Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bending the bow
make them more comfortable for horse riders. The mounted warrior depicted on
the Solokha comb wears greaves over his trousers and is also wearing a Corinthian
helmet (Gallery, no. 5). Actual armour found in the tomb included a Greek helmet
that had been modified and a pair of greaves cut off at the knee so as not to impede
the grip of the rider.
If one stands back from the wealth of detail, it is abundantly clear that the Scythians
living in the Pontic region were both eclectic and inventive in creating weapons
and armour appropriate to their lifestyle. Those in more remote regions like the Altai
seem to have lacked the inspiration or the need to invest much effort in manufacturing
these war-driven embellishments, though the violent death of the man in kurgan
2 at Pazyryk is a reminder that aggression was ever present.
Evidence from the Graves
The many thousands of Scythian graves that have been excavated provide a wealth of
evidence about weapons and armour—far too much to review here. But one example
– the kurgan at Solokha, 20 km south of Nikopol — can be chosen to illustrate the
richness of the data and variations within.
Solokha is the source of the famous battle scene comb and of a number of items
mentioned in the descriptions of weapons outlined above but here we will consider
the equipment in context. Solokha was a huge mound 18 m high containing two elite
burial complexes. The one in the centre had been plundered in antiquity but the second,
set to one side, was found undisturbed when Russian archaeologists began their
work in 1913. It consisted of a deep shaft with a long corridor linking to the main burial
chamber out of which opened three recesses. The largest contained the principal
burial. The buried person was wearing a Greek manufactured gold torc around his
neck and was surrounded by his personal equipment. On his right-hand side lay his
ceremonial sword in a wooden scabbard covered with elaborate repoussé-decorated
gold sheeting with a second sword placed next to it. To the left beyond the swords was
a small side chamber created to contain a gold phiale (vessel) and a gorytos sheathed
in gold and silver decorated with battle scenes. It originally contained the bow, of
which nothing now survives, and 180 arrows recognizable by their bronze points.
Close to his right arm was the mace with a six-lobed head. Nearby were six silver vessels,
the famous battle scene comb, a bronze helmet, Greek in origin but modified to
suit the wearer’s needs, and a pair of Greek bronze greaves with the tops cut off.
At the entrance to the chamber containing his body a fourth set of equipment was
laid out: a short-sleeved tunic covered with iron scales, two spears, a sword, and a
number of arrows. Close by, along the north wall of the chamber, was the skeleton
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