스키타인에 대한 자료(3):스키타인 문화

IV.  스키타인 문화

 

 

Social organisation

 

Clan structures

 

Scythian society was constituted of kinship structures where clan groups formed the basis of the community[215] and of political organisation.[216]

Clan elders wielded considerable power, and were able to depose kings, such as when the Scythian army overthrew the king Scyles and the Scythians demanded his extradition from the Thracians, after which he was executed. Following the deposition of Scyles, the power of both the king and the warrior-aristocracy became further entrenched.[217]

 

As an extension of clan-based relations, a custom of blood brotherhood existed among the Scythians, whereby the blood of the sworn blood brothers was poured in a cup of wine in which their swords, arrows, battle-aces, and spears were lowered before they drank it.[215]

 

Tribal structures

 

The Scythians were furthermore organised into tribes which were themselves headed by local lords. These tribes were subject to the dominant tribe of the Royal Scythians, who formed the tribal aristocracy of the Scythians and whose ruling lord was the king of all Scythians.[218]

The Scythians were composed of a number of tribal units, including:[219][220][221][222][3][223][216]

• the Royal Scythians, also called the Skōlotoi (Σκωλοτοι) and the Paralatai (Παραλαται), were an Iranic tribe who nomadised in the Pontic Steppe, in an area limited by the Dnipro river in the west, and the Don river and the port of Kremnoi in the east, as well in Crimea up to the Cimmerian Bosporus in its east. The Royal Scythians and the Nomad Scythians were the only fully nomadic tribes within Scythia.
• The Royal Scythians were the main Scythian tribe, and they were the ruling tribe of the whole of Scythia.[148] They were the dominant tribe within Scythia to whom all the other tribes were subjects, and the high king of all the Scythians came from the tribe of the Royal Scythians.[218]
• the various tribes being each led by their own lords were all subservient to the lord of the Royal Scythians, and they all paid tribute to the Royal Scythians and provided them and the high king with servants.[218]
• the name Paralatai (Scythian: Paralāta) corresponds to the Young Avestan name Paraδāta (𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬜𐬁𐬙𐬀‎), meaning “placed at the front.”[212]
• the name Skōlotoi is the Greek form of the Scythian endonym Skulatā, formed by the addition of the plural suffix -tā to the Scythian endonym Skula[18][2]
• the Nomad Scythians, who lived to the west of the Royal Scythians, between the Inhul and the bend of the Dnipro, were a mixed Thracian and Iranic Scythian nomadic tribe. The Nomad Scythians and the Royal Scythians were the only fully nomadic tribes in Scythia.
• the Free Scythians, who were a tribe of mixed Scythian-Sauromatian origin, lived in the southeastern Pontic Steppe, between the port of Kremnoi and the Don or the Donets river.
• the Alazones (Ancient Greek: Αλαζονες) or Alizōnes (Ancient Greek: Αλιζωνες), who were the westernmost Scythian tribe, were semi-nomads who occupied the steppe between the Inhul and the Dnister around the region where the Dnister and the Southern Buh flow the closest to each other.
• The Alazones led semi-nomadic lives, with those of them who lived in the steppe being pastoral nomads and those who lived in the valleys of the Southern Buh and nearby rivers being farmers who cultivated wheat, onions, garlic, lentils and millet. The Alazones were the southern neighbours of the Aroteres and, like them, might have been of mixed Thracian and Iranic origins. The Alazones were themselves in turn the northern neighbours of the Callipidae.
• the Scythian Ploughmen or Scythian Husbandmen or Arotēres (Ancient Greek: Αροτηρες) or Gerrhoi (Ancient Greek: Γερροι),[224] who were the northern neighbours of the Alazones, were sedentary agriculturists who lived in a region with fertile black earth corresponding to the modern-day part of Ukraine which lies to the west of the Dnipro river until the region of Vinnytsia. Their neighbours to the north were the Baltic Neuri, and to the south were the Alazones.
• The Aroteres were large sedentary Thracian population of Scythia who descended from the Late Bronze Age Sabatynivka Culture, over whom had established themselves an Iranic Scythian ruling class during the 6th century BC.
• the Callipidae (Ancient Greek: Καλλιπιδαι, romanized: Kallipidai) were a semi-nomadic population of Thracian origin who lived across a wide section of land adjacent to the shores of the Black sea ranging from the estuary of the Southern Buh river to the area of modern-day Odesa or even until the estuary of the Dnister. The western neighbours of the Callipadae across the Dnister river were Thracian tribe of the Getae in Bessarabia, while Thracian populations under Scythian rule lived on the coast. Their northern neighbours were the Alazones.
• The Callipidae were a considerably Hellenised tribe who consisted of a large settled Thracian population with a Scythian ruling class.
• the Scythian Agriculturalists or Geōrgoi (Ancient Greek: Γεωργοι) were another population of Thracian origin. The Geōrgoi lived in the valley of the lower Dnipro river, in the wooded country of Hylaea, and they may have been sedendaty or semi-nomadic.
• a tribe not named by the Greek authors lived on the north-west shore of Lake Maeotis, and corresponded to the archaeological "Obytichna 12 type" settlements.

 

In addition to the Scythians themselves, as well as the Thracians who had inhabited the region since the Bronze Age, the population of the Pontic Scythian kingdom consisted of Greeks living in colonies on the northern shore of the Black Sea.[219]

 

There were few differences between the many Scythian tribes and tribal groupings in the early period of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, which later became more pronounced as these eventually conquered various native populations.[225]

 

Neighbouring populations

 

The neighbours of the Scythians included:[219][226][3]

• the Thracian Getae, who lived to the west of Scythia, across the Danube river.
• the Melanchlaeni and the Androphagi, who lived to the east of the middle Dnipro river, in the forest steppe bordering the territory of the Royal Scythians to the north, respectively in the valleys of the Donets and Sula rivers. These populations were either of Scythic or of mixed Scythic and native origin.
• the Sauromatians, who lived to the east of the Scythians, in the steppe between the Don and the Volga, were another Scythic people. They were the immediate neighbours of the Royal Scythians to the east, across the Don river.
• the Neuri, who were a Baltic population of the region of the forest steppe corresponding to modern-day Belarus, lived to the north of the Aroteres. They corresponded to the Milograd culture.
• the Agathyrsi lived to the west of the Aroteres and of the Neuri.
• the Budini, to the east of the Neuroi and in the valley of the Vorskla river, were either a Scythic tribe,[227] or one of the many Finno-Ugric populations living in the eastern forest steppe until the Ural Mountains.
• the Gelonians, to the east of the Dnipro, in the valley of the Vorskla river.
• the Maeotians lived on the eastern coast of the Lake Maeotis.
• the Tauri lived in the Crimean Mountains.

 

Related populations

 

The Scythians were closely related to other Iranic nomads who occupied the Eurasian steppe during Antiquity, such as:[228]

• the Sauromatians of the Volga-Ural region;
• the Saka of Central Asia, including:
• the Massagetae;
• the Pazyryk culture;
• the Tagar culture;
• the Chandman culture;
• the Yuezhi.

 

Class structure

 

See also: Trifunctional hypothesis

 

Scythian society was stratified along class lines.[229] Herodotus of Halicarnassus named the three classes of Scythians only once in his writings,[230] where he described them as descended from the three sons of the Scythian ancestor-god Targitaos:[231][232]

• the Auchatae (Ancient Greek: Αυχαται, romanized: Aukhatai), who were the priestly class, descended from Targitaos's eldest son, Lipoxais;
• the Catiari (Ancient Greek: Κατιαροι, romanized: Katiaroi) and Traspies (Ancient Greek: Τρασπιες, romanized: Traspies), who were the farmer-and-peasant class, descended from Targitaos's middle son, Arpoxais;
• the Royal Scythians, also called the Scoloti (Σκωλοτοι) and the Paralatae (Παραλαται), who were the warrior-aristocracy, descended from Targitaos's youngest son, Kolaxais.

 

The Scythian aristocracy were property owners who possessed landed estates large enough that it sometimes took a whole day to ride around them.[233] These freeborn Scythian rulers used the whip as their symbol.[234]

 

The commoners were free but still depended to some extent on the aristocracy. They were allowed to own some property, usually a pair of oxen needed to pull a cart,[235] hence why they were called oktapodes (Ancient Greek: οκταποδες, lit. 'eight-feeters') in Greek.[236] By the 4th century BC, the exploitation of these free commoners became the main economic policy of Scythia.[237]

 

Serfs belonged to the poorest sections of the native populations of Scythia, and, being tied to the land and not possessing cattle, they were not free and did not own cattle or wagons. Stablemen and farmers were recruited from the serf class.[235]

 

A rudimentary form of slavery was also practised in Scythia,[238] and the Scythian ruling class used a large number of slaves to till the land and tend to the cattle. Slaves were also assigned to the production of dairy products. The Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus claimed that the Scythians used to blind their slaves to prevent them from eating the most valuable of these dairy products. He also claimed that the Scythian kings considered the inhabitants of Crimea to be their slaves.[233]

 

This class structure thus existed in a hierarchy where the farmer-peasant class occupied the lowest social position, the clergy occupied the middle position, and warrior-aristocracy occupied the highest social position and dominated the other two classes,[239] with the Scythian kings belonging to this dominant class.[240] The class stratification of Scythian society corresponded to a hierarchy of social standing and property ownership which is visibly in how export of the grain cultivated by the common freemen profited only the aristocracy but not these commoners, whose graves lacked the lavish furnishing of the aristocratic burials.[237]

 

This drastic difference between the aristocracy and the commoners is also visible in how Scythian art only represented the interested of the Scythian ruling classes.[241]

 

Gender roles

 

Scythian society was a patriarchal one where women were subordinate to men, although women from the upper classes were free to ride horses, while women from the lower classes may have not been free to do so and may have spent most of their time indoors.[242] Among the more nomadic tribes, the women and children spent most of their time indoors in the wagons.[243]

 

Polygamy was practised among the Scythian upper classes, and kings had harems in which both local women and women who had been bought lived. Some of these women were the kings' legal wives and others were their concubines. Reflecting the patriarchal structure of Scythian society, the wives and concubines could be passed down as inheritance, as when the Scythian king Scyles married Opoea, who had been one of his father's wives.[242]

 

Women were likely in charge of tending the herds and organising the livelihood when the men were away to fight.[244]

 

Within Scythian priesthood there existed a group of transgender soothsayers, called the Anarya (lit. 'unmanly'), who were born and lived their early lives as men, and later in their lives assumed the mannerisms and social roles role of women.[245]

 

Administrative structure

 

Kingship

 

The Scythians were monarchical, and the king of all the Scythians was the main tribal chief,[246] who was from the dominant tribe of the Royal Scythians.[218] Power among the Scythian kings was passed down a single dynasty,[247] and the historian and anthropologist Anatoly Khazanov has suggested that the Scythians had been ruled by the same dynasty from the time of their stay in West Asia until the end of their kingdom in the Pontic Steppe.[248] The Scythologist Askold Ivantchik has instead proposed that the Scythians had been ruled by at least three dynasties, including that of Bartatua, that of Spargapeithes, and that of Ariapeithes.[18]

 

Although the kings' powers were limited by the popular [247] and warrior assemblies,[218] royal power itself was held among the Scythians to be divinely ordained: this conception of royal power, which is well documented in the ritual symbols depicted on 5th to 3rd century BC Scythian toreutics, was initially foreign to Scythian culture and originated in West Asia during the period of Scythian presence there in the 7th century BC.[246][249]

 

The Scythian kings were later able to further increase their position through the concentration of economic power in their hands because of their dominance of the grains trade with the Greeks, which made them and the Scythian warrior-aristocracy as a whole, very wealthy.[247]

 

After their death, the Scythian kings were buried along with one or some of their wives.[242] The kings also chose servants, cupbearers, courtiers, and members of the royal entourage from the tribes under his authority, who were to be killed and buried along with him to follow and serve him in the afterlife. Warriors belonging to the entourage of Scythian rulers were also buried in smaller and less magnificent tombs surrounding the tombs of the rulers.[250]

 

By the 4th century BC, the Scythian kingdom had developed into a rudimentary state after the king Ateas had united all the Scythian tribes under his personal authority.[237]

 

Popular and warrior assemblies

 

The Scythians were organised into popular and warrior assemblies that limited the power of the kings.[218][247] The gatherings of these assemblies were held in the nomes, such as the one at which the overthrow of the king Scyles was decided.[247]

 

Administrative divisions

 

The Scythians were ruled by a triple monarchy, with a high king who ruled all of the Scythian kingdom, and two younger kings who ruled in sub-regions. The kingdom was in turn made of nomes headed by local lords.[251]

 

Lifestyle

 

The peoples of Scythian consisted of a mix of sedentary farmer populations and nomads,[216] and the tribes living in the steppes remained primarily nomadic, with their lifestyle and customs were inextricably linked to their nomadic way of life.[243] with the tribe of the Royal Scythians initially leading a transhumant pastoralist nomadic way of life.[252][253]

 

Between the 9th and 5th centuries BC, the climate in the steppes was cool and dry, which was a catalyst for the emergence of equestrian nomadic pastoralism in the northern Pontic region. The climate became warmer and wetter during the 5th century BC, so that it was more wet and damp compared to present-day Ukraine, which allowed the steppe nomads to move into the steppes proper and led the ancient Greeks to see this region as damp and foggy.[58][254]

 

In these favourable climatic conditions, the ranges of beavers and elk extended further south than presently, with beavers then being present in the lower Dnipro and lower Southern Buh river valleys, and elk living until the environs of Olbia, and the bones both these animals have been found in kitchen refuse dating from the Scythian period.[60]

 

With the integration of Scythia with the Greek colonies on the northern shore of the Black Sea, the Scythians soon became involved in activities such as cultivating grain, fishing, trading and craftsmanship,[3] due to which they had already started becoming semi-nomads and sedentary farmers by the 5th century BC, and they had largely become settled farmers by the 3rd century BC.[255]

 

Equestrianism

 

Being equestrian nomads, the Scythians excelled at horsemanship,[65] and Scythian men spent most of their lives on horseback.[243]

 

The Scythians reared a small but very swift breed of horse that they rode directly and also used for drawing carts. Graeco-Roman authors claimed that the Scythians and Sarmatians would castrate their horses because they were otherwise too turbulent to handle.[252]

 

The saddle was invented by the Scythians in the 7th century BC, and consisted of two felt cushions stuffed with stag hair and mounted on felt sweatbands; in some cases, the cushions were attached to wooden saddle frames placed to their back and front.[256] Scythian saddles had four raised bolsters at each corner, which, at a time when the stirrup had not yet been invented, allowed the riders to lean into the forward bolsters and raise themselves without being encumbered by the bouncing of their running horses.[257]

 

Scythian saddles very colourful and dyed in red, yellow, dark blue, black, and white; they were also wholly decorated with wool, appliqué leather, and felt, as well as wooden carvings decorated in gold leaf.[256]

 

Pastoralism

 

Thanks to the propitious climate then prevailing to the north of the Black Sea, grass grew abundantly on the treeless steppe, which permitted the nomadic Scythians to rear large herds of cattle and horses.[60][258]

 

The society of the Scythians was therefore highly based on nomadic pastoralism,[252][243] which was practised by both the sedendary and nomadic Scythian tribes, with their herds being made up of about 40% horses, 40% cattle, and 18% sheep, but no pigs, which the Scythians refused to keep in their lands.[259][3][243]

 

Horse rearing was especially an important part of Scythian life, not only because the Scythians rode them, but also because horses were a source of food.[252]

 

The strong reliance of the Scythians on pastoralism itself ensured the self-sufficiency of the Scythians, and was conducive towards the nomadic lifestyle.[260] This importance of pastoralism for the Scythians is visible in how representations of pastoral activities formed the predominant theme of Scythian petroglyphic art.[32]

 

Scythian women tended the herds while men were engaged in fighting.[244]

Hunting among the Scythians was primarily done for sport and entartainment rather than for procuring meat,[243] although it was occasionally also carried out for food.[252]

 

Agriculture

 

Conditions in the southern lands near the shores of the Black Sea, such as in Hylaea and the valleys further north along the Dnipro, were propitious for agriculture[61] and for cultivating cereals, orchards and vineyards.[261]

 

This allowed the Scythians to, in addition of being principally reliant on domesticated animals, also complement their source of food with agriculture,[252] and the Scythian upper classes owned large estates in which large numbers of slaves and members of the tribes subordinate to the Royal Scythians were used to till the land and rear cattle.[233]

 

Among these subordinate tribes, the sedendary Scythian tribes of the Callipidae, Aroteres, Georgoi, and Alizones, engaged in agriculture, and grew crops for their own use as well as to be exported to the Greeks on the northern shores of the Black Sea. These tribes were able to cultivate large quantities of crops thanks to the use of the plough.[262] The ancient Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus recorded that these sedendary Scythian tribes grew wheat, barley, millet, lentils, beans, onions, and garlic; and an oven used to dry grains of wheat, barley, and rye was located at the site of Shyroka Balka, near Pontic Olbia.[262][263]

 

The Callipidae cultivated crops including wheat and millet, and also engaged in animal husbandry and fishing at sea.[152]

 

Diet

 

The Scythians ate the meat from the horses, cattle, and sheep they reared.[259][252] Milk, especially that of mares, was also an important part of the Scythians' diet, and it was both consumed and used to make cheese and an alcoholic drink made from milk similar to the kumys still widely consumed by Eurasian steppe nomads.[252][264]

 

The Scythians also supplemented, to varying extents depending on the regions where they lived, their diets by hunting deer, steppe antelopes, beavers, and other wild animals, as well as by fishing from the large rivers flowing through Scythia.[252][265]

 

In addition to these, the Scythians consumed large amounts of wine, which they bought from the Greeks. Unline the Greeks, who diluted wine with water before drinking it, the Scythians drank it undiluted, due to which undiluted wine was called "Scythian-style wine" among the Greeks,[266] who also equated the drinking of wine "in the Scythian way" with immoderate and unrestrained binge drinking.[267] During the earlier phase of the Scythian Pontic kingdom, wine was primarily consumed by the aristocracy, and its consumption became more prevalent among the wealthier members of the populace only after the 5th century BC.[243]

 

Clothing and grooming

 

Main article: Scythian clothing

 

 

Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the Kul-Oba kurgan burial near Kerch.

 

Scythian garments were sewn together from several pieces of cloth, and generally did not require the use of fibulae to be held in place, unlike the clothing of other ancient European peoples.[268] Scythian dress consisted of combination of various leathers, textiles,[269] and furs. Silk appears to have been imported from China.[270] Scythian clothing was expensively decorated with gold embroidery and applique work, as well as facings of pearl and gold.[271][32] Their clothing was brightly coloured using resist painting.[272]

 

The clothing of Scythian men consisted of long-sleeved jacket made of embroidered leather with fur trim. Long trousers (called šarabāra in the Scythian language[273]) were also worn. Boots were either tied to the feet with narrow laces under the ankle or around the foot itself. Scythian men wore pointed caps with flaps on the side and on the back that could be tied at the front during earlier periods;[274] Scythian men went bareheaded in later times.

 

Scythian women wore[275] shoes or short boots; long dresses that could be pleated or have furbelows on the lower edges; and mantles. women belonging to the upper classes wore kandus cloaks over their dresses; tall headdresses whose shapes ranged from simple diadems to close-fitting caps to 30 cm-high kalathoi-shaped hats; or veil over their head.

 

Scythians wore jewellery usually made of gold, but sometimes also of bronze,[276][277] this would inckude earrings, bracelets made of silver and bronze wire; necklaces made of gold beads and various imported semi-precious stones, earrings; elaborate torcs; rings of various shapes; and gold bangles.

 

Scythian men grew their hair long and their beards to significant sizes.[246]

 

Nothing is known about the hairstyles of Scythian women.[277] The Scythians were acquainted with the use of soap, which they used to wash their heads.[278] According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Scythian men however did not wash their bodies with water, and instead cleaned themselves in a steam bath in a small tent where the flower buds of cannabis were thrown on hot stones to induce intoxication.[279][280]

 

Scythian women used a paste made from the wood of cypress and cedar, ground together with frankincense, and water on a stone until it acquired a thick consistency. This was applied to their bodies and removed after a day, leaving their skin clean, glossy, and sweet-smelling.[281][282][283] Scythian women also used cosmetics such as scented water and various ointments.[277]

 

Scythian men and women both used mirrors, and bronze mirrors made in Pontic Olbia and whose handles were decorated with animal figures such as those of stags, panthers, and rams, were popular during the early Scythian periods.[284][277]

 

Medicine

 

A group of Scythian shaman-priests called the Agaroi (Αγαροι, Latin: Agari) was knowledgeable in the use of snake venom for medicinal purposes.[285][286] During the Third Mithridatic War, these Agaroi used used snake venom to stop a thigh wound received by Mithridates VI of Pontus from haemorrhaging.[287]

 

The Scythians applied the oil of wild cabbage, which has analgesic, circulation-stimulating, and anti-bacterial properties, on their bodies to help them withstand the cold in winter and to repel insects in the summer.[288]

 

The paste made of cypress and cedar wood, frankincense, and water used by Scythian women to clean themselves also had medicinal properties since cedar and cypress oil and frankincense possess antiseptic properties useful for fighting infection, with cedar and cypress oil also being astringents capable of ameliorating oily and flaky skin and treat acne and dermatitis, while frankincense has anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant properties.[289]

 

Cannabis was used by the Scythians as a way to relieve pain from daily activities, arthritis, and constant warfare.[289]

 

Crafts and materials

 

Aside from the consumed milk and meat, other parts of the animals reared by the Scythians were used to make skins and wool:[259]

• felts made of sheep's wool and sewn sheepskins were used to make caps and tents;
• wool, hide, and fur was used to make clothing and blankets;
• leather was used to make armour, helmets, trousers, shoes, pendants, felts, and quivers;
• horse hair was used to make ropes used to cut animals from the herds and tether, laden, and bridle them;
• hemp from cannabis plants was used to make lariats used to herd horses and lassoes used in warfare;[278]
• bone was a light and accessible material:
• bone was easily worked into many types of tools and ornaments;
• bone was also used as fuel because it produced higher temperatures when burnt.

 

The native sedentary Thracians populations who lived in Scythia manufactured products such as pottery, woodwork, and weaving, as well as bronze metal-working made out of raw materials imported from Transylvania. From this practice of handicraft, the peoples of Scythia obtained simple tools and ornaments, as well as certain types of weapons:[290]

• wood was a light, important, and accessible material:
• it was easy to work into many types of tools and ornaments, such as spear shafts, arrows, battle-axes, tools, composite bows, ploughs, wagons, tents, and other objects used in daily life;
• it was also used as fuel;
• wood was obtained from the extensive woodlands on the well-watered lands of the lower Dnipro;[291][60]

 

Metalworking

 

Main article: Scythian metallurgy

 

The populations of Scythia practised both metal casting and blacksmithing, with the same craftsmen usually both casting copper and bronze and forging iron:[265][290]

• cast bronze bronze and iron were used to produce weapons and heavy tools;
• Scythian bronze-working products included:
• large bronze semi-spheric cauldrons with truncated cones as their stands, and which were decorated in cast and had either two or four animal-shaped handles on their rims;
• socketed bronze finials which were placed at the top of poles and decorated with various animal figures;
• The ores from which copper and tin were smelted were likely mined in the region of the Donets Ridge, and metal might also have been imported from the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus. Iron was meanwhile smelted out of bog iron ores obtained from the swampy regions on the lower Dnipro.[265]

 

The Scythians and the peoples of the Pontic steppe were still Bronze Age societies until the 8th century BC, and it was only after the Scythians had expanded into West Asia that they acquired knowledge of ironworking, which they then brought with them into the Pontic Steppe[84] after they had been expelled from West Asia around c. 600 BC.[90]

 

Goldsmithing

 

The Scythians had practised goldsmithing from an early date, with remains from the 2nd kurgan of the Arzhan burials attesting that the Scythians were already skilled in working gold before their migration out of Central Asia.[77]

 

Textiles

 

The Scythians manufactured textiles using spindles,[292] and wool, hemp, ramie, and mixed fibres were made into cloth through plain, twill and tapestry weaving,[269] while silk appears to have been imported from China.[270]

 

Art

 

Main article: Scytho-Siberian art § Pontic Scythian art

Gold pectoral, or neckpiece, from an aristocratic kurgan in Tovsta Mohyla, Pokrov, Ukraine, dated to the second half of the 4th century BC, of Greek workmanship. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins. Scythian art was especially focused on animal figures.

 

The "Animal Style"

 

The art of the Scythians was part of specific zoomorphic style called the "Animal Style," which was typical of the Eurasian steppe nomads and represented a limited and specific range of animals in very specific canonical poses.[18]

 

Development

 

The "Animal Style" art of the Scythians was a variant of the art of the Eurasian Steppe nomads, which itself initially developed in eastern Eurasian steppes of Central Asia and Siberia during the 9th century BC[58] under the partial influence of ancient Chinese art[18] and of the "static" naturalistic art of the inhabitants of the Siberian woodlands,[141] after which it arrived westward into eastern Europe during the 8th century BC.[18]

 

The distinctive style of art characteristic of the Scythians proper emerged during their stay in Western Asia during the 7th century BC,[293] and especially during their occupation of Media, when the Scythian upper class came under the influence of West Asian culture,[141] as a consequence of which the art of the Scythians absorbed many West Asian motifs and themes.[294]

 

Beginning in the 5th century BC, Scythian art experienced the influence of arriving Sauromatians from the east,[18] the borrowing of elements from Thracian art[141] as well as the incorporation of elements from Greek[295][296][18] and Achaemenid Persian art.[18]

 

This Scythian art formed out of various influences later spread to the west, in the region which corresponds to present Romania, and eventually it brought influences from Iranic and West Asian art into Celtic art,[295] and also introduced metalwork types which followed Shang Chinese models, such as "cruciform tubes" used in harnesses, into Western Eurasia, where they were adopted by the Hallstatt culture.[90]

 

Scythian art stopped existing after the end of the Pontic Scythian kingdom in the early 3rd century BC, and the art of the later Scythians of Crimea and Dobruja was completely Hellenised, with their paintings and sculptures belonging to the Greek artistic tradition and having probably been made by Greek sculptors.[18]

 

Industrial organisation

 

The centre of industry during the Early Scythian period was located in the region of the Tiasmyn group of the Scythian culture, which corresponded the country of the Scythian Husbandsmen where an Iranic Scythian elite ruled over a sedentary Thracian population.[297]

 

By the Middle Scythian period, its principal centre was at a site corresponding to present-day Kamianka-Dniprovska, where bog iron ores were smelted to produce iron, and various tools, ornaments, and weapons were made.[298] Blacksmiths' workshops in Scythian settlements from this time were located in both the ground-level and pit houses, where they formed groups of craftsmen's quarters.[299]

 

Habitations

 

Among the various Scythian tribes, the sedentary farmer tribes lived in western Scythia between the Danube and the Dnipro, while the nomadic pastoralist tribes lived in eastern Scythia between the Dnipro and the Don. Some of these sedentary farmers later moved into Crimea.[167]

 

The more nomadic Scythians lived in habitations suited for nomadic lifestyles, such as tents of the same type as the more recent yurt of the Turkic peoples and the ger of the Mongolic peoples that could easily be assembled and disassembled to be transported to different locations, as well as covered wagons that functioned as tents on wheels.[32][300] The walls and floors of these portable habitations were made of felt and the tents themselves were bound together using ropes made from horse hair.[32]

 

The division of Scythian burial chambers into weapon-arsenals, kitchen areas, stables, and living rooms for the deceased family members and their servants, as well as their furnishings, were modelled on the habitations in which the Scythians dwelt during their lives.[301]

 

At the site of Shyroka Balka, near Pontic Olbia, the local inhabitants built square and round pit hute before this region was Hellenised in the 6th century BC.[299]

 

Beginning in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the Scythians started building fortified sedentary settlements. The most important of these was the settlement of Kamyanka, which was protected by the steep banks of the Dnipro river on one side and by ramparts on the other. The houses of the Scythian upper classes, which were built from stone, were located on the acropolis of Kamyanka, and have yielded significant amounts of Greek pottery and imported jewellery.[302]

 

The houses in these Scythian settlements, which were single-storeyed and had gabled roofs, were built from wooden beams, with the walls being made of beams stuck into the ground and covered with clay while felt fabrics were placed on their inside. Their sizes ranged from 40 to 150 metres square, and they could include multiple rooms. The settlements also contained square pit houses made of wooden posts.[299]

 

The tripe of the Callipidae lived in rammed earth houses built on stone foundations located in open settlements and earthworks, and buried their dead in flat graves while their Scythian ruling class were buried in kurgans.[152]

 

The tribe of the Aroteres were organised into small territorial units[303] that lived in open undefended settlements[304] and strongholds covering between 16 and 24 hectares, with the largest one covering 52 hectares, each possessing a large industrial quarter and functioning as industrial centres.[303]

 

The large number of Aroteres settlements and earthworks suggests that they formed a large and dense population in the black-earth region of the steppe.[303] The earthworks of the Aroteres contained within them kurgan cemeteries, lasting from the 6th to 3rd centuries, that each included up to 400 kurgans where their inhabitants were buried, showing that their settlements also had dense populations.[305][303]

 

Religion

 

Main article: Scythian religion

 

The religion of the Scythians was a variant of the Pre-Zoroastrian Iranic religion which differed from Zoroastrian and the post-Zoroastrian Iranic religions, and instead belonged to a more archaic stage of Indo-Iranic religious development than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems.[10] The use of cannabis to induce trance and divination by soothsayers was a characteristic of the Scythian belief system.[10]

 

Warfare

 

The Scythians were a people with a strong warrior culture,[65] and fighting was one of the main occupations of Scythian men, who were all trained in war exercises and in archery from a young age,[243] and the furnishings of Scythian burial chambers, which included weapons, reflected the martial nature of their society, which was made of mounted warriors.[301] The Aroteres were an especially war-like Scythian tribe.[303][304]

 

However, the mostly small number of depictions of warfare compared to the larger number of representations of peaceful pastoralist activities in Scythian petroglyphic art suggests that the war-like tendencies of the Scythians might have been exaggerated by Herodotus of Halicarnassus and the modern authors who drew on him as a source.[32]

 

Weapons

 

The Scythians used weapons made from cast iron and bronze.[32]

 

Archery

 

Mounted archery was the main form of Scythian warfare.[257] Scythian saddles had four raised bolsters at each corner, which, at a time when the stirrup had not yet been invented, allowed the riders to lean into the forward bolsters and raise themselves so they could use shoot their arrows from horseback. This type of saddle preserved the mounted archer from the bouncing of the running horses, thus allowing Scythian mounted archers to operate at very high performance levels.[257]

Scythian archers using the Scythian bow, Kerch (ancient Panticapeum), Crimea, 4th century BC. The Scythians were skilled archers whose style of archery influenced that of the Persians and subsequently other nations, including the Greeks.[306]

 

Scythian bronze arrowheads, c700-300 BC

 

 

The main Scythian armament were the bow and arrows:[18][284]

• the typical weapon of the Scythians was the very recurved composite bow that was easy to use for mounted warriors. Scythian bows were:[307][308]
• the most complex composite bows in both their recurved profiles and their cross-sections;
• highly engineered bows made from wood, horn, sinew, and fish glue made from sturgeons through laborious craftsmanship;
• around 115 centimetres when strung;
• capable of being drawn to the ear;
• capable of delivering military draw weights;
• although the shape of Scythian arrows changed with time, they maintained a basic structure. Scythian arrows:
• were between 76 and 78 centimetres long;
• had shafts made of reed or birch wood;
• Scythian arrowheads were:[309][310]
• largely made of bronze, and iron and bone were more rarely used;
• composed of a socket;
• during the earlier periods, the arrowheads possessed an outer socket;
• made bronze and were bilobate, and made of bone and had square or circular cross-sections during the earliest Scythian period in Central Asia;
• made of bronze, were bilobate and trilobate, and were almond- or rhombus-shaped during the 8th century BC; this arrow shape started disappearing during the 7th century BC;
• in the 7th century BC, elongated trilobate and three-edged arrowheads with inner or slightly protruding sockets first appeared;
• an inner socket was added to these arrowheads during the later 7th century BC;
• the new trilobate arrowhead type with an inner socket replaced the older ones in the 5th and 4th centuries BC;
• trilobate arrowheads with outer sockets were still used after the 6th century BC, although they were slender and light, and their sockets were short;
• although the shape of the arrowheads changed slightly with time, this type remained in use until the end of the Pontic Scythian kingdom;
• Scythian trilobate arrowheads possessed propeller twists that made them spin, thus making them more aerodynamically efficient;
• sometimes made with a single barb on one side:
• these barbed arrows caused star wounds that were more difficult to sew together, therefore increasing the risk of haemorrhage among those shot, which terrorised those who received such wounds;
• the barbs stopped being used arrowheads with outer sockets after the 6th century BC;
• small in size, and likely fitted on foreshafts made of hardwood:
• since the foreshafts were detachable from the main arrow body, they could be:
• abandoned while recovering the arrows during hunting or war;
• easily recovered from an embedded arrow with a barbed arrowhead without breaking it;
• ensured to remain in the body thanks to the detachability of the foreshafts, which made them especially useful when using poisoned arrows;
• the shape of Scythian bows and the shape of their bronze arrowheads made them the most powerful firing weapon of their time, due to which they were adopted by West Asian armies in the 7nd century BC.[18][138]

 

When not used, Scythian bows and arrows were kept in a combined quiver-bow case called a gōrytos:[311]

• the gōrytos was made of leather or bark and was decorated with gold or bronze plates;
• gōrytoi could each contain up to 300 arrows;
• unlike quivers that were set at the right hip among all other cultures, Scythian gōrytoi were hanged from belts at the left hip;
• arrows were usually taken from the gōrytoi using the bow hand and drawn on the bowstring using the right hand, although the Scythians were skilled at ambidextrous archery.[285]

 

Scythian bows and arrows might have required the use of thumb rings to be drawn, although none have been found yet, possibly because hey might have been made of perishable materials.[312]

 

Poisons

 

The Scythians coated their arrows with a potent poison referred to in Greek as Skythikon (Σκυθικον). To prepare this poison, the Scythians captured small adders that had recently given birth, which they left to decompose, while the Scythian priests filled leather bags with human blood and buried them in dung to putrefy it, after which they mixed decomposed matter in the blood with the decomposed remains of the snakes.[285][313][314]

 

In addition to the snakes' venom retaining its effect in their decomposed bodies, the human blood was propitious for the growth of bacterial populations such as tetanus- and gangrene-causing germs from the dung. Thus, if an individual initially survived being shot with a poisoned Scythian arrow, they would still experience the effects of the snake poison, including the disintegration of blood cells, shock, and respiratory paralysis, with the gangrening of the wound starting the next day, followed by tetanus after around a week.[285]

 

The Skythikon was crafted to cause lasting harm, and even the most minor wounds from arrows coated with it had a high likeliness to be lethal,[285] and the unlikely possible survivors of Skythikon poisoning would have been incapacitated for life.[315]

 

The Skythikon was used only against human enemies, and was not used for hunting since the meat of animals contaminated with the toxins would not have been proper for consumption.[316]

 

The stench of the Skythikon-coated arrows also functioned as stench weapons because the near-unanimous revulsion by human cultures for smell of rotting and faeces, and the belief in ancient periods that such foul miasmas caused disease.[313]

 

Another poison used by the Scythians to coat their arrows was hemlock.[285]

The shafts and foreshafts of Scythian poisoned arrows were painted with zigzag and diamond patterns emulating the scaly designs of snake skins.[287][317]

 

Other weapons

 

In addition to the bow and arrow, the Scythians also used weapons such as:[18][284]

• iron spears measuring between 1.70 and 2.20 metres long with bay leaf-shaped spearheads that sometimes had a ferrule at the bottom;
• long swords in the early period;
• 50 to 70 centimetre-short iron swords and daggers called akīnakēs:
• although considered "typically Scythian" weapons, the akīnakai had been borrowed by the Scythians from Transcaucasian peoples, more specifically from Georgian Bronze Age weaponry.
• the hafts of akīnakai were richly decorated;
• the hilts of akīnakai had bar-shaped terminals and heart-shaped or butterfly- or kidney-shaped crossguards;
• in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the shapes of the crossguards and terminals changed:
• in the 5th century BC, the crossguards became thinner and the terminals shaped like two claws or horns became more widespread;
• in the 4th century BC, the swords and daggers had triangular narrow crossguards with notches on their lower edges and oval terminals;
• bimetallic pickaxes, called sagaris, made of an iron blade and a bronze socket;
• shaft-hole war-axes;
• other sorts of battle-axes;
• lances;
• darts;
• lassoes;
• and slings.

 

Armour

 

Some Scythian warriors wore rich protective armour and belts made of metal plates,[276] including:[18][290]

• commoner warriors used leather or hide armour;
• aristocrats used scale armour made of scales of bone, bronze, and iron sewn onto leather along the top edge;
• scale armour had been borrowed by the Scythians from the peoples of West Asia during the 7th century BC and then made into a prevalent aspect of the Scythian culture of the northern Pontic region;
• scale armour was also used to protect horses, especially in the chest area;
• sometimes, instead of armour, the Scythians used battle-belts, which were made of scales sewn onto wide strips of either iron sheet, hide, or leather;

The Kostroma deer, from Kostromskaya, 7th-6th century BC.[318]

 

 

 

Golden decorative plate shaped like a panther from a Scythian shield. Kelermessky kurgan 1 (Келермесские курганы), near Kelermesskaya. 7th century BC.[319]

• helmets:
• cast bronze helmets with an opening for the face, called of the "Kuban type," were made by the native Caucasian peoples in the 6th and early 5th centuries BC for Scythians;
• Greek-made Attic, Corinthian, Chalcidic, and Thracian helmets replaced the Caucasian-made "Kuban type" helmets in the 6th century BC;
• scale helmets made of iron or bronze plates started being used in the later 6th century BC;
• Greek-made greaves were imported from the 5th century BC.

 

The Scythians used small hide or wicker shields reinforced with iron strips, with the shields of Scythian aristocrats often being decorated with decorative central plaques.[284]

 

Command structure

The high king had the supreme authority over the armies of the Royal Scythians and their subordinate tribes; the local lords were in charge of the army of a nome; the heads of clans were in charge of war bands.[251]

 

The nomes of the Scythian kingdom were in charge of spreading information about the war at the time of the Persian invasion of Scythia.[247]

 

Mounted archery was the mode of fighting of the free commoners of Scythia, who were called hippotoxotai (Ancient Greek: ιπποτοξοται, lit. 'horse-archers'[285]) in Greek.[257][235]

 

Serfs and slaves were subordinate to the warriors and accompanied them unarmed, and would be armed with spears only in extremely severe situations.[235]

 

War customs

 

The Scythians had several war-related customs:[320][321]

• every Scythian warrior would drink the blood of the first enemy they would kill;
• the Scythians would collect the severed heads of their enemies and bring them to their king;
• the war spoils would be divided among the warriors depending on the number of heads they brought;
• it was also on the number of severed heads that a warrior had brought to the king that depended the rank of honour given on the warriors at the annual ceremony where the local lords of the nomes would pour wine into a large vessel for the warriors who had been successful in battle by killing at least one enemy;
• it was considered the worst disgrace possibly by the Scythians to sit to one side due to having killed no enemies;
• the heads of enemies were scalped, and the scalps themselves were tanned and used as:
• decorative handkerchiefs tied to the bridles of horses;
• as towels to be shown off;
• the ancient Greeks associated the practice of scalping so closely with the Scythians that they used the term aposkuthizein (αποσκυθιζειν), literally meaning "to Scythianise away," as name for scalping;
• the Scythians would fashion the tops of their enemies' skulls into drinking bowls which were covered in leather, and would be gilded on the inside if they belonged to rich Scythians;
• this custom was likely derived from the belief that this was a way of absorbing the power of an enemy;
• the corpses of enemies would be flayed, after which the skin would be tanned, and the warriors would:
• either stretch them on wooden frames and carried by the warriors;
• or made into saddles;
• the skin and fingernails from the enemies' right hands was used to make gōrytoi.[322]

 

Although most authors have tended to focus on the Scythians' warrior culture, battle and fight scenes were only rarely depicted in Scytian petroglyphic art, where depictions of wild animals and peaceful pastoral activities instead predominated.[32]

 

Trade

 

The Pontic Scythians practised trade extensively,[298] with the substantial trade relations existed between the Scythians and the Greeks which continued the long-established exchanges of goods between the northern Pontic and Aegean region that had already existed since the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. These trade relations became more intense after the Greeks established colonies on the shores of the Black Sea, as a consequence of which the Scythians engaged in trade with both European and Asian Greece.[323]

 

The Scythians exported grain, fish, honey, wax, skins, wood, horses, cattle, sheep, and slaves[166][167] to Greece, as well as beavers and beaver-skins, and rare furs that the Scythians had themselves bought from the populations living to their north and east such as the Thyssagetae and Iurcae of the Ural Mountains who hunted rare animals and sewed their skins into clothing.[324][166] The Greeks were especially interested in buying Scythian horses.[325]

 

The grain trade

 

The most important of these export goods was grain, and most especially wheat,[167] with the Scythians on the lower Dnipro river cultivating crops principally for export,[167] and the tribes of the Callipidae, the Aroteres, the Georgoi, and the Alizones, selling part of their large crop yields to the Greeks; an oven used to dry grain such as wheat, barley, and rye, was located at Shyroka Balka.[167]

 

The relations between the Scythians and the Greek colonies became more hostile in the early 5th century BC, with the Scythians destroying the Greek cities' khōrai and rural settlements, and therefore their grain-producing hinterlands. The result was that the Scythians instituted an economic policy under their control whereby the sedentary peoples of the forest steppe to their north became the primary producers of grain, which was then transported through the Buh and Dnipro rivers to the Greek cities to their south such as Tyras, Niconium and Pontic Olbia, from where the cities exported it to mainland Greece at a profit for themselves.[18]

 

Beginning in the 5th century BC, the grain trade with Greece was carried out through the intermediary of the Bosporan kingdom, due to which the Scythians expanded their agricultural activities to the areas adjoining the Bosporan Kingdom, including in Crimea,[323] resulting in some of the sedentary Scythian farmers moving into Crimea so as to cultivate their crops in close proximity to these clients.[167] As a consequence of the Peloponnesian War, the Bosporan Kingdom became the main supplier of grain to Greece in the 4th century BC, which resulted in an increase of the trade of grain between the Scythians and the Bosporans.[237]

 

The Scythian aristocracy played an important role in this grain trade by becoming the main intermediary in providing grain, obtained both through from the agriculturalist peoples of the forest-steppe and cultivation within Scythia itself, to the Bosporan Kingdom.[237] The Scythian aristocracy was the main beneficiary of these commercial activities,[323] from which it derived immense revenue[237] and was able to significantly enrich itself,[326] hence why it sought to increase the amount of grain produced in Scythia.[237]

 

The rich aristocratic burials richly furnished with imported grave goods and gold silver objects, including fine Greek-made tauretic and jewellers, attest of the Scythian aristocracy's economic power derived from the grain trade, due to which the coins minted by Scythian kings at Pontic Olbia were struck with depictions of ears of wheat. Scythian commoners did however not obtain any benefits from this trade, and luxury goods were absent from their tombs.[237]

 

Inscriptions from the Greek cities on the northern Black Sea coast also show that upper class Greek families also derived wealth from this trade,[323] and as a consequence of these flourishing trade relations, which were themselves possible only thanks to the protection and cooperation of the Scythian kings, the Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea rapidly grew during the 6th century BC.[326]

 

The Scythian monopoly over the trade of grain imported from the forest

steppe to the Greek cities came to an end sometime between 435 and 400 BC, after which the Greek cities regaining their independence and rebuilding their khōrai.[18] The grain trade between the Scythians and the Greeks declined in the 3rd century BC because of competition from wheat imported into Greece from Egypt, and due to the collapse of Scythian agriculture resulting from the Sarmatian invasion.[324]

 

The slave trade

An Attic vase-painting of a Scythian archer (a police force in Athens) by Epiktetos, 520–500 BC

 

The Scythians also sold slaves to the Greeks, with the slaves to be sold being acquired from neighbouring or subordinate tribes during military campaigns,[233] and the Greek colonies on the northern Black Sea coast being hubs of slave trafficking. After the Greek city-state of Athens had defeated the Persians at Salamis in 480 BC, it bought 300 Scythian slave archers who acted as a police force in the city and who lived in tents. When the Greek city of Mytilene broke away from the Delian League in 428 BC, it also bought a similar force of Scythian warriors.[327][235]

 

Scythian imports

 

In exchange for their many exports, the Scythians bought various Greek products, especially amphorae of wine, and the pottery used to consume said wine, such as oinokhoai and kylikes.[266] The Scythians also bought olive oil, perfumes, ointments, and other luxury goods from the Greeks.[166][215]

 

Beginning in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Scythians had been importing luxuries such as personal ornaments, gold and silver vases, carved semi-precious and gem stones, wine, oil, and offensive and defensive weapons made in the workshops of Pontic Olbia or in mainland Greece, as well as pottery made by the Greeks of the Aegean islands.

 

During the earlier Middle Scythian period of the 5th century BC, the Scythians were importing Corinthian and Athenian pottery; and by the later Middle Scythian period of the 4th to 3rd centuries BC the market for Pontic Olbia was limited to a small part of western Scythia, while the rest of the kingdom's importations came from the Bosporan kingdom, especially from Panticapaeum, from where came most of Scythia's imported pottery, as well as richly decorated fine vases, rhyta, and decorative toreutic plaques for gōrytoi.[298]

 

A consequence of the Scythian import of Greek-manufactured art and luxury goods was that Greek art significantly influenced Scythian art and artistic preferences, and, by the Middle and Late Scythian periods, most of the artwork in the Scythian tombs consisted of Scythian motifs and scenes representing Scythian life which had been done by Greek artisans.[326]

 

The gold trade route

 

An important trade route existed in Scythia during the Early Scythian period which started in Pontic Olbia and followed the course of the Inhul river and crossed the Dnipro, after which it turned east until the country of the Gelonians and, after crossing the Don and the Volga, passed through the Ural Mountains and continued into Asia until the Altai Mountains.[298][328]

 

Gold was traded from eastern Eurasia until Pontic Olbia through this route, and the Scythian tradesmen went to the distant regions on its course to carry out commerce. The conquest of the north Pontic region by the Scythians and their imposition of a "Pax Scythica" created the conditions of safety for traders which enabled the establishment of this route.[329] Olbian-made goods have been found at multiple locations lying on this route till the Ural Mountains.[330]

 

This trade route was another significant source of revenue for the Scythian rulers,[330] and its location also provided to Pontic Olbia the important position of being a commercial and cultural centre in the northern Pontic region for at least two centuries, and the city itself maintained friendly relations with the populations neighbouring it.[328]

 

Coinage

 

Although the Scythians adopted the use of coinage as a method of payment for trade with the Greeks, they never used it for their own domestic market.[281]

 

Physical appearance

 

The Scythians looked similar to the populations of Europe,[331] and depictions of Scythian men in Persian sculptures and Scythian gold objects show them as stocky and powerfully built, with strong facial features and long and thick wavy hair.[3]

 

Upper class Scythians were particularly tall, with the men usually being over 1.80 metres tall, and sometimes reaching 1.90 metres, and on some rarer occasions being even more than 2 metres tall.[332]

 

The difference in height between these upper class Scythians and the Scythian commoners was of around 10 to 15 centimetres, with the height difference being a symbol of status among the upper-class men. Analysis of skeletons shows that Scythians had longer arm and leg bones and stronger bone formation than present-day people living in their former territories.[332]

 

Due to his unfamiliarity with Scythian dress, Pseudo-Hippocrates inaccurately claimed that the Scythians suffered from hypermobility of the joints.[271]

 

In Histories, the 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus describes the Budini of Scythia as red-haired and grey-eyed.[333] In the 5th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates argued that the Scythians were light skinned.[333] In the 3rd century BC, the Greek poet Callimachus described the Arismapes (Arimaspi) of Scythia as fair-haired.[333] The 2nd-century BC Han Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described the Sai (Saka), an eastern people closely related to the Scythians, as having yellow (probably meaning hazel or green) and blue eyes.[333] In the late 2nd century AD, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria says that the Scythians and the Celts have long auburn hair.[333] The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Polemon includes the Scythians among the northern peoples characterised by red hair and blue-grey eyes.[333] In the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD, the Greek physician Galen writes that Scythians, Sarmatians, Illyrians, Germanic peoples and other northern peoples have reddish hair.[333] The fourth-century bishop Gregory of Nyssa wrote that the Scythians were fair skinned and blond haired. The 5th-century physician Adamantius, who often followed Polemon, describes the Scythians as fair-haired.[333]

 

- Language

Language

 

Main article: Scythian languages

 

The Scythians spoke a language belonging to the Scythian languages, most probably[211] a branch of the Eastern Iranic languages.[212] Whether all the peoples included in the "Scytho-Siberian" archaeological culture spoke languages from this family is uncertain.

 

The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum: "Scytho-Sarmatian" in the west and "Scytho-Khotanese" or Saka in the east.[213] The Scythian languages were mostly marginalised and assimilated as a consequence of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages Slavic and Turkic expansion. The western (Sarmatian) group of ancient Scythian survived as the medieval language of the Alans and eventually gave rise to the modern Ossetian language.[214]

(Source : Scythians, Wikipedia, April 2024)

 

 

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Culture and society

 

Kurgan stelae of a Scythian at Khortytsia, Ukraine

 

 

Since the Scythians did not have a written language, their non-material culture can only be pieced together through writings by non-Scythian authors, parallels found among other Iranian peoples, and archaeological evidence.[5]

 

Tribal divisions

See also: Trifunctional hypothesis

 

Scythians lived in confederated tribes, a political form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organised a common defence against encroaching neighbours for the pastoral tribes of mostly equestrian 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 sons of Targitaus: Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais. They called themselves Scoloti, after one of their kings.[51] Herodotus writes that the Auchatae tribe descended from Lipoxais, the Catiari and Traspians from Arpoxais, and the Paralatae (Royal Scythians) from Colaxais, who was the youngest brother.[52] According to Herodotus the Royal Scythians were the largest and most powerful Scythian tribe, and looked "upon all the other tribes in the light of slaves."[53]

 

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 vision of early Indo-European 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 was Arthur Christensen. 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."[54]

 

Warfare

 

Scythian archers using the Scythian bow, Kerch (ancient Panticapeum), Crimea, 4th century BC. The Scythians were skilled archers whose style of archery influenced that of the Persians and subsequently other nations, including the Greeks.[55]

 

 

The Scythians were a warlike people. When engaged at war, almost the entire adult population, including a large number of women, participated in battle.[56] The Athenian historian Thucydides noted that no people in either Europe or Asia could resist the Scythians without outside aid.[56]

 

Scythians were particularly known for their equestrian skills, and their early use of composite bows shot from horseback. With great mobility, the Scythians could absorb the attacks of more cumbersome footsoldiers and cavalry, just retreating into the steppes. Such tactics wore down their enemies, making them easier to defeat. The Scythians were notoriously aggressive warriors. Ruled by small numbers of closely allied elites, Scythians had a reputation for their archers, and many gained employment as mercenaries. Scythian elites 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.[citation needed]

 

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 BC, 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.[citation needed]

 

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

 

Some Scythian-Sarmatian cultures may have given rise to Greek stories of Amazons. Graves of armed females have been found in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony notes, "About 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian 'warrior graves' on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle as if they were men, a style that may have inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons."[57]

 

Metallurgy

Main article: Scythian metallurgy

 

Though a predominantly nomadic people for much of their history, the Scythians were skilled metalworkers. Knowledge of bronze working was present when the Scythian people formed, by the 8th century BC Scythian mercenaries fighting in the Near East had begun to spread knowledge of iron working to their homeland. Archeological sites attributed to the Scythians have been found to contain the remnants of workshops, slag piles, and discarded tools, all of which imply some Scythian settlements were the site of organized industry.[58][59]

 

Clothing

Main article: Scythian clothing

 

Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the Kul-Oba kurgan burial near Kerch, Crimea. 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 wore their hair long and loose, and all adult men apparently bearded. The gorytos appears clearly on the left hip of the bare-headed spearman. The shield of the central figure may be made of plain leather over a wooden or wicker base. (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)

 

 

According to Herodotus, Scythian costume consisted of padded and quilted leather trousers tucked into boots, and open tunics. They rode without stirrups or saddles, using only saddle-cloths. Herodotus reports that Scythians used cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke (Hist. 4.73–75); archaeology has confirmed the use of cannabis in funerary rituals. Men seemed to have worn a variety of soft headgear—either conical like the one described by Herodotus, or rounder, more like a Phrygian cap.

 

Costume has been regarded as one of the main identifying criteria for Scythians. Women wore a variety of different headdresses, some conical in shape others more like flattened cylinders, also adorned with metal (golden) plaques.[60]

 

Scythian women wore long, loose robes, ornamented with metal plaques (gold). Women wore shawls, often richly decorated with metal (golden) plaques.

 

Based on numerous archeological findings in Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan, men and warrior women wore long sleeve tunics that were always belted, often with richly ornamented belts.

 

Men and women wore long trousers, often adorned with metal plaques and often embroidered or adorned with felt appliqués; trousers could have been wider or tight fitting depending on the area. Materials used depended on the wealth, climate and necessity.[61]

 

Men and women warriors wore variations of long and shorter boots, wool-leather-felt gaiter-boots and moccasin-like shoes. They were either of a laced or simple slip on type. Women wore also soft shoes with metal (gold) plaques.

 

Men and women wore belts. Warrior belts were made of leather, often with gold or other metal adornments and had many attached leather thongs for fastening of the owner's gorytos, sword, whet stone, whip etc. Belts were fastened with metal or horn belt-hooks, leather thongs and metal (often golden) or horn belt-plates.[62]

 

Religion

Main article: Scythian religion

 

Scythian religion was a type of Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion and differed from the post-Zoroastrian Iranian thoughts.[11] The Scythian belief was a more archaic stage than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems. The use of cannabis to induce trance and divination by soothsayers was a characteristic of the Scythian belief system.[11]

 

Our most important literary source on Scythian religion is Herodotus. According to him the leading deity in the Scythian pantheon was Tabiti, whom he compared to the Greek god Hestia.[5] Tabiti was eventually replaced by Atar, the fire-pantheon of Iranian tribes, and Agni, the fire deity of Indo-Aryans.[11] Other deities mentioned by Herodotus include Papaios, Api, Goitosyros/Oitosyros, Argimpasa and Thagimasadas, whom he identified with Zeus, Gaia, Apollo, Aphrodite and Poseidon, respectively. The Scythians are also said by Herodotus to have worshipped equivalents of Heracles and Ares, but he does not mention their Scythian names.[5] An additional Scythian deity, the goddess Dithagoia, is mentioned in the a dedication by Senamotis, daughter of King Skiluros, at Panticapaeum. Most of the names of Scythian deities can be traced back to Iranian roots.[5]

 

Herodotus states that Thagimasadas was worshipped by the Royal Scythians only, while the remaining deities were worshipped by all. He also states that "Ares", the god of war, was the only god to whom the Scythians dedicated statues, altars or temples. Tumuli were erected to him in every Scythian district, and both animal sacrifices and human sacrifices were performed in honor of him. At least one shrine to "Ares" has been discovered by archaeologists.[5]

 

The Scythians had professional priests, but it is not known if they constituted a hereditary class. Among the priests there was a separate group, the Enarei, who worshipped the goddess Argimpasa and assumed feminine identities.[5]

 

Scythian mythology gave much importance to myth of the "First Man", who was considered the ancestor of them and their kings. Similar myths are common among other Iranian peoples. Considerable importance was given to the division of Scythian society into three hereditary classes, which consisted of warriors, priests and producers. Kings were considered part of the warrior class. Royal power was considered holy and of solar and heavenly origin.[11] The Iranian principle of royal charisma, known as khvarenah in the Avesta, played a prominent role in Scythian society. It is probable that the Scythians had a number of epic legends, which were possibly the source for Herodotus' writings on them.[5] Traces of these epics can be found in the epics of the Ossetians of the present day.[11]

 

In Scythian cosmology the world was divided into three parts, with the warriors, considered part of the upper world, the priests of the middle level, and the producers of the lower one.[5]

 

Art

Main article: Scythian art

 

Gold pectoral, or neckpiece, from a royal kurgan in Tovsta Mohyla, Pokrov, Ukraine, dated to the second half of the 4th century BC, of Greek workmanship. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins. Scythian art was especially focused on animal figures.

 

 

The art of the Scythians and related peoples of the Scythian cultures is known as Scythian art. It is particularly characterized by its use of the animal style.[5]

 

Scythian animal style appears in an already established form Eastern Europe in the 8th century BC along with the Early Scythian archaeological culture itself. It bears little resemblance to the art of pre-Scythian cultures of the area. Some scholars suggest the art style developed under Near Eastern influence during the military campaigns of the 7th century BC, but the more common theory is that it developed on the eastern part of the Eurasian Steppe under Chinese influence. Others have sought to reconcile the two theories, suggesting that the animal style of the west and eastern parts of the steppe developed independently of each other, under Near Eastern and Chinese influences, respectively. Regardless, the animal style art of the Scythians differs considerable from that of peoples living further east.[5]

 

Scythian animal style works are typically divided into birds, ungulates and beasts of prey. This probably reflects the tripatriate division of the Scythian cosmos, with birds belonging to the upper level, ungulates to the middle level and beasts of prey in the lower level.[5]

 

Images of mythological creatures such a griffins are not uncommon in Scythian animal style, but these are probably the result of Near Eastern influences. By the late 6th century BC, as Scythian activity in the Near East was reduced, depictions of mythological creatures largely disappears from Scythian art. It, however, reappears again in the 4th century BC as a result of Greek influence.[5]

 

Anthropomorphic depictions in Early Scythian art is known only from kurgan stelae. These depict warriors with almond-shaped eyes and mustaches, often including weapons and other military equipment.[5]

 

Since the 5th century BC, Scythian art changed considerably. This was probably a result of Greek and Persian influence, and possibly also internal developments caused by an arrival of a new nomadic people from the east. The changes are notable in the more realistic depictions of animals, who are now often depicted fighting each other rather than being depicted individually. Kurgan stelae of the time also display traces of Greek influences, with warriors being depicted with rounder eyes and full beards.[5]

 

The 4th century BC show additional Greek influence. While animal style was still in use, it appears that much Scythian art by this point was being made by Greek craftsmen on behalf of Scythians. Such objects are frequently found in royal Scythian burials of the period. Depictions of human beings become more prevalent. Many objects of Scythian art made by Greeks are probably illustrations of Scythian legends. Several objects are believed to have been of religious significance.[5]

 

By the late 3rd century BC, original Scythian art disappears through ongoing Hellenization. The creation of anthropomorphic gravestones continued, however.[5]

 

Works of Scythian art are held at many museums and has been featured at many exhibitions. The largest collections of Scythian art are found at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Museum of Historical Treasures of the Ukraine in Kyiv, while smaller collections are found at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Berlin, the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, and the Louvre of Paris.[5]

 

Language

 

Main article: Scythian languages

 

The Scythians spoke a language belonging to the Scythian languages, most probably[63] a branch of the Eastern Iranian languages.[10] Whether all the peoples included in the "Scytho-Siberian" archaeological culture spoke languages from this family is uncertain.

 

The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum: "Scytho-Sarmatian" in the west and "Scytho-Khotanese" or Saka in the east.[64] The Scythian languages were mostly marginalised and assimilated as a consequence of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages Slavic and Turkic expansion. The western (Sarmatian) group of ancient Scythian survived as the medieval language of the Alans and eventually gave rise to the modern Ossetian language.[65]

 

Anthropology

 

Physical and genetic analyses of ancient remains have concluded that Scythians as a whole possessed predominantly features of Europoids. Mongoloid phenotypes were also present in some Scythians but more frequently in eastern Scythians, suggesting that some Scythians were also descended partly from East Eurasian populations.[66]

 

Physical appearance

 

An Attic vase-painting of a Scythian archer (a police force in Athens) by Epiktetos, 520–500 BC

 

 

In artworks, the Scythians are portrayed exhibiting Caucasoid traits.[67] In Histories, the 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus describes the Budini of Scythia as red-haired and grey-eyed.[67] In the 5th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates argued that the Scythians were light skinned[67][68] as well as having a particularly high rate of hypermobility, to a point of affecting warfare.[69] In the 3rd century BC, the Greek poet Callimachus described the Arismapes (Arimaspi) of Scythia as fair-haired.[67][70] The 2nd-century BC Han Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described the Sai (Saka), an eastern people closely related to the Scythians, as having yellow (probably meaning hazel or green) and blue eyes.[67] In Natural History, the 1st-century AD Roman author Pliny the Elder characterises the Seres, sometimes identified as Saka or Tocharians, as red-haired, blue-eyed and unusually tall.[67][71] In the late 2nd century AD, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria says that the Scythians and the Celts have long auburn hair.[67][72] The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Polemon includes the Scythians among the northern peoples characterised by red hair and blue-grey eyes.[67] In the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD, the Greek physician Galen writes that Scythians, Sarmatians, Illyrians, Germanic peoples and other northern peoples have reddish hair.[67][73] The fourth-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that the Alans, a people closely related to the Scythians, were tall, blond and light-eyed.[74] The fourth-century bishop Gregory of Nyssa wrote that the Scythians were fair skinned and blond haired.[75] The 5th-century physician Adamantius, who often followed Polemon, describes the Scythians as fair-haired.[67][76]

 

Genetics

 

In 2017, a genetic study of various Scythian cultures, including the Scythians, was published in Nature Communications. The study suggested that the Scythians arose independently of culturally similar groups further east. Though all groups studies shared a common origin in the Yamnaya culture, the presence of east Eurasian mitochondrial lineages was largely absent among Scythians, but present among other groups further east. Modern populations most closely related to the Scythians were found to be populations living in proximity to the sites studied, suggesting genetic continuity.[6]

 

Another 2017 genetic study, published in Scientific Reports, found that the Scythians shared common mithocondrial lineages with the earlier Srubnaya culture. It also noted that the Scythians differed from materially similar groups further east by the absence of east Eurasian mitochondrial lineages. The authors of the study suggested that the Srubnaya culture was the source of the Scythian cultures of at least the Pontic steppe.[39]

 

Krzewińska et al. (2018) found that members of the Srubnaya culture exclusively carried Y-haplogroup haplogroup R1a1a1 (R1a-M417), which showed a major expansion during the Bronze Age. In contrast, six male Scythian samples from kurgans at Starosillya and Glinoe carried Y-haplogroup haplogroup R1b1a1a2 (R1b-M269). Further, the Scythians were found to be closely related to the Afanasievo culture and the Andronovo culture. The authors of the study suggested that the Scythians were not directly descended from the Srubnaya culture, but that they and the Srubnaya shared a common origin through the earlier Yamnaya culture. Significant genetic differences were found between the Scythians and materially similar groups further east, which underpinned the notion that although materially similar, the Scythians and groups further east should be seen as separate peoples belonging to a common cultural horizon, which perhaps had its source on the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe and the southern Urals.[40]

 

In 2019, a genetic study of remains from the Aldy-Bel culture of southern Siberia, which is materially similar to that of the Scythians, was published in Human Genetics. The majority of Aldy-Bel samples were found to be carriers of haplogroup R1a, including two carriers of haplogroup R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93). East Asian admixture was also detected. The results indicated that the Scythians and the Aldy-Bel people were of completely different paternal origins, with almost no paternal gene flow between them.[77]

 

Järve et al. (2019) found that the Scythians carried Y-haplogroup R1a and various subclades of it. They suggested that migrations must have played a role in the emergence of the Scythians as the dominant power on the Pontic steppe.[41]

 

(source : Scythians, Wikipedia, August 2021)