Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

crossing the carpathians
fied in the sixth and fifth centuries. The communities commanding the upper Sava
valley will have benefited from this interaction particularly if, as seems likely, they
were controlling the export of horses of steppe origin from the Hungarian puszta
to the Mediterranean. The concentration of Scythian-style weaponry and horses in
this upper Sava region could represent an influx of nomads but it could have resulted
from the adoption of aspects of nomadic culture by the local elites controlling trade.
A further possibility is that entrepreneurs from the Vekerzug culture set themselves
up as middlemen in the exchange system and lived in harmony with the local population.
At any event the horse traders of the Upper Sava would have found a ready
market for their produce, both in the Mediterranean and among the Hallstatt communities
of western Central Europe.
Scythian-style artefacts of military type—arrowheads, swords and daggers, battleaxes,
and spearheads—are also found widely across the North European Plain
in sixth- and fifth-century contexts, with particular concentrations in Silesia and
Greater Poland. While some will have arrived from the Carpathian Basin through
passes in the northern Carpathians such as the Moravian Gate, it is likely that the
Scythian communities occupying the upper part of the Dniester valley were also
involved since the headwaters of the Dniester are not far from the upper reaches of
the Vistula, which offers easy access to the forest zone extending between the Carpathians
and the Baltic.
Scythian trilobite arrowheads are not infrequently found in destruction layers
in hillforts, and one was actually found embedded in a body lying in a destroyed
fort gate. These have led some archaeologists to argue that they represent extensive
Scythian raids which were instrumental in the weakening of the local Lusatian
culture. But, as always, it may not have been this straightforward. While raiding is,
indeed, a strong possibility, it could be that the Lusatian polities employed Scythian
mercenary bands in their local conflicts or simply that they adopted Scythian war
gear and horses acquired through trade. In the confusion of unrest many different
interactions may have fuelled the aggression.
One find from the northern zone stands out as quite exceptional. It comes from
Witaszkowo (originally Vettersfeld), near Lubsko, close to the western border of
Poland, and comprises a collection of Scythian objects ploughed up by a farmer
in 1882. Most impressive is a large gold repoussé decoration in the form of a scaly,
blunt-nosed fish which once adorned a shield or gorytos. Other items include an
iron dagger, a sword in a gold-covered sheath, a gold phalera from a horse harness, a
whetstone in a gold surround, a massive gold bracelet, and a number of smaller items
of gold, including earrings. All date to the late sixth or early fifth century and are the
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