Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the rise of the pontic steppe scythians
is a colossal construction. The earthworks of the east fort, for example, were 18 m
wide and 7 m high, fronted by a ditch 6 m wide and deep. One estimate is that the
defences alone would have taken eleven million person-days to complete. Occupation
began on a limited scale in the first half of the seventh century, but the settlement
was destroyed by fire before being reconstructed on a grander scale in the sixth century.
It was at this time that the two forts were incorporated into a single, much larger
system by the construction of the enclosing scarp-edge rampart. Thereafter the site
continued in use into the third century.
Excavations within the great enclosure have identified areas of occupation associated
with a range of productive activities. Iron was smelted on a large scale and horse
gear, weapons (including trilobate arrowheads), and cauldrons were manufactured.
Grain was collected for bulk storage and areas were set aside within the enclosure
for pasturing animals. Taken together the evidence suggests that Bel’sk served as a
market centre for a considerable hinterland. It produced manufactured goods and
presided over the redistribution of iron, cereals, animal products, and perhaps slaves
destined for the Greek market. Greek goods such as fine pottery and wine arrived
from the south in the fifth and fourth centuries for consumption or for onward trading.
Production, redistribution, and marketing on such a scale were likely to have
been carried out under the authority of the Scythian royalty.
How such a system worked in practice we can only guess but there was probably a
resident population of craftspeople present throughout, augmented at certain times
during the year by an influx of people from the countryside bringing in surplus grain
and livestock—perhaps as tithes for the king—which could be used in transregional
trade. The larger meetings may have been occasions for feasting, for communal worship
of the gods, and for negotiating social deals like marriage agreements. Such
occasions would have attracted foreign traders, particularly from the Greek ports of
the Pontic coast, entrepreneurs willing to make the 500 km journey in the interests
of a quick profit. Some sense of the considerable size of the population dependent on
the site can be appreciated by the many cemeteries in the immediate vicinity, some of
them containing more than a thousand burials.
That a vast fortified market could arise in the forest steppe close to the edge of the
steppe proper is something of a surprise. Already a place of some authority in the seventh
century, its spectacular development did not take place until the sixth century,
by which time trade with the Greek world was underway. It is possible, therefore, that
it was the Greek consumer market in the Pontic region, eager for grain, slaves, furs,
and other raw materials, that encouraged the spectacular growth of Bel’sk into what
soon became an international market. Sited on the edge of the forest steppe, it was
well placed to draw in surplus grain supplies and the many products of the forest as
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