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The Scythians were a semi-nomadic Central
Asian group who originated in Iran but roamed
across much of the Ukraine, Russia and the
Pontic Steppe from about 1000 BC through the
period of classical antiquity. They are known
historically from Greek records, and
archaeologically on the basis of their
extravagantly ornate metalwork in burial mounds
from above Greece all the way to Central Asia.
They appear in the historical sources of other
peoples – including the Assyrians, who they tried
to invade in 770 BC, and the Persians, who tried
to return the favour in 512 BC – but have left no
written evidence of their own. Socially they are
hard to assess, given the fairly mobile nature of
their way of life, although there is epigraphic and
graphic evidence of their appearance and some of
their customs. Inevitably, their funeral behaviour
is well understood, while much of their
technology seems in fact to have been acquired
or commissioned from settled communities.
Their main period of prosperity was in the
second half of the first millennium BC, fading
away in the face of competition from the
Sarmantians and the Celts, then attacks by the
Goths, at the turn of the millennium.
Herodotus mentions a “Royal Dahae” which was
the ruling elite of the Scythian forces, and which
might well have existed if the riches of the burial
mounds are any indication. Local governance was
carried out by elites with control over local
armies, who were sometimes hired out as
mercenaries – especially archers – to more
sedentary groups. They were by all accounts a
martial and fierce people, much associated with
noble barbarism, where women fought alongside
men (seemingly with similar status) and both
sexes were regularly tattooed with zoomorphic
designs that also appear in their artwork. As a
mobile way of life was not conducive to
metalworking or other craft/art pursuits, most
Scythian masterworks – of which there are an
inordinate number – were designed by the
Scythians but actually made by the Greeks. These
include jewellery, horse harnesses and weapons,
and include a large proportion of works in gold,
which they highly valued and viewed as a status
symbol. It is from the imagery on these items
that the Scythians gain their glamorous if
sanguineous reputation, although later works
demonstrate that they had started to adopt Greek
clothing and customs. Zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic imagery abounds, combined
with more mundane themes (milking cattle) and
some geometric motifs.
- (SF.357)
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