Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
Leaving aside the detail, it is clear that the burial of the dead person’s riding horse
or horses close to the body, a practice deeply rooted in the late Bronze Age of the
Altai–Sayan region, had spread westwards across the steppe to the North Caucasus
by the seventh century. This belief system soon reached to the forest steppe zone but
was interpreted in a different way. It was not until the fifth century that it became the
norm across the whole of the Pontic region.
The burial of a female beside or close to a male was a practice widespread both
in time and space. In the Arzhan 1 kurgan the king and his female companion were
placed side by side in wooden coffins within the same burial chamber. A similar pairing,
though without coffins, occurred in the slightly later Arzhan 2 burial. Paired
burials are also known at Pazyryk and Berel, though in the case of kurgan 11 at Berel
the excavators argue that the female was a later addition.
In the Pontic zone the provision of a female companion for the king is known from
the seventh century, but the practice was unevenly distributed. In the early centuries,
from the seventh to the fifth centuries, it is evident in the North Caucasus, the
Crimea, and the forest steppe zone, but not in the open steppe. Only in the fourth
century does it become normal practice for the steppe elite to be so accompanied.
Scythian kings had several wives but the chosen companion may have been selected
from a wider range of available females: to be strangled at the burial ceremony may
not have appealed to the more ambitious wives, though some may have regarded it as
a privilege. We have no indication of how the choice was made.
The other retainers buried with the king were chosen for their specialist skills.
This is borne out by the royal burials of the fourth century that contained between
three and eleven ancillary burials. Chertomlÿk provides a very clear example. Here
the main grave complex contained the body of the king and his female companion,
evidently a person of high rank; three warriors, two well equipped; a cup-bearer surrounded
by amphorae; and two equerries in separate graves close to the pits containing
the horses.
The burial at Tolstaya mogila at Ordžonikidze tells a more complex story. Here
the king or aristocrat had been buried in a central grave, with his horses in separate
pits nearby. Not long after a side grave was dug to bury a much younger woman,
richly equipped. Next to her was a child of about two, equally provided with rich
grave goods. By her head lay a warrior equipped with bow and arrow, while at her feet
a young female had been placed close to a niche in the tomb wall containing kitchen
equipment and food. Towards the entrance pit was the body of another male not far
from the remains of the funerary cart, placed on the floor of the entrance pit. It is
tempting to identify her three attendants as a protector, a maidservant, and a driver.
What is particularly interesting about the tomb is that the body of the child had been
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