Cimmerian civilization's roots come from Asia, who ruled for about 1200 years in a period between Sumerians and the Huns, during the Bronze Age, and carry an important role in the early Turkish history. They were a nomadic Indo - European people. Herodotus mentioned that Cimmerians inhabited in the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. But early Koban culture and archaeological facts in Northern Caucasus suggests that Cimmerians date back to the end of the Bronze Age.
They ruled between 2000 BC and 800 BC around Crimea, Caucasia and Eastern Black sea, then pushed by the Scythians (Iskit in Turkish) to Eastern Anatolia where they were weakened by the Lydians, Assyrians and Urartu's, thus immigrated to the Balkans and Caspian Sea area in the 7th century BC and finally disappeared around 6th century BC by mixing within local cultures.
Crimea was the capital of the Cimmerians; they gave their name to the area. When they moved into Anatolia around 800 BC, they made Sinop their capital and ruled in the southern Black sea area. But due to Scythian expansion the Cimmerians had to leave this area too, moving towards the Phrygian territories to capture their capital Gordion in 696 BC. But the Assyrian king Habushna started a large campaign against Cimmerians, beating them at Harekleia Pontika (today's Karadeniz Ereglisi) in 679 BC, hence forcing them to move towards Lydian territories. At first they lost against Lydian and Assyrian military cooperation, but then winning against Lydian army and captured their capital Sardis. From here Cimmerians marched towards the Aegean coast to siege cities such as Ephesus, Miletus and Priene, but they couldn't settle here for a long time and then retreated to Cappadocia area. Cimmerians suffered heavy loss against Assyrian army in 630 BC and then against Lydian king Alyatles in 595 BC. This brought an end to Cimmerians in Anatolia; some emigrated to the Balkans and Hungary, others to the Caspian sea and then assimilated with the Scythians (Iskits).
As a popular culture, the fantasy hero "Conan the Barbarian" was described as a native Cimmerian.