Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

predatory nomads
The construction of the great mound was careful and deliberate. Some observers
have suggested that it embodies a vision of the universe, with the plan of the timber
structures representing the radiating rays of the sun. There were certainly differences
in treatment between the eastern and western parts. To the east about 300 large
rounded boulders had been arranged in a crescent shape, and more horses were found
in the eastern sector of the mound than in the western part. Much has been made of
the number of horse burials, with the suggestion that the actual numbers may have
had a symbolic significance, each horse representing a day. It is difficult to validate
such theories but we can at least be reasonably certain that many more levels of meaning
were embedded in the great structure than are apparent to the modern observer.
And then there was the funeral feast, the detritus of which was deposited in 300
small stone enclosures arranged outside of the kurgan. In all, some 300 horses,
together with cattle, sheep, and goats, were slaughtered, though it is not known
whether this represents a single event or a succession of feasts spread over a period of
time. To proclaim the activity for all to see the skins of many of the horses with their
lower legs and heads still attached were set up on timber structures nearby as though
the beasts were still alive.
There is one final detail to note. A deer stone, similar to those found across northern
Mongolia, had been set up on the top of the mound. Only the bottom part survived
depicting a belt from which hung a ring-headed knife and a whetstone with a frieze
of animals below, including deer and pigs. Its presence is a reminder that the Arzhan
community shared beliefs with their southern neighbours on the Mongolian steppe.
4.17 The lower part of a deer stone was found at Arzhan 1. It shows a belt from which hang a dagger and
a whetstone. Below is a frieze of deer and pigs.
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