Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

predatory nomads
tion and a more mobile form of pastoralism that led in turn to the development of a
strongly hierarchical society with powerful leaders able to command the allegiance
and resources of increasingly large groups of followers. Invigorating it all was the
horse, providing mobility, speed, and the facility for men to work together as a horde:
humans had learnt from their horses how to become herd animals.
The Chieftains of Arzhan
Further up the Yenisei River system, 60 km to the north-west of the city of Kyzyl, a
minor tributary of the Yenisei, the River Uyuk, winds its way across a lush upland
plateau. The marshy river valley with its tall grass and reeds provides ample winter
fodder for flocks and herds while the surrounding mountain slopes offer fresh grass
in the spring and early summer. These ideal conditions have long provided a congenial
environment for pastoral communities dependent for their well-being on flocks
of sheep and, of course, horses. The attraction of the Uyuk Valley to past communities
is demonstrated by the large number of kurgans scattered throughout the landscape.
The distribution is particularly dense near the village of Arzhan, where two
of these kurgans have now been excavated, Arzhan 1 by the veteran archaeologist M.
Gryaznov in 1971–4 and Arzhan 2, 9 km away, by a Russian–German team in 2001–3.
It is no exaggeration to say that these two excavations have totally transformed our
ideas about Scythian origins.
Arzhan 1 was a massive kurgan, 110 metres in diameter and up to 4 metres in height.
It was enclosed by a stone wall and covered by large stone slabs forming a platform.
The complex internal structure focused around a central grave pit 5 metres square,
set within a grave chamber 8 metres square. The grave pit, lined and roofed with logs,
contained the bodies of an old man and a younger woman placed in wooden coffins
and once arrayed with gold, turquoise, and coloured fabrics. The grave had been
robbed at some time in antiquity leaving only fragments as clues to its former splendour.
The bodies had originally been laid on a thick bedding composed of fifteen to
twenty horse tails. Within the grave chamber, and arranged around the central grave
pit, were eight human burials, presumably retainers sacrificed to accompany the
dead leader into the afterlife. At the eastern end of the chamber were six of his horses,
their bridles decorated in gold.
Around the central grave chamber a complex timber structure had been built. It
was constructed of horizontally laid larch logs from trees 100 years old, carefully
trimmed with their bark removed and arranged to create seventy or so roughly rectangular
chambers. Within them were placed a range of offerings, most notably
about 150 horses, many of them with saddle and bridles. The horses were arranged
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