Eurasian nomads

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Indo-European topics

The Eurasian nomads were a large group of nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppe, who often appear in history as invaders of Europe, the Middle East and China.[citation needed]

History[edit]

The generic title encompasses the ethnic groups inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia, and what is now Russia. They domesticated the horse, and their economy and culture emphasised horse breeding, horse riding and a pastoral economy in general. They developed the chariot, cavalry and horse archery and introduced innovations such as the bridle, bit and stirrup. "Horse people" is a generalized and somewhat obsolete term for such nomads, which is also sometimes used to describe hunter-gatherer peoples of the North American prairies and South American pampas who started using horses after the Europeans brought them to the Americas.

The earliest historical phases of China involved conflict with the nomadic Rong and Xiongnu peoples to the west of the Wei valley. Iron and bronze was supplied from China.[1] The Roman army hired Sarmatians as elite cavalrymen. Europe was exposed to several waves of invasions by horse people, from the Cimmerians in the 8th century BCE, down to the Migration period and the Mongols and Seljuks in the High Middle Ages, the Kalmuks and the Kyrgyz and later Kazakhs, down into modern times. The earliest example of an invasion by a horse people may have been by the Proto-Indo-Europeans themselves, following the domestication of the horse in the 4th millennium BCE (see Kurgan hypothesis). Cimmerian is the first invasion of equestrian steppe nomads that is known from historical sources.

The concept of "horse people" was of some importance in 19th century scholarship, in connection with the rediscovery of Germanic pagan culture by Romanticism (see Viking revival), which idealised the Goths in particular as a heroic horse-people. J. R. R. Tolkien's Rohirrim may be seen as an idealised Germanic people influenced by these romantic notions. Tolkien's Wainriders of eastern Rhûn recall ancient steppe peoples like the Scythians. Similarly, George R. R. Martin's nomadic Dothraki people are heavily influenced by the lifestyles and cultures of historical horse people.[citation needed]

a Perhaps a Sprachbund.

Chronological division[edit]

Chronologically, there have been several "waves" of invasions of either Europe, the Near East, India and/or China from the steppe.

Bronze Age
early Indo-Europeans, see Kurgan theory, Indo-Aryan migration theory
Iron Age / Classical Antiquity
Iranian peoples;
Late Antiquity and Migration period
Early Middle Ages
Turkic expansion, Magyar invasion
High Middle Ages to Early Modern period
Mongol Empire and continued Turkic expansion:

See also[edit]

By region[edit]

Main article: List of nomadic peoples

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Susan E. Alcock (9 August 2001). Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-0-521-77020-0. 

External links[edit]

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