Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

crossing the carpathians
in its predatory ferocity and the way in which the ears and shoulder joints are turned
into spirals. The flagon dates from the early fourth century when the Celtic bands
migrating eastwards made their first contact with the descendants of the steppe
nomads living in the Carpathian Basin. These similarities were noted by early commentators
but more recently the literature on Celtic art has tended to downplay the
possibility of eastern inspiration in an attempt to give greater significance to Etruscan
influence. Yet to an observer less enamoured with Mediterranean civilization the
eastern contribution is unmistakable.
At a more homely level there is the pottery vessel from Lábatlan in Hungary, a vessel
in the La Tène tradition but decorated with a scene of predation with two wolf-like
creatures bringing low a deer. For all its crude simplicity it is a motif taken directly
from the more sophisticated Scythian repertoire.
Another construct common to the Scythian and Celtic worlds are pairs of beasts—
mirror images of each other—in close confrontation. This is a motif well represented
in the wood carvings decorating harnesses from the Pazyryk. In the Celtic world
‘dragon-pairs’ were a favoured decoration for the top of sword scabbards and, while
they do sometimes dissolve into palmette patterns of Mediterranean inspiration,
6.10 A scene decorating a pottery 6.10 vessel from Lábatlan, Hungary. The vessel is of a type used by the
immigrant Celts but the image of a deer being attacked by predators is highly reminiscent of Scythian art.
6.11 (Opposite top) Wooden pendant from Pazyryk, kurgan 1, showing two
deer face to face, a common motif in Scythian art.
6.12 (Opposite bottom) Two facing deer carved from wood from a ritual shaft of the La Tène period at
Fellbach-Schmiden, Germany.
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