Scythians (9th-2nd centuries B.C.)


Figure 1.--This spectacular Scythian gold piece known as the Tolstaya Mogila pectoral was found north of the Black Sea. It has been dated to the 4th cetury BC. And is useful in tieing the Scythians to the Greek Black Sea colonies and internatinal trade. It almost certainly was commissioned by the Scythians who probably provided the gold, but fashioned by Greek artisans. It is 24 karat gold, a foot across, and weigh 2.5 kilograms. There are both everyday and mythological scenes. We see griffins, horses, and warriors. Note the prominance of the horse. .

The Scythians were nomadic, war-like horsemen occupying a large area of the southern steppe of Eastern Europe. They spoke an Indo-European language providing a clue as to their origins. The extent of the Scythian territory varied over time with the fluctuating power of the Sycnthians and suuounding peoples. The core of the Sxynthian lands was the northern shore of the Black Seaand the lower Don and lower Dnipper. There is evidence of the Sycnthians in this area as early as the 9th century BC. They were contemporary with the Greeks and traded extensively with them. They were also recrited as mersinaries by the Greeks. They attacked and conquered much of the Assyrian Empire, but never reached as far as Palestine (7th century BC). Persian Kung Darius I led a major expedition against them (6th century BC ). Alexander after his victories against the Persians also attacked the Sycnthians. They were eventually dispalced by a related people--the Sarmatians. Some historians believe that pants or trousers may have been conceived about 6,000 years ago by the nomadic horsemen of the Ukranian Steppes. Notably this was also the approximate time that horses were domesticated. [aJmes and Thorpe] We know that Sycnthian horsemen wore pants. There are metal-work and vase depictions of this as well as Greek commentary. Pants seem especially useful in temperate climates that experience cold weather. They also seem suited for horsemen. The Greeks were not at all impressed with trousers, considering them a barbaric form of dress. Hippocrates in particular was critical of Sycnthian pants.

The Steppe

The vast, grassy plains of central Asia and Eastern Europe have played a major role in world history. This has been the crucible for forming over millenia a war-like people. The savage nomadic warriors of the steppe that have played a major role in both European and Asian history. Perhaps it was the harshness of the environment that was the critical factor. Perhaps it was vast grasslands that provided the perfect range for horses, a critical element in warfare. And competition for resources meant that the steppe tribes have to developm military skills to survive. These war-like nomadic tribes frim central Asia have played amajor role in history, at times attacking west and at times attacking east toward China. The critical factor appears to have been China. When China was weak the central Asian nomads struck east and south at China. When China was strong, it deflected the central Asian tribes westward. It was pressure from these nomadic tribes that drove the Germans toward the Roman Empire, eventually overrunning it. At times the nomads have focused on the riches of nearby China. The construction of the Greal Wall was a response to their depredations. Most of what we know about the Mongols comes from the people they conquered because the Mongols were a pre-literate people.

Location

The Scythians were Steppe people. They were forged in the same crucible as the Huns, the Turks, he Persians, and the Mongols. The Scythians were nomadic, war-like horsemen occupying a large area of the southern steppe of Eastern Europe. The extent of the Scythian territory varied over time with the fluctuating power of the Scynthians and surrounding peoples. The core of the Sycnthian lands became the northern shore of the Black Sea and the lower Don and lower Dnipper. This was the grasslands and steppes of Eurasia steaching from the Danube to western China.

Ethnicity

The Scynthians spoke an Indo-European language providing a clue as to their origins. Ancient authors mosttly classical authors but also the Chinese variously describe the Scythians as having red or blond hair, fair skin, and blue or grey eyes.

Chronology

There is evidence of the Scythians throughout most of the first millenium B.C. They were contemraneous with the Celts to the west Romans and Greeks to the southwest and Babylonians, Assurians, Medes, and Persians to the southeast. And to the west were the Asian nomadic tribes like the Mongols and Huns. Few ancient people except perhaps the Egyptians and Chinese had a significantly longer history than the Scythians. Unfortuntely it is a mute history as they had no written language. Most of what we know comes from the Romans and Greeks, neither of which looked on kindly to the Scythians. It was from Herodotus that we get the name Scynthians and for many years much of what we know about them. Some of it seems fanciful, but some has been confirned by Archaeology. The Greeks dismissed the Scynthians as 'mare milkers' and drunkards.

Culture

The Scythians were a nomadic steppe people. Their culture and economy was closely tied with the horse. The life of the Scynthians was tied to the horse. It was a heavily socially satified society. Much of what we know about the Scythians comes from grave goods, There have been no imprtant cties or for that matter important settlements found. Herodotus writes about an enormous city, Gelonus, in the northern part of Scythia. He may have come in contact with Scythians in the Greek Black Sea colonies, but he never trveled in the Scynthian world, le alone the far north. Unil the 20th century vrtually all that was known of the Scythians was the accounts from the classical authors, especially Herodotus. This only changed with the advent of arceological work. There were no monumental structures or stone work. There were kurgans, burial mounds, of various sizes. Some of these kurgans were as high as a six-story building and 90 metres across. The mounds were not piles of dirt and refuse. They were layers of sod to provide grazing in the afterlife for the horses buried with the deceased leader. Some were topped with a roughly carved stone. Herodotus reported that mourners would pierce their left hands with arrows, slash their arms, and cut off portions of their ears to show their sorrow. He continues that a year later 50 horses and 50 slaves were killed, gutted, stuffed, and impaled on posts around the kurgan. The horses were stood upright and mounted by the dead slaves. Again we don't know how much to believe. But there have been kurgans found with the remains of 400 horses. Drugs including marijuana and opium appeared to have been important and involved in ceremonies and rituals. Heodotus mentions this and it is confirmed by the archeeoloical work such as a chemical analysis of residues in ceremonial bowls. [Curry, 39-40.]

Metalurgy

Some of the most spectacular Scythian grave goods finds are gold artifcats. Much of this is belieced to be the work of skilled Greek craftsmen. The Greeks were in constant contact with the Scynthans. Greek colonies were fotted all long the norther coast of the Black Sea. It is believed that artisans there produced many of these pieces.

Political Structure

There is no evidence that there was ever a unified Scythian political state although some kings must have achieved a degree of unification and power. Conquering the Assyrian Empire would not have been possu=ible without a popular leader. Rather than a centralized state, the Scythians were a collection of tribes with similar artistic and material culture and related languages. There is no historical recird to substantiate this, bus historians and archaeologists point to regional diffrences found it grave goods providing information on art, artifacts, and burial practices.

Military

The Scythians were marvelous horsmen. They were among the first ancient peopl to master the art of riding and the use of the horse in warfare. Until the Synthians the horse was used in warfare, but primrily in chariot combat. It is believed that is is they who developed the striup. Once fully developed, the strirup made it possible for warriors to wield weapons much more effectively on horseback. They were primarily mounted archers. They had short, composit bows. Their primary assett was vast heards of horses which gave them mobility lacked in the settled world. If treatened they simply retreated into the vast Steppe. Herodotus recounts a story that when campaign in the south beyond the Steppe into the settled lands of the Middle East they left their wives hehind. Herodotus metions the Medes. Their lonely wives married their saves.Thus when the Scythian warriors returned they fond not only their wives had remaairred, but children existed. The result is aclled by one archeologist calls the Bastard Wars. [Herodotus] Just what to make of Herodotus' account we are not sure. By all accounts the Scynthians were terrifying wrriors. Once defeating an ememy force, a Scythian warrior would drink the blood of the first enemy he had slain. Then with the bloody taste still in his mouth, he would decapitate the corpses of the enemies he had killed. The severed heads were used as grisly vouchers when time came to distribute the valuable booty. Scalps becme trophies displayed in various ways and even sewn into cloakes.

History

The Scythians emerging from scattered pastoral steppe tribes. They appear as early as (9th century BC). Little is known abut them, however, until they migrated westward from Central Asia to what is now southern Russia and Ukraine (8th and 7th centuries). It is at this time that they begin to come in contact with Meditrranean society and Mesopotamia. They began to play a significant role (7th century BC). The migration from Asia eventually brought the Scythians into the territory of the Cimmerians who controlled Eropean areas north of the Balkans and the the Steppe plains north of the Black Sea as well as much of the Caucasus. A 30 year war ensued. The Scythians defeated the Cimmerians, driving them out of their homelands. The Scynthians proceeded to carve out a vast empire. The founded a powerful empire centred on the horse and plundering settled people to the south. The Crimea became an important center. They were contemporary with the Greeks and both fought and traded extensively with them. They were also recruited as mersenaries by the Greeks. They attacked and shattered the Assyrian Empire which had dominated the Mesopotamia but had been weakened by the Cimmerians. With Assyria destroyed, the Scynthians established a vast empire, including not only the steppe, but stretching from west Persia through Syria and Judaea to the borders of Egypt (7th century BC). The Scythians at the peak of their power not only reached as far as Palestine, but threatened Egypt. The Egyptian pharoah bribed them to turn back. Their conquests in the Middle East (Anatolia and the Levant), however, were short-lived. The Medes, who at the time ruled the Persians, attacked them and drove them north out of the Middle East. This left the Scynthians in a reduced, but still large empire stretching from the Persian border north through the Kuban and into southern Russia and the Ukraine. The Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia centered on the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus. The Persians eventually comquered the Medes, their former masters. Persian King Darius the Great attempted to end Scunthians raids. Darius led a major expedition against them, but the Scythians just withdrew deep into the vast Steppe (6th century BC). The Persians never conquerd the Scynthians, but tribes near Persia paid tribute. Alexander after his victories over Persians also attacked the Sycthians (4th century BC). They proved a more difficult target, because there horse-based culture was so mobile and did not have built up centers that could be easily assaulted. Alexander declined to pusue them north into the Steppe and decided to instead drive east toward Asia. The Scythian Empire endured fo several more centures. A related people, the Sarmatians, began to compete with the Scynthians (4th century BC) and eventually dsplced them (2nd century BC).

Clothing

Some historians believe that pants or trousers may have been conceived about 6,000 years ago by the nomadic horsemen of the Ukranian Steppes. Notably this was also the approximate time that horses were domesticated. [James and Thorpe] We know that Scythian horsemen wore pants. There are metal-work and vase depictions of this as well as Greek commentary. Pants seem especially useful in temperate climates that experience cold weather. They also seem suited for horsemen. The Greeks were not at all impressed with trousers, considering them a barbaric form of dress. Hippocrates in particular was critical of Scynthian pants. Of course the pants were suitable for horseback rideing.

Sources

Curry, Andrew. "Rites of the Scythans," Archaeology (July-August 2016), pp. 26-32.

Herodtus, The History of Herodotus Book IV. (440 BC).

James, Peter and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Inventions (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994).







CIH





Navigate the Children in History Website:
[Return to the Main subsequent ancient civilization page]
[Return to the Main ancient civilization page]
[About Us]
[Introduction] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Climatology] [Clothing] [Disease and Health] [Economics] [Freedom] [Geography] [History] [Human Nature] [Ideology] [Law]
[Nationalism] [Presidents] [Religion] [Royalty] [Science] [Social Class]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Children in History Home]





Created: 2:52 AM 4/22/2009
Last updated: 11:20 PM 10/3/2016