Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bending the bow
Another type of construction was to use round
wooden sticks bound together. Shields of this kind were
found in four of the Pazyryk kurgans representing two
basic types, small rectangular shields 0.28 by 0.36 m and
larger shields with a convex upper edges 0.5 by 0.7 m.
In both types the carefully whittled wooden sticks were
threaded through slits in a thin leather sheet in such a
way as to create a geometric pattern. A broad leather
loop on the inside provided a handhold. A round shield
of similar construction, with a concave top, is shown in
action on the Solokha comb (Gallery, no. 5). The other
shield shown on the comb gives the impression of
being made from interwoven wattles but an alternative,
and perhaps more likely, interpretation is that it was
intended to depict a shield faced with iron scales. Shields
of this kind have been found at a number of sites. The
one from Volkovtsi was covered with strips of iron sewn
together onto the wooden backing with wire, the whole
being edged with leather. A unique shield from kurgan
9.22 Scale armour from kurgan 401 at Zhurovka in the Dnieper
region. The scales are of forged iron sewn, through holes in 3 at Khutor Popovka was made of wood faced with thick
their upper edge, to a leather backing. The scales overlap in such plates of bone. In all these cases an acceptable balance
a way that the stitching is well covered and three thicknesses of
metal were created.
between lightness and resilience was achieved.
To directly protect the body the Scythians used scale
armour girdles and corselets as well as metal helmets
and greaves. The girdles—wide bands of leather faced with plates of bronze and iron
and worn around the waist—were more common in the earlier period but were later
largely replaced by corselets. The effectiveness of metal waist girdles may have been
first noted by the Scythians active in the south Caucasus, where such items were in
common use among the local Urartian elite. Corselets varied considerably in style
but were essentially short-sleeved shirts covered in metal scales sewn on in rows that
overlapped in such a way that the body was protected by several thicknesses of metal.
In the early period only the shoulders or the chest were covered, but by the fifth and
fourth centuries it was more normal for the armour to cover the entire upper part
of the body. The warrior buried in kurgan 3 at Staikin Verkh, in northern Ukraine,
had scale armour covering arms and legs as well as his torso, while the warrior from
Novorozanovka, in addition to his armoured corselet, wore armoured leggings and
a leather cap with cheek pieces and a neck guard covered with iron scales. Armour
248