Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

further reading
Age Horsemen (London, 1970), chapter 6. The Pazyryk saddles are again treated in E.
V. Stepanova, ‘Reconstruction of a Scythian Saddle from Pazyryk Barrow No. 3’, The
Silk Road, 14 (2016), 1–18. On horse riding see N. H. Bokovenko, ‘The Origins of Horse
Riding and the Development of Ancient Central Asian Nomad Riding Harnesses’, in
J. Davis-Kimball et al. (eds.), Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron
Age (Oxford, 2000), 304–7.
Archery features large in discussion of Scythian warfare. Two useful sources are M.
F. Vos, Scythian Archers in Archaic Attic Vase-Painting (Groningen, 1963) and G. Rausing,
The Bow: Some Notes on its Origin and Development (Lund, 1967). Also of general interest
is R. Miller, E. McEwen, and C. Bergman, ‘Experimental Approaches to Ancient Near
Eastern Archery’, World Archaeology, 18 (1980), 178–95.
There is ample evidence of trauma resulting from battles. For a thorough overview
providing an insight into the reality of battle see M. N. Daragan, ‘Scythian Internecine
Feuds’, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, 22 (2016), 96–140. Other works
include E. M. Murphy, Iron Age Archaeology and Trauma from Aymyrlyg, South Siberia
(Oxford, 2003) and S. S. Tur et al., ‘An Exceptional Case of Healed Vertebral Wound
with Trapped Bronze Arrowhead: Analysis of a 7th–6th c. BC Individual from Central
Kazakhstan’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26/4 (2016), 740–6.
Helmets, possibly of Chinese origin, are discussed in K. S. Rubinson, ‘Helmets and
Mirrors: Markers of Social Transformation’, in J. Aruz et al. (eds.), The Golden Deer of
Eurasia: Perspectives on the Steppe Nomads of the Ancient World (New York, 2006), 32–9.
There has been little discussion of Scythian strategy and tactics in battle but the
reader cannot do better than to turn to Herodotus’ account of the Persian advance
through Scythian territory in 513 bc (Histories iv). The use of the Scythian forces in
support of Satyrus’ claim for the kingdom of the Bosphorus two centuries later is
described by Diodorus Siculus (Histories xx).
Finally, celebrating victory. For this we have to rely again on Herodotus (Histories
iv), including his do-it-yourself account of scalping. Direct evidence for scalping
comes from the body found in kurgan 2 at Pazyryk described in Rudenko, Frozen
Tombs of Siberia (cited above), 221. The scalped head is graphically illustrated in Simpson
and Pankova (eds.), Scythians (cited above), 106, with a description.
Chapter 10 Of Gods, Beliefs and Art
The origin myths, so succinctly laid out by Herodotus, have given rise to much discussion.
Two papers by A. I. Ivantchik offer incisive analyses: ‘Une légende sur l’origine
des Scythes (Hdt. 4.5–7) et le problème des sources du Scythicos logos d’Hérodote’,
Revue des études grecques, 111 (1999), 169–89 and ‘La Légend “grecque” sur l’origine des
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