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There were several tribes present often at
the same time, and they lived scattered and territorially intermingled. Broadly
speaking we can say that Scythians, Thracians and Neuris populated the central
and the western parts of the area, the Sarmatians around the river Don and the
southern part of the Volga, while the tribes of Finnish and Chud origins were
to the north. There are several versions on the origin of the Scythians. In all
probability the core, known as Royal Scythians, was of Iranian origin. Until
the eight century B.C. they lived in the Altai area where their artistic taste
was exposed to the Chinese and Persian Sassanides cultures. They then moved to
the Black sea shores, where under their name we meet the Scythian plowmen
(Aroteres) and several other tribes, probably of Slavic or some other origin,
such as the Neuris. The first historic information about these nomadic and
primitive tribes came from Greek historians, primarily Herodotus. In the fifth
century B.C. he visited and described the Greek colonies that were founded on
the northern shores of the Black Sea and created almost a legend about the
Scythians. The first to come here in the seventh century B.C. were the
enterprising Greek merchants and sailors from the famous port of Miletus in
Asia Minor,. One of their first trade outposts was Olbia, followed by
Khersonesus (Korsun), Palakion (Balaclava), Theodosia (Feodosiya), Tanais
(Azov) Panticapaeum and others. For further discussion of the Scythians please
see our articles from the Encyclopedia Britannica and from our visits to
Crimea. Scythian people
- article from Encyclopedia Britannica; Scythian people - article
"The people that milk mares," as Herodotus called the Scythians,
were not interested in literacy no did they care for their history. The Greek
way of life impressed them favorably, however, and they were fascinated by
Greek art and culture. It happened that the Greek settlements were there not
only to promote the exchange of goods, but they also became in a short time
very important cultural centers from which Greek culture and arts radiated for
centuries over the whole area, contributing enormously to the formation and
development of the artistic tastes of several peoples. Quite differently from
many other nations, ancient Greeks offered more than they took from those with
whom they established contacts. Judging by the fine objects that have been
excavated from the rich sepulchral mounds (kurgani) all over Southern Russian,
Greek artistic influence was so strong that we can almost speak of a
Greco-Scythian style. The upper classes, including the ruling family, and those
who lived near the Greek colonies were the first to come under Greek influence
though one of the Scythian kings, Skila, was assassinated for neglecting
Scythian and accepting Greek customs and rituals. Greek influences continued to
grow and spread. Local artists quickly accepted Greek motifs that they saw on
imported items or learned about them from their Greek masters. The response was
more than favorable, and by the fifth century B.C. the Scythians had developed
a taste for elaborate artistry. The golden ring, a wood sculptured griffin with
a head of a deer in his mouth, or any other piece from the Scythian collection
in Petersburg's Hermitage Museum are beautiful examples of an extraordinary
craftsmanship and exquisite aesthetic consciousness. Deer, birds of prey,
horses, rabbits, wild goats, panthers and lions were their preferred animals.
They serve not only as decorative elements for jewelry, utensils and weapons
but reflect also the Scythian nomadic life as hunters and warriors. In the
absence of literacy, the Scythians used art to depict their lives. Most of
these fine items were made of gold and they are so reminiscent of Greek
treasures that one can hardly avoid questioning their originality. They were
found in sepulchral mounds (kurgany) of the " royal Scythians" that
were discovered in several parts of the endless steppes near the Azov Sea and
all the way to the Altai region where the Scythian tribes once lived. For more
information about the Greek settlements in Crimea please go to our main
listing page that describes our many
sections on Crimea.
Similar to the Egyptians, the Scythians also believed in life after death.
This was probably one of the reason they ignored scriptures and took so little
interest in their history. They were indeed much concerned, however, about
posthumous life. For this reason when a chieftain died, with his body were
buried alive in a tumulus, his favorite wife, his servants, guards, horses, and
in some cases, even musicians. With these went his objects of power; arms and
jewelry, food and drinks, kitchen utensils, amphoras, etc., all he needed to
continue a normal life. Excavations of Royal Scythian tumuli made possible the
formation of a picture of how nomadic tribal chieftains lived in this area
about twenty five centuries ago. A combination of Scythian fascination for gold
and beauty, their refined artistic taste, and the astonishing cruelty of their
rituals made this possible.
Unfortunately out of hundreds of tumuli only few reached us intact or only
partly plundered, and yet the abundance of archeological treasures in Russia is
fascinating. After the second World War increased efforts were made by Soviet
archaeologists. Wars, invasions, incendiaries and all sorts of destructions
swept often over Southern Russia. If sepulchral mounds were part of the
Scythians religious beliefs, there were many reasons for them to bury their
precious possessions deep into the ground. At that time this was the safest way
to preserve them. There is no information to confirm whether barbarians knew
about the rich graves or if they were interested in unearthing them. Systematic
pillaging needed more civilized people, and it was first organized on a large
scale by Venetian and Genoese merchants who in the second half of the 13th
century, established their trade centers on the northern and eastern shores of
the Black Sea. Most of the gold objects they got hold of was used for striking
their own gold coins, and the material from ancient Greek edifices was used for
constructing new buildings. Italians acted here similarly to the Christians in
the 7th century when Roman marble palaces and buildings were transformed into
churches. When Russians got hold of these territories they were primarily
interested in finding local construction material and again several ancient
monuments were dismembered and old stones used for building administrative
housing and military fortifications. Demolitions were done by illiterate
soldiers, Cossacks and fugitives who plundered everything made of gold and
silver. Beautiful pottery of fired clay, often of rare artistic value, was
simply broken because of its size and the risk of being caught by the army
officers. The treasuries of the famous Koul-Oba tumulus were discovered in 1830
because soldiers were looking for stones in its vicinity. Though the state has
now an army of trained archaeologists to prevent similar cases, they still
occur from time to time. Occasionally we hear that some treasuries were
recovered by purest chance. Thus in 1967, not far from Odessa, excavators found
a copper pitcher full of Greek coins that date from 6th to 4th centuries B.C.
made of a natural alloy of gold and silver. The workers divided them between
themselves and gave them to their children to play with.
The Royal Scythians were the best organized and often very aggressive.
Well disciplined and excellent horse-riders, they undertook several military
ventures and went as far as Persia and Egypt. A serious threat to their
pillaging raids, often carried out throughout the Near East, came from Persian
king Darius. He mainly tried to engage them in a decisive battle and crush
them, but the Scythians successfully defended themselves by adopting guerilla
tactics of sudden attacks and continuous retreat into the endless steppes with
scorched land left behind them. Some two centuries later they used the same
strategy when the army of Alexander the Great marched against them. Destiny was
that the Russians escaped several defeats simply by following Scythian military
tactics. The enormous area of their county, that made possible an endless
retreat, was one of the factors that saved Russia through centuries from
defeats and often broke the back of tough invaders including Napoleon and the
Nazis.
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