Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
writers as ‘noble savages’ whose simple lifestyle was commendable is a theme developed
in D. Braund, ‘Greeks, Scythians and Hippake or “Reading Mare’s-Cheese” ’, in
G. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Ancient Greeks West and East (Leiden, 1999), 521–30. For the more
elevating story of the Scythian philosopher, Anacharsis see C. Schubert, Anacharsis
der Weise: Nomade, Skythe, Grieche (Tübingen, 2010).
The tombs of the Macedonian royal household excavated at Vergina are conveniently
described in M. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs and the Ancient City (Athens,
1987). The results of a new analysis of the cremation found in tomb II are given in T. G.
Antikas and L. K. Wynn-Antikas, ‘New Finds from the Cremains in Tomb II at Aegae
point to Philip II and a Scythian Princess’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26
(2016), 682–92.
The background to Ovid’s exile in Tomis is explored in A. Radulescu, Ovid in Exile
(Oxford, 2002). Ovid’s poem Tristia (Sorrows) and other writings from his period in
exile are translated and discussed in P. Green, The Poems of Exile: ‘Tristia’ and ‘The Black
Sea Letters’ (Berkeley, 2005).
Chapter 3 Landscape with People
The world of the steppe is best appreciated by riding across it, but if this is not possible
then begin by reading the descriptions of those who have. A delightful introduction
is Anton Chekhov’s novella, The Steppe: The Story of a Journey, originally published
in 1888, a year after he had spent time travelling through the Ukrainian steppe to
recover from overwork. A rather different work, but including lyrical passages about
the steppe, is the German travel writer Johann Georg Kohl’s account of his travels in
Russia, Russia and the Russians, in 1842, first published in English in 1843. He was viewing
the land at the time when tracts of virgin steppe were beginning to be ploughed
up for agriculture.
To begin to understand the complexities of human interaction with the steppe
landscape, A. M. Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World (2nd edn., Madison, 1994)
provides a powerful introduction, but it should be remembered that the first (Russian)
edition was published in 1983 and there has been much work since which has
challenged some of Khazanov’s conclusions. Two books which provide broad-ranging
and detailed studies of human communities in the steppe and adjacent ecozones
in the Bronze Age can be recommended: P. L. Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia
(Cambridge, 2007) and M. D. Frachetti, Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in
Bronze Age Eurasia (Berkeley, 2008). Together they provide the essential background to
the region in which the Scythians were to develop in the first millennium bc.
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