Scythians
Template:Short description Template:Pp Template:Redirect Template:Redirect Template:Very long Template:Contains special characters Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox former country Template:Indo-European topics The Scythians (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en) or Scyths (Template:IPAc-en, but note Scytho- (Template:IPAc-en) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia, where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC.
Skilled in mounted warfare, the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as the dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians.
After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes, the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe in the 6th century BC, and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By the 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths, and by the early Middle Ages, the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe.
After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them.
Names
[edit]Etymology
[edit]The name is derived from the Scythian endonym Template:Translit, meaning Template:LitTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root Template:PIE, itself meaning Template:Lit.Template:Sfn This name was semantically similar to the endonym of the Sauromatians, Template:Translit, meaning "armed with throwing darts and arrows."Template:Sfn
From this earlier term Template:Translit was derived:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
- the Akkadian designation of the Scythians:
- Template:Translit (Template:LangTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Asguzayu SCYTHIAN EN">Template:Cite web</ref>
- Template:Translit (Template:LangTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Asguzayu SCYTHIAN EN"/>);
- Template:Translit (Template:LangTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Asguzayu SCYTHIAN EN"/>);
- or Template:Translit (Template:Lang<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>)
- as well as the Ancient Greek name Template:Translit (Template:Lang), from which was derived the Latin name Template:Lang, which gave the English name Template:Translit.Template:Sfn
The Urartian name for the Scythians might have been Template:Translit (Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>).Template:Sfn
Due to a sound change from /δ/ (Template:IPAslink) to Template:IPAslink commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name Template:Translit evolved into Template:Translit, which was recorded in ancient Greek as Template:Translit (Template:Lang), in which the Greek plural-forming suffix Template:Lang was added to the name.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles (Template:Langx) represented this later form, Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Modern terminology
[edit]Scythians proper
[edit]The name "Scythians" was initially used by ancient authors to designate specifically the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe between the Danube and the Don rivers.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
In modern archaeology, the term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
Broader designations
[edit]By the Hellenistic period, authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus however sometimes extended the designation "Scythians" indiscriminately to all steppe nomads and forest steppe populations living in Europe and Asia, and used it to also designate the Saka of Central Asia.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for the various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in the "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
This broad use of the term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures,Template:Sfn and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore, the narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik.Template:Sfn
Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as Template:Translit.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to the limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art.Template:Sfn
The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka.Template:Sfn The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer the use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Saka
[edit]While the ancient Persians used the name Saka to designate all the steppe nomadsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and specifically referred to the Pontic Scythians as Template:Translit (Template:Lang; Template:Lit),Template:Sfn the name "Saka" is used in modern scholarship to designate the Iranic pastoralist nomads who lived in the steppes of Central Asia and East Turkestan in the 1st millennium BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Cimmerians
[edit]The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
However, while the Cimmerians were an Iranic people<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> sharing a common language, origins and culture with the ScythiansTemplate:Sfn and are archaeologically indistinguishable from the Scythians, all sources contemporary to their activities clearly distinguished the Cimmerians and the Scythians as being two separate political entities.Template:Sfn
History
[edit]Template:Overly detailed There are two main sources of information on the historical Scythians:<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Akkadian cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia which deal with early Scythian history from the 7th century BC; and Graeco-Roman sources which cover all of Scythian history, most prominently those written by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which are less reliable because the information they contain is mixed with folk tales and learnt constructs of historians.Template:Sfn
Proto-Scythian period
[edit]
The arrival of the Scythians in Europe was part of the larger process of westwards movement of Central Asian Iranic nomads towards Southeast and Central Europe which lasted from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, and to which also participated other Iranic nomads such as the Cimmerians, Sauromatians, and Sarmatians.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated, along with the Early Sakas, in Central Asia and Siberia<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region.Template:Sfn The Scythians were already acquainted with quality goldsmithing and sophisticated bronze-casting at this time, as attested by gold pieces found in the 8th century BC Aržan-1 kurgan.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Migration out of Central Asia
[edit]The second wave of migration of Iranic nomads corresponded to the early Scythians' arrival from Central Asia into the Caucasian Steppe,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn which begun in the 9th century BC,Template:Sfn when a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started after the early Scythians were expelled out of Central Asia by either the Massagetae, who were a powerful nomadic Iranic tribe from Central Asia closely related to them,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> or by another Central Asian people called the Issedones,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn forcing the early Scythians to the west, across the Araxes river and into the Caspian and Ciscaucasian Steppes.Template:Sfn
This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC,Template:Sfn and archaeologically corresponded to the westward movement of a population originating from Tuva in southern Siberia in the late 9th century BC, and arriving in the 8th to 7th centuries BC into Europe, especially into Ciscaucasia, which it reached some time between Template:C. and Template:C.,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn thus following the same migration general path as the first wave of Iranic nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.Template:Sfn
Displacement of the Cimmerians
[edit]The Scythians' westward migration brought them to the Caspian Steppe,Template:Sfn in the lands of the Cimmerians,Template:Sfn who had themselves originated in the first westward wave of proto-Scythian migrationsTemplate:Sfn of nomadic populations who had arrived from Central AsiaTemplate:Sfn into the Pontic-Caspian Steppe regions during the 10th century BC.Template:Sfn
The Cimmerians at this time were leaving their homelands in the Caspian Steppe to move into West Asia:Template:Sfn the Cimmerians might have migrated under the pressure from the Scythians,Template:Sfn although sources are lacking for any such pressure on the Cimmerians by the Scythians or of any conflict between these two peoples at this early period.Template:Sfn Moreover, the arrival of the Scythians in West Asia about 40 years after the Cimmerians did so suggests there is no available evidence to the later Graeco-Roman account that it was under pressure from Scythians migrating into their territories that the Cimmerians crossed the Caucasus and moved south into West Asia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The remnants of the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe were assimilated by the Scythians,Template:Sfn with this absorption of the Cimmerians by the Scythians being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles,Template:Sfn thus transferring the dominance of this region from the Cimmerians to the Scythians who were assimilating them,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn after which the Scythians settled in the Ciscaucasian Steppe where were located the their kingdom's headquarters,Template:Sfn between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus Mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The arrival of the Scythians and their establishment in this region in the 7th century BCTemplate:Sfn corresponded to a disturbance of the development of the Cimmerian peoples' Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex,Template:Sfn which was thus replaced through a continuous processTemplate:Sfn over the course of Template:C. to Template:C. in southern Europe by the early Scythian culture which nevertheless still showed links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Some aspects of the Scythian culture, such as elements of funerary rituals, ceramics, horse gear, and some weapon types, also showed links to the older Timber Grave culture which had existed in the north Pontic region in the Bronze Age.Template:Sfn
Early (or Archaic) Scythian period
[edit]Ciscaucasian kingdom
[edit]After their initial westwards migrations, and beginning around Template:C.,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the Scythians settled in the Ciscaucasian Steppe between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> and were especially concentrated in the valley of the Kuban river,Template:Sfn where would be located their kingdom's headquarters until the end of the 7th century BC:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn the Scythians who first arrived into Ciscaucasia did not consist of large numbers of people and they lived in a small area.Template:Sfn During these early phases of Scythian history, Ciscaucasia was where the nomadic state and the culture of the Scythians developed,Template:Sfn and it would remain the centre of the Scythian kingdom until around Template:C..Template:Sfn
Since the Scythians needed agricultural and craft products from the native populations, they conquered these peoples and established interdependence systems: the Scythians obtained surplus through collecting tribute from the populations of the native Koban and Maeotian cultures of Ciscaucasia,Template:Sfn who provided various goods to the Scythians, such as agricultural products and crafted goods like clay and bronze vessels, various weapons, bridles, and horse harness equipment;Template:Sfn the Maeotian craftsmen especially made large wide-necked pots, jugs, mugs, and small basins for Scythian customers.Template:Sfn
These interactions between the Scythians and Maeotians deepened through the 8th to 7th centuries BC so that it led to the creation of a mixed culture,Template:Sfn and some of the local tribes were assimilated into the Scythians and therefore contributed to the growth of the Scythian population.Template:Sfn This earliest phase of Scythian culture formed in the Ciscaucasian Steppe between Template:C. and Template:C..Template:Sfn
West Asia
[edit]During the second half of the 8th century BC and the 7th century BC, the equestrian steppe nomads from Ciscaucasia expanded to the south into West Asia,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn beginning with the Cimmerians.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The involvement of the steppe nomads in West Asia happened in the context of the growth of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which had expanded from its core region of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys to dominate a large territory in West Asia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Surrounding the Neo-Assyrian Empire were several smaller polities: Phrygia and Lydia in Anatolia; Babylon and Elam in the south; Egypt in the southwest; Urartu in the north; the weaker states of Ellipi and Mannai in the east; and the city-states of the Medes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Local border rulers negotiated for their own interests by vacillating between these various rival great powers.Template:Sfn
This state of permanent social disruption caused by the rivalries of the great powers of West Asia proved to be an attractive source of opportunities for the steppe nomads;Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and so their aristocrats led their followers southwards across the Caucasus Mountains.Template:Sfn Thus, the Scythians and Cimmerians became active in West Asia in the 7th century BC,Template:Sfn where they would vacillate between supporting either the Neo-Assyrian Empire or other local powers, and serve these as mercenaries, depending on what they considered to be in their interests.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Some small groups of steppe nomads from Ciscaucasia might have acted since the 9th century BC in West Asia, which laid the ground for the later large scale movement of the Cimmerians and Scythians there.Template:Sfn There appears to have been very little direct connection between the migrations of the Cimmerians and the Scythians.Template:Sfn The Scythians became active in West Asia after arriving in Transcaucasia around Template:C..<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> These nonetheless never lost contact with the core Scythian kingdom located in the Ciscaucasian Steppe.Template:Sfn
Once they had finally crossed into West Asia, the Scythians settled in eastern Transcaucasia and the northwest Iranian plateau,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> in the steppes of what is presently Azerbaijan, which became their centre operations until Template:C.,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and this part of Transcaucasia settled by the Scythians consequently became known in the Akkadian sources from Mesopotamia as the "land of the Scythians" (Template:Lang, Template:Translit) after them.Template:Sfn Unlike the Cimmerians, the Scythians in West Asia remained organised into a single polity.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Once the Scythians had expanded into Transcaucasia, craftsmen from this region also became their suppliers.Template:Sfn
Initial activities in West Asia
[edit]The Scythian and Cimmerian movements into Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau would act as catalysts for the adoption of Eurasian nomadic military and equestrian equipments by various West Asian states:Template:Sfn it was during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE that "Scythian-type" socketed arrowheads and sigmoid bows ideal for use by mounted warriors were adopted throughout West Asia.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
The Mannaean king Aḫšeri (Template:Reign) welcomed the Cimmerians and the Scythians as useful allies against the Neo-Assyrian Empire.Template:Sfn During the period corresponding to the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon (Template:Reign), the Scythians were active in association with Mannai and Media,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn with their first ever recorded mention from the Neo-Assyrian records of Template:C..Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Around this time, Aḫšēri was hindering operations by the Neo-Assyrian Empire between its own territory and Mannai.Template:Sfn During these attacks, the Scythians were able to reach and attack distant Neo-Assyrian provinces,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list</ref> and on one occasion core territories.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
These forces were defeated some time between Template:C. and Template:C. by Esarhaddon, who carried out a retaliatory campaign which reached deep into Median territory.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Išpakāya, the Scythians' first knowwn king, was killed during this campaign, and he was succeeded by Bartatua,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list</ref> with whom Esarhaddon might have immediately initiated negotiations.Template:Sfn By 672 BC, Bartatua had asked for the hand of the eldest daughter of Esarhaddon, the Neo-Assyrian princess Šērūʾa-ēṭirat, and promised to form an alliance treaty with the Neo-Assyrian Empire in an act of careful diplomacy.Template:Sfn Bartatua's marriage to Šērūʾa-ēṭirat required that he would pledge allegiance to Assyria as a vassal, which made the Scythian presence in West Asia a nominal extension of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Henceforth, the Scythian kingdom remained a Neo-Assyrian ally.Template:Sfn
The eastern Cimmerians soon left the Iranian Plateau and retreated westwards into Anatolia.Template:Sfn Although Mannai had been powerful under Aḫšeri, this power had depended on his alliance with the Cimmerians and Scythians. Their absence allowed Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal (Template:Reign) to carry out a campaign against Mannai between 660 and 659 BC.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Bartatua, acting as an intermediary,Template:Sfn annexed Mannai into the Scythian kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Following this, the centre of Scythian power in West Asia shifted to Sakez near Lake Urmia,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn where fertile pastures allowed the Scythians to rea large herds of horses.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
West Asian influences on the Scythians
[edit]The marital alliance, as well as the proximity of the Scythians to Assyrian-influenced states, placed the Scythians under the strong influence of Assyrian culture.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Scythian culture and art absorbed various West Asian elements;Template:Sfn Scythian dress and armour from this time, including in Cirscaucasia, reflect heavy influences from West Asia and the Iranian Plateau on Scythian culture during this period.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
Scythian rulers began emulating West Asian kings by using luxury goods as status markers.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn the spoils acquired by the Scythians as diplomatic presents or as plunder was used to enhance their status back in the Ciscaucasian Steppe.Template:Sfn In addition, artistic concepts also enhanced the range of the craftsmen serving the Scythian aristocracy:Template:Sfn the Scythians had absorbed West Asian tastes and customsTemplate:Sfn such as the concept of the divine origin of royal power,Template:Sfn and as their material culture was absorbing West Asian elements, so was their art absorbing West Asian artistic modes of representing these.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Even West Asian horses were imported to Ciscaucasia.Template:Sfn It was also only when the Scythians expanded into West Asia that they became acquainted with iron smelting and forging, before which they were still a Bronze Age society until the late 8th century BC.Template:Sfn The Scythians also borrowed the use of the war chariotsTemplate:Sfn and of scale armour from West Asians,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Scythian warriors themselves obtained iron weapons and military experience during their stay in West Asia.Template:Sfn Within the Scythian religion, the goddess Artimpasa and the Snake-Legged Goddess were significantly influenced by the Mesopotamian and Syro-Canaanite religions.Template:Sfn
Reign of Madyes
[edit]
Bartatua was succeeded by his son with Šērūʾa-ēṭirat,Template:Sfn Madyes.Template:Sfn In 652 BC, Ashurbanipal's eldest brother Šamaš-šuma-ukin, the king of Babylon, rebelled against him.Template:Sfn although Ashurbanipal was able to suppress the Babylonian rebellion by 648 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was worn out by this crisis.Template:Sfn Madyes helped Ashurbanipal repress the revolt by imposing Scythian hegemony on Media, which marked the beginning of a nearly 30-year long period of Scythian hegemony in West Asia.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
During the 7th century BC, the bulk of the Cimmerians were operating in Anatolia.Template:Sfn The disturbances they caused led to many of the rulers of this region to break away from Neo-Assyrian overlordship, by the time of Ashurbanipal.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 644 BC, the Cimmerians and their allies the Treres defeated the Lydians and captured their capital city of Sardis.Template:Sfn Despite this and other setbacks, the Lydian kingdom was able to grow in power.Template:Sfn Around Template:C.,Template:Sfn and with Neo-Assyrian approval,Template:Sfn the Scythians under Madyes conquered Urartu,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn entered Central AnatoliaTemplate:Sfn and defeated the Cimmerians alongside the Lydians.Template:Sfn
Scythian power in West Asia thus reached its peak under Madyes, with the territories ruled by the Scythian kingdom extending from the Halys river in Anatolia in the west to the Caspian Sea and the eastern borders of Media in the east, and from Transcaucasia in the north to the northern borders of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the south.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Meanwhile, the new Lydian Empire became the dominant power of Anatolia.Template:Sfn
Decline in West Asia
[edit]
The Neo-Assyrian Empire began unravelling after the death of Ashurbanipal because of civil wars under his successors Aššur-etil-ilāni (Template:Reign) and Sîn-šar-iškun (Template:Reign).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 625 BC, the Median king Cyaxares invited the Scythian leaders to a feast, where he assassinated them all, thus overthrowing the Assyro-Scythian yoke over the Medes.Template:Sfn Cyaxares was able to combine Scythian and Neo-Assyrian military practices to transform Media into the dominant power of the Iranian Plateau.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire started breaking away.Template:Sfn
The Scythians nevertheless took advantage of the temporary power vacuum to raid into the Levant some time between Template:C. and Template:C..Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is unknown whether this raid damaged the hold of the Neo-Assyrian Empire on its western provinces.Template:Sfn The raid reached as far south as Palestine,Template:Sfn but it did not affect the kingdom of Judah.Template:Sfn It reached the borders of the Saite Egyptian kingdom, after which the pharaoh Psamtik I met them and convinced them to turn back by offering them gifts.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> The Scythians sacked several cities in Palestine while retreating.Template:Sfn After this, Scythian activities became limited to the eastern borderlands of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the importation of West Asian goods into the Ciscaucasian steppe.Template:Sfn
By 615, the Scythian kingdom was operating as an ally of Cyaxares in his war against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, possibly out of necessity.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Scythian kingdom supported the Medo-Babylonian conquests of Aššur in 614 BC, of Nineveh in 612 BC, and of the last Neo-Assyrian remnants at Ḫarran in 610 BC, which permanently destroyed the Neo-Assyrian Empire.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
By the Template:C., the ascending Median Empire of Cyaxares annexed Urartu,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn after having already annexed Mannai in 616 BC.Template:Sfn This rise of Median power forced the Scythian kingdom to leave West Asia and retreat northward into the Ciscaucasian Steppe.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Complex relations nevertheless continued to exist between the Median and Scythian kingdoms located.Template:Sfn
Some splinter Scythian groups remained in eastern Transcaucasia and did not retreat to the north.Template:Sfn The area where they lived was called Template:Translit (Template:Lit) by the Medes; this name was later recorded as [[Sakasene|Template:Transliteration]] (Template:Lang) by Ptolemy.Template:Sfn Later Graeco-Roman sources claimed that these Scythians left the Median kingdom and fled into the Lydian Empire, beginning a conflict between Lydia and Media:Template:Sfn These Scythians who had remained in West Asia had been completely assimilated into Median society and state by the mid-6th century BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Initial Greek interactions
[edit]The ancient Greeks had first been making expeditions in the Black Sea in the 8th century BC, and encounters with friendly native populations led to the formation of trading settlements.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Around Template:C., the Scythians in the Pontic Steppe came into contact with Greek settlersTemplate:Sfn from MiletusTemplate:Sfn who were starting to found their first colonies in the areas under Scythian rule on the northern coast of the Black Sea.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The first wave of Greek colonisation of the north coast of the Black Sea consisted of attempts to develop trade with its native populations,Template:Sfn and therefore involved the formation of trading enclaves (Template:Langx; Template:Langx)Template:Sfn this mutually beneficial process was largely peaceful.Template:Sfn The earliest Template:Translit of the north Black Sea were built at Histria, Tyras,Template:Sfn and especially on the island of Borysthenēs.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
From the Greek settlements on the Black Sea coast, the Scythian aristocracy bought luxury goods which they used as status markers: wine and the various Greek vessels used to mix and drink it were especially imported in large quantities and were even used as grave goods, while craftsmen in the Greek colonies manufactured items made of gold or electrum for Scythian patrons.Template:Sfn Once Scythian activities begun to decline in West Asia in the Template:Circa and ties between the Scythians and the Greek colonies started developing, the Scythians started buying Greek pottery imported from the Aegean islands.Template:Sfn Greek influences on the Scythians replaced West Asian ones from the beginning of the 6th century BC.Template:Sfn
Pontic Steppe
[edit]
The Scythians during the 8th to 7th centuries BC conquered the Pontic and Crimean Steppes.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> The initial Scythian population who settled in the Pontic Steppe was nevertheless small compared to the remainder in the Ciscaucasian Steppe.Template:Sfn Only after their expulsion from West Asia was the Pontic Steppe occupied by the Scythians on a large scale.Template:Sfn The was motivated by the presence of the threatening Median Empire to the south of Ciscaucasia, and by the wealthy Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea.Template:Sfn The Scythian kingdom mediated trade between the Greek colonies to their south and the forest steppe to their north,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was carried out via the large rivers of the steppe.Template:Sfn
The arriving Scythian conquerors established themselves as the ruling elite, or "Royal Scythians",Template:Sfn over the local population and assimilated them into a single tribal identity while allowing them to continue their various lifestyles and economic organisations.Template:Sfn Many of the ethnically non-Scythian populations of the Pontic Steppe thus became designated by the term "Template:Translit",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn after whom the Pontic Steppe also became known as Template:Translit.Template:Sfn
Influence and campaigns from the Pontic Steppe
[edit]The westward migration of the Scythians was accompanied by the introduction into the north Pontic region of articles originating in the Siberian Karasuk culture, such as distinctive swords and daggers, and which were characteristic of Early Scythian archaeological culture, consisting of cast bronze cauldrons, daggers, swords, and horse harnesses,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which had themselves been influenced by Chinese art, with, for example, the "cruciform tubes" used to fix strap-crossings being of types which had initially been modelled by Shang artisans.Template:Sfn The metallurgical workshops which produced the weapons and horse harnesses of the Scythians were located in the forest steppe.Template:Sfn
It was at this timeTemplate:Sfn that the Scythians brought the knowledge of working iron which they had acquired in West Asia with them and introduced it into the Pontic Steppe, whose peoples were still Bronze Age societies until then.Template:Sfn The Scythian establishment in the Pontic Steppe was especially facilitated by the iron weapons and the military experience they had obtained in West Asia.Template:Sfn Introduced into the Pontic Steppe during this period by the Scythians was the use of scale armour, which the Royal Scythian aristocracy had themselves borrowed from the West Asian peoples.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Once the centre of Scythian power had shifted into the Pontic Steppe, from around Template:C. the Scythians often raided into the adjacent regions such as Central and Southeast Europe.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Attacks by the Scythians were directed not only at Transylvania, Podolia and the Pannonian Steppe,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn but also southern Germania, where they attacked the Lusatian culture and caused its destruction, and from there, until as far as Gaul,Template:Sfn and possibly even the Iberian peninsula:Template:Sfn these Scythian incursions were not unlike those of the Huns and the Avars during the Migration Period, and of the Mongols in the mediaeval era, and were recorded in Etruscan bronze figurines depicting mounted Scythian archers.Template:Sfn
Multiple settlements of the Lusatian culture were destroyed by Scythian attacks during this period,Template:Sfn and Scythian arrowheads have been found at several sites located in what are present-day Poland and Slovakia, such as at Witaszkowo, Template:Ill, Strzegom, Template:Ill, and Template:Ill. The Scythians also attacked, sacked and destroyed many of the wealthy and important Iron Age settlementsTemplate:Sfn located to the north and south of the Moravian Gate and belonging to the eastern group of the Hallstatt culture, including that of Smolenice-Molpír, where Scythian-type arrows were found at this fortified hillfort's access points at the gate and the south-west side of the acropolisTemplate:Sfn
Beginning in the 7th century BC, the Scythians also initiated numerous campaigns against the forest steppe tribes in the East European forest steppe to the north, who built large numbers of fortified settlements to repel these attacks.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Foreign pressures
[edit]Meanwhile, in West Asia, the Median, Lydian, and Neo-Babylonian empires had been replaced over the period of Template:C. to Template:C. by the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus II, the king of the Persians, who were a West Asian Iranic people distantly related to the Scythians.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The formation of the Achaemenid Empire constituted a further pressure from the south which forced the Scythians to remain to the north of the Caucasus.Template:Sfn
The establishment of the Pontic Scythian kingdom was a catalyst for the development of extensive trade connections, and it was only after the bulk of the Scythians had moved into the Pontic Steppe that more permanent Greek colonies were founded in this region:Template:Sfn the second wave of Greek colonisation of the north coast of the Black Sea, which started soon after Template:C., involved the formation of settlements possessing agricultural lands (Template:Langx) for migrants from Miletus, Corinth, Phocaea and MegaraTemplate:Sfn seeking to establishing themselves to farm (Template:Langx) in these regions where the land was fertile and the sea was plentiful.Template:Sfn The contacts between the Scythians and the Greeks led to the formation of a mixed Graeco-Scythian culture, such as among the "Hellenised Scythian" tribe of the Callipidae, the Histrians, the Geloni to the north of Scythia, and the Hellenised populations in and around Crimea.Template:Sfn
In Template:C., Cyrus II had conquered the Lydian Empire and brought Anatolia under the rule of his newly founded Persian Achaemenid Empire,Template:Sfn consequently setting in march a large outflow of Greek refugees fleeing the Persian conquest, starting a third wave of Greek colonisation of the Black Sea, lasting from around Template:C. until Template:C..Template:Sfn The importance of the Greek colonies of the north Black Sea coast drastically increased following the Persian Achaemenid Empire's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC, which deprived the states of Greece proper of the Egyptian grain that they depended on.Template:Sfn
The then dominant Greek power of Athens therefore established very well defended new colonies on the north Black Sea coast near the already existing settlements, including Nymphaion near Pantikapaion, Athēnaion near Theodosia, and Stratokleia near Phanagoreia, where grain of very good quality was produced.Template:Sfn The various Greek city-states of the Aegean Sea also imported fish, furs and slaves from Scythia during this period,Template:Sfn and in the mid-6th century BC the Greeks started employing Scythian mercenaries in the form of detachments of mounted archers to support their own hoplite armies.Template:Sfn
To the east of the Scythian kingdom lived the Sauromatians, who maintained good relations with the Scythian kingdom throughout its existence, from the 6th to 4th centuries BC.Template:Sfn Scythian art exhibited influences from the Sauromatian culture and.Template:Sfn However, in the period from Template:C. to Template:C., the various Sauromatian communities living from the region stretching from the Ural Mountains to the Caspian Steppe came pressure from the Massagetae of Central AsiaTemplate:Sfn as a result of the campaigns of Cyrus II against this latter people.Template:Sfn Due to these pressures, the Sauromatians took over the control of Ciscaucasia from the Scythian kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn By the 5th century BC, the Scythians had completely retreated from Ciscaucasia.Template:Sfn
This process resulted in a wave of Sauromatian nomads immigrating near the Royal Scythians,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and intermarrying with the local nomad inhabitants.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> The arrival of this wave of Sauromatian immigration might possibly have caused the replacement of the older Scythian ruling dynasty of Spargapeithes by a new one, founded by Ariapeithes.Template:Sfn Sauromatian immigration also introduced new social norms into Scythia thanks to which women were now allowed to become warriors.Template:Sfn
The Scythian sage Anacharsis, the brother of the then reigning king Sauaios, lived in the 6th century BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Anacharsis left Scythia to travel to Greece, where he became respected enough as a skilled philosopher that he was granted Athenian citizenship.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although much regarding the historicity of Anacharsis is uncertain, he later became popular in ancient Greek literature, in which he appeared as a sort of "man of Nature" and "noble savage" incarnating "Barbarian wisdom," after which he especially a favourite figure of the Cynics.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The Persian invasion
[edit]
In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire started expanding into Europe, beginning with the Persian annexation of all of Thrace,Template:Sfn after which the Achaemenid king of kings Darius I crossed the Istros river in 513 BC<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> and attacked the Scythian kingdom with an army of 700,000 to 800,000 soldiers,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> possibly with the goal of annexing it.Template:Sfn
The results of this campaign are unclear, with Darius I himself claiming that he had conquered the Template:Translit (Template:LitTemplate:Sfn), that is the Pontic Scythians,Template:Sfn while the ancient Greek literary tradition, following the account of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, claimed that the Persian campaign had been defeated by the Scythians, due to which the Greeks started perceiving the Scythians as being invincible thanks to their nomadic lifestyle:Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Herodotus's narrative is itself considered dubious by modern historians,Template:Sfn and his account of the failure of Darius appears to have been extremely exaggerated.Template:Sfn Some form of Achaemenid authority might have been established in Pontic Scythia as a result of this campaign without it having been annexed.Template:Sfn
Middle (or Classical) period
[edit]Template:Main The retreat of the Scythians from CiscaucasiaTemplate:Sfn and the arrival of the Sauromatian incomers into the Pontic Steppe in the late 6th century BC gave rise to the Middle or Classical Scythian period,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> a hybrid culture originating from a combination of Ciscaucasian Scythian and Sauromatian elements.Template:Sfn Among the changes in Scythia in this period was a significant increase in the number of monumental burials.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
Due to the need to resist Persian encroachment, the Scythian kingdom underwent political consolidation in the early 5th century BC,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> during which it completed its evolution from a tribal confederation into an early state polityTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn capable of dealing with the polities threatening or trading with it in an effective way;Template:Sfn during this period, the Scythian kings increased their power and wealth by concentrating economic power under their authority.Template:Sfn It was also during this period that the control of the Scythians over the western part of their kingdom became tighter.Template:Sfn At some point between Template:C. and Template:C.,Template:Sfn Ariapeithes was succeeded as king by his son Scyles.Template:Sfn
Expansionism
[edit]A consequence of this consolidation of the Scythian kingdom was an increase in its expansionism and militarism. To the southeast, the Scythians came into conflict with their splinter tribe of the Sindi, whom they fought by crossing the frozen Cimmerian Bosporus during the winter. In the west, nearby Thrace became a target following the Achaemenid retreat from Europe,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn with the Scythians gaining free access to the Wallachian and Moldavian SteppesTemplate:Sfn and to the south of the Istros river].Template:Sfn In 496 BC, the Scythians launched a raid until as far south as the Hellespont.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> The Scythians' inroads in Thrace were however soon stopped by the emergence of the Odrysian kingdom in this region, following which the Scythian and Odrysian kingdoms mutually established the Istros as their common border around Template:C.:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn from then on, the Scythians and Thracians borrowed from the other's art and lifestyle; marriage between the Scythian and Odrysian aristocracies and royal families were also concluded.Template:Sfn
A second direction where the Scythian kingdom expanded was in the north and north-west: the Scythian kingdom had continued its attempts to impose its rule on the forest steppe peoples and by the 5th century BC, it was finally able to complete the process after destroying their fortified settlements.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Their cultures later fused with that of the Scythians.Template:Sfn During the 5th century BC, Scythian rule over the forest steppe people became increadingly dominating and coercive, leading to a decline of their sedentary agrarian lifestyle.Template:Sfn This in turn resulted in a reduction in the importation of Greek goods by the peoples of the forest steppe in the 5th century BC.Template:Sfn
The peaceful relations which had until then prevailed between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek colonies of the northern Pontic region came to an end during the period of expansionism in the early 5th century BC, when the Scythian kings for the first time started trying to impose their rule over the Greek colonies.Template:Sfn The Greek cities erected defensive installations while losing their agricultural production base.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> At the same time, because the Scythian kingdom still needed to trade with the Greeks in the lower Tanais region, in the early 5th century BC it replaced the destroyed Greek colony of Krēmnoi with a Scythian settlement.Template:Sfn The hold of the Scythian kingdom on this region became firmer under Scyles, who was successfully able to impose Scythian rule on the Greek colonies such as Nikōnion, Tyras, Pontic Olbia, and Kerkinitis.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Scyles' control over Nikōnion was at the time it was a member of the Delian League, putting it under the simultaneous hegemony of both the Scythian kingdom and Athens. This allowed the Scythian kingdom to engage in relations with Athens when it was at the height of its power.Template:Sfn In consequence, a community of Scythians also lived in Athens at this time, as attested by Scythian graves in the Kerameikos cemetery.Template:Sfn
The Scythian kingdom was however less successful at conquering other Greek colonies, around 30 of which, including Myrmēkion, Tyritakē, and Porthmeus, banded together into an alliance and successfully defended their independence. After this, they united into the Bosporan kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Bosporan kingdom soon became a centre of production for Scythian customers living in the steppes and contributed to the development of Scythian art and style.Template:Sfn Despite the conflicts between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek cities, mutually beneficial exchanges between the Scythians, Maeotians and Greeks continued.Template:Sfn There was consequently a considerable migration of Scythians into Pontic Olbia at this time.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Greek colonies of the Black Sea coast continued adhering to their Hellenic culture while their population was very mixed.Template:Sfn During this period Greek influences also became more significant among the Scythians, especially among the aristocracy.Template:Sfn
Commercial activities
[edit]As result of these expansionist ventures, the Scythian kingdom implemented an economic policy through a division of labour according to which: the settled populations of the forest steppe produced grain, which they were now obliged to offer to the Scythian aristocracy as tribute, and which was then shipped through the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers to Pontic Olbia, Tyras, and Nikōnion, where these Greek cities traded the grain at a profit for themselves.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in Greece proper in 431 BC further increased the importance of the Pontic Steppe in supplying grain to Greece.Template:Sfn The Scythians also sold cattle and animal products to the Greeks.Template:Sfn
The Greek cities in the Aegean Sea had started to import slaves from Scythia immediately after the end of the Persian invasions of Greece. The Greek cities acted as slave trade hubs but did not themselves capture slaves, and instead depended on the Scythian rulers to acquire slaves for them:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the Scythian aristocrats nonetheless still found it profitable to acquire slaves from their subordinate tribes or through military raids in the forest steppe.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn One group of slaves was bought by the city of Athens,Template:Sfn where they constituted an organisation of public slaves employed by the city as an urban police force.Template:Sfn
Greek influence
[edit]The Greek colonies were the main suppliers of luxury goods and art to the Scythians.Template:Sfn Trade with the Greeks especially created a thriving demand for wine in Scythia:Template:Sfn In exchange for slaves, the Greeks sold various consumer goods to the Scythians, the most prominent among these being wine. The island of Chios in the Aegean Sea, especially, produced wine to be sold to the Scythians, in exchange of which slaves from Scythia were sold in the island's very prominent slave market.Template:Sfn Other commodities sold by the Greeks to the Scythians included fabrics, vessels, decorations made of precious metals, bronze items, and black burnished pottery.Template:Sfn
Under these conditions, the grain and slave trade continued, and Pontic Olbia experienced economic prosperity.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Scythian aristocracy also derived immense revenue from these commercial activities with the Greeks,Template:Sfn most especially from the grain trade,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn with Scythian coins struck in Greek cities bearing the images of ears of grain.Template:Sfn This prosperity of the Scythian aristocracy is attested by how the lavish aristocratic burials progressively included more relatives, retainers, and were richly furnished with grave goods, especially imported ones, consisting of gold jewellery, silver and gold objects, including fine Greek-made toreutics, vessels and jewellery, and gold-plated weapons.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Scythian commoners however did not obtain any benefits from this trade, with luxury goods being absent from their tombs.Template:Sfn
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A consequence of the Scythians' close contacts with Greeks was a progressive Hellenisation of the Scythian aristocracy.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Greek supply of luxury goods also influenced Scythian art.Template:Sfn Greek influence also shaped the evolution of Scythian weapons and horse harnesses: the Scythian composite armour, for example, was fitted with Greek-type shoulder guards in the 5th century BC.Template:Sfn
Early sedentarisation
[edit]Around this time the steppe climate also became warmer and wetter, which allowed the nomads to rear their large herds of animals in abundance;Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn combined with Greek influence, this acted as a catalyst for the process of sedentarisation of many nomadic Scythians which started during the Middle Scythian period in the late 5th century BC.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> especially in areas where the terrain was propitious for agriculture.Template:Sfn Archaeological evidence suggests that the population of the agriculture-focused Tauric Chersonese increased by 600%, especially in the Trachean Chersonese.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
This process led to the foundation in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC of several new city-sitesTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn including important sites located on major routes which provided access to the major rivers of Scythia.Template:Sfn For example, the city of Kamianka had become the economic, political and commercial capital of the Scythian kingdom in the late 5th century BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Until the 3rd century BC, the majority of Scythians nevertheless still remained composed of nomads.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Instabilities
[edit].jpg){kind=link}
Some time around Template:C.,Template:Sfn Scyles was overthrown and executed by his half-brother Octamasadas.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn As a result of the Scythian kingdom's prosperity during this period, neighbouring populations borrowed elements of Scythian culture: for example, Scythian-type arrowheads were found in Central and Western Europe.Template:Sfn The Thracian Getae of the Carpathian and Balkan regions imported large amounts of Scythian-manufactured weapons and horse equipment.Template:Sfn Thanks to the close family connections of Octamasadas to the Thracian Odrysian dynasty, contacts between the Scythian kingdom and Odrysian-ruled Thrace intensified during the period from Template:C. to Template:C..Template:Sfn Significant Thracian influence consequently appeared in Scythian grave goods.Template:Sfn
A Thracian aristocrat named Spartocus seized leadership of the Bosporan kingdom in Template:C..Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was possibly connected to the accession of the pro-Odrysian Octamasadas.Template:Sfn These changes in the Bosporan Kingdom also led to cultural changes within it in the late 5th century BC, so that the Greek customs which had until then been normative there gave way to more Scythian ones.Template:Sfn Under the Spartocid dynasty, the Bosporan kingdom thrived and maintained stable relations with the Scythian kingdomTemplate:Sfn which allowed it to expand its rule conquer several non-Greek territories on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This process transformed the Bosporan kingdom into a cosmopolitan realm.Template:Sfn
It was then that Pontic Olbia started declining, partly due to the instability within the Scythian steppe to its north, but also because most of the trade, including the grain exports of the Scythian kingdom,Template:Sfn passing through Oblia until then shifted to transiting through the cities of the Cimmerian Bosporus constiting the Bosporan Kingdom at this time.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Scythians instead started importing luxury goods made in Bosporan Greek workshops,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn whose products thus replaced Olbian ones.Template:Sfn Around that same time, Athenian commercial influence in the Bosporan Kingdom started declining, and it had fully come to an end by 404 BC.Template:Sfn
Pressured by groups of the Massagetae, sometime between Template:C. and Template:C., a second wave of migration of Sauromatians entered Scythia, where these newcomers intermarried with the Scythian tribes already present thereTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn after which they may possibly have established themselves as the new ruling aristocracy of the Scythian kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The sedendary communities of the forest steppe also came under pressure from this new wave of nomadic incomers.Template:Sfn This, as well as internal conflicts among the Scythians, caused a temporary destabilisation of the Scythian kingdomTemplate:Sfn which caused it to lose control of the Greek cities on the north shores of the Black Sea. The Greek colonies of Pontic Olbia, Nikōnion, and Tyras started to not only rebuild their Template:Translit, but even expanded them during the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC.Template:Sfn Meanwhile Nymphaion was annexed by the Bosporan kingdom.Template:Sfn
Golden Age
[edit]
The period of instability ended soon, and Scythian culture experienced a period of prosperity during the 4th century BC.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Most Scythian monuments and the richest Scythian royal burials dating from this period,Template:Sfn as exemplified by the lavish Template:Ill.Template:Sfn This height of Scythian power corresponded to a time of unprecedented prosperity for the Greek colonies of the northern Black Sea: there was high demand for the Greek cities' trade goods.Template:Sfn Consequently, Scythian culture, especially that of the aristocracy, experienced rapidly-occurring extensive Hellenisation.Template:Sfn
The rule of the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom under the kings Leukon I, Spartocus II and Pairisadēs I was also favourable for the Scythian kingdom because they provided stability.Template:Sfn Leukon employed Scythians in his army,Template:Sfn and he was able to capture Theodosia with the help of Scythian horse cavalry, which he claimed to trust more than his own army.Template:Sfn Extensive contacts existed between the Scythian and Bosporan nobilities,Template:Sfn possibly including dynastic marriages between the Scythian and Bosporan royalty;Template:Sfn the rich burial of Kul-Oba belonged to one such Scythian noble who chose to be buried in a Greek-style tomb.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
During this time, and with the support of the Scythian kings, the sedentarised Scythian farmers sold up to 16,000 tonnes to Pantikapaion, who in turn sold this grain to Athens in mainland Greece.Template:Sfn The dealings between mainland Greece and the northern Pontic region were significant enough that the Athenian Dēmosthenēs had significant commercial endeavours in the Bosporan kingdom, from where he received a 1000 [[Medimnos|Template:Translit]] of wheat per year, and he had the statues of the Bosporan rulers Pairisadēs I, Satyros I and Gorgippos insalled in the Athenian market.Template:Sfn Dēmosthenēs himself had had a Scythian maternal grandmother,Template:Sfn and his political opponents Dinarchus and Aeschines went so far as to launch racist attacks against Dēmosthenēs by referring to his Scythian ancestry to attempt discrediting him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The Scythian kingdom experienced an early wave of immigration by a related Iranic nomadic people, the Sarmatians, during the 4th century BC, to the Pontic steppe.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn This slow flow of Sarmatian immigration continued during the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but these small and isolated groups did not negatively affect its hegemony.Template:Sfn
The reign of Ateas
[edit]Between Template:C. and 339 BC, the Scythians were ruled by their most famous king, Ateas,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> whose reign coincided with the growth of the kingdom of Macedonia under its king Philip II.Template:Sfn The main activities of Ateas were directed towards expanding Template:C. Scythian hegemony to the lands south of the Istros.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ateas also successfully battled the Thracian Triballi and the Dacian Histriani,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn as well as threatened to conquer the city of Byzantion,Template:Sfn where he may also have struck his coins.Template:Sfn
Since both Ateas and Philip had been interested in the region to the immediate south of the Istros, the two kings formed an alliance against the Histriani.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> However, this alliance soon fell apart and war broke out between the Scythian and Macedonian kingdoms, ending in 339 BC in a battle at the estuary of the Istros where Ateas was killed.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> The Scythian kingdom had lost its new territories in Thrace due to this defeat.Template:Sfn The power of Scythian kingdom was not immediately harmed by the death of Ateas, and it did not experience any weakening or disintegration as a result of it:Template:Sfn the Kamianka city continued to prosper and the Scythian burials from this time continued to be lavishly-furnished.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Decline and fall of Pontic Scythia
[edit]The defeat against Philip II was followed by a series of military defeats which led to a significant decline during the late 4th century BC.Template:Sfn Although the experience of Philip II's military dealings with the Scythians led his son Alexander the Great to choose to avoid attacking them,Template:Sfn his conquests harmed trade networks Pontic Olbia depended on.Template:Sfn In 331 or 330 BC, Alexander III's general Zopyrion campaigned against the Scythian kingdom. Although Zōpyriōn's army was defeated by the Scythians,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> his attack initiated the final decline of Olbia, and various tribes from the West such as the Celts started moving into its territories.Template:Sfn
In 309 BC, the Scythian king Agaros participated in the Bosporan Civil War on the side of Satyros II against his half-brother Eumēlos.Template:Sfn Agaros provided Satyros with 20,000 infantrymen and 10,000 cavalrymen,Template:Sfn and after Satyros was defeated and killed, his son fled to Agaros's realm for refuge.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom started declining economically as a result of competition from Egypt, which under the Ptolemaic dynasty had again become a supplier of grain to Greece.Template:Sfn
In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom faced a number of interlocking unfavourable conditions, such as climatic changes in the steppes and economic crises from overgrazed pastures and a series of military setbacks, as well as the intensifiation of the arrival from the east of the Sarmatians,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> who captured Scythian pastures.Template:Sfn With the loss of its most important resource,Template:Sfn the Scythian kingdom suddenly collapsed,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the Scythian capital of Kamianka was abandoned.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Sarmatian tribe responsible for most of the destruction were the Roxolani.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
As a consequence, the material culture of the Scythians also disappeared in the early 3rd century BC.Template:Sfn The peoples of the forest steppe also became independent again, returning to their sedentary lifestyle while all Scythian elements disappeared from their culture.Template:Sfn Grain exports from the northern Pontic region declined drastically,Template:Sfn while Greek inscriptions stopped mentioning names of Scythian slaves.Template:Sfn Following the invasion, the Sarmatian tribes became the new dominant force of the Pontic Steppe,Template:Sfn resulting in the name "Template:Translit" (Template:Lit) replacing "Template:Translit" as the name of the Pontic Steppe.Template:Sfn
Sarmatian pressure against the Scythians continued in the 3rd century BC,Template:Sfn so that the Sarmatians had reached as far as the city of Chersonesus in the Tauric Chersonese by 280 BC,Template:Sfn and most native and Greek settlements on the north shore of the Black Sea were destroyed by the Sarmatians over the course of the Template:C. to Template:C.,Template:Sfn Celts, the Thracian Getae, and the Germanic Bastarnae from the west, also put the Scythians under pressure by seizing their lands.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> By the early 2nd century BC, the Bastarnae had grown powerful enough that they were able to stop the southward advance of the Sarmatians along the line of the Istros river.Template:Sfn
Late period
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With the Sarmatian invasion and the collapse of the Pontic Scythian kingdom, the Scythians were pushed to the fringes of the northern Pontic region where urban life was still possible, and they retreated to a series of fortified settlements along the major rivers and fled to the two regions both known as "Little Scythia,"Template:Sfn which remained the only places where the Scythians could still be found in by the 2nd century BC were:<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
- the first Little Scythia, whose capital was Scythian Neapolis, was composed of the territories of the Tauric Chersonese and the lower reaches of the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers;
- the second Little Scythia was located in the northeast of Thrace immediately to the south of the mouth of the Istros river and the west of the Black Sea, in the territory corresponding to present-day Dobruja.
By this time, although the Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had managed to retain some of their nomadic lifestyle, the limited area of their polity forced them to become more and more sedentary and to primarily engage in stockbreeding in far away pastures, as well as in agriculture, and they also acted as trading intermediaries between the Graeco-Roman world and the peoples of the steppes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
With sedentarisation, both fortified and unfortified settlements replaced the older nomadic camps in the basin of the lower Borysthenēs river, which prevented the remaining Scythians from continuing to maintain a steppe economy.Template:Sfn Therefore, the number of fortified settlements in the Tauric Chersonese increased with the retreat into this territory and away from the steppe of the Scythian aristocracy, who was then rapidly embracing a Hellenistic lifestyle.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn By the 1st century BC, these Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had fully become sedentary farmers.Template:Sfn
These later Scythians slowly intermarried with the native Tauri and the infiltrating Sarmatians,Template:Sfn and their culture had little to do with the earlier classical Scythian culture, instead consisting of a combination of those with the traditions of the Tauroi from the mountains of the Tauric Chersonese and of the Greeks of the coasts, and exhibiting Sarmatian and La Tène Celtic influences.Template:Sfn
In the 1st century BC, both Little Scythias were destroyed and their territories annexed by the king Mithridates VI Eupator of the kingdom of PontusTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn despite the Scythians' alliance with their former enemies, the Roxolani, against him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
End
[edit]The Scythian populations in both Little Scythias continued to exist after the end of Mithridates's empire, although they had become fully sedentary by then and were increasingly intermarrying with the native Tauri, hence why Roman sources often referred to them as "Tauro-Scythians" (Template:Langx; Template:Langx).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
These late Scythians were slowly assimilated by the Sarmatians over the course of Template:C. to Template:C. AD,Template:Sfn although they continued to exist as an independent people throughout the 2nd century AD until around Template:C. AD:Template:Sfn in the settled regions of the lower Borysthenēs, lower Hypanis, and the Tauric Chersonese, an urbanised and Hellenised Scythian society continued to develop which also exhibited Thracian and Celtic influences.Template:Sfn
The Scytho-Sarmatian Iranic nomads' dominance of the Pontic Steppe finally ended with the invasion of the Goths and other Germanic tribes around Template:C.,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was when the Scythian settlements in Crimea and the lower Borysthenēs were permanently destroyed.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The Scythians nevertheless continued to exist until the invasion of the Huns in the 4th century AD, and they finally ceased to exist as an independent group after being fully assimilated by the other populations who moved into the Pontic Steppe at the height of the Migrations Period in the 5th century AD.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Legacy
[edit]The Graeco-Roman peoples were profoundly fascinated by the Scythians. This fascination endured in Europe even after both the disappearance of the Scythians and the end of Graeco-Roman culture, and continued throughout Classical and Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, lasting till the 18th century in the Modern Period.Template:Sfn
Antiquity
[edit]
The inroads of the Cimmerians and the Scythians into West Asia over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC, which were early precursors of the later invasions of West Asia by steppe nomads such as the Huns, various Turkic peoples, and the Mongols, in Late Antiquity and the Mediaeval Period,Template:Sfn had destabilised the political balance which had prevailed in the region between the dominant great powers of Assyria, Urartu, and Phrygia,Template:Sfn thus irreversibly changing the geopolitical situation of West Asia.Template:Sfn These Cimmerians and Scythians also influenced the developments in West Asia through the spread of the steppe nomad military technology brought by them into this region.Template:Sfn
The first mention of the Scythians in ancient Greek literature is in Hesiod's [[Catalogue of Women|Template:Translit]], which refers to them as the "mare-milking Scythians" (Template:Langx) and as the "milk-drinkers who have wagons for houses" (Template:Langx)Template:Sfn Hesiod also referred to the Scythians along with the Ethiopians and Libyans as peoples "whose mind is over their tongue," that is who approve of prudent reserve.Template:Sfn
Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote a legendary account of the arrival of the Scythians. Herodotus's narrative also contracted the events of the Scythians' arrival into West Asia by portraying Madyes as the king led them from the steppes into West Asia.Template:Sfn Herodotus also exaggerated the power of the Scythians in West Asia by claiming that they dominated all of it.Template:Sfn Herodotus's narrative depicted Scythia as an opposite of Africa, especially Egypt, which was a theme continued by other ancient Greek authors,Template:Sfn such as Pseudo-Hippocrates, who represented Greece as being the mean situated between these two extremes.Template:Sfn
By the 5th century BC, the image of the Scythians in Athens had become the quintessential stereotype used for barbarians, (non-Greeks).Template:Sfn They increasingly associated the Scythians with drunkenness.Template:Sfn Ancient Greek authors considered the Scythians and Persians, not as related Iranic peoples, but in opposition to each other. The Scythians represented "savagery" and were linked to the Thracians, while the Persians represented "refined civilisation" and were connected to the Assyrians and Babylonians.Template:Sfn
The 4th century BC Greek historian, Ephorus of Cyme, described the Scythians as one of the "four great barbarian peoples" of the known world, along with the Celts, Persians, and Libyans.Template:Sfn Ephorus used the perception of Anacharsis as a personification of "Barbarian wisdom" to create an idealised image of the Scythians being as an "invincible" people, which became a tradition of Greek literature.Template:Sfn Ephorus created a fictitious account of a legendary Scythian king, named Idanthyrsos or Iandysos, who became the ruler of all Asia.Template:Sfn
The Ancient Greeks included the Scythians in their mythology, with Herodorus making a mythical Scythian named Teutarus into a herdsman who served Amphitryon and taught archery to Heracles. Herodorus also portrayed the Titan Prometheus as a Scythian king, and, by extension, described Prometheus's son Deucalion as a Scythian as well.Template:Sfn The Romans confused the peoples whom they perceived as archetypical "Barbarians," namely the Scythians and the Celts, into a single grouping whom they called the "Celto-Scythians" (Template:Langx) and supposedly living from Gaul in the west to the Pontic steppe in the east.Template:Sfn
Strabo of Amasia idealised the Scythians as leading a nomadic life founded on simplicity. According to Strabo's narrative, the Scythians became "corrupted" and lost their simple and honest life because of the influence of the Greeks' "love of luxury and sensual pleasures."Template:Sfn Following Strabo, the Scythians continued to be represented as an idealised freedom-loving and truthful people.Template:Sfn Later Graeco-Roman tradition transformed the Scythian prince Anacharsis into a legendary figure as a kind of "noble savage" who represented "Barbarian wisdom," due to which the ancient Greeks included him as one of the Seven Sages of GreeceTemplate:Sfn and he became a popular figure in Greek literature.Template:Sfn
The richness of Scythian burials was already well known in Antiquity, and, by the 3rd century BC, the robbing of Scythian graves had begun,Template:Sfn initially carried out by Scythians themselves.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During Late Antiquity itself, another wave of grave robbery of Scythian burials occurred at the time of the Sarmatian and Hunnish domination of the Pontic Steppe, when these peoples reused older Scythian kurgans to bury their own dead.Template:Sfn
Mediaeval period
[edit][[File:Scota & Gaedel Glas.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The flight of the Scota, Goídel Glas, and the Scythians from Egypt, in a 15th-century manuscript of the [[Scotichronicon|Template:Translit]] of Walter Bower]] Although the Scythians themselves had disappeared by the Middle Ages, the complex relations between their nomadic groupings and the settled populations of Southeast and Central Europe were continued by the Hungarians, the Bulgars, Rus and Poles.Template:Sfn Mediaeval authors followed the use of the name of the Scythians as an archaising term for steppe nomads to designate the Mongols.Template:Sfn
Various cultures of North Europe started claiming ancestry from the "Scythians" and adopted the Graeco-Roman vision of the "barbarity" of ancient peoples of Europe as legitimate records of their own ancient cultures.Template:Sfn In this context, the similarity of the name Template:Translit with the Latin name of the Irish, Template:Translit,Template:Sfn led to the flourishing of speculations of a Scythian ancestry of the Irish.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Drawing on the confusion of the Template:Translit with both Template:Translit and the Template:Translit, as well as on the conceptualisation of Scythia as a typical "barbarian land", Bede invented a Scythian origin for the Picts in his [[Ecclesiastical History of the English People|Template:Translit]].Template:Sfn
The Irish mythological text titled the [[Lebor Gabála Érenn|Template:Translit]] repeated this legend, and claimed that these supposed Scythian ancestors of the Irish had been invited to Egypt because the pharaoh admired how Nel, the son of Fénius, was knowledgeable on the world's many languages, with Nel marrying the pharaoh's daughter Scota.Template:Sfn According to the Template:Translit, the Scythians fled from Egypt when pharaoh drowned after Moses parted the Red Sea during the flight of the Israelites, and went back to Scythia, and from there to Ireland via Africa and SpainTemplate:Sfn while Nel's and Scota's son, Goídel Glas, became the eponym the Gaelic people.Template:Sfn
Modern period
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Drawing on the Biblical narrative and the Graeco-Roman conflation of the Scythians and Celts, early modern European scholars believed that the Celts were Scythians. It therefore became popular among pseudohistorians of the 15th and 16th centuries to claim that the Irish people were the "truest" inheritors of Scythian culture so as both to distinguish and denigrate Irish culture.Template:Sfn While these claims in much of Europe were abandoned during the Reformation and Renaissance, British works on Ireland continued to emphasise the alleged Scythian ancestry of the Irish, until it was discredited by early 19th century advances in philology.Template:Sfn During the early modern period itself, Hungarian scholars identified the Hungarians with the Huns, and claimed that they descended from Scythians.Template:Sfn Therefore, the image of the Scythians among Hungarians was shaped into one of "noble savages" who were valorous and honest, uncouth and hostile to "Western refinement," but at the same time defended "Christian civilisation" from aggression from the East.Template:Sfn
Large scale robbery of Scythian tombs started when the Russian Empire started occupying the Pontic steppe in the 18th century:Template:Sfn in 1718 the Russian Tsar Peter I issued decrees overseeing the collection of "right old and rare" objects to Saint Petersburg in exchange for compensation, and the material thus obtained became the basis of the Saint Petersburg State Hermitage Museum's collection of Scythian gold. This resulted in significant grave robbery of Scythian burials, due to which most of the Scythian tombs of the Russian Empire had been sacked by 1764.Template:Sfn In the 19th century, Scythian kurgans in Ukraine, Kuban, and Crimea had been looted, so that by the 20th century, more than 85% of Scythian kurgans excavated by archaeologists had already been pillaged.Template:Sfn The grave robbers of the 18th and 19th centuries were experienced enough that they almost always found the burial chambers of the tombs and stole the treasures contained within them.Template:Sfn
In the later 19th century, a cultural movement called Template:Ill (Template:Langx) emerged in Russia whose members unreservedly referred to themselves and to Russians as a whole as Template:Translit (Template:Langx).Template:Sfn Closely affiliated to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Template:Translit were a movement of Russian nationalist religious mysticists who saw Russia as a sort of Messiah-like figure who would usher in a new historical era of the world,Template:Sfn and their identification with the ancient Scythians was a positive acceptance of Dostoevsky's view that Europe had always seen Russians as being Asiatic.Template:Sfn The culmination of Template:Translit was the famous poem written in 1918 by Aleksandr Blok, titled Template:Translit (Template:Langx), in which he depicted Russia as a barrier between the "warring races" of Europe and Asia, and he made use of the racist Yellow Peril ideology by threatening that Russia was capable of stopping its "protection" of Europe and allow East Asians to overrun it.Template:Sfn
The scholar Adrienne Mayor hypothesised that the legend of the griffin originated among the Scythians, who came across fossilised skeletons of the dinosaur [[Protoceratops|Template:Translit]]. This hypothesis was contested by the palaeontologist Mark P. Witton, who argued that the imagery of the griffin originated in early Bronze Age West Asia.Template:Sfn The imagery of griffins in Scythian art itself was borrowed from the artistic traditions of West Asia and ancient Greece.Template:Sfn The scholar David Anthony has also hypothesised that the martial role of women among Scytho-Sarmatians had given rise to the Greek myths about Amazons.Template:Sfn However, according to the Scythologist Askold Ivantchik, the imagery of the Amazons was already known to Homer and was originally unrelated to the Scythians, with the link between Scythians and Amazons in Greek literature beginning only later in the 5th century BC.Template:Sfn
Culture and society
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Template:Main The Scythians were a member of the broader cultures of nomadic Iranic peoples living throughout the Eurasian steppe and possessed significant commonalities with them, such as similar weapons, horse harnesses and "Animal Style" art.Template:Sfn The Scythians were a people from the Eurasian steppe, whose conditions required them to be pastoralists, which required mobility to find natural pastures, which in turn shaped every aspect of the Scythian nomads' lives, ranging from the structure of their habitations and the style of their clothing to how they cooked.Template:Sfn This nomadic culture depended on a self-sufficient economy whose own resources could provide for its sustainance, and whose central component was the horse, which could be used peacefully to barter for commodities and services or belligerently in a form of warfare which provided nomadic fighters superiority until the creation of firearms.Template:Sfn 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 Iranic peoples, and archaeological evidence.Template:Sfn
Language
[edit]Template:Main The Scythians as well as the Saka of Central Asia spoke a group of languages belonging to the eastern branch of the Iranic language family.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A specific feature of the language was the transformation of the sound /δ/ (Template:IPAslink) into Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfn The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum: "Scytho-Sarmatian" in the west and "Scytho-Khotanese" or Saka in the east.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The Scythian languages were mostly marginalised and assimilated as a consequence of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages Slavic and Turkic expansions. The western (Sarmatian) group of ancient Scythian survived as the medieval language of the Alans and eventually gave rise to the modern Ossetian language.Template:Sfn
Social organisation
[edit]Template:See also Scythian society constited of kinship structures where clan groups formed the basis of the communityTemplate:Sfn and of political organisation.Template:Sfn Clan elders wielded considerable power and were able to depose kings.Template:Sfn As an extension of clan-based relations, a custom of blood brotherhood existed among the Scythians.Template:Sfn
Scythian society was stratified along class lines.Template:Sfn By the 5th to 4th centuries BC, the Scythian population was stratified into five different class groups: the aristocracy, very wealthy commoners, moderately wealthy commoners, the peasantry, who were the producer class and formed the mass of the populace, and the poor.Template:Sfn The Scythian aristocracy were an elite class dominating all aspects of Scythian lifeTemplate:Sfn consisting of property owners who possessed landed estates large enough that it sometimes took a whole day to ride around them.Template:Sfn These freeborn Scythian rulers used the whip as their symbol.Template:Sfn Their burials were the largest ones, normally including between 3 and 11 human sacrifices, and showcasing luxury grave goods.Template:Sfn The elite classes rewarded their dependants' loyalty through presents consisting of metal products whose manufacture was overseen by the elites themselves in the industrial centre located in the Scythian capital city at Kamianka.Template:Sfn
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,Template:Sfn hence why they were called Template:Translit (Template:Langx) in Greek.Template:Sfn By the 4th century BC, the economic exploitation of these free commoners became the main economic policy of Scythia.Template:Sfn The burials of these commoners were largely simple, and contained simpler furnishings and fewer grave goods.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Serfs belonged to the poorest sections of the native populations of Scythia and were not free and did not own cattle or wagons. Stablemen and farmers were recruited from the serf class.Template:Sfn Although Scythian society was not dependent on slavery,Template:Sfn the Scythian ruling class nevertheless still used a large number of slaves to till the land and tend to the cattle.Template:Sfn Slaves were also assigned to the production of dairy products.Template:Sfn
The Scythian society was patriarchal; while women from the upper classes were free to ride horses, women from the lower classes may have not been free to do so and may have spent most of their time indoors.Template:Sfn Among the more nomadic tribes, the women and children spent most of their time indoors in the wagons.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With increased Sauromatian immigration in the late 6th century BC, among whom women held high social status,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the standing of women improved enough that they were allowed to become warriors from the Middle Scythian period.Template:Sfn Within Scythian priesthood there existed a group of transgender soothsayers, called the [[Enaree|Template:Translit]] (Template:Lit), who were born and lived their early lives as men, and later in their lives assumed the mannerisms and social roles role of women.Template:Sfn Polygamy was practised among the Scythian upper classes, and kings had harems in which both local women and woman who had been bought lived. Some of these women were the kings' legal wives and others were their concubines. After the deaths of Scythian men, their main wives or concubines would be killed and buried alongside them. The wives and concubines could also be passed down as inheritance.Template:Sfn
Administrative structure
[edit]The Scythians were organised into a tribal nomadic state with its own territorial boundaries, and comprising both pastoralist and urban elements. Such nomadic states were managed by institutions of authority presided over by the rulers of the tribes, the warrior aristocracy, and ruling dynasty.Template:Sfn The Scythians were monarchical, and the king of all the Scythians was the main tribal chief,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn who was from the dominant tribe of the Royal Scythians.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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,Template:Sfn while 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.Template:Sfn
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 composed of three kingdoms which were in turn made of nomes headed by local lords.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Ceremonies were held in each nome on a yearly basis.Template:Sfn Such structures were also present among the ancient Xiongnu and the late nomadic Huns.Template:Sfn
The Scythians were organised into popular and warrior assemblies that limited the power of the kings.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although the kings' powers were limited by these assemblies, royal power itself was held among the Scythians to be divinely ordained: this conception of royal power was initially foreign to Scythian culture and originated in West Asia.Template:Sfn 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 grain trade with the Greeks.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
Scythian kings chose members of the royal entourage from the tribes under his authority, who were to be killed and buried along with him after his death to 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.Template:Sfn
Economy
[edit]The dominant tribe of the Royal Scythians originally led a transhumant warrior-pastoralist nomadic way of life<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> by spending the summer northwards in the steppes and moving southwards towards the coasts in the winter.Template:Sfn With the integration of Scythia with the Greek colonies on the northern shore of the Black Sea, the Scythians also soon became involved in activities such as cultivating grain, fishing, trading and craftsmanship.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
Pastoralism and agriculture
[edit]The Scythians practised animal husbandry,Template:Sfn and their society was highly based on nomadic pastoralism,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn During the 1st millennium BC, the wet and damp climate prevailing in the Pontic Steppe constituted a propitious environment which caused grass to grow in abundance, in turn allowing the Scythians to rear large herds of horse and cattle.Template:Sfn
Scythian pastoralism followed seasonal rhythm, moving closer to the shores of the Maeotian Sea in winter and back to the steppe in summer. The Scythians appear to have not stored food for their animals, who therefore likely foraged under the snow during winter.Template:Sfn The strong reliance on pastoralism itself ensured self-sufficiency,Template:Sfn the importance of which is visible in Scythian petroglyphic art.Template:Sfn Hunting among the Scythians was primarily done for sport and entartainment rather than for procuring meat,Template:Sfn although it was occasionally also carried out for food.Template:Sfn
The settlements in the valley of the Borysthenēs river especially grew wheat, millet, and barley, which grew abundantly thanks to the fertile black soil of the steppe.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This allowed the Scythians to, in addition of being principally reliant on domesticated animals, also complement their source of food with agriculture,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
Metalworking
[edit]Template:Main The populations of Scythia practised both metal casting and blacksmithing, with the same craftsmen usually both casting copper and bronze and forging iron.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The Scythians had practised goldsmithing from before their migration out of Central Asia.Template:Sfn This tradition of goldsmithing continued until the times of the Pontic Scythian kingdom.Template:Sfn
The metallurgical workshops which produced the weapons and horse harnesses of the Scythians during the Early Scythian period were located in the forest steppe.Template:Sfn By the Middle Scythian period, its principal centre was at a site corresponding to present-day Kamianka, where the whole process of manufacturing bog iron was carried out.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Other metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc were also smelted at Kamianka, while gold- and silversmiths also worked there.Template:Sfn This large-scale industrial operation consumed large amounts of timber which was obtained from the river valleys of Scythia, and metalworking might have developed at Kamianka because timber was available nearby.Template:Sfn
Trade
[edit]The Scythians exported iron, grain and slaves to the Greek colonies,Template:Sfn and animal products, grain, fish, honey, wax, forest products, furs, skins, wood, horses, cattle, sheep, and slaves<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> to mainland Greece on both sides of the Aegean Sea.Template:Sfn Also sold to the Greeks by the Scythians were 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.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Other Scythian exports to Greece included the metallurgical production of Kamianka,Template:Sfn Scythian horses,Template:Sfn and Scythian mercenary mounted archers.Template:Sfn
The most important export was grain, especially wheat,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The importance of the Black Sea coast increased in the later 6th century BC following the Persian Empire's conquest of Egypt, which deprived the states of Greece proper of the Egyptian grain that they depended on.Template:Sfn 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' Template:Translit and rural settlements, and therefore their grain-producing hinterlands. The resulting system saw the Greek colonies adjusting from agricultural production to trade of grain produced elsewhere.Template:Sfn 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 regained their independence and rebuilt their Template:Translit.Template:Sfn
Beginning in the 5th century BC, the grain trade with Greece was carried out through the intermediary of the Bosporan kingdom.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The Scythian aristocracy became the main intermediary in providing grain to the Bosporan Kingdom.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Inscriptions from the Greek cities on the northern Black Sea coast also show that upper class Greek families also derived wealth from this trade.Template:Sfn
The Scythians also sold slaves acquired from neighbouring or subordinate tribes to the Greeks.Template:Sfn The Greek colonies on the northern Black Sea coast were hubs of slave trafficking.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Beginning in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Scythians had been importing craft goods and luxuries such as vessels, decorations made from previous metals, bronze items, personal ornaments, gold and silver vases, black burnished pottery, carved semi-precious and gem stones, wines, fabrics, 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.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
The Scythians bought various Greek products, especially [[amphora|Template:Translit]] of wine, and the pottery such as [[oenochoe|Template:Translit]] and [[kylix|Template:Translit]].Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The island of Chios in the Aegean Sea produced wine to be sold to the Scythians, in exchange of which slaves from Scythia were sold in the island's very prominent slave market.Template:Sfn The Scythians also bought olive oil, perfumes, ointments, and other luxury goods from the Greeks,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn such as Scythian-style objects crafted by Greek artisans.Template:Sfn
An important trade gold trade route ran through Pontic Scythia, starting from Pontic Olbia and reaching the Altai Mountains in the far east. Gold was traded from eastern Eurasia until Pontic Olbia through this route. The conquest of the north Pontic region and their imposition of a "Template:Translit" created the conditions of safety for traders which enabled the establishment of this route.Template:Sfn Olbian-made goods have been found on this route until the Ural Mountains.Template:Sfn This trade route was another significant source of revenue for the Scythian rulers.Template:Sfn
Lifestyle
[edit]Nomads and pastoralists
[edit]The peoples of Scythia consisted of a mix of sedentary farmer populations and nomads.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn with the tribes living in the steppes remaining primarily nomadic and having lifestyles and customs inextricably linked to their nomadic way of life.Template:Sfn During these early periods, the nomadic Scythians did not build settlements, but instead lived in wagons and temporary tents while leading a mobile pastoral life with their herds and wagon trains.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With the integration of Scythia with the Greek colonies on the northern shore of the Black Sea, some of the nomadic Scythians started to settle down,Template:Sfn so that they had already started becoming semi-nomads and sedentary farmers by the 5th century BCTemplate:Sfn during the Middle period,Template:Sfn and they had largely become settled farmers by the 3rd century BC.Template:Sfn
The more nomadic Scythians lived in habitations suited for nomadic lifestyles, such as tents similar to the Template:Translit of the Turkic peoples and the Template:Translit of the Mongolic peoples that could easily be assembled and disassembled, as well as covered wagons that functioned as tents on up to six wheels.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
Beginning in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the Scythians started building fortified sedentary settlements,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn of which the most important ones were located on major routes which provided access to the major rivers of Scythia.Template:Sfn The largest and most important of these was the settlement of Kamianka,Template:Sfn built in the late 5th century BC and protected by ramparts and steep banks of the Borysthenēs river.Template:Sfn The Kamianka site was the location of the seasonal royal headquarters and the aristocrats and royalty residing in the city's acropolis,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which contained stone housesTemplate:Sfn and buildings built over stone foundations.Template:Sfn It was also the residence of a farmer population and of metalsmiths.Template:Sfn The houses of these farmers and metalsmiths were single-storeyed, with gable-rooves, ranged from 40 to 150 metres square in size and could include multiple rooms, and had clay-painted and felt-fabric adorned walls made of beams buried vertically in the ground; Kamianka also contained square pit houses made of pole constructions with recessed surfaces.Template:Sfn
Smaller Scythian settlements also existed, where were cultivated large amounts of crops such as wheat, millet, and barley.Template:Sfn
Diet
[edit]The Scythians ate the meat from the horses, cattle, and sheep they reared.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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 [[kumis|Template:Translit]] still widely consumed by Eurasian steppe nomads.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Scythians also consumed wheat and millet in the form of a porridge.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cooking was mainly done in cauldronsTemplate:Sfn and over fires using dried dung as fuel.Template:Sfn
In addition to these, the Scythians consumed large amounts of wine, which they bought from the Greeks. Unlike the Greeks, who diluted wine with water before drinking it, the Scythians drank it undiluted.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn
Clothing and medicine
[edit]Template:Main Template:Multiple image
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.Template:Sfn Scythian dress consisted of combination of various leathers and furs designed for efficiency and comfort on horseback, and was expensively and richly decorated with brightly coloured embroidery and applique work as well as facings of pearl and gold.Template:Sfn The Scythians wore clothing typical of the steppe nomads, which tended to be soft, warm, and close-fitting, made from wool and leather and fur and felts, and decorated with Template:Translitd and golden ornaments.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> Scythians wore jewellery usually made of gold, but sometimes also of bronze.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Scythian men grew their hair long and their beards to significant sizes.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nothing is known about the hairstyles of Scythian women.Template:Sfn The Scythians were acquainted with the use of soap, which they used to wash their heads.Template:Sfn Scythian women cleaned themselves using 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. The women then applied this paste over themselves and removed it after a day, leaving their skin clean, glossy, and sweet-smelling.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Scythian women also used cosmetics such as scented water and various ointments.Template:Sfn These cleaning practices were especially performed after funerals.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
A group of Scythian shaman-priests called the Template:Translit (Template:Lang, Template:Langx) was knowledgeable in the use of snake venom for medicinal purposes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ingredients they used included cannabis, as a way to relieve pain,Template:Sfn the analgesic oil of wild cabbage to stimulate circulation and to repel insects,Template:Sfn and the cleansing paste used by Scythian women, which had various medicinal properties.Template:Sfn In addition to human medicine, the Scythians were adept at veterinary medicine, especially for their horses,Template:Sfn although they also domesticated dogs.Template:Sfn
Art
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The Scythians may have had bards who composed and recited oral poetry.Template:Sfn
The physical art of the Scythians comprised part of the "Animal Style", where a specific range of animals were depicted in limited poses.Template:Sfn The style descended from the artwork of Central Asia and Siberia during the 9th century BC.Template:Sfn The "Animal Style" emerged in the 7th century BC,Template:Sfn during their occupation of Media, due to which the art of the Scythians absorbed West Asian themes.Template:Sfn Scythian art was then influenced by the Sauromatians,Template:Sfn Thracian art,Template:Sfn Greek,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Achaemenid Persian art.Template:Sfn The "Animal Style" later spread to the west and eventually influenced Celtic art.Template:Sfn It also introduced Shang Chinese metalwork, such as "cruciform tubes" used in harnesses, to the Hallstatt culture.Template:Sfn
Scythian art stopped existing after the early 3rd century BC, and the art of the later Scythians of Crimea and Dobruja was completely Hellenised.Template:Sfn
Religion
[edit]Template:Main The religion of the Scythians was a variant of the Pre-Zoroastrian Iranic religion which belonged to a more archaic stage of Indo-Iranic religious development than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems.Template:Sfn Unlike the Persians and the Medes, the Scythians and the Sarmatians were not affected by the Zoroastrian reforms.Template:Sfn The use of cannabis to induce trance and divination by soothsayers was a characteristic of the Scythian belief system.Template:Sfn
Warfare
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The Scythians were a people with a strong warrior culture,Template:Sfn and fighting was one of the main occupations of Scythian men, so that war constituted a sort of national industry for the Scythians.Template:Sfn Scythian men were all trained in war exercises and in archery from a young age.Template:Sfn The Aroteres were an especially war-like Scythian tribe.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, the small number of depictions of warfare compared to the number of representations of peaceful pastoralist activities in Scythian art suggests that their war-like tendencies of the Scythians might have been exaggerated.Template:Sfn
Strategy and tactics
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As equestrian nomads, the Scythians excelled at horsemanship,<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> and their horses were the most high quality in Europe.Template:Sfn Mounted archery was the main form of Scythian warfare.Template:Sfn The saddle was invented by the Scythians in the 7th century BC.Template:Sfn Scythian saddles had four raised bolsters at each corner, which, before the invention of the stirrup, allowed the riders to raise themselves without being encumbered by their horses' bouncing, thus allowing Scythian mounted archers to operate at very high performance levels.Template:Sfn Scythian saddles were dyed in various colours; they were also wholly decorated with wool, Template:Translit leather, felt, wooden carvings, and gold leaf.Template:Sfn The high king had the supreme authority over the armies; the local lords were in charge of the army of a nome; the heads of clans were in charge of war bands.Template:Sfn The nomes of the Scythian kingdom were in charge of spreading information about the war.Template:Sfn The Scythians fought in mass formations of mounted archers and were adept at using feigned flight tactics.Template:Sfn Serfs and slaves were subordinate to the warriors and accompanied them unarmed, and would be armed with spears only in extremely severe situations.Template:Sfn
The Scythians had several war-related customs meant to transfer the power of defeated enemies to Scythian warriors. For example, every Scythian warrior would drink the blood of the first enemy they would kill. They collected the severed heads of their enemies and bring them to their king, where they were scalped. The scalps themselves were tanned and used as decorative handkerchiefs or towels, or fashioned into leather-covered drinking bowls. Meanwhile, enemy corpses were flayed, and the skin was made into saddles,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn or used to make [[Gorytos|Template:Translit]].
Archery
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Their typical weapon was the very recurved or reflex composite bow that was easy to use for mounted warriors. Scythian bows were the most complex composite bows in both their recurved profiles and their cross-sections, highly engineered and made from wood, horn, sinew, and sturgeon fish glue through laborious craftsmanship, and were capable of delivering military draw weights.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although the shape of Scythian arrows changed with time, they maintained a basic structure. Scythian arrows had shafts made of reed or birch wood, with arrowheads mostly of bronze, and more rarely iron and bone.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
When not used, Scythian bows and arrows were kept in a combined quiver-bowcase called a [[Gorytos|Template:Translit]]. Scythian Template:Translit hung from belts at the left hip, with the arrows usually taken using the bow hand and drawn on the bowstring using the right hand, although the Scythians were skilled at ambidextrous archery.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Scythian bows and arrows might have required the use of thumb rings to be drawn, although none have been found yet, possibly because they might have been made of perishable materials.Template:Sfn
The Scythians coated their arrows with a potent poison referred to in Greek as Template:Translit (Template:Langx). To prepare this poison, the Scythians mixed decomposing adders with putefried human blood and dung.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn This combined snake venom and infections such as tetanus or gangrene from the dung, which thrived in the blood.Template:Sfn Thus, the Template:Translit caused such lasting harm that even minor wounds from arrows coated were likely lethal.Template:Sfn The Template:Translit was not used for hunting since the meat would not have been consumable.Template:Sfn The rotting stench of the Template:Translit also functioned as chemical weapons, aided by the ancient belief that foul miasmas caused disease.Template:Sfn Another poison used by the Scythians to coat their arrows was hemlock.Template:Sfn
Other weapons and armour
[edit]In addition to the bow and arrow, the Scythians also used weapons such as iron spears, long swords, short swords borrowed from Georgian Bronze Age weaponry, bimetallic pickaxes, called [[sagaris|Template:Translit]], war axes, lances, darts, lassoes, and slings.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Scythians used locally-made small hide or wicker or wooden shields reinforced with iron strips, often decorated with central plaques.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Some Scythian warriors wore rich protective armour and belts made of metal plates.Template:Sfn 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. This style, also used to protext horses, had been borrowed from West Asia. Helmets were in various types: cast bronze helmets with an opening for the face, called "Kuban type," were made by the Caucasian peoples; these were replaced by Greek-made Attic, Corinthian, Chalcidic, and Thracian helmets in the 6th century BC; and composite 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.<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>
Physical appearance
[edit]The Scythians looked similar to the populations of Europe,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and depictions of Scythian men in Persian sculptures and on Scythian gold objects show them as stocky and powerfully built, with strong facial features and long and thick wavy hair.Template:Sfn
Upper class Scythians were particularly tall with the men usually being over 1.80 metres tall, sometimes reaching 1.90 metres, and on some rarer occasions being even more than 2 metres tall.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn
Due to his unfamiliarity with Scythian dress, Pseudo-Hippocrates inaccurately claimed that the Scythians suffered from hypermobility of the joints.Template:Sfn
In Histories, the 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus describes the Budini of Scythia as red-haired and grey-eyed.<ref name="Day55">Template:Harvnb</ref> In the 5th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates argued that the Scythians were light skinned.<ref name="Day55" /> In the 3rd century BC, the Greek poet Callimachus described the Arismapes (Arimaspi) of Scythia as fair-haired.<ref name="Day55" /> 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.<ref name="Day55" /> In the late 2nd century AD, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria says that the Scythians and the Celts have long auburn hair.<ref name="Day55" /> The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Polemon includes the Scythians among the northern peoples characterised by red hair and blue-grey eyes.<ref name="Day55" /> 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.<ref name="Day55" /> 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.<ref name="Day55" />
Archaeology
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Scythian archaeology can be divided into three stages:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
- Early Scythian – from the mid-8th or the late 7th century BC to Template:C.
- Classical Scythian or Mid-Scythian – from Template:C. to Template:C.
- Late Scythian – from Template:C. to the mid-3rd century AD, in the Crimea and the Lower Dnipro, by which time the population was settled.
Archaeological remains of the Scythians include barrow grave tombs called "kurgans" (ranging from simple exemplars to elaborate "Royal kurgans" containing the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild-animal art), gold, silk, and animal sacrifices, in places also with suspected human sacrifices.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn
Mummification techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains. Scythian archaeology also examines the remains of cities and fortifications.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Genetics
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Template:Main The Scythians (specifically Western or Pontic Scythians, as in differentiation from Eastern Scythian Saka) primarily emerged from the Bronze and Iron Age population of the Pontic-Caspian and Central Asian Steppe (Western Steppe Herders or "Steppe_MLBA") associated with the Andronovo culture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn Western Scythians carried diverse West Eurasian and East Eurasian maternal lineages. Initially, the Western Scythians carried only West Eurasian maternal haplogroups, however the frequency of East Eurasian haplogroups rises to 26% in samples dated from the 6th-2nd centuries BCE.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The East Eurasian maternal lineages were likely brought by individuals sharing affinities with modern-day Nganasan people, as well as the ancient Okunevo culture.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
List of rulers
[edit]The relationships of the various Scythian kings with each other are not known for certain, although the historian and anthropologist Anatoly Khazanov suggests 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, and that Madyes and the later Scythian kings Spargapeithes and Ariapeithes belonged to the same dynasty,Template:Sfn and Ellis Minns suggested in 1913 that Idanthyrsus was probably the father of Ariapeithes.Template:Sfn
Meanwhile, the scholar Askold Ivantchik instead considers Madyes, Spargapeithes, and Ariapeithes to have each belonged to a different dynasty.Template:Sfn
Kings of Early Scythians
[edit]- Išpakāya (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:Reign
- Bartatua (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref> or Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:Reign
- Madyes (Median: Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn), Template:Reign
Kings of Pontic Scythians
[edit]- Spargapeithes (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Lykos (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Gnouros, Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Sauaios or Saulios, Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Idanthyrsus (Scythian: Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Sub-kings:
- Scopasis, Template:Reign
- Taxacis (Scythian: Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn), Template:Reign
- Argotas ?, Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Ariapeithes (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Scyles (Scythian: Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Octamasadas (Scythian: Template:Translit<ref>Template:Unbulleted list citebundle</ref>), Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Eminakes ? (Scythian: Template:TranslitTemplate:Sfn), Template:Reign ?
- Ateas or Ataias (Scythian: Template:TranslitTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn), Template:Reign
- king with unrecorded name, Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
- Agaros, Template:ReignTemplate:Sfn
See also
[edit]- Scythia
- Andronovo culture
- Scythian art
- Scythian languages
- Eurasian nomads
- Nomadic empire
- Early Slavs
References
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Template:Scythia Template:Russia topics Template:Ukraine topics
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- Scythians
- 1st millennium BC
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