Scythians

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Approximate extent of East Iranian languages the 1st century BCE is shown in orange.]|rels=Animism|related=

-->The Scythians (, also ) or Scyths (but note Scytho- in composition (OED); from Ancient Greek ), a nation of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who spoke an Iranian languagesScythian, member of a normadic people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE - The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition - Micropaedia on "Scythian", 10:576, dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scyths in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scyths comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BCE) in his Histories (Herodotus), and archaeologically from the exquisite goldwork found in Scythian kurgan in Ukraine and Southern Russia.

Also, since ancient times non-Scyths have used the name "Scythian" more broadly to refer to various peoples seen as similar or identical to the Scythians, or who lived anywhere in a vast area covering including present-day Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia — known until medieval times as Scythia. The name was also used among early scholars studying the Proto Indo-Europeans, and the Scythians are still considered a reasonable analogue for their Proto Indo-European ancestors.

History and archaeology Origins and pre-history (to 700 BCE) , king of the Sakā tigraxaudā ("wearing pointed caps Sakae", a group of Scythian tribes). Detail of Behistun Inscription.) relief of eastern stairs, Apadana.Scholars generally classify the Scythian language as a member of the Eastern Iranian languages, and the Scythians as a branch of the ancient Iranian peoples expanding into the steppe regions north of Greater Iran from around 1000 BCE.Oswald Szemerényi, "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka" (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 371), Vienna, 1980 = Scripta minora, vol. 4, pp. 2051-2093. Sulimirski, T. "The Scyths" in Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2: 149-99 Grousset, Rene. "The empire of the Steppes", Rutgers University Press, 1989, pg 19 Jacbonson, Esther. "The Art of Scythians", Brill Academic Publishers, 1995, pg 63 ISBN 90-04-09856-9 Gamkrelidze and Ivanov Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Typological Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture (Parts I and II). Tbilisi State University., 1984 Mallory, J.P. . In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language Archeology and Myth. Thames and Hudson. Read Chapter 2 and see 51-53 for a quick reference.(1989) Newark, T. The Barbarians: Warriors and wars of the Dark Ages. Blandford: New York. See pages 65, 85, 87, 119-139. ,1985 Renfrew, C. Archeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European origins. Cambridge University Press, 1988 Vasily Abaev and H.W. Bailey, "Alans," Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 1. pp. 801-803. ;Great Soviet Encyclopedia, (translation of the 3rd Russian-language edition), 31 vols., New York, 1973-1983. Vogelsang, W J The rise & organisation of the Achaemenid empire – the eastern evidence (Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East Vol. III). Leiden: Brill. pp. 344., 1992 ISBN 90-04-09682-5. Sinor, Denis. Inner Asia: History - Civilization - Languages, Routledge, 1997 pg 82 ISBN 0-7007-0896-0 ;"Scythian". (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 7, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service Masica, Colin P. The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pg 48 ISBN 0-521-29944-6

The Histories of Herodotus provide the most important literary sources relating to ancient Scyths. According to SulimirskiSulimirski, T. "The Scyths," in Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2: 149-99, http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/scyth_main.htm, Herodotus provides a broadly correct depiction but apparently knew little of the eastern part of Scythia. According to Herodotus the ancient Persians called all the Scyths "Saca" (Herodotus .VII 64). Their principal tribe, the Royal Scyths, ruled the vast lands occupied by the nation as a whole (Herodotus .IV 20); and they called themselves Skolotoi. Oswald Szemerényi devotes a thorough discussion to the etymology of the word Scyth in his work "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka".Oswald Szemerényi, "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka" (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 371), Vienna, 1980 = Scripta minora, vol. 4, pp. 2051-2093. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/scyth_main.htm. The related words derive from *skuza, an ancient Indo-European word for archer, (cf. English shoot,) hence Iranian Ishkuzi = archers.

The Scythians first appeared in the historical record in the beginning of the first millennium BCE.Oswald Szemerényi, "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka" (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 371), pg 5-6, Vienna, 1980 = Scripta minora, vol. 4, pp. 2051-2093. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/scyth_main.htm. But Herodotus (IV. 11)Oswald Szemerényi, "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka" (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 371), pg 5-6, Vienna, 1980 = Scripta minora, vol. 4, pp. 2051-2093. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/scyth_main.htmreported a version according to which:

Around 770 BCE, the Scythians (led by Ishpaki — Old Iranian *Spakaaya) in alliance with the Mannaens attacked Assyria. The group first appears in Assyrian annals under the name Ishkuzai. According to the brief assertion of Esarhaddon's inscription, the Assyrian empire defeated the alliance. Subsequent mention of Scythians in Babylonian and Assyrian texts occurs in connection with Medes. Both Old Persian and Greek sources mention them during the period of the Achaemenid empires, with Greek sources locating them in the steppe between the Dnieper and Don River (Russia) rivers.

Classical Antiquity (600 BCE to CE 300) Herodotus provides the first detailed description of the Scythians. He classes the Cimmerians as a distinct autochthonous tribe, expelled by the Scythians from the northern Black Sea coast (Hist. 4.11-12). Herodotus also states (4.6) that the Scythians consisted of the Auchatae, Catiaroi, Traspians and Paralatae or "Royal Scythians". Throughout his work Herodotus specifically distinguished between the nomadic Scythians in the south and the agricultural Scythians to the north.

cup from the Kul-Oba kurgan burial near Kerch. The warrior on the right strings his bow, bracing it behind his knee; note the typical pointed hood, long jacket with fur or fleece trimming at the edges, decorated trousers, and short boots tied at the ankle. Scythians apparently normally wore their hair long and loose, and all adult men apparently wore beards. The gorytos appears clearly on the left hip of the bare-headed spearman; his companion has an interesting shield, perhaps representing a plain leather covering over a wooden or wicker base. (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg), near Kerch.In 512 BCE, when king Darius the Great the Great of Achaemenid Empire attacked the Scythians, he allegedly penetrated into their land after crossing the Danube. Herodotus relates that the nomad Scythians succeeded in frustrating the designs of the Persian army by letting it march through the entire country without an engagement. According to Herodotus, Darius in this manner came as far as the Volga river.

During the 5th century BC to 3rd century BC BCE the Scythians evidently prospered. When Herodotus wrote his Histories in the 5th century BCE, Greeks distinguished Scythia Minor in present-day Romania and Bulgaria from a Scythia that extended eastwards for a twenty-day ride from the Danube River, across the steppes of today's East Ukraine to the lower Don River, Russia basin. The Don, then known as Tanais, has served as a major trading route ever since. The Scythians apparently obtained their wealth from their control over the slave trade from the north to Greece through the Greek Black Sea apoikia of Olvia, Chersonesos, Cimmerian Bosporus, and Gorgippia. They also grew grain, and shipped wheat, flocks, and cheese to Greece.

Strabo (c. 63 BCE - 24 CE) reports that king Ateas united under his power the Scythian tribes living between the Maeotian marshes and the Danube. His westward expansion brought him in conflict with Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359 to 336 BCE), who took military action against the Scythians in 339 BCE. Ateas died in battle and his empire disintegrated. In the aftermath of this defeat, the Celts seem to have displaced the Scythians from the Balkans, while in south Russia a kindred tribe, the Sarmatians, gradually overwhelmed them.

By the time of Strabo's account (the first decades of the first millennium CE), the Crimean Scythians had created a new kingdom extending from the lower Dnieper River to the Crimea. The kings Skilurus and Palakus waged wars with Mithridates VI of Pontus (reigned 120–63 BCE) for control of the Crimean littoral, including Chersonesos and the Cimmerian Bosporus. Their capital city, Scythian Neapolis, stood on the outskirts of modern Simferopol. The Goths destroyed it much later, in the 5th century CE.

Sakas Asians, especially Persians, knew the Scythians in Asia as Sakas. The Indo-Scythians had the name "Shaka" in South Asia, an extension on the name "Saka". Herodotus describes them as Scythians, called by a different name:

"The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow (weapon) of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians." (Herodotus VII. 64)

Although the Shakas had a reputation as fierce and war-like, one of the greatest sages of peace, the Gautama Buddha, may have descended from this tribe: he had the title Shakyamuni which means "Shaka monk".

Indo-Scythians (r.c. 35-12 BCE). Buddhist triratna symbol in the left field on the reverse.In the 2nd century BC, a group of Scythian tribes, known as the Indo-Scythians, migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana and Arachosia. The migrations in 175-125 BCE of the Kushan (Chinese: "Yuezhi") tribes, who originally lived in eastern Tarim Basin before the Huns (Chinese: "Xiongnu") tribes dislodged them, displaced the Indo-Scythians from Central Asia. Led by their king Maues, they ultimately settled in modern-day Punjab region and Kashmir from around 85 BCE, where they replaced the kingdom of the Indo-Greeks by the time of Azes II (reigned circa 35 - 12 BCE). Kushans invaded again in the 1st century, but the Indo-Scythian rule persisted in some areas of Central India until the 5th century.

Hellenic-Scythian contact still focused on the Hellenistic cities and settlements of the Crimea (especially in the Bosporan Kingdom). Greek craftsmen from the colonies north of the Black Sea made spectacular Scythian-style gold ornaments (see below), applying Greek realism to depict Scythian motifs of lions, antlered reindeer and griffins.

Late Antiquity (CE 300 to 600) In Late Antiquity the notion of a Scythian ethnicity grew more vague, and outsiders might dub any people inhabiting the Pontic-Caspian steppe as "Scythians", regardless of their language. Thus, Priscus, a Byzantine emissary to Attila, repeatedly referred to the latter's followers as "Scythians". In Attila's regime Edekon was the king of Scythians.

Meanwhile he was the head of Attila's bodyguard. Edekon was bribed to assassinate Attila by Crysaphius and Vigilius. But he remained loyal to Attila and informed him about the conspiracy. Attila ordered the execution of Vigilius.

The Goths had displaced the Sarmatians in the 2nd century from most areas near the Roman frontier, and by early medieval times, the Turkic migration marginalized East Iranian dialects, and assimilated the Saka linguistically.

Archaeology Archaeological remains of the Scythians include kurgans tombs (ranging from simple exemplars to elaborate "Royal kurgans" containing the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild-animal art), gold, silk, and animal sacrifices, in places also with suspected human sacrifices. mummy techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains. Scythian archaeology also examines the remains of North Pontic Scythian cities and fortifications.

Carbon-14 dating of kurgans has allowed archaeologists to trace their emergence in the Sayan Mountains-Altay area from about 3,000 BCE, and their westward spread starting about 900 BC.

The spectacular Scythian grave-goods from Arzhan, and others in Tuva have been dated from about 900 BCE onward. One grave find on the lower Volga gave a similar date, and one of the Steblev graves from the eastern, European end of the Scythian area was dated to the late 8th century BCE.SOME PROBLEMS IN THE STUDY OF THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NOMADIC CULTURES IN EURASIA(9TH - 3RD CENTURIES BC. A.YU.ALEKSEEV, N.A.BOKOVENKO, YU.BOLTRIK, et alia. GEOCHRONOMETRIA Vol. 21, pp 143-150, 2002. Journal on Methods and Applications of Absolute Chronology. Available at http://www.geochronometria.pl/pdf/geo_21/geo21_17.pdf

Archaeologists can distinguish three periods of ancient Scythian archaeological remains:

1st period - pre-Scythian and initial Scythian epoch: from the 9th to the middle of the 7th centuries BCE
2nd period - early Scythian epoch: from the 7th to the 6th centuries BCE
3rd period - classical Scythian epoch: from the 5th to the 4th centuries BCE

From the 8th century BC to the 2nd century BCE, archeology records a split into two distinct settlement areas: the older in the Sayan-Altai area in Central Asia, and the younger in the North Pontic area in Eastern EuropeA. Yu. Alekseev et al., "Chronology of Eurasian Scythian Antiquities...".

Kurgans in 1905. On exhibit at the Hermitage Museum.

Large burial mounds (some over 20 metres high), provide the most valuable archaeological remains associated with the Scythians. They dot the south Russian steppe, extending in great chains for many kilometers along ridges and watersheds. From them archaeologists have learnt much about Scythian life and art.John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, N. G. L. Hammond. The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. Jan 16, 1992, pg 550.The Russian term for such a burial mound, kurgan, derives from a Turkic languages word for "castle"."kurgan." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (10 Oct. 2006).

Tamgas Scythian tribes and clans have left behind them as important ethnological markers their tamgas (brand-marks which identify individual possession), a must for pastoral societies with shared grazing-ranges. An alternative point of view sees tamgas as a real writing system consisting of syllables and several logograms. Tamgas allow reconstruction of movements and family links where no written records have survived.

Besides identifying property, tamgas marked participation of members of the clan in collective actions (treaties, religious ceremonies, fraternization, public functions), and served as symbols of authority for minting coins. The tamga forms stayed unchanged for about 2000 years within kindred ethnic groups, but after the decline of some famous clan another clan would adopt its tamga.

Wide use of tamgas originated from western Turkestan and Mongolia no later than the beginning of the 6th century BCE. Analysis of tamgas for most powerful clans and for the kings of the Cimmerian Bosporus has allowed scholars to define precisely their genealogy and their relations with territories from where their forefathers migrated to Europe: Khwarezm, Kang-Kü, Bactria, Sogdiana.S. A. Yatsenko, Tamgas ...

Pazyryk culture felt artifact, ca. 300 BC.

Some of the first Bronze Age Scythian burials documented by modern archaeologists include the kurgans at Pazyryk in the Ulagan district of the Altay Republic, south of Novosibirsk in the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia. Archaeologists have extrapolated the Pazyryk culture from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large cairns of boulders and stones.

Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th century BC and 3rd century BC centuries BCE in the area associated with the Sacae.

Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous :Image:Scythiancarpet.jpg, the oldest surviving wool-pile oriental rug. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived superbly preserved from the 5th century BCE.

Although some scholars sought to connect the Pazyryk nomads with indigenous ethnic groups of the Altay, Rudenko summed up the cultural context in the following dictum:

All that is known to us at the present time about the culture of the population of the High Altay, who have left behind them the large cairns, permits us to refer them to the Scythian period, and the Pazyryk group in particular to the fifth century BCE. This is supported by radiocarbon dating.

Belsk excavations Recent digs(see:Gelonus) in Belsk near Poltava (Ukraine) have uncovered a "vast city", with the largest area of any city in the world at that time. It has been tentatively identified by a team of archaeologists led by Boris Shramko as the site of Gelonus, the purported capital of Scythia. The city's commanding ramparts and vast area of 40 square kilometers exceed even the outlandish size reported by Herodotus. Its location at the northern edge of the Ukrainian steppe would have allowed strategic control of the north-south trade-route. Judging by the finds dated to the 5th century BC and 4th century BC centuries BCE, craft workshops and Greek pottery abounded.

Tillia tepe treasure

A site found in 1968 in Tillia tepe (literally "The golden hill") in northern Afghanistan (former Bactria) near Shebergan consisted of the graves of five women and one man with extremely rich jewelry, dated to around the 1st century BCE, and generally thought to belong to Scythian tribes. Altogether the graves yielded several thousands of pieces of fine jewelry, usually made from combinations of gold, turquoise and lapis-lazuli.

A high degree of cultural syncretism pervades the findings, however. Hellenistic cultural and artistic influences appear in many of the forms and human depictions (from amorini to rings with the depiction of Athena and her name inscribed in Greek), attributable to the existence of the Seleucid empire and Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the same area until around 140 BCE, and the continued existence of the Indo-Greek kingdom in the northwestern Indian sub-continent until the beginning of our era. These artifacts also appeared intermixed with items coming from much farther afield, such between as a few Chinese artifacts (especially Chinese bronze mirrors) as well as a few Indian ones (decorated ivory plates). This testifies to the richness of cultural influences in the area of Bactria at that time.

Ordos culture .The Ordos people were horse nomads would lived in the area of the Ordos Desert, in the south of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. They occupied the area from the 5th century BCE to the 1st-2nd century CE. The weapons, found in tombs throughout the steppes of the Ordos, are very close to that of the Scythians, especially the Sakas.Iaroslav Lebedynsky, p127

Scythian influences China and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th-3rd century BC. British Museum.

Ancient influences from Central Asia became identifiable in China following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories from the 8th century BCE. Gold entered China from Central Asia between the 8th and the 7th centuries, and Chinese jade-carvers began to make imitations of the designs of the steppes. The Chinese adopted the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat), particularly the rectangular belt-plaques made of gold or bronze, and created their own versions in jade and steatite.Mallory and Mair, The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, 2000)

Following their expulsion by the Yuezhi, some Scythians may also have migrated to the area of Yunnan in southern China. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the Dian Kingdom civilization of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing."Les Saces", Iaroslav Lebedynsky, p.73 ISBN 2877723372

Northeastern Asia .Scythian influences have been identified as far as Korea and Japan. Various Korean artifacts, such as the royal crowns of the kingdom of Silla, are said to be of Scythian design.Crowns similar to the Scythian ones discovered in Tillia Tepe "appear later, during the 5th and 6th century at the eastern edge of the Asia continent, in the tumulus tombs of the Kingdom of Silla, in South-East Korea. "Afganistan, les trésors retrouvés", 2006, p282, ISBN 9782711852185 Similar crowns, brought through contacts with the continent, can also be found in Kofun era Japan. Such contacts are not so surprising, as the Korean language itself, and sometimes even Japanese language, are considered as Altaic languages, related to Magyar language, Turkish language or Mongolian language.Scythian artifacts "remind us of the artistic tradition of Korea during the Three Kingdoms (1-8th century), which is not so illogical since Korean pertains to the same Uralo-Altaic languages as Magyar, Turk or Mongol". Pierre Cambon, in "Afganistan, les trésors retrouvés", 2006, p25, ISBN 9782711852185

Scythian language The Scythian languages and its various dialects formed part of the Indo-European languages language-family. The personal names found in the contemporary Greek literary and Epigraphy texts suggest that the language of the Scythians and the Sarmatians (who spoke a dialect of Scythian according to Hist. 4.117 Herodotus) belonged to the Northeast Iranian branch. An alternative theory suggests that at least some Scythian tribes, such as the Meotians (Sindi (people)), spoke Indo-Aryan languages dialects.Rjabchikov 2004

Naming and etymology The Scythians known to Herodotus (Hist. 4.6) called themselves Skolotoi. The Greek word Skythēs probably reflects an older rendering of the very same name, *Skuδa- (whereas Herodotus transcribes the unfamiliar sound with Lambda; -toi represents the North-east Iranian plural ending -ta). The word originally means "shooter, archer", and it ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European language root *skeud- "to shoot, throw" (compare English language shoot).Oswald Szemerényi, "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka" (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 371), Vienna, 1980 = Scripta minora, vol. 4, pp. 2051-2093. http://www.azargoshnasp.net/history/Scythians/scyth_main.htm

The Sogdians' name for themselves, Swγδ, may represent a related word (*Skuδa > *Suγuδa with an Anaptyxis). The name also occurs in Akkadian language in the form Aškuzai or Iškuzai ("Scythian"). It may have provided the source for biblical Hebrew language Ashkenaz (original *אשכוז ’škuz got misspelled as אשכנז ’šknz), later a Jewish name of the Germanic areas of Central Europe and hence a self-descriptor of the Ashkenazi Jews who lived there among the Ashkenazim ("Germans") at that time called Teutons or Wendels.

The Old Persians used another name for the Scythians, namely Saka, which perhaps derived from the Iranian verbal root sak- "to go, to roam", i.e. "wanderer, nomad". The Chinese knew the Saka (Asian Scythians) as Sai (Chinese character: 塞, Old Sinitic *sək).

Scythian society Scythians lived in confederated tribes, a political form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organized a common defence against encroaching neighbors for the pastoral tribes of mostly Domestication of the horse herdsmen. While the productivity of domesticated animal-breeding greatly exceeded that of the settled agricultural societies, the pastoral economy also needed supplemental agricultural produce, and stable nomadic confederations developed either symbiotic or forced alliances with sedentary peoples — in exchange for animal produce and military protection.

Herodotus relates that three main tribes of the Scythians descended from three brothers, Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and ColaxaisTraces of the Iranian root xšaya — "ruler" — may persist in all three names.:

In their reign a plough, a yoke, an axe, and a bowl, all made of gold, fell from heaven upon the Scythian territory. The oldest of the brothers wished to take them away, but as he drew near the gold began to burn. The second brother approached them, but with the like result. The third and youngest then approached, upon which the fire went out, and he was enabled to carry away the golden gifts. The two eldest then made the youngest king, and henceforth the golden gifts were watched by the king with the greatest care, and annually approached with magnificent sacrifices.

, Crimea. British Museum.

Herodotus also mentions a royal tribe or clan, an elite which dominated the other Scythians:

Then on the other side of the Gerros we have those parts which are called the “Royal” lands and those Scythians who are the bravest and most numerous and who esteem the other Scythians their slaves.

The elder brothers then, acknowledging the significance of this thing, delivered the whole of the kingly power to the youngest. From Lixopais, they say, are descended those Scythians who are called the race of the Auchatai; from the middle brother Arpoxais those who are called Catiaroi and Traspians, and from the youngest of them the “Royal” tribe, who are called Paralatai: and the whole together are called, they say, Scolotoi, after the name of their king; but the Hellenes gave them the name of Scythians. Thus the Scythians say they were produced; and from the time of their origin, that is to say from the first king Targitaos, to the passing over of Dareios Persian Emperor Darius I against them BCE, they say that there is a period of a thousand years and no more.

This royal clan is also named in other classical sources the "Royal Dahae". The rich burials of Scythian kings in ([kurgans) is independent evidence for the existence of this powerful royal elite.

Although scholars have traditionally treated the three tribes as geographically distinct, Georges Dumézil interpreted the divine gifts as the symbols of social occupations, illustrating his trifunctional hypothesis of early Proto-Indo-European society societies: the plough and yoke symbolised the farmers, the axe — the warriors, the bowl — the priests.The first scholar to compare the three strata of Scythian society to the Indian castes, Arthur Christensen, published Les types du premiere homme et du premier roi dans l'histoire legendaire des Iraniens, I (Stockholm, Leiden, 1917).According to Dumézil, "the fruitless attempts of Arpoxais and Lipoxais, in contrast to the success of Colaxais, may explain why the highest strata was not that of farmers or magicians, but rather that of warriors."Quoted in Wouter Wiggert Belier. Decayed Gods: Origin and Development of Georges Dumezil’s "Ideologie Tripartie". Brill Academic Publishers, 1991. ISBN 90-04-06195-9. Page 69.

Ruled by small numbers of closely-allied élites, Scythians had a reputation for their Archery, and many gained employment as mercenary. Scythian élites had kurgan tombs: high barrows heaped over chamber-tombs of larch-wood — a deciduous conifer that may have had special significance as a tree of life-renewal, for it stands bare in winter. Burials at Pazyryk in the Altay Mountains have included some spectacularly preserved Scythians of the "Pazyryk culture" — including the Ice Maiden of the 5th century BC.

Scythian women dressed in much the same fashion as men, and at times fought alongside them in battle. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. In the 1998 NOVA (TV series) documentary "Ice Mummies", an archaeologist explains that, "The woman was dressed exactly like a man. This shows that certain women, probably young and unmarried, could be warriors, literally Amazons. It didn't offend the principles of nomadic society."

As far as we know, the Scythians had no writing system. Until recent archaeological developments, most of our information about them came from the Ancient Greece. The Ziwiye hoard, a treasure of gold and silver metalwork and ivory found near the town of Sakiz south of Lake Urmia and dated to between 680 and 625 BCE, includes objects with Scythian "animal style" features. One silver dish from this find bears some inscriptions, as yet undeciphered and so possibly representing a form of Scythian writing.

Homer called the Scythians "the mare-milkers". Herodotus described them in detail: their costume consisted of padded and quilted leather trousers tucked into boots, and open tunics. They rode with no stirrups or saddles, just saddle-cloths. Herodotus reports that Scythians used Cannabis (drug), both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke (Hist. 4.73-75); archaeology has confirmed the use of cannabis in funeral rituals. The Scythian philosopher Anacharsis visited Athens in the 6th century BCE and became a legendary sage.

Scythians also had a reputation for the use of barbed and poisoned arrows of several types, for a nomadic life centered around horses — "fed from horse-blood" according to Herodotus — and for skill in guerrilla warfare.

Art has preserved by far the greatest collection of Scythian gold, including one of the most famous of all Scythian finds: the golden comb, featuring a battle-scene, from the 4th century Solokha royal burial mound.

Scythian contacts with craftsmen in Greek colonies along the northern shores of the Black Sea resulted in the famous Scythian gold adornments that feature among the most glamorous artifacts of world museums. Ethnographically extremely useful as well, the gold depicts Scythian men as bearded, long-haired Caucasoids. "Greco-Scythian" works depicting Scythians within a much more Ancient Greece style date from a later period, when Scythians had already adopted elements of Greek culture.

Scythians had a taste for elaborate personal jewelry, weapon-ornaments and horse-trappings. They executed Central-Asian animal motifs with Greek realism: winged griffins attacking horses, battling stags, deer, and eagles, combined with everyday motifs like milking sheeps.

In 2000, the touring exhibition 'Scythian Gold' introduced the North American public to the objects made for Scythian nomads by Greek craftsmen north of the Black Sea, and buried with their Scythian owners under burial mounds on the flat plains of present-day Ukraine, most of them unearthed after 1980.

In 2001, the discovery of an undisturbed royal Scythian burial-barrow illustrated for the first time Scythian animal-style gold that lacks the direct influence of Greek styles. Forty-four pounds of gold weighed down the royal couple in this burial, discovered near Kyzyl, capital of the Siberian republic of Tuva.

Historiography Herodotus Herodotus wrote about an enormous city, Gelonus, in the northern part of Scythia (4.108): "The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. There is a city in their territory, called Gelonus, which is surrounded with a lofty wall, thirty furlongs {{Ethnic group||group=Scythians|image=
Approximate extent of East Iranian languages the 1st century BCE is shown in orange.]|rels=Animism|related=

1st period - pre-Scythian and initial Scythian epoch: from the 9th to the middle of the 7th centuries BCE
2nd period - early Scythian epoch: from the 7th to the 6th centuries BCE
3rd period - classical Scythian epoch: from the 5th to the 4th centuries BCE

Scythians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Scythians or Scyths [1] were a nation of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists originally of Iranian stock, [2] [3] who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity.

Scythians - definition of Scythians by the Free Online Dictionary ...
Scyth·i·a (s th-, s-) An ancient region of Eurasia extending from the mouth of the Danube River on the Black Sea to the territory east of the Aral Sea.

Scythians
home : index : ancient Persia : article by Jona Lendering © Scythians/Sacae: The Central-Asian steppe has been the home of nomad tribes for centuries.

Category:Scythians - Wikimedia Commons
Media in category "Scythians" The following 30 files are in this category, out of 30 total.

Ovid among the Scythians
Ovid among the Scythians. 1859. DELACROIX, Eugène 1798 - 1863 NG6262. Bought, 1956. Signed and dated. The poet Ovid is shown in exile after being banished from Rome by the Emperor ...

Scythians - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about Scythians
Scythia. Region north of the Black Sea between the Carpathian Mountains and the River Don, inhabited by the Scythians 7th-1st centuries BC. From the middle of the 4th century, they ...

Scythia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Classical Antiquity, Scythia (Greek Σκυθία Skuthia) was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD.

Amazon.co.uk: Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and ...
Amazon.co.uk: Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology): Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe ...

Scythians definition of Scythians in the Free Online Encyclopedia.
Scythia (sĭth`ēə), ancient region of Eurasia, extending from the Danube on the west to the borders of China on the east. The . Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th cent.

The Scythians
Illustrated article by Chris Bennet on this ancient world nomadic tribe that existed from the seventh to the first century B.C. Describes their society and dress, and mythical ...