Scythians are the common name for northern nomadic peoples (of Iranian (presumably) origin) in Europe and Asia, in ancient times (VIII century BC - IV century AD) Scythians also conventionally called their related semi-nomadic tribes, which occupied the steppe areas of Eurasia up to Transbaikalia and North China.
A lot of interesting information is reported by Herodotus about the Scythians, who constituted the bulk of the then population of the Northern Black Sea region. According to Herodotus, which is confirmed by archaeological excavations, the Scythians inhabited the southern part of the Black Sea region - from the mouth of the Danube, the Lower Bug and the Dnieper to the Sea of Azov and the Don.
Origin
The origin of the Scythians is one of the most difficult and controversial issues in historical ethnography. Some historians believe that the Scythians were an ethnically integral people and at the same time attribute them to either the Aryans or the Mongols (Ural-Altaians), other scientists, relying on Herodotus' instructions on the cultural difference between the Western and Eastern Scythians (farmers and nomads), consider that the name "Scythians" encompassed ethnically heterogeneous tribes, and refer the sedentary Scythians to the Iranians or Slavs, and the nomadic to the Mongols or Ural-Altaians, or they prefer not to speak about them definitely.
Most of the available data, speaks in favor of their belonging to one of the branches of the Indo-European tribe, most likely to the Iranian, especially since the scientists who recognized the Iranianism of the Sarmatians, the words of Herodotus about the kinship of the Sarmatians with the Scythians make it possible to extend the conclusions obtained by science for the Sarmatians to the Scythians.
Warfare
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The Scythian army consisted of free people who received only food and uniforms, but could take part in the division of the spoils if they showed the head of the enemy they had killed. The warriors wore Greek-style bronze helmets and chain mail. The main weapons are a short sword - akinak, a double-bent bow, a quadrangular shield and spears. Each Scythian owned at least one horse, the aristocrats had huge herds of horses.
The warriors not only cut off the heads of the defeated enemies, but also made cups from their skulls. Decorating these creepy trophies with gold and proudly displaying them to their guests. As a rule, the Scythians fought on horses, although over time, as the settled way of life, the Scythian infantry appeared. Herodotus described in detail the military customs of the Scythians, but perhaps to some extent exaggerated their belligerence.
Flourishing
IV century - the Scythian king Atey, who lived for 90 years, was able to unite all the Scythian tribes from the Don to the Danube. Scythia at this time reached its highest prosperity: Atey was equal in strength to Philip II of Macedon, minted its own coins and expanded its possessions. These tribes had a special relationship with gold. The cult of this metal even served as the basis for the legend that the Scythians were able to tame the griffins guarding gold.
The growing power of the Scythians forced the Macedonians to undertake several large-scale invasions: Philip II in an epic battle was able to kill Atey, and his son, Alexander the Great, went to war against the Scythians 8 years later. But Alexander could not defeat Scythia, and was forced to retreat, leaving the Scythians unconquered.
Tongue
The Scythians had no written language. The only source of information about their language is the works of ancient authors and inscriptions from the ancient era. Some Scythian words were written down by Herodotus, for example, “pata” meant “to kill”, “oyor” meant “man”, “arima” meant “one”. Taking excerpts of these words as a basis, philologists attributed the Scythian language to the languages of the Iranian family of the Indo-European language group. The Scythians themselves called themselves scuds, which, most likely, could mean "archers". The names of the Scythian tribes, the names of deities, personal names, and toponymic names have also come down to our times in Greek and Latin transcriptions.
What the Scythians looked like
What the Scythians looked like and what they wore is known mainly from their images on gold and silver vessels of Greek work, discovered during archaeological excavations in such world-famous burial mounds as Kul-Oba, Solokha and others. In their works, Greek artists depicted Scythians in a peaceful and military life with amazing realism.
They wore long hair, mustaches, and beards. They dressed in linen or leather clothes: long trousers-wide trousers and a caftan with a belt. Leather boots, intercepted by ankle straps, served as footwear. The Scythians wore pointed felt hats on their heads.
Images of the Scythians are also found on other objects found in Kul-Ob. For example, two Scythians are depicted on a gold plaque drinking from a rhyton. This is a rite of twinning, known to us from the testimony of ancient authors.
Scythian religion
A characteristic feature of the religion of these tribes is the absence of anthropomorphic images of the gods, as well as a special caste of priests and temples. The personification of the god of war, more revered among the Scythians, was an iron sword stuck into the ground, in front of which sacrifices were made. The nature of the funeral rituals may indicate that the Scythians believed in an afterlife.
The attempts of Herodotus, listing the Scythian deities by name, to translate them into the language of the Greek pantheon, were unsuccessful. Their religion was so peculiar that it could not find direct parallels in the religious ideas of the Greeks.
1) Fiala (Mid IV century BC); 2) Golden Scythian pectoral; 3) Gold earrings with scaphoid pendant. Gold, enamel; 4) A spherical cup, golden (IV century BC).
Scythian gold
Initially, gold jewelry was made only for the noble Scythians, but over time, even ordinary people could afford to buy jewelry, although the amount of gold in them was less. Scythians made cheaper items made of bronze. Part of the heritage is called Scythian-Greek art, and part is attributed exclusively to the products of the Scythians.
The appearance of the first gold jewelry dates back to the end of the Bronze Age, when people already knew how to process gold, giving it shape and appearance. If we talk about the most ancient gold jewelry of the Scythians, then its approximate age is 20,000 years. Most of the items were found in barrows. The first jewelry was found during the reign of Peter 1.
They used gold because they considered it a divine, magical substance. They were attracted by the brilliant appearance, and they considered the decoration to be a talisman even during battle. The thickness of the jewelry is a few millimeters, but they often looked rude, because the Scythians wanted to fit as much gold as possible into the product. There were massive breast ornaments in the form of plaques; they often depicted the heads of animals, while in volume, and not in a plane.
The most common were images of a deer or goat - animals that the tribes saw. However, at times there are fictional creatures, the meaning of which is difficult to guess.
1) Bracelet with sphinx protomes (Kurgan Kul-Oba, IV century BC); 2) The ceremony of "drinking the oath" (fraternization); 3) Golden comb with the image of a battle scene; 4) A plaque in the form of a figurine of a lying deer.
Tribes of the Scythians. Lifestyle
Although the material culture of the Scythians, which spread throughout this vast territory, had its own characteristics in different regions, on the whole it had features of a typological community. This commonality was reflected in the types of Scythian ceramics, weapons, horse sets, and in the nature of burial rites.
According to the way of economic life, the Scythians were subdivided into sedentary agricultural and nomadic pastoral tribes. Enumerating the agricultural tribes known to him, Herodotus first of all named the Callipids and Alazones - the closest neighbors of Olvii, founded by immigrants from Miletus on the banks of the Bugo-Dnieper estuary. In this city, Herodotus mainly conducted his observations.
Herodotus called the Callipids in another way - Hellenic-Scythians, to such an extent they were assimilated with the Greek colonists. The Callipids and Alazons in the list of Herodotus are followed by the Scythian farmers who lived along the course of the Dnieper at a distance of 11 days of sailing from its mouth. Scythia in the time of Herodotus was not ethnically united. It included tribes that were not related to the Scythians, for example, agricultural and cattle breeding, who lived in the forest-steppe.
Economic life
The economic life of most of the Scythian tribes reached a relatively high level. According to Herodotus, the Alazones sowed and ate, in addition to bread, onions, garlic, lentils and millet, and the Scythian farmers sowed bread not only for their own needs, but also sold it through the mediation of Greek merchants.
Scythian farmers plowed the land, as a rule, using a plow drawn by oxen. The harvest was taken with iron sickles. The grain was ground in grain graters. The inhabitants of the settlements were engaged in breeding cattle and small ruminants, horses and poultry.
Scythian nomads and the so-called royal Scythians, who, according to Herodotus, were the most powerful and warlike of all Scythians, inhabited the steppe area east of the Dnieper and up to the Sea of Azov, including the steppe Crimea. These tribes were engaged in cattle breeding and arranged their homes in carts.
Among the Scythian nomads, animal husbandry rose to a relatively high level of development. In the 5th-4th centuries they owned huge herds and herds of livestock, but they were unevenly distributed among their fellow tribesmen.
Trade
Trade was developed in the territory of Scythia. There were water and land trade routes along the European and Siberian rivers, the Black, Caspian and North Seas. In addition to war chariots and wheeled carts, the Scythians were engaged in the construction of river and sea flax-winged ships at the shipyards of the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, at the mouth of the Pechora. Genghis Khan took craftsmen from those places to create a fleet that was intended to conquer Japan. Sometimes the Scythians were building underground passages. They laid them under large rivers, using mining technology.
A busy trade route from India, Persia, China ran through the lands of the Scythians. Goods were delivered to the northern regions and Europe along the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, North Seas, Dnieper. In those days, there were cities on the banks with noisy bazaars and temples.
Decline. The disappearance of the Scythians
During the II century, the Sarmatians and other nomadic tribes gradually ousted the Scythians from their land, behind them were only the steppe Crimea and the basin of the lower Dnieper and Bug, as a result, Great Scythia became Small. After which the Crimea became the center of the Scythian state, well-fortified fortifications appeared in it - the fortresses of Naples, Palakiy and the Hub, in which the Scythians took refuge, waging wars with Chersonesos and the Sarmatians. At the end of the II century, Chersonesos received a powerful ally - the Pontic king Mithridates V, who attacked the Scythians. After many battles, the Scythian state was weakened and drained of blood.
In the 1st and 2nd centuries. AD Scythian society was already difficult to call nomadic: they were farmers, rather strongly Hellenized and ethnically mixed. The Sarmatian nomads did not cease to press the Scythians, and in the III century the invasion of the Crimea by the Alans began. They devastated the last stronghold of the Scythians - Scythian Naples, located on the outskirts of modern Simferopol, but could not stay for a long time on the conquered lands. Soon, the invasion of these lands began by the Goths, who declared war on the Alans, the Scythians, and the Roman Empire itself.
A blow to Scythia was the invasion of the Goths around 245 AD. e. All Scythian fortresses were destroyed, and the remains of the Scythians fled to the south-west of the Crimean peninsula, hiding in remote mountainous areas.
Despite the seemingly obvious complete defeat, Scythia did not last long. The fortresses that remained in the southwest became a refuge for the fleeing Scythians; several more settlements were founded at the mouth of the Dnieper and on the Southern Bug. But they too soon fell under the onslaught of the Goths.
The Scythian war, which after the events described by the Romans with the Goths, began to be called so because the word "Scythians" began to be used to refer to the Goths who defeated the real Scythians. Most likely, there was a grain of truth in this false name, since thousands of the defeated Scythians joined the army of the Goths, dissolving in the mass of other peoples who fought with Rome. So, Scythia became the first state that collapsed as a result of the Great Migration.
The Goths finished the business, and in 375 they attacked the Black Sea region and destroyed the last Scythians who lived in the Crimea mountains and in the Bug valley. Of course, many Scythians again joined the Huns, but there could be no question of any independent identity.