The Cimmerians
It was only in about 1500 to 1000 BC that the seemingly simpie technique of horseback riding was mastered. And the first nomad horsemen to appear in Ukraine – the Cimmerians – were also its first inhabitants whose name we know.
It was Homer who, in the Odyssey, mentioned “the land of the Cimmerians” in a passage referring to the northern shore of the Black Sea. This was probably the first literary reference to Ukraine. But, besides noting the name of the people who lived on what was at that time regarded as the murky edge of the world, Homer tells us no more about the Cimmerians. Many scholars hold the view that in about 1500 BC the Cimmerians came to Ukraine from their original homeland on the lower Volga by way of the Caucasian lowlands. Others, however, reject this “migration” theory and argue that the Cimmerians were native to Ukraine. In any case, up to about 700 BC, the Cimmerians inhabited the land between the Don and Dnister rivers. Soon afterward, under pressure from other nomads from the east, the Cimmerians withdrew to Asia Minor.Exhaustive analysis of the few available sources has led historians to the following conclusions about these “drinkers of mare’s milk,” as the Greeks called them: (1) the Cimmerians were the first pastoralists in Ukraine to make the transition to the nomadic way of life; (2) they mastered the skill of horseback riding and employed it in warfare; (3) because of their contacts with the skilled metal workers of the Caucasus, the Cimmerians introduced the Iron Age to Ukraine and; (4) the growing importance of mounted warriors led to social changes such as the breakdown of extended family units and the evolution of a military aristocracy.