Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

of gods, beliefs, and art
brushwood and set alight. No son of theirs was allowed to survive. Prophesying for a
Scythian king could be a precarious occupation.
The magic practised by those able to communicate with the supernatural world
through interpreting bark and sticks would have impressed the onlookers. It was in
the interests of all priesthoods that they should present themselves as different from
ordinary mortals. This was done through dress, behaviour, and secret ritual. The Enarees,
with their effeminate behaviour and transvestism, were distinctly ‘other’ and we
may suppose that other intermediaries like shamans behaved and dressed in ways
that distanced them from ordinary people. They would also have adopted equipment
and regalia to enhance performance. The bark and the bundles of sticks belong to this
category but there must have been much else besides. Headdresses such as the antlers
worn by Siberian shamans in the recent past are likely to have been favoured by some
and it is not impossible that grandly adorned horses, like the one with a headdress
10.1 Elaborate headdress worn by one of the horses buried in kurgan 1 at Pazyryk. Such elaborate confections,
transforming the horse into a stag, were probably worn only on ceremonial occasions and may
have been associated with shamanistic rituals.
273