The Iyrcae () or Turcae were an ancient nation on the north-east trade route described by

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

beyond the

Thyssagetae The Thyssagetae () were an ancient tribe described by Herodotus as occupying a district to the north-east of Scythia, separated from the Budini by a "desert" that took seven days to cross.Herodotus. ''Histories'', 4.22.1: "...after the desert, if ...

. They were distinguished by their mode of hunting, climbing a tree to survey their game, and then pursuing it with trained horses and dogs. The reading Τυρκαι (Turcae) may be an anachronism, and when

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

and

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer. He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nea ...

speak of "Tyrcae" it is possibly due to a false correction. Ellis Hovell Minns viewed them as "almost certainly the ancestors of the modern

Magyars Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common culture, language and history. They also have a notable presence in former parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...

" and located them "somewhere about the upper basins of the Tobol and the Irtysh". Later researchers (such as

Boris Rybakov Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...

) identified the Iyrcae with the

Dyakovo culture The Dyakovo culture () is an Iron Age archaeological culture in central-western Russia, associated with the Moskva, Oka, and Volga rivers. Dyakovo is one of the oldest Finno-Ugric archaeological cultures known. Scholars have disagreed on whe ...

Кривичи
/ref> of Central Russia.

Notes

References

* Ancient peoples of Russia Nomadic groups in Eurasia Hungarian prehistory {{AncientGreece-stub