Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

Dnieper
predatory nomads
sion no surprise. Pottery styles and burial traditions owe much to what had gone
before. But superimposed upon this are two alien traditions, one coming from the
Kuban culture of the Caucasus region, the other coming from much further to the
east from the Altai–Sayan. The Kuban influence is largely restricted to the appearance
of similar types of mace head and bimetallic daggers in the two regions and
need imply no more than exchange between neighbours, but the impact of Altai–
Sayan culture can hardly be explained in this way and almost certainly implies the
influx of new people arriving in the ninth century. Among the new items of material
culture introduced are distinctive daggers, horse gear (including bits with stirrupshaped
terminals), characteristic arrowheads, stelae carved in the manner of deer
stones, and animal art. The simplest explanation for these new traditions is that
bands of nomadic horsemen from eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai–Sayan region
Bimetallic daggers
Horse bits
Sceptres
0 500 miles
0 500km
Volga
Ural
Wisla
Don
Dniester
Danube
Black Sea
C a u c a
s u s
Caspian
Sea
N
THRACE
PHRYGIA
URARTU
ASSYRIA
4.20 The distribution of items of Kimmerian equipment such as bimetallic daggers, horse bits, and sceptre
tops show the extent of Kimmerian settlement and influence from the Kuban to central Europe.
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