Eastern Iranian Saka nomadic confederation of the steppe east of the Caspian Sea, famed for Queen Tomyris's alleged defeat and killing of Cyrus the Great of Persia (c. 530 BC).
Declined after the 3rd century BC and merged with other steppe groups to form the Alans, part of the wider Sarmatian confederation that migrated west into the Caucasus and European steppe.
The atlas holds 4 border frames for Massagetae — the shape you scrub through changes in 800 BC · 550 BC · 450 BC · 329 BC.
Places the Massagetae within the broader Central Asian Saka/Scythian steppe world and their conflict with Achaemenid Persia.