Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
signing books of condolence, partying (the Irish Wake), and processions. The process
of exposure may be very short or it may be long drawn out: its function is to demonstrate
to those concerned that the individual is really dead. This is particularly important
in the case of royalty, where matters of succession need to be settled quickly and
suspicions allayed. The period between death and burial is also a time for individuals
to display their ties of loyalty to the family of the deceased and, through offerings, to
demonstrate publicly the esteem in which the dead person (and therefore his or her
lineage) is held. In other words it is a reaffirmation of the social hierarchy. If sufficient
evidence exists to allow the process to be reconstructed in all its complexity, rites of
passage associated with death can be highly informative about the nature of a society.
Scythian Sources
Evidence for Scythian burial practices is unusually rich. As we have seen, since the
beginning of the eighteenth century the burial mounds of the elite have attracted attention,
first of treasure hunters and later of antiquarians and archaeologists. It is estimated
that about five thousand Scythian burials have now been excavated under some
kind of archaeological control, providing an exceptionally large sample upon which
to base detailed analyses. In the majority of the cases the organic component of the
ensemble has disintegrated, but in the frozen tombs of the Altai Mountains much of it
has survived, providing details of material culture seldom available in burials from the
open steppe. Since the skin and flesh of the deceased also survives in the permafrost
conditions, the methods used to prepare the body can also be studied in some detail.
The rich array of archaeological evidence is augmented by Herodotus’ long and
intriguing description of Scythian royal funerals (Hist. iv. 71–2), which appears to be
based on a report provided by a very well informed correspondent, probably a Scythian
with first-hand knowledge of the procedures. The space devoted to the account
reflects Herodotus’ deep interest in the matter and his realization, as an astute historian,
that rituals of death are highly revealing about the values of the living.
A recent detailed study, comparing Herodotus’ text with the reality of the burials
revealed in excavation, confirms the accuracy of the account. Herodotus was writing
in the middle of the fifth century at a time when royal burial practices were undergoing
change. While his informant described the traditional method, which involved
placing the body at the bottom of a large quadrangular pit in a chamber roofed over
with timbers covered with mats, other styles of burial were being employed at the
time incorporating wooden and stone chambers built on the surface of the ground.
His decision to describe only the long established type, which comprised about 70
per cent of all burials of the seventh to fifth centuries, suggests a degree of conserva-
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