Thracians under strong Celtic cultural influence, or who had simply absorbed Celtic ethnic components. The fact that queen Zia is specifically characterised as "Dacian" may indicate that Pieporus and the Costoboci were not themselves Dacians. Celtic The name Costoboci is considered by some scholars to be of Celtic etymology. In particular, they see the first element of their name as a corruption of coto-, a Celtic root meaning "old" or "crooked" (cf. Cotini, an eastern Celtic tribe in the same Carpathian region; Cottius, a king of the Celtic Taurini in the western Alps. One Pliny manuscript variant of the name Costoboci is Cotoboci). However, Faliyeyev argues that while possible, a Celtic derivation is less likely than an "autochthonous" one. During the period 400–200 BC, Transylvania and Bessarabia saw intensive Celtic settlement, as evidenced by heavy concentrations of La Tène-type cemeteries. Central Transylvania appears to have become a Celtic enclave or unitary kingdom, according to Batty. Ptolemy lists 3 tribes as present in Transylvania: (west to east): the Taurisci, Anartes and Costoboci. The first two are generally considered by scholars to be of Celtic origin. The Lipitsa culture displays numerous Celtic features. Scytho-Sarmatian According to some scholars, the Costoboci were not a sedentary group at all, but a semi-nomadic steppe horse-based culture of Scytho-Sarmatian character. This hypothesis was originally proposed by the eminent 19th-century German classical scholar Theodor Mommsen. The tribe called Cotobacchi (or Cotoboci or other manuscript variants) in a list of Sarmatian tribes in Pliny's Naturalis Historia is considered by some scholars to refer to the Costoboci. However, Russu and other scholars consider the Cotobacchi to be a distinct group, unconnected to the Costoboci. The statement by Ammianus Marcellinus (ca, AD 400), that a region of the north Pontic steppes was inhabited by "the European Alans, the Costobocae and innumerable Scythian tribes". According to some scholars, the region referred to is the entire steppe between the Danube and the river Don and the passage identifies the Costobocae as an Iranic steppe-nomadic people. However, other scholars argue that the region referred to is much smaller, that between the Danube and Dniester. The presence, throughout the region identified by ancient geographers as inhabited by the Costoboci (SW Ukraine, northern Moldavia and Bessarabia), interspersed among the sites of sedentary cremation cultures such as Lipitsa, of distinct Sarmatian-style inhumation cemeteries dating from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. An inscription found in the