Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
focuses on material from the Pazyryk tombs but includes related finds. Work on
other frozen tombs continues. The cemetery at Berel, Kazakhstan, first explored by
Radlov in 1865 was the subject of a new campaign of excavation which began in 1998
and is briefly described in Z. S. Samashev, ‘The Berel Kurgans: Some Results of Investigation’,
in S. Stark et al. (eds.), Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of
Kazakhstan (Princeton, 2012), 30–49.
Of great importance to our understanding of the origin of the Scythian phenomena
has been the excavation of two kurgans at Arzhan in the Tuva province of Siberia.
Arzhan 1 has been fully published, in a German translation of the original Russian
report, as M. P. Gryaznov, Der Grosse Kurgan von Aržan in Tuva, Südsibirien (Munich,
1984). Arzhan 2 is fully described in V. Čugunov, H. Parzinger, and A. Nagler (eds.),
Der skythenzeitliche Fürstenkurgan Aržan 2 in Tuva (Mainz, 2010). The chronology of these
two key tombs is fully discussed in G. I. Zaitseva et al., ‘Chronology of Key Barrows
belonging to Different Stages of the Scythian Period in Tuva (Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2
Barrows)’, Radiocarbon, 49 (2007), 645–58.
Other important discoveries include the tomb at Issyk, Kazakhstan, published in
K. A. Akishev, Kurgan Issyk: Iskusstvo sakov Kazakhstana (in Russian) (Moscow, 1978) and
the kurgan cemetery at Filippovka in the southern Ural steppe, summarized in A.
K. Pshenichniuk, ‘The Filippovka Kurgans in the Heart of the Eurasian Steppes’, in
J. Aruz et al. (eds.), The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the
Russian Steppes (New York, 2000), 21–30. For an account of the more recent work see
L. T. Yablonsky, ‘New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka
(Southern Ural Region, Russia)’, American Journal of Archaeology, 114 (2010), 129–43.
Finally to the question of terminology. The recognition that there is a cultural continuum
extending from the Altai–Sayan Mountains to the Carpathians and beyond
has led to much discussion concerning the appropriateness of the term Scythian
when applied to the peoples of the entire region. Two papers help to explain the situation:
V. A. Bashilov and L. T. Yablonsky, ‘Introduction’, in J. Davis-Kimball, V. A.
Bashilov, and L. T. Yablonsky (eds.), Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age
(Berkeley, 1995), xi–xv and L. T. Yablonsky, ‘Scythians and Saka: Ethnic Terminology
and Archaeological Reality’, in J. Aruz et al. (eds.), The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Perspectives
on the Steppe Nomads of the Ancient World (New York, 2006), 24–31.
Chapter 2 The Scythians as Others saw Them
The historical sources dealing with Kimmerians and Scythians in Asia have been
widely discussed. Three useful papers introducing the principal issues are: E. D. Phillips,
‘The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and
363