1=Linduff |first1=Katheryn |title=A Contextual Explanation for &quot;Foreign&quot; or &quot;Steppic&quot; Factors Exhibited in Burials at the Majiayuan Cemetery and the Opening of the Tianshan Mountain Corridor |journal=Asian Archaeology |date=2013 |page=81, Figure 6 (Majiayuan Tomb 3)| url=https://www.academia.edu/36091247}}</ref>]]
Similar to other [[eastern Iranian peoples]] represented on the reliefs of the [[Apadana]] at [[Persepolis]], Sakas are depicted as wearing long trousers, which cover the uppers of their boots. Over their shoulders they trail a type of long mantle, with one diagonal edge in back. One particular tribe of Sakas (''the Saka tigraxaudā'') wore [[Phrygian cap|pointed caps]]. [[Herodotus]] in his description of the Persian army mentions the Sakas as wearing trousers and tall pointed caps.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gropp |first1=G |title=Clothing v. In Pre-Islamic Eastern Iran |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/clothing-v |website=iranicaonline.org |publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica |access-date=6 January 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Kneeling bronze warrior figurine in Greeco-Bactrian style. Central Asian, 5th Cnetury BC - 3rc Century BC.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Statuette from the Saka culture in [[Xinjiang]], from a 3rd-century BC burial site north of the [[Tian Shan]], [[Xinjiang Region Museum]], [[Ürümqi]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/640849 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>{{sfn|Di Cosmo|1999|loc=[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Statuette-of-warrior-a-and-bronze-cauldron-b-Saka-culture-Xinjiang-From-Mu_fig3_286685537 13.5. Statuette of warrior (a), and bronze cauldron (b), Saka...]}} Could alternatively be a Greek hoplite.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Betts |first1=Alison |last2=Vicziany |first2=Marika |last3=Jia |first3=Peter Weiming |last4=Castro |first4=Angelo Andrea Di |title=The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads |date=19 December 2019 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-407-9 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxUSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103 |language=en}}</ref>]]
Men and women wore long trousers, often adorned with metal plaques and often embroidered or adorned with felt {{transliteration|fr|appliqué}}s; trousers could have been wider or tight fitting depending on the area. Materials used depended on the wealth, climate and necessity.<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201628663264867.page | title= The Study on the Scythian Costume III -Focaused on the Scythian of the Pazyryk region in Altai-|publisher= Korea Institute of Science and Technology | journal=Fashion & Textile Research Journal (한국의류산업학회지) |volume=18|issue=4|year=2016|first= Youngsoo |last= Yi-Chang | pages= 424–437| doi= 10.5805/SFTI.2016.18.4.424 | access-date= 19 October 2020|doi-access= free}}</ref>

Herodotus says Sakas had "high caps tapering to a point and stiffly upright." Asian Saka headgear is clearly visible on the Persepolis Apadana staircase bas-relief – high pointed hat with flaps over ears and the nape of the neck.<ref name="saka_bas_relief">The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Photographic Archives. Persepolis – Apadana, E Stairway, Tribute Procession, the Saka Tigraxauda Delegation.[http://oi.uchicago.edu/gallery/pa_iran_paai_per_apa/index.php/1E8_72dpi.png?action=big&size=resize&fromthumbnail=true] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012073352/http://oi.uchicago.edu/gallery/pa_iran_paai_per_apa/index.php/1E8_72dpi.png?action=big&size=resize&fromthumbnail=true|date=12 October 2012}} Retrieved 27 June 2012</ref> From China to the Danube delta, men seemed to have worn a variety of soft headgear – either conical like the one described by Herodotus, or rounder, more like a Phrygian cap.

Saka women dressed in much the same fashion as men. A Pazyryk burial, discovered in the 1990s, contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. Clothing was sewn from plain-weave wool, hemp cloth, silk fabrics, felt, leather and hides.

[[File:Cavalry and Horse Warring States period 475-221 BCE Terracotta Warriors 2013 exhibit at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum 20130320-110726 C4A.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The ''[[Taerpo horserider]]'', a Chinese [[Qin (state)|Warrior-State Qin]] terracotta figurine from a tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near [[Xianyang]] in [[Shaanxi Province]], 4th-3rd century BC. This is the earliest known representation of a cavalryman in China.<ref name="MK">{{cite journal |last1=Khayutina |first1=Maria |title=From wooden attendants to terracotta warriors |journal=Bernisches Historisches Museum the Newsletter |date=Autumn 2013 |volume=65 |page=2, Fig.4 |url=https://www.iias.asia/sites/iias/files/nwl_article/2019-05/IIAS_NL65_1213.pdf|quote=Other noteworthy terracotta figurines were found in 1995 in a 4th-3rd century BCE tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, where the last Qin capital of the same name was located from 350 to 207 BCE. These are the earliest representations of cavalrymen in China discovered up to this day. One of this pair can now be seen at the exhibition in Bern (Fig. 4). A small, ca. 23 cm tall, figurine represents a man sitting on a settled horse. He stretches out his left hand, whereas his right hand points downwards. Holes pierced through both his fists suggest that he originally held the reins of his horse in one hand and a weapon in the other. The rider wears a short jacket, trousers and boots – elements of the typical outfit of the inhabitants of the Central Asian steppes. Trousers were first introduced in the early Chinese state of Zhao during the late 4th century BCE, as the Chinese started to learn horse riding from their nomadic neighbours. The state of Qin should have adopted the nomadic clothes about the same time. But the figurine from Taerpo also has some other features that may point to its foreign identity: a hood-like headgear with a flat wide crown framing his face and a high, pointed nose.}} Also in {{cite book |last1=Khayutina |first1=Maria |title=Qin: the eternal emperor and his terracotta warriors |date=2013 |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |location=Zürich |isbn=978-3-03823-838-6 |page=cat. no. 314 |edition=1. Aufl}}</ref> The outfit is of Central Asian style, probably Scythian,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Qingbo |first1=Duan |title=Sino-Western Cultural Exchange as Seen through the Archaeology of the First Emperor's Necropolis |journal=Journal of Chinese History |date=January 2023 |volume=7 |issue=1 |page=26 Fig.1, 27 |doi=10.1017/jch.2022.25 |s2cid=251690411 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3F6506262A9ED57C9DC3827EEAA6B230/S2059163222000251a.pdf/sino-western-cultural-exchange-as-seen-through-the-archaeology-of-the-first-emperors-necropolis.pdf|quote=In terms of formal characteristics and style of dress and adornment, the closest parallels to the Warring States-period Qin figurines are found in the Scythian culture. Wang Hui 王輝 has examined the exchanges between the cultures of the Yellow River valley and the Scythian culture of the steppe. During a 2007 exhibition on the Scythians in Berlin, there was a bronze hood on display labeled a "Kazakh military cap." This bronze hood and the clothing of the nomads in kneeling posture [also depicted in the exhibition] are very similar in form to those of the terracotta figurines from the late Warring States Qin-period tomb at the Taerpo site (see Figure 1). The style of the Scythian bronze horse figures and the saddle, bridle, and other accessories on their bodies are nearly identical to those seen on the Warring States-period Qin figurines and a similar type of artifact from the Ordos region, and they all date to the fifth to third centuries BCE.}}</ref> and the rider with his high-pointed nose appears to be a foreigner.<ref name="MK"/> King [[Zheng of Qin]] (246–221 BC) is known to have employed steppe cavalry men in his army, as seen in his [[Terracotta Army]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rawson |first1=Jessica |title=China and the steppe: reception and resistance |journal=Antiquity |date=April 2017 |volume=91 |issue=356 |page=386 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.276 |s2cid=165092308 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315991114|quote=King Zheng of Qin (246–221 BC), who was to be the First Emperor (221–210 BC), took material from many regions. As he unified the territory, he employed steppe cavalry men in his army, as we now recognise from the terracotta warriors guarding his tomb (Khayutina 2013: cat. no. 314), whose dress resembles that of the steppe leaders known to the Achaemenids and Parthians (Curtis 2000: front cover), but he proclaimed his conquest in the language of the Central Plains: Chinese. The First Emperor must have had advisors who knew something of the seals, weights and measures of Central Asia and Iran (Khayutina 2013: cat. nos 115–17), and also retained craftsmen who had mastered Western technologies and cast bronze birds for his tomb in hitherto unknown life-like forms (Mei et al. 2014). He also exploited mounted horsemen and iron weaponry originally from the steppe, and agriculture and settlements of the Central Plains, turning to the extraordinary organisation of people and manufacturing from this area to create a unified state. This could only be achieved by moving towards the centre, as the Emperor indeed did.}}</ref>]]
Pazyryk findings give the most almost fully preserved garments and clothing worn by the Scythian/Saka peoples. Ancient Persian bas-reliefs, inscriptions from [[Apadana]] and [[Behistun]] and archaeological findings give visual representations of these garments.

Based on the Pazyryk findings (can be seen also in the south Siberian, Uralic and Kazakhstan rock drawings) some caps were topped with zoomorphic wooden sculptures firmly attached to a cap and forming an integral part of the headgear, similar to the surviving nomad helmets from northern China. Men and warrior women wore tunics, often embroidered, adorned with felt applique work, or metal (golden) plaques.

Persepolis Apadana again serves a good starting point to observe the tunics of the Sakas. They appear to be a sewn, long-sleeved garment that extended to the knees and was girded with a belt, while the owner's weapons were fastened to the belt (sword or dagger, [[gorytos]], battle-axe, whetstone etc.). Based on numerous archeological findings, men and warrior women wore long-sleeved tunics that were always belted, often with richly ornamented belts. The Kazakhstan Saka (e.g. Issyk Golden Man/Maiden) wore shorter and closer-fitting tunics than the Pontic steppe Scythians. Some Pazyryk culture Saka wore short belted tunic with a lapel on the right side, with upright collar, 'puffed' sleeves narrowing at the wrist and bound in narrow cuffs of a color different from the rest of the tunic.

Men and women wore coats: e.g. Pazyryk Saka had many varieties, from fur to felt. They could have worn a riding coat that later was known as a Median robe or Kantus. Long sleeved, and open, it seems that on the Persepolis Apadana Skudrian delegation is perhaps shown wearing such coat. The Pazyryk felt tapestry shows a rider wearing a billowing cloak.

====Tattoos====

Men and women of eastern saka are known to have been extensively tattooed. The men in the [[Pazyryk burials]] had extensive tattoos in the Siberian [[animal style]].<ref name="nomads">{{cite web|url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7.html
|title=Early Nomads of the Altaic Region|publisher=The Hermitage|access-date=31 July 2007|archive-date=22 June 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622035146/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7.html}}</ref> A Pazyryk chief in burial mound 2, had his body covered in animal style tattoos, but not his face.<ref name="SP106">{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106–109 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> Parts of the body had deteriorated, but much of the tattooing was still clearly visible. Subsequent investigation using reflected [[infrared photography]] revealed that all five bodies discovered in the Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barkova |first1=L. L. |last2=Pankova |first2=S. V. |title=Tattooed Mummies From The Large Pazyryk Mounds: New findings |journal=Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia |date=2005 |volume=2 |issue=22 |pages=48–59 |url=https://www.academia.edu/3640168 |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref> No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature [[embroidery]], and these were probably used for tattooing. The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of striking designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best preserved [[tattoo]]s were images of a [[donkey]], a [[argali|mountain ram]], two highly stylized [[deer]] with long antlers and an imaginary [[carnivore]] on the right arm. Two monsters resembling [[griffin]]s decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a [[mountain goat]]. On the front of the right leg a [[fish]] extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief's back was tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106–109, Items 31, 32, 33|url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref> The [[Siberian Ice Maiden]] is also known for her extensive tattoos.<ref name="siberiantimes.com">{{cite journal |title=Siberian Princess reveals her 2,500 year old tattoos |journal=The Siberian Times |date=2012 |url=https://siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/ |archive-date=11 March 2024 |access-date=4 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311103950/https://siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/ }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Pazyryk-2 tattoos.png|Tattoos of the Pazyryk-2 chief.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum |pages=106–109, Items 31, 32, 33 |url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}</ref>
File:Pazyryk tatoo design with zoomorphic symbols, 4th century BCE.jpg|Tattoos of the chief's right arm, with zoomorphic symbols.<ref name="siberiantimes.com"/>
File:Pazyryk-2 man, back and left arm (circa 300 BCE).jpg|Tattoos of the chief's back and left arm.<ref name="siberiantimes.com"/>
File:Tatoo motif on the arm of the Siberian Ice Maiden.png|Tattoo motif on the arm of the [[Siberian Ice Maiden]].<ref name="siberiantimes.com"/>
</gallery>

=== Warfare ===
A skull from an Iron Age cemetery in [[South Siberia]] shows evidence of scalping. It lends physical evidence to the practice of scalp taking by the Scythians living there.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Murphy |first1=Eileen |last2=Gokhman |first2=Ilia |last3=Chistov |first3=Yuri |last4=Barkova |first4=Ludmilla |title=Prehistoric Old World Scalping: New Cases from the Cemetery of Aymyrlyg, South Siberia |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=2002 |volume=106 |issue=1|pages=1–10 |doi=10.2307/507186 |jstor=507186 |s2cid=161894416 }}</ref>

===Later depictions of "Sakas" in China (1st–3rd century AD)===
Numerous depictions of foreigners of Saka appearance appear in China around the [[Eastern Han]] period (25–220 AD), sometimes as far east as [[Shandong]]. They may have appeared in relation with the conflicts against the Scythoïd [[Xirong]] in the west or the [[Donghu people]] in the North, or the [[Kushans]] in the area of [[Xinjiang]]. They were generally called ''"[[Hu (people)|Hu]]"'' by the Chinese.<ref name="SKA"/><ref name="SS"/><ref name="BZ"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px"">
File:Mingqi (Chinese funerary statuette) of a young western man, with scythian type caftan and conical hat reminiscent of early 3rd century CE Kushans. Later Han 3rd century CE. Guimet Museum (MA 4660).jpg|[[Mingqi]] (Chinese funerary statuette) of a young [[Central Asia]]n man, with Saka-type caftan and conical hat reminiscent of early 3rd century AD [[Kushans]]. [[Han dynasty#Eastern Han|Later Han]], 3rd century AD. [[Guimet Museum]] (MA 4660).<ref name="SKA">{{cite book |last1=Kurbanov |first1=Sharofiddin |title=Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or |date=2021 |publisher=Musée Guimet, Editions Snoeck |location=Paris, Gand |isbn=978-94-6161-627-2 |page=144}}</ref>
File:Hu and Han war narratives. Eastern Han Dynasty (151–153 CE). Tsangshan Han tomb in Linyi city.png|Eastern Han tombs sometimes have depiction of battles between [[Donghu people|Hu]] barbarians, with bows and arrows and wearing pointed hats (left), against Han troops. Eastern Han Dynasty (151–153 AD). Tsangshan Han tomb in Linyi city. Also visible in [[Yinan tombs]].<ref name="BZ">{{cite journal |last1=Bi |first1=Zhicheng |title=Stone Reliefs of the Han Tombs in Shandong Province: Relationship Between Motifs and Composition |journal=Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research |date=2019 |pages=175–177 |volume=368 |url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125923384.pdf}}</ref>
File:Han monumental statues of Barbarian (山东发现的汉代大型胡人石雕像).png|General appearance of the numerous [[Scythians|Scythoïd]] ''[[Hu (people)|Hu]]'' monumental statues from [[Shandong]], featuring people with a high nose, deep eyes and a pointed hat. [[Eastern Han]] period.<ref name="SS">Several photographs and descriptions in: {{cite journal |last1=徐 |first1=龙国 |title=山东发现的汉代大型胡人石雕像再研究 |journal=美术研究 (Art Research) |date=2017 |url=http://www.kaogu.cn/uploads/soft/2017/20170912xulongguo.pdf| quote=<br />上述石雕像为胡人形象，对此学者们均无异议。胡人是我国古代中原汉人对北方和西方异族的通称。在汉人的认知领域，胡人的概念比较模糊，大致也有个变化的过程。先秦时的胡，专指匈奴，汉晋时期泛指匈奴、鲜卑、羯、氐、羌，"胡人"的范围已由北方逐渐扩大到西部族群。<br />"The above-mentioned stone statues are images of Hu people, and scholars have no objection to this. Hu people are the general name given by the Han people in the Central Plains of our country to the foreign ethnic groups in the north and west in ancient China. In the cognitive field of Han people, the concept of Hu people is relatively vague, and it has a tendency to change with time. The Hu in the pre-Qin period refers specifically to the Xiongnu, but in the Han and Jin dynasties generally Hu refers to the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang. The scope of "Hu people" also expanded from the north to the west."<br />山东发现的这种高鼻深目、头戴尖帽的胡人形象，很可能是与斯基泰人文化有关的某些白种民族，并推测可能是月氏或早于月氏的民族<br />"The image of a barbarian with a high nose, deep eyes, and a pointed hat found in Shandong is likely to be some white ethnic group related to the Scythian culture, and it is speculated that it may be the Yuezhi or an ethnic group earlier than the Yuezhi."}}</ref>
File:Yinan battle scene, 2nd century CE, Eastern Han (Hu attack).png|[[Yinan tombs]] relief, depicting an attack by Hu barbarians with pointed hats, bow and arrows. 2nd century AD, Eastern Han.<ref name="Hu">{{cite journal |last1=Bi |first1=Zhicheng |title=Stone Reliefs of the Han Tombs in Shandong Province: Relationship Between Motifs and Composition |journal=Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research |date=2019 |volume=368 |url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125923384.pdf|quote=This type of composition is characteristic of the reliefs  describing the Hu and Han war found in the Wurongci Temple and Wukaimingci Temple in Jiaxiang County, as well as of the image on the table at the entrance to the Yinan Beizhai tomb in the Linyi city. These works have a symmetrical composition with the center in the form of a bridge.}}</ref>
File:Hu statue columns from Wu Baizhuang 吳白莊 Han period tomb in Linyi, Shandong.jpg|''[[Donghu people|Hu]]'' statue from Wu Baizhuang tomb (吳白莊), [[Han dynasty]] period, [[Linyi]], Shandong.<ref name="doi.org">{{cite journal |last1=Guan |first1=Liu |last2=Bing |first2=Huang |title=The hybrid origin of the dragon-wrapped column in Han dynasty China |journal=Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering |date=2023 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=1970–1994 |doi=10.1080/13467581.2022.2153057 |s2cid=256778140 |url=|quote=Other evidence to support our argument is that Western, Asian-style architectural elements such as Hu statue columns and arched doorways (Figure 35) indicate the influence of foreign styles in some of the large, high-grade Han pictorial stone tombs currently found in this region, such as the afore-mentioned Wu Baizhuang 吳白莊 tomb in Linyi 臨 沂, Shandong.}}</ref>
File:Hu statue with lion column from Wu Baizhuang 吳白莊 Han period tomb in Linyi, Shandong.jpg|''[[Donghu people|Hu]]'' statue from Wu Baizhuang tomb (吳白莊), [[Han dynasty]] period, [[Linyi]], Shandong.<ref name="doi.org"/>
File:Foreigner hunting, circa 500 BCE, Gansu Museum.jpg|Man hunting, circa 500 BC, [[Gansu Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=线刻射猎纹骨管 |url=http://www.gansumuseum.com/dc/viewall-131.html |website=www.gansumuseum.com}}</ref>
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Besshatyr Burial Ground]]
* [[History of the central steppe]]
* [[Maga Brahmin]]
* {{ill|Sagetae|lt=Sagetae|it|Sageti}}
* [[Sakas in the Mahabharata]]
* [[Sakzai]]
* [[Scytho-Siberian world]]
* [[Shaka era]]

== References ==
=== Explanatory notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin}}
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* {{cite web |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Schmitt |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/massagetae |title=MASSAGETAE |date=2018 |website=Encyclopædia Iranica |publisher= }}
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* Theobald, Ulrich. (26 November 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html Chinese History – Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.
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{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{cite book |last1=Pankova |first1=Svetlana |last2=Simpson |first2=St John |title=Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia |date=1 January 2017 |publisher=British Museum exhibition catalogue|url=https://www.academia.edu/34533231}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Saka | volume= 24 |last= Eliot |first=Charles Norton Edgcumbe |author1-link= Charles Eliot (diplomat) | page = 53 |short=1}}
* [https://www.livius.org/articles/people/scythians-sacae/ Scythians / Sacae] by [[Jona Lendering]]
* [http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003b.pdf Article by Kivisild et al. on genetic heritage of early Indian settlers] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627000515/http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003b.pdf |date=27 June 2007 }})
* [http://www.friesian.com/sangoku.htm#saka Indian, Japanese and Chinese Emperors – The Sakas/Parthians, 97 BC-125 AD]

{{Central Asian history}}
{{Scythia}}
{{Kazakhstan topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Saka| ]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of ancient India]]
[[Category:Historical Iranian peoples]]
[[Category:History of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Iranian nomads]]
[[Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia]]