I recently read The Turks in World History [0] which summarizes much of the various steppe cultures from antiquity to modern day. Among the interesting tidbits

I recently read The Turks in World History [0] which summarizes much of the various steppe cultures from antiquity to modern day. Among the interesting tidbits in the book is the idea that many "states", such as they may be called, seemed to have risen and fallen for (at least) the last ten thousand years in the region. States seemed to form at once spontaneously and inevitably before the various fractious power structures decayed their authority and disassembled them, before their next build-up. There's a bunch of other interesting things in the book too. Like describing the long history of the Turkic cultures military structure of two "left" and "right" generals handling literally the east and west flanks of the empire; the rituals of power succession that survive in echoes today involving horses, untouchable "charismatic" families, the sacredness of the rulers blood (and implication that if they are to be killed it must be bloodless), and how the legitimacy of the ruler depends on their visitation of ritual sites often situated along river basins or oases; Also the Uyghurs apparently had their own empire that terrorized the everloving hell out of ancient China to the point where China paid them tribute to cease their raids, and was even forced to appoint one of them as royalty. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Turks-History-Carter-Vaughn-Findley/dp/0195177266 https://www.amazon.com/Turks-History-Carter-Vaughn-Findley/d...