Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bodies clothed in skins
8.20 Man playing a musical instrument like a lyre. This is one of the figures depicted on a gold, repoussédecorated
diadem from the kurgan of Sachnovka (see Gallery, no. 8).
In more mellow moments the Scythians enjoyed music. An embossed headband
from the kurgan at Sachnovka (Gallery, no. 8) shows a bearded man playing a lyre.
Pan pipes made from bird bones were found in kurgan 5 at Skatovka in the lower
Volga region and references are made to flutes crafted from eagle bone by some of the
Scythian’s northern neighbours. The Pazyryk tombs also have details to add. In kurgan
2 a remarkable harp-like stringed instrument was recovered and several of the
tombs also contained drums made from two halves of an ox horn stitched down one
edge with a membrane stretched over one end. Music would no doubt have accompanied
rituals and ceremonies but it is tempting to imagine the tired horseman settling
down with his kin to enjoy an evening of singing and dancing. But it was not to all
tastes. One Scythian king is claimed to have said that he preferred the neighing of his
horse to the strumming of music.
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