Nomadic Settlement Names

[Parallel Pain]

I was just wondering.

Since the steppe nomads don't build cities on the steppes, there would be no actual nomadic settlements archeologists can dig up.

I know you need settlements to give the Nomads a place to train troops and build "buildings" and all, which is fine, but where you pull the names from?

And while we're at it, what about the province names?

[The Persian Cataphract]

Settlements such as Gelonus/Gelonos, Uspe and Maeotis are quite well-attested. This applies also to Sulek/Suli (Which has gone under a number of names, we picked and choosed the most suitable term, which is of Chinese origins), Chach, Khiva, and Nisa. The Yugra (The Urals), Ephedra-drinking Scythians (Haomavarga), Moon-Scythians (Massagetae/Mazsakata), Aorsi, Thyssagetae, Roxolani, Iazyges, and finally the area around Issyk Kol (Tentatively called Sai Yavuga) are however either hypothetical constructs (For instance Dahyu Haomavarga is a simple way of saying "Dwelling of the Ephedra-drinking Scythians), or residue from the Mundus Magna map (Of which the current map is based on).

There will be improvements on the map on areas where we can bring change, but please keep in mind that modding the map, is very a time-intensive and critical task.

[The Persian Cataphract]

And to the contrary, many settlements have been excavated from the perimeters of Central Asia and the northern Caucasus. The Sintashta-Petrovka culture finds it's heart in Arkaim, dubbed the as the hub of the Andronovo. This one particular site is dated 17th century BCE. The later Khazars (Starting from the 7th century CE) managed to consolidate the northern Caucasus so well that their "Caspian empire" could easily expand in as many directions as possible:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This foregoes the mention of other sites, such as Pazyryk, Qizilchogha, Issyk Kurgan (A rather large area, than merely a mound as the name would otherwise hint at) otherwise named Talkhîz by Medieval Persian geographers. Naturally we cannot use these names, as they are either modern designations or far too much outside of time-frame. This is why we rely, at least so far, on ancient Iranian constructs such as "Dahyu" and "Gava" to designate area and dwelling.