Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

discovering the scythians
in 1986–90 and 2004–7 have between them explored twenty-six kurgans, mostly
dating to the fifth–fourth century bc, providing a detailed insight into the variety
of ritual practices associated with burial. Many burials were accompanied by items
of gold reflecting a vigorous animal art. Most Russian archaeologists agree that
Filippovka dates to the formative period of the Sarmatian peoples—horsemen who
were to oust the Scythians from their Pontic homeland and eventually to confront
the Roman empire.
What is in a Name?
The horse-riding nomads of Eurasia in the first millennium bc have come into sharp
focus as the result of a succession of excavations beginning in the eighteenth century.
These peoples were named by various ancient writers who had heard stories of
them or even, in rare cases, encountered them, but to assign these ethnic names to
archaeologically defined communities is difficult for many reasons. Nomads by their
very nature were always on the move, often crossing considerable distances in a very
short time. Dominant elites, moving into new pastures, would have acquired followers
who, thereafter, might have assumed their new leader’s affiliations. Elsewhere
discrete bands joining larger confederacies might have retained their identity and
clan name whilst also embracing that of the leading overlord. On the steppe mobility
reigned and ethnicity was a mobile concept. An ancient writer, brought up in a world
of cities and states, would have found the complexity of nomad behaviour and affiliation
difficult to comprehend. There would have been a tendency to treat the situation
as static when in reality it was ever changing.
An archaeologist, viewing the wealth of evidence deriving largely from burials,
cannot fail to be impressed by the broad cultural similarities stretching across
the steppe from the Sayan Mountains of Siberia to the Lower Danube valley. It is
possible to glimpse sudden transcontinental movements and far-flung connectivities
counterbalanced by distinct regional developments and to contain the whole within
a broad chronological framework. This great continuum of mobile horse-riding
communities dominating the steppe from the ninth to the third century may share
a Scythian–Siberian culture, but to fully appreciate its nuances one must remember
that it was made up of many different groups with different names, only some of
which, like Sakā and Scythian, are recorded in the historical sources. It was a society
in which movement, often rapid and over considerable distances, was a way of life. At
best all archaeologists can hope to do is to glimpse a few frames of this fast-moving
kaleidoscope.
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