List of ancient Iranian peoples

They divided into "Western" and "Eastern" branches from an early period, roughly corresponding to the territories of Persia and Scythia, respectively.

By the 1st millennium BCE, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, as far as the Great Hungarian Plain in the west.

[1] Ancient Iranian peoples lived in many regions and, at about 200 BC, they had as farthest geographical points dwelt by them: to the west the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld), east of the Danube river (where they formed an enclave of Iranian peoples), Ponto-Caspian steppe in today's southern Ukraine, Russia and far western Kazakhstan, and to the east the Altay Mountains western and northwestern foothills and slopes and also western Gansu, Ordos Desert, and western Inner Mongolia, in northwestern China(Xinjiang), to the north southern West Siberia and southern Ural Mountains (Riphean Mountains?)

[1] During Late Antiquity, in a process that lasted until Middle Age, the Iranian populations of Scythia and Sarmatia, in the western (Ponto-Caspian) and central (Kazakh) Eurasian Steppe and most of Central Asia (that once formed a large geographic area dwelt by Iranian peoples), started to be conquered by other non-Iranian peoples and began to be marginalized, assimilated or expelled mainly as result of the Turkic peoples conquests and migrations that resulted in the Turkification of the remaining Iranian ethnic groups in Central Asia and the western Eurasian steppe.

Germanic, Slavic and later Mongolian conquests and migrations also contributed to the decline of the Iranian peoples in these regions.

Map 1: Indo-European migrations as described in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
Distribution of Central Asian Iranic peoples during the Iron Age .
Map 3: Map of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture ( red ), its expansion into the Andronovo culture ( orange ) during the 2nd millennium BC , showing the overlap with the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex ( chartreuse green ) in the south and also with the Afanasievo culture in the east. The location of the earliest chariots is shown in magenta . Several scholars associate Proto-Indo-Iranians with Sintashta-Petrovka culture . [ 1 ] These scholars also may associate some mentions in the Avesta (sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism ), like the Airyanəm Vaēǰō - " Aryans ' Expanse", as distant memories that were retained by oral tradition of this old land of origin. [ 3 ] There are also mentions of Āryāvarta - " Aryans Abode" (in sacred Hindu scriptures such as Dharmashastras and Sutras ), the Hindu counterpart of Airyanəm Vaēǰō , although it refers to Northern India and they are later.
Map 4: The extent of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), according to the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture . The BMAC culture and peoples influenced migrating Indo-Iranians that came from the north.
Map 6: Asia in 323 BC, showing several Iranian peoples located in Central Asia and Europe .
Map 7: Scythian cultures of Scythian , Sarmatians and Saka Iranian peoples located in the Western Eurasian steppe ( Central Asia and Europe ) from ca. 900 BC - 200 AD
Map 8: Dahae tribal confederation
Map 9: Roxolani , Siraces and Aorsi in the 4th century BC.
Map 10: Alan migrations in the context of the Migration Period .
Map 11: Iazyges in AD 125 west of Roman Dacia , in the Eastern Pannonian Plain , today's Alföld , the Eastern Hungarian Plain .
Map 12: Persian Empire in Achaemenid era, 6th century BC, showing names of ancient Iranian peoples in the Iranian Plateau and southern Central Asia on the right side of the map
Map 13: Ancient regions of Iranian Plateau and part of South Central Asia showing ancient Iranian peoples and tribes; this map also shows ancient peoples of the Indus Valley in Northwest Ancient India .