The book of the outstanding Russian scientist Mikhail Artamonov is dedicated to the Cimmerians and Scythians, rulers of the Black Sea steppes for most of the first millennium BC. The invasion through the Bosporus of the biblical people “Gomer” - the Cimmerians, who crushed the Phrygian kingdom along the way, shook up Asia Minor. Following them, “behind” by several decades, the Scythians arrived there, bypassing the Black Sea from the east and entered into competition with the powerful Assyria; ninety years later they returned home to the Northern Black Sea region, but for at least another three centuries they influenced world politics. Bit by bit, based on archaeological data, fragmentary reports from Assyrian and Greek sources, research by linguists, M. Artamonov reconstructs the history of the Cimmerians and Scythians, their origin and relationships, their gradual disappearance, dissolution among other tribes and peoples. Mikhail Artamonov (1898-1972) - historian and archaeologist, director of the State Hermitage in 1951-1964.