Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

crossing the carpathians
was found at Ártánd in the Hajdu-Bihar region of Hungary. The grave goods included
an iron battleaxe and spear, a shield, and a suit of iron scale armour together with a
set of iron horse trappings and a number of personal ornaments. The deceased was
also accompanied by two bronze vessels, a Greek hydria probably made in Sparta
around 570 bc, and an early-sixth-century swing-handled pail common to the Hallstatt
culture of western Central Europe. It is a remarkable collection showing that the
dead man, or his lineage, was of sufficient status to be able to acquire luxury goods
from far and wide. The swing-handled pail probably came from the Alpine region
but most of the rest of the items were Scythian or Scythian-inspired. The horse gear,
battleaxe, and spear could have been made in Hungary but the scale armour, a highly
specialist product, is likely to have come from an armourer’s workshop in the Pontic
region. By what process the Greek hydria arrived is impossible to say. It could
have come directly from Greece through the Balkans, but it is more likely that it was
part of a consignment sent by sea to one of the north Pontic ports, there passing into
the Scythian sphere and eventually travelling on west through the Carpathians and
across Transylvania before ending up in the warrior’s grave in the middle of the Hungarian
pustza.
Another aspect of Vekerzug culture, which speaks of its close contact with the
Pontic steppe, was the sacrifice of horses found at a number of cemeteries, including
the type site of Szentes-Vekerzug. Horse sacrifice was a recurring feature, but the
numbers involved were never large: individual burials seldom had more than one
horse.
The Scythian-style artefacts and burial practices characteristic of the Vekerzug
culture spread westwards into the Little Hungarian Plain and south-west Slovakia.
This subgroup is named after the cemetery of Chotin near Komarno, where the usual
range of Scythian-style weapons and horse gear are found together with the occasional
horse killed to accompany the deceased.
Again we return to the question of how to interpret the archaeological evidence
in terms of the movement of people. There can be no doubt that there were very
close cultural links between the Vekerzug culture and the Pontic communities in
the sixth and fifth centuries bc and it must remain a strong possibility that at least
some of the leaders came from the steppe. The simplest model would be to imagine
a pioneer force of Scythians riding westwards in the early sixth century through the
Carpathian passes, some setting themselves up in Transylvania, while others rode on
to appropriate pastures in the Hungarian pustza. In this they were following routes
already opened up by horse riders from the steppe two or three centuries before. It
is possible that the warrior buried at Ártánd with his full panoply of armour and his
prized Greek hydria, was himself one of the pioneers. Once established, the pioneer
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