The Cercetae are an ancient people of

Scythia Scythia ( Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. ...

mentioned by Strabo and

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

. They are one of many ancient tribes of the Northwestern

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

which are the ancestors of modern

Circassians The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia ...

.БСЭ. Керкеты
/ref> The name "Cercetae" apparently was the basis of the name of the people that arose later - the

. The ethnonym itself of presumably

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

origin or derived from the , is a kind of "stern oar”, and is the nickname given to them by the

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...

due to their skill in the sea business.

Oleg Trubachyov Oleg Nikolayevich Trubachyov (also transliterated as Trubachev or Trubačev, russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Трубачёв; 23 October 1930, in Stalingrad – 9 March 2002, in Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian linguist. A res ...

, Некоторые данные об индоарийском языковом субстрате Северного Кавказа в античное время // Journal of Ancient History № 4. 1978, с. 41 Pliny places them beyond the Amazons and the Hyperboreans, together with the Cimmerii,

Cissianti The Cissianti were a tribe of Iranian Nomads who likely spoke a Sarmatian language of the Scythian family. They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as living north of the Amazons and Hyperboreans, with the Cimmeri, Acae, Georgili, Moschi, Cerce ...

, Achaei, Georgili, Moschi,

Phoristae The Phoristae were a tribe of Iranian Nomads who likely spoke a Sarmatian language of the Scythian family. They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as living north of the Amazons and Hyperboreans, with the Cimmeri, Acae, Georgili, Moschi, Cerc ...

and

Rimphaces The Rimphaces were a tribe of Iranian Nomads who likely spoke a Sarmatian language of the Scythian family. They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as living north of the Amazons and Hyperboreans, with the Cimmeri, Acae, Georgili, Moschi, Cerc ...

References

* Scythia Ancient peoples Ancient peoples of Russia Ancient Circassian tribes {{Ethno-stub

See also

References