WI: Sakas' migration into Europe

What would be when the Iranian Saka tribes, displaced by Turks and Yuezhi, would be migrating from Central Asia into Europe like previously Scythians ?
 
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Skallagrim

Banned
"Previously" Scythians? I was under the impression that the Saka peoples were essentially the eastern groups within the same agglomeration of Indo-European steppe rider peoples whose western representatives were called Skythoi by the Greeks, e.g. the Scythians. The two names are widely believed to be cognates, or at least to share the same etymological root.

It all depends on when this happens, of course. In OTL, most steppe peoples were just absorbed. The Huns, for instance, probably began as a Turkic people migrating west, but then absorbed other non-Turkic groups. This is really the repeated result of these kind of steppe migrations. My impression (although that's largely my own conjecture!) is that (especially the eastern representatives of) the Indo-European steppe peoples gradually absorbed elements from Turkic and other more easterly steppe riders over the course of several migrations and movements. This, I think, is one of the things that made it easier for them to ultimately be absorbed altogether (thus largely disappearing from history).

Best case scenario for moving Indo-European steppe peoples into Europe would probably be to get a massive Turkic/Mongolic/what-have-you invasion going from the east at as early a juncture as can be arranged. This would prevent gradual admixture, keeping the line between the populations more clear... while (as I have said I believe) there isn't really a clear dividing line between eastern and western groups of Indo-European steppe peoples. So the ATL situation would be: *Turks invade the eastern steppe, the Indo-Europeans get displaced, and migrate west (where they fully merge with more western kinsmen, i.e. "Scythians"). This may plausibly cause an increased population density on the Pontic steppe, whereafter many of them migrate further west to seek out new lands-- ending up in Poland, Hungary, etc.
 
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