Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
this is clearly not so from the fifth century onwards, in the seventh and sixth century
the elite burials were found towards the edge of the steppe, in the Kuban region in the
south-east and in the forest steppe region crossed by the Dnieper to the north-west.
Herodotus clearly had access to information about two traditions, one representing
the contemporary situation, the other echoing a much earlier more dispersed pattern:
he simply conflated them.
The definition of a royal burial is not altogether straightforward but there is broad
agreement that the deciding factors are the height and volume of the burial mound,
the number of humans and horses killed to accompany the deceased, the use of
gold in horse harnesses, and the general opulence of the funerary equipment. It is a
matter of degree and the criteria can vary from one time to another. Of the known
fourth-century tombs it can be argued that eight were certainly, or probably, royal
including Solokha, Alexandropol, and Chertomlÿk. Heights vary from 14 to 21 m,
while the number of retainers buried with the dead king range between three and
eleven and horse burials between four and sixteen. There is much gold present and
some of the horse harnesses have gold attachments. But the strict application of
these criteria excludes a number of other rich burials including Kul’-Oba and Tolstaya
mogila which might be thought to qualify for royal status. The difficulty of
distinguishing between royal and aristocratic burials can be explained in part by
remembering that the Scythians had more than one king at any one time, one of
higher status than others. But there is another confusing factor. The relationship
between the height of the mound and the status of the deceased also varied over
time. The mounds of the seventh- and sixth-century royal burials in the Kuban and
forest steppe were significantly lower than those constructed in the fourth century.
Given these variables the distinction between royal and non-royal is likely to remain
somewhat ill-defined.
Preparing the Body
On the death of a king, says Herodotus, they dig a large quadrangular grave pit and
they prepare the body for its procession. These are two separate actions since the
grave pit is dug in the land of the Gerrhoi while the body is presumably prepared
wherever it was that the king had died:
They take up the corpse—the body is covered with wax, the stomach is ripped open
and cleaned out and the cavity is filled with chopped galingale, incense, celery seed, and
anise and sewn up again.
(Hist. iv. 71)
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