Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
The Processions
In the Pontic steppe the royal body was put on a wagon and taken from tribe to tribe.
When they receive the corpse [they] do the same as the Royal Scythians. They cut off a
part of their ears, crop the hair close, cut around their arms, slash their foreheads and
noses, and pierce their left hands with arrows. Then they carry the king’s body on the
wagon to another of the tribes which they rule and those to whom they have come
before follow them. When they have carried the corpse between all the tribes under
their authority they are in the land of the Gerrhoi.
(Hist. iv. 71)
This is probably an abbreviated account of the full mourning ceremony that would
have included much feasting, which Herodotus elsewhere described as being a Scythian
practice.
Displays of grief are not uncommon in mourning ceremonies and there are records
of similar performances among later Central Asian communities. Ritual mutilation
is a public demonstration of the depth of personal grief occasioned by the loss and
this in turn is a measure of the attachment which the mourner felt for the deceased.
Put another way, self-mutilation is an expression of one’s commitment to a set of values,
in this case embodying kingship, and to the lineage of the deceased. It is a public
affirmation of loyalty. That said, the suspicion that the interfering spirit of the newly
departed was closely watching the proceedings would have been an encouragement
to show enthusiasm in the demonstration of grief.
Intriguing evidence that may relate to mourning practices comes from the filling
of the entrance shaft for the northern grave at Chertomlÿk. Here, among the debris
of feasting archaeologists found six phalange bones from human fingers, representing
at least three or four different people. Two of the phalanges showed cut marks.
The implication is that the removal of a finger or part of a finger may have featured
in the performances of self-mutilation. Since fingers are in limited supply, that such
as extreme act could have been contemplated, implies the expectation (or at least the
hope) that the new king would have a long life.
Feasting also played an important part of the mourning rituals and, as Herodotus
notes, each community visited would have been expected to make provision for
such an occasion, with the dead person taking part. The value of such events was that
they enabled the hosts to demonstrate their loyalty. Communal eating and drinking
also reaffirmed the bonds between people and the recounting of stories about
the exploits of ancestors, which no doubt accompanied such occasions, helped to
remind the participants of their common heritage.
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