Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bodies clothed in skins
leather, another of leather lined with sable, while a
third was made of a double thickness of fine white
felt. Surprisingly trousers are only rarely found but
footwear is well represented. The man in kurgan 2
at Pazyryk wore short stocking boots of felt with a
leather sole sewn on. The top was edged with a band
of dark red felt ornamented with blue, green, and
white felt arranged to create plant and animal motifs.
Hats found in kurgans 2 and 3 were tall and made
of felt with flaps extending down over the neck and
ears and tied under the chin. One was decorated with
pieces of thin leather. Overall the Altai male clothing
from the frozen tombs was much like that depicted
on the metal vessels from the Pontic region, but what
it shows in brilliant detail is the variety of materials
used, especially the importance of felt, and the love of
bright, contrasting colour.
Another great advantage of the frozen tombs is that
they preserve the remains of female clothing virtually
unknown in the Pontic iconography. The female from
kurgan 2 at Pazyryk wore a caftan with tight sleeves
made from squirrel fur, with the fur inwards. The lower
border was edged with bands of black colt’s hair, otter
fur, and another fur dyed blue, while the outer surface
of the garment and the sleeves were sewn over with
large stitches of sinew thread or covered with bands
of cut-out leather patterns dyed dark red. She was also
provided with two pairs of boots. One was made from
dark red leather entirely covered with ornaments made
from cut-out leather covered with gold foil and stitching
of sinew covered in tin foil. The second pair was kneelength,
made from brown leather, and had the sole decorated
with diamonds made up of pyrite crystals edged
with thread wrapped in tinfoil which would have been
displayed when the woman was sitting cross-legged or
with legs outstretched.
8.5 Stockings from kurgan 2 at Pazyryk. Made from thin white
felt trimmed around the top with applied strips of white felt
embroidered with coloured thread to create different forms of
palmette patterns.
The female buried in the frozen tomb at Ak-Alakha was also brightly dressed. She
wore a yellow silk shirt, a red-and-white striped woollen skirt and thigh-length white
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