Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

scythians in the longue durée
tion growth, and driven by the innate desire of humans to be acquisitive. One important
factor was that the western reaches of the steppe were moister and warmer than
the east due to the effects of weather patterns flowing in from the Atlantic: the further
west one ventured, the more congenial was the environment for a pastoral way of life.
This created what has become known as the steppe gradient and was no doubt one of
the reasons why the flow of people to the west increased. But what probably sparked
the westward migration from the Altai–Sayan to the Pontic steppe beginning in the
ninth century was the improvement of weather conditions in the home region, freeing
people from the daily rigours of pastoralism practised in a harsh environment—a
freedom that gave rein to raiding and territorial expansion. This in turn encouraged
the emergence of war leaders demanding allegiance, and it was but a short step to
the development of predatory hordes willing to range widely in pursuit of reputation
and reward. Put another way, improved climatic conditions relieved the constraints
which had kept the natural aggressive instincts of people under control and so the
predatory nomad horseman was born.
This book has explored the story of the nomadic societies from the ninth century
bc, when the earliest movements to the west began, until the second century bc,
when new forces emerging in the east brought pressure to bear on the inhabitants
of Central Asia, thereby creating a further spate of westerly migrations. The earliest
predatory nomads to impinge upon the Pontic–Caspian steppe between the ninth and
seventh centuries bc brought with them a culture closely similar to that which had
developed in the Altai–Sayan region. While it is likely that the flow of incomers was
spread, perhaps continuously, over these two centuries, such documentary evidence
as there is identifies two separate peoples: first the Kimmerians, then the Scythians.
The archaeological record, however, shows that there was little significant difference
in their material culture that cannot otherwise be ascribed to gradual change or to the
influence of the indigenous folk culture on that of the incomers.
By the seventh century a degree of stability had emerged across the Pontic–ÂCaspian
steppe and Central Asia creating what many archaeologists refer to as a Scythian–
Siberian culture (or cultural continuum). The classical sources name a number of
individual tribes within this vast area, emphasizing their individual peculiarities, so
far as they were known, but both Herodotus and the Persians failed to see significant
ethnic differences between the Scythians of the Pontic steppe and the Sakā who
occupied much of Central Asia.
Over time the intrusive nomadic groups underwent acculturation, both as the
result of intermixing with indigenous people and through reciprocal exchanges with
the sedentary state societies with whom they came into contact. This was particularly
true of the Scythians on the Pontic steppe, who on their northern border met
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