For the land of the Saka under the Sassanid dynasty, see Sakastān.
Not to be confused with the Sakha (people), the endonym of the Yakut people of Siberia. For other uses, see Saka (disambiguation).
Derived from the earlier Andronovo, Sintashta and Srubnaya cultures, the Saka were later influenced by the Bactria-Margiana Archaelogical Culture and Iron Age East Asian genetic influx.[11][12] 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 eastern steppe, while "Scythian" is used for the related group of nomads living in the western steppe.[8][13][14]
^Rhie, Marylin M. (2002). Early Buddhist art of China and Central Asia. Leiden: Brill. p. Fig. 5.70d. ISBN978-90-04-11499-9. 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)
^Beckwith 2009, p. 68 "Modern scholars have mostly used the name Saka to refer specifically to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and Tarim Basin"
^ abcDandamayev 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."
^Unterländer et al. 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..."
^Kramrisch, Stella. "Central Asian Arts: Nomadic Cultures". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 1 September 2018. 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.
^Kumar, Vikas; Wang, Wenjun; Zhang, Jie; Wang, Yongqiang; Ruan, Qiurong; Yu, Jianjun; Wu, Xiaohong; Hu, Xingjun; Wu, Xinhua; Guo, Wu; Wang, Bo; Niyazi, Alipujiang; Lv, Enguo; Tang, Zihua; Cao, Peng (April 2022). "Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history". Science. 376 (6588): 62–69. Bibcode:2022Sci...376...62K. doi:10.1126/science.abk1534. ISSN0036-8075. PMID35357918. S2CID247855352. 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).
^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)..."
^Diakonoff 1985: the Persians called "Saka" all the northern nomads, just as the Greeks called them "Scythians", and the Babylonians "Cimmerians".
^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."
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