Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
The relationship of the Scythian nomads to events south of the Caucasus is
explored in A. I. Ivantchik, ‘The Scythian “Rule over Asia”: The Classical Tradition
and Historical Reality’, in G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Ancient Greeks West and East (Leiden,
1999), 479–520. For an earlier exploration of the evidence see E. D. Philips, ‘The Scythian
Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology’,
World Archaeology, 4 (1972), 129–38. The broader context is provided by A. I. Ivantchik,
Kimmerier und Skythen: Kulturhistorische und chronologische Probleme der Archäologie
der osteuropäischen Steppen und Kaukasiens in vor- und frühskythischer Zeit (Moscow and
Mainz, 2001). More recent studies of significance include A. Hellmuth, ‘The Chronological
Setting of the So-Called Cimmerian and Early Scythian Material from Anatolia’,
Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 45 (2008), 102–22 and Ş. Dönmez, ‘The Central Black
Sea Region of Turkey during the Iron Age: The Local Cultures and Eurasian Horse
Riding Nomads’, in D. V. Grammenos and E. K. Petropoulos (eds.), Ancient Greek
Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (Oxford, 2007), 1207–20. Some of the issues raised in these
last two papers are discussed in a very useful review article, G. R. Tsetskhladze, ‘The
Scythians: Three Essays’, in G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), The Black Sea, Greece, Anatolia and
Europe in the First Millennium BC (Leuven, 2011), 95–139. See, however, the review by A.
Ivantchik in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.03.36, bmcr/brynmawr.edu/2013/2013-03-
36.html; accessed 18 Jan. 2019.
The impact of the Scythians returning from Asia Minor to the north Caucasus has
been much debated; see, for example, G. Kossack, ‘Von den Anfängen des skythoiranischen
Tierstils’, in H. Franke (ed.), Skythika (Munich, 1987), 24–85. One revealing
detailed study is C. Metdepenninghen, ‘La Relation entre l’art urartéen au temps
du roi Rusa II et les épées-akinakès de Kelermès et de Melgounov’, Iranica Antiqua, 32
(1997), 109–36. The principal issues are well brought out in a thoughtful review of a
detailed report on the Kelermes kurgan by L. K. Galanina, written by J. Boardman, in
G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), North Pontic Archaeology: Recent Discoveries and Studies (Leiden,
2001), 449–51.
Helpful introductory accounts of the archaeology of the Scythians on the Pontic
steppe will be found in G. R Tsetskhladze’s ‘The Scythians: Three Essays’ paper noted
above and in R. Rolle, ‘The Scythians: Between Mobility, Tomb Architecture and
Early Urban Structures’, in L. Bonfante (ed.), The Barbarians of Ancient Europe: Realities
and Interactions (Cambridge, 2011), 107–31. Issues of chronology are examined in detail
in A. Y. Alekseev, Xronografija Jevopejskoj Skifii VII–IV vv. do n.é. (Chronology of European
Scythians 7th–4th Century BC) (St Petersburg, 2003), while broader aspects of
Scythian culture are discussed in N. A. Gavrilyuk, ‘Social and Economic Issues in the
Development of Steppe Scythia’, in D. Braund and S. D. Kryzhitskiy (eds.), Classical
Olbia and the Scythian World: From the Sixth Century BC to the Second Century AD (Oxford,
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