Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
In some societies the viewing of the body provided the occasion for gifts to be
made either to the deceased or to his or her family. There is no direct record that this
was the case among the Pontic Scythians, but a system in which so much wealth was
consigned to the ground with the king’s body is an act of conspicuous consumption
which would have required reciprocity benefiting the lineage of the deceased.
Thus by showing not only the king’s body but also the opulence of the material
goods accompanying him to the grave, the lineage was
displaying power through their readiness to destroy
their wealth. It was incumbent on the hosts receiving
the burial party to make a compensatory statement
by offering gifts. In some societies items donated on
these occasions accompanied the deceased to the grave.
There is no clear evidence that this was the case with the
Pontic steppe Scythians but the king buried in Arzhan 1,
in southern Siberia, was provided with a large number
of horses which, judging from their bridles, came from
many different regions. It is quite likely that these were
gifts either collected during the procession or brought
to the graveside by supplicants arriving from afar.
Preparing the Grave
Herodotus tells us only of one kind of grave, a large quadrangular
pit dug in the ground. This was, indeed, the
type of grave preferred from the seventh to the fifth century
in the Pontic steppe region. There are many examples
of such chambers. One group, found at Zhurovka
on the right bank of the Dnieper not far from Kiev, demonstrates
something of the range of construction techniques
in use. The shafts had large vertical oak timbers
set in the corners and sometimes in the middle of the
sides. Behind these the walls of the pits were lined with
horizontal boards or posts set upright, embedded in the
ground. The roofs were either made of horizontal tim-
11.2 The timber-built burial chamber of kurgan 400 at Zhurovka
excavated 1903–4 showing the entrance ramp where the horses pulling
the funerary vehicle were buried.
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