Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

predatory nomads
0
Relative temperature Relative humidity Culture
-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0 0.5 1.0
1.5 -2 -1 0 1 2
Warm
Cool Humid Dry
50
Mongols
100
Turks
Depth (cm)
Huns
Tashtyk
culture
150
200
Sakā-Scythians
Tagar culture
Karasuk culture
Andronovo
culture
Okunevo culture
Afanas’evo
culture
4.2 Palaeoclimatic chart showing the onset of warmer and more humid conditions at the beginning of
the first millennium bc.
4.2
humid. These changes heralded an improvement of the grassland resources, generating
a higher biomass capable of supporting a growing population, and mark the
beginning of the archaeologically defined Tagar culture, which developed from the
long-established Karasuk culture. Four phases of the Tagar culture are recognized,
named after individual sites: Bainovo, late 10th–8th centuries; Podgornova, 8th–6th
centuries; Saragash, 6th–3rd centuries; and Tes, 2nd century bc–1st century ad. The
changes between the phases are comparatively slight and represent the gradual evolution
of indigenous communities rather than significant influxes of new people.
The funerary monuments provide the bulk of the archaeological data. Burials
were placed in rectangular pits set within square enclosures bounded by stone slabs
and covered with mounds. The graves were originally stone cists, a characteristic
of the preceding Karasuk culture, but were soon replaced with log-lined chambers
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