Eastern Iranian nomadic peoples of the eastern Eurasian steppe and Tarim Basin, closely related to the Scythians, known for kurgan burials (Pazyryk, Issyk, Arzhan) and metalwork; a branch that migrated south became the Indo-Scythians of Bactria and northwest India.
Pressured by the Yuezhi migration in the 2nd century BC, many Saka groups moved south into Sogdia, Bactria, Sistan, and the Indian subcontinent; other groups persisted as oasis-kingdom populations in the Tarim Basin (Khotan, Kashgar) into the early centuries AD.
Covers the Saka as the eastern branch of the wider Scythian-cultures steppe world.