Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

crossing the carpathians
0 200 miles
0 200km
Uppe r Danube
Morava
Tisza
Daggers Axes Horse gear Scale armour
Raab
L. Balaton
Körös
Mureş
Middle D a nube
Drave
Tisza
Save
N
Alt
Adriatic Sea
6.3 Quantities of Scythian and Scythian-style artefacts reached the Carpathian Basin. The distribution of
daggers, battleaxes, bridle side-pieces, and scale armour show areas where Scythian influence was most
concentrated.
and exchange or of periodic raids. Indeed, there is every probability that these two
modes of engagement did form a persistent feature of life in the sixth and fifth centuries,
but the sheer range and density of the material and its appearance in distinctive
graves is strongly suggestive that migration and settlement played a significant part.
We can be reasonably certain that there were intrusive bands of male warriors, but
whether they brought families with them or settled among the indigenous population
taking local wives is more difficult to say.
There are two particular concentrations of material that probably reflect Scythian
settlement, one in Transylvania centring on the valley of the Mureş River, the other
in the Great Hungarian Plain extending westwards into the Little Hungarian Plain.
The Transylvanian group is represented by several hundred burials, both inhumations
and cremations, with the inhumations usually buried in simple catacomb
graves. The grave goods include weapon sets and jewellery of Scythian type dating
from the sixth and fifth centuries but many elements of the culture, such as pottery
styles, are rooted in indigenous traditions and suggest a degree of interaction with
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