Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

scythians in the longue durée
12.2 Gold pendant, known as the Dragon Master, inset with turquoise. From the tomb of Tillya Tepe in
northern Afghanistan (first century ad). The style reflects the strong influence of steppe art at the time of
the Kushan empire.
obscure and still much in debate, but that their racial type was predominantly Mongoloid
suggests that they came from the east. Some writers have argued that they
were a branch of the Xiongnu driven to migrate to the west by the advance of the
Han Chinese, which began in 133 bc. The argument is based on the similarity in the
names of both, which may have derived from the same root, and certain aspects of
a shared material culture. Coming from the east they seem to have carved out a territory
north of the Tian Shan, possibly extending from southern Siberia and Dzungaria
to eastern Kazakhstan, and there over the years developed a unified leadership
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