Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bodies clothed in skins
A text, preserved in the Hippocratic corpus, gives details of the process of separation
used by the Scythians to make curd and cheese.
For they pour the milk into wooden vessels and agitate it. And as it is agitated it foams
and separates. The fat, which they call butter (bouturon), separates to the surface, as it is
light, but the heavy solids separate to the bottom and they set it aside and dry it. When
it has become firm and dry they call it ‘hippake’. The whey of the milk lies in the middle.
(Diseases iv. 51)
The process of agitation, presumably carried out by slaves, was extremely labourintensive.
In recent times the Kalmyks spend three hours on a single separation.
In spite of the demands of a nomadic life, there would have been time for leisure.
One has only to glance at the stunning array of home crafts recovered from the Altai
tombs to appreciate the amount of time spent (presumably by women) on tasks
designed to brighten life through the use of colour and form. It is estimated that to
make the famous pile carpet from Pazyryk kurgan 5 with its one and a quarter million
knots would have taken an experienced worker, working every day, a year and a
half to complete. Although the carpet is Persian in style it could have been made by
Sakā living within the Persian Empire.
One of the leisure activities enjoyed by horsemen (and among some tribes horsewomen
as well) was hunting, and in particular hunting the hare using a short spear.
Just such a sport is depicted on two gold plaques from the Kul’-Oba kurgan. We have
already encountered the amusing story of the confrontation between the army of
Darius and the Scythians during the Persian campaign of 513/512 (above, pp. 42–4).
The two forces were drawn up facing each other when ‘it chanced that a hare started
up between them … and set to running. All the Scythians who saw it immediately
rushed off in pursuit with great confusion and loud cries and shouts’ (Hist. iv. 134). It
is not clear from the context that Herodotus fully appreciated what delight Scythians
took in the wild excitement of the hunt. Hunting was widespread, motivated largely
by the sport it provided. Spirited representations of wolf, roebuck, and hare in the
Pazyryk tombs leave little doubt that they were the prize, while the discovery of the
fur of leopard, steppe cat, squirrel, sable, otter, and ermine give an idea of the other
animals caught in the chase whose skins could be put to good use.
8.18 (Opposite top) Gold plaque of a Scythian horseman from the tomb of Kul’-Oba. The rider is probably
hunting a small animal. The figure has been cut out of a rectangular plaque.
8.19 (Opposite bottom) Gold plaque from Kul’-Oba showing a rider about to spear a hare.
224