Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the rise of the pontic steppe scythians
of about 45 km from the series of rapids which prevent further upriver transportation.
Six of the nine largest kurgans of the fifth century—the time when Herodotus
was writing—lie within this radius and the pattern continues into the fourth century,
when twelve of the sixteen largest kurgans are concentrated in the same area. This
offers support to Herodotus’ statement that ‘the tombs of the kings are in the land of
the Gerrhoi, the last point where the Borysthenes (Dnieper) is still navigable’ (Hist.
iv. 71). The more peripheral distribution of the seventh and sixth centuries may represent
a different pattern of behaviour, the pioneering royalty preferring to use their
spectacular burial mounds to define the boundaries of their territories.
Conflict and Change on the Pontic Steppe
The inexorable movement of nomadic hordes from the Caspian steppe westwards
into the territory occupied by the Scythians intensified in the fifth century and by the
fourth century classical writers give names to some of the newcomers. The Siraces
move southwards into the north Caucasus, while the Syrmatai crossed the Don into
Scythia proper (above, p. 120). In all probability a gentle flow continued during the
fourth and third centuries, but at the beginning of the second century Âeverything
changed as the tempo of immigration intensified. The historian Diodorus, writing in
the first century bc but using earlier sources, says that the Sarmatians, having become
much stronger, plundered large parts of Scythia and turned much of the country into
a desert by exterminating the Scythian population (Hist. ii. 43). Even allowing for a
degree of exaggeration this sounds like a significant upheaval which could explain
the widespread disruptions seen in the archaeological record. It was at this time that
the great inland trading bases were abandoned. The incoming Sarmatians belonged
to the group called Roxolani, whose home, in the fourth century, was centred on the
steppe to the east of the Volga (below, pp. 319–24). They were soon to take over the
Pontic steppe east of the Dnieper, leaving only the Crimean peninsula and part of the
coastal region around the estuaries of the Dnieper and Bug as refuges for the remnant
Scythian population.
To the west of the Dnieper the situation was somewhat confused. Sometime in
the early third century Celtic war bands crossed the Carpathians and began to settle
in the valleys of the Dniester and Pruth and around 230 bc Pompeius Trogus talks of
the people living in this region as Bastarnae. While the Celtic presence can be recognized
in the archaeological record, the actual immigrants were probably not numerous
and it is better to regard the Bastarnae as a cosmopolitan mix of Celts, Getae, and
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