Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the rise of the pontic steppe scythians
It was the market of both the Asiatic and European nomads and those who navigate
the sea from the Bosphorus. Some bring slaves and hides and such things that nomads
have; others exchange wine and clothes and other items of civilized life.
(Hist. xi. 2–3)
For the Greek traders who resided here, huddled in their own quarter, this was the
very end of the world. They were totally surrounded by nomads with only the sea
behind them. It required a 300 km voyage back to Panticapaeum before they could
once more enjoy the familiar comforts of civilization.
Coming Together in Times of Change
The Greek cities of the Pontic coast maintained their Hellenistic lifestyle but the population
living and working within the walls was very mixed at all social levels. The
cities attracted the Scythian elite and some of them, like the person buried at Kul’-
Oba on the Kerch Peninsula, chose to be buried in Greek style in a stone-built tomb,
while still retaining many aspects of their Scythian way of death. Herodotus tells the
story of the Scythian king, Scylas, of mixed Greek and Scythian birth, who embraced
city life in Olbia by wearing Greek clothes and building for himself a house ‘set about
with marble sphinxes and griffins’. He was careful, however, to keep his two lives
strictly separate, being aware that his kinsmen would disapprove of his philo-Greek
behaviour. He was right to be cautious. When the news got out that he had taken part
in a Greek religious ceremony, he was hunted down and beheaded. ‘Thus rigidly do
Scythians maintain their own customs and thus severely do they punish those who
adopt foreign habits.’ The incident that Herodotus was describing probably took
place in the early fifth century. By 300 bc, about the time that the Kul’-Oba prince
was buried, attitudes had dramatically changed and a level of integration had become
widely acceptable.
The Greek cities offered many attractions for the Scythian elite. They were, above
all, the source of luxury goods used in both life and death to proclaim exalted status
through conspicuous consumption. Wine and the vessels used to mix and to drink
it were imported in quantity, finding their way eventually into the tombs of the rich.
The cities were also places where skilled craftsmen were at work making exquisite
items, usually in gold or electrum, to suit the Scythian market. The subtle combination
of Greek and nomad art is one of the great achievements of the ancient world—
but it was a well-kept secret. The masterpieces made in the north Pontic workshops
were for the Scythian market, not for Mediterranean consumption, and they quickly
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