Scythians - Knowledge

4746: 4360: 3592: 4077: 4680: 29856: 22650:, p. 8/10: "Mitochondrial haplogroup analyses of the NPR Scythians from this study and those from Rostov-on-Don and Pazyryks from Altai and Inner Mongolia, reveal that, for the most part, the same lineages are found in all three groups and are often singularly represented in each group. Noteworthy, comparing the frequencies of east and west Eurasian haplogroups in all three groups of the Scythian horizon, an east-west mtDNA lineage cline is visible, for east Eurasian lineages going west-east is from 26.3% (in present study) through 37.5% (in Scythians from Rostov-on-Don) to 46.7% (in Pazyryks) with the opposite trend for west Eurasian lineages." "The genetic influx of East Eurasian haplotypes might be the result of establishing relationships between migrants with European ancestry and women of east Eurasian origin as was previously proposed by66 in case of Iron Age south Siberian populations. However, more detailed studies of autosomal DNA are needed to clearly resolve this issue." 3856: 6519: 4439: 5954: 6511: 6330: 3819: 4120: 4407: 3329: 3759: 3320: 4724: 4637: 3505: 22662:: "Another ancestral component that is maximized in the north Siberian Nganasan population becomes visible from the 2nd millennium BCE onwards in the eastern steppe (Okunevo, Karasuk, Mezhovskaya). This component appears later in all Iron Age populations but with significantly higher levels in the eastern steppe zone than in the West. These findings are consistent with the appearance of east Eurasian mitochondrial lineages in the western Scythians during the Iron Age, and imply gene-flow or migration over the Eurasian Steppe belt carrying East Asian/North Siberian ancestry from the East to the West as far as the Don-Volga region in southern Russia." 201: 4475: 1074: 6750: 5823: 4037: 4699: 189: 6358: 6312: 4653: 3897: 1080: 3679: 3651: 3728: 1376: 4323: 3712: 22638:, p. 4: "The eastern Scythians display nearly equal proportions of mtDNA lineages common in east and west Eurasia, whereas in the western Scythian groups, the frequency of lineages now common in east Eurasia is generally lower, even reaching zero in four samples of the initial Scythian phase of the eight to sixth century BCE (group #1 in Fig. 2), and reaches 18–26% during later periods (sixth to second century BCE; #2 and #3) (Supplementary Table 7)." 3885: 3356: 3175: 5963: 3576: 6689: 116: 4161: 3311: 6254: 3555: 3201: 58: 3628: 4745: 9055:

Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan, north-west China and northern Mongolia, and substantial parts of western and eastern Siberia (...) Among the earliest securely dated Iron Age Eurasian pastoralist sites of the whole region are the burial mounds (kurgans) located on the territory of western Siberia and East Kazakhstan, including

5986:, Crimea. The warrior on the right strings his bow, bracing it behind his knee; note the typical pointed hood, long jacket with fur or fleece trimming at the edges, decorated trousers, and short boots tied at the ankle. Scythians apparently wore their hair long and loose, and all adult men apparently bearded. The 4603: 6598:

it was also on the number of severed heads that a warrior had brought to the king that depended the rank of honour given on the warriors at the annual ceremony where the local lords of the nomes would pour wine into a large vessel for the warriors who had been successful in battle by killing at least

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consisted either of rectangular or square pits covered with wood, or of wooden or stone vaults built on the ground surface, in which the deceased were laid out in supine position, accompanied by riding horses, as well as draught horses accompanied by chariots and several objects of West Asian origin;

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the Scythians proper, who were a group of Iranic nomadic pastoralist tribes, were located primarily in the steppe regions of the northern Tauric Chersonese and in the steppes of eastern Scythia, to the north of the Maeotian Sea, and between the rivers Tanais and Borysthenēs for the Royal Scythians,

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The Iron Age Saka population of eastern Eurasia is considered the earliest of the Scythian groups to emerge in the 1st millennium BCE, as well as being the most substantial part of the Eastern group of the pan-Scythian family, occupying almost the entire territory of modern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

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were an Iranic tribe who nomadised in the Pontic Steppe, in an area limited by the Dnipro river in the west, and the Don river and the port of Krēmnoi in the east, as well in the Tauric Chersonese up to the Cimmerian Bosporus in its east. Herodotus of Halicarnassus called them the "bravest of the

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in Ciscaucasia in the Kuban region inhabited by the Maeotians, where the royal and aristocratic tombs were the most lavish of all Scythian funerary monuments of the Early Scythian period, and included the kurgans of Kelermesskaya, Ulsky Aul, and Kostromskaya Stanitsa. The burials in these kurgans

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Genetic ancestry modeling of the IA groups performed with qpWave and qpAdm confirmed that the steppe_MLBA groups adequately approximate the western Eurasian ancestry source in IA Scythians while the preceding steppe_EBA (e.g., Yamnaya and Afanasievo) do not (data file S4). As an eastern Eurasian

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in the forest steppe, where the tombs were built using a slightly different rite than the Ciscaucasian ones: they consisted of pits covered with wood or wooden vaults built on the ground surface or let into pits, with the vaults having occasionally been burnt before being covered by the earthen

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Gnecchi-Ruscone, Guido Alberto; Khussainova, Elmira; Kahbatkyzy, Nurzhibek; Musralina, Lyazzat; Spyrou, Maria A.; Bianco, Raffaela A.; Radzeviciute, Rita; Martins, Nuno Filipe Gomes; Freund, Caecilia; Iksan, Olzhas; Garshin, Alexander; Zhaniyazov, Zhassulan; Bekmanov, Bakhytzhan; Kitov, Egor;

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bow that was easy to use for mounted warriors. Scythian bows were the most complex composite bows in both their recurved profiles and their cross-sections, highly engineered and made from wood, horn, sinew, and sturgeon fish glue through laborious craftsmanship, and were capable of delivering

22624:...and most of the Eastern Scythians , who are themselves a very heterogeneous group both culturally and genetically. On the other hand, the Chernyakhiv samples overlapped with modern Europeans, representing the most "western: range of variation among the groups of this study (Figure 2). 4851:, who lived to the east of the middle Dnipro river, in the forest steppe bordering the territory of the Royal Scythians to the north, respectively in the valleys of the Donets and Sula rivers. These populations were either of Scythic or of mixed Scythic and native origin. 24629:

The Greeks and Romans in the Black Sea and the Importance of the Pontic Region for the Graeco-Roman World (7th century BC - 5th century AD): 20 Years On (1997-2017): Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Constanța - 18-22 September

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Järve, Mari; Saag, Lehti; Scheib, Christiana Lyn; Pathak, Ajai K.; Montinaro, Francesco; Pagani, Luca; Flores, Rodrigo; Guellil, Meriam; Saag, Lauri; Tambets, Kristiina; Kushniarevich, Alena; Solnik, Anu; Varul, Liivi; Zadnikov, Stanislav; Petrauskas, Oleg (2019).

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or even until the estuary of the Dnister. The western neighbours of the Callipadae across the Dnister river were Thracian tribe of the Getae in Bessarabia, while Thracian populations under Scythian rule lived on the coast. Their northern neighbours were the

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Ethnic Contacts and Cultural Exchanges North and West of the Black Sea from the Greek Colonization to the Ottoman Conquest: Proceedings of the International Symposium Ethnic contacts and Cultural Exchanges North and West of the Black Sea, Iaşi, June 12-17,

3471:), which had established several installations including a system of fortresses and provincial centres over regional communities in eastern Anatolia and the northwest Iranian Plateau, was contesting its southern borderlands with the Neo-Assyrian Empire; 22563:

proxy, we chose LBA herders from Khovsgol in northern Mongolia based on their geographic and temporal proximity. Other eastern proxies fail the model because of a lack or an excess of affinity toward the Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) lineage (25).

26568: 26524: 5209:) who were the northern neighbours of the Alazones, were sedentary agriculturists who lived in a region with fertile black earth corresponding to the modern-day part of Ukraine which lies to the west of the Dnipro river until the region of 4999:

The Royal Scythians were the main Scythian tribe as well as the ruling dominant tribe of the whole of Scythia to whom all the other tribes were subjects, with the high king of all the Scythians coming from the tribe of the Royal Scythians.

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the approach of the Scythians led to a civil war among the Cimmerians because the "royal tribe" wanted to remain in their lands and defend themselves from the invaders, while the rest of the people saw no use in fighting and preferred to

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Scythian arrows sometimes made with a single barb on one side: these caused star wounds that were more difficult to sew together, therefore increasing the risk of haemorrhage among those shot, which terrorised those who received such

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Adalı, Selim Ferruh (2023). "The Phantom Menace? The Chronology of Cimmerian Expeditions, Territories and Zones of Influence in Anatolia". In Draycott, Catherine M.; Branting, Scott; Lehner, Joseph W.; Özarslan, Yasemin (eds.).

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in addition to these, several Scythian burials were also present in the territories of the Greek colonies of the north shore of the Black Sea, such as several rich tombs from the necropolis of Nymphaion, and the very lavish

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the Greek colonies on the shores of the Black Sea to the south and the mixed farmers of the forest steppe to the north essential source of trade for the Scythians, thus being a place from where they could obtain significant

4379: 3920: 5548:), who were the warrior-aristocracy, descended from Targitaos's youngest son, Kolaxais occupied the highest social position and dominated the other two classes, with the Scythian kings belonging to this dominant class. 5220:

The Aroteres were large sedentary Thracian population of Scythia who descended from the Late Bronze Age Sabatynivka Culture, over whom had established themselves an Iranic Scythian ruling class during the 6th century

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the Scythian culture adopted many elements of the native Ciscaucaucasian cultures, so that the interaction with the various Maeotian tribes contributed significantly to the cultural development of the Scythians;

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the various tribes being each led by their own lords were all subservient to the lord of the Royal Scythians, and they all paid tribute to the Royal Scythians and provided them and the high king with servants.

26541: 5144:), who were the westernmost Scythian tribe, were semi-nomads who occupied the steppe between the Inhul and the Dnister around the region where the Dnister and the Southern Buh flow the closest to each other. 4858:, who lived to the east of the Scythians, in the steppe between the Don and the Volga, were another Scythic people. They were the immediate neighbours of the Royal Scythians to the east, across the Don river. 6378:

although the shape of Scythian arrows changed with time, they maintained a basic structure. Scythian arrows had shafts made of reed or birch wood, with arrowheads mostly of bronze, and more rarely iron and

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The Alazones led semi-nomadic lives, with those of them who lived in the steppe being pastoral nomads and those who lived in the valleys of the Southern Buh and nearby rivers being farmers who cultivated

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The Danubian Lands Between the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas (7th Century BC-10th Century AD): Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Belgrade - 17-21 September 2013)

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arrowheads were likely fitted on detachable foreshafts, ensuring the arrowheads remained in the body thanks to the detachability of the foreshafts, which made them especially useful when using poisoned

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since neither side could be persuaded by the other, the "royal tribe" divided themselves into two equally numerous sides that fought each other till death, after which the commoners buried them by the

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to the north, in the forest steppe, lived large settled mixed farmer populations who produced a large variety of highly sought-after commodities such as iron, charcoal, furs, honey, slaves, and grain;

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the shape of Scythian bows and the shape of their bronze arrowheads made them the most powerful firing weapon of their time, due to which they were adopted by West Asian armies in the 7nd century BC.

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scale armour had been borrowed by the Scythians from the peoples of West Asia during the 7th century BC and then made into a prevalent aspect of the Scythian culture of the northern Pontic region;

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in Crimea, the Scythian kingdom covered a limited a territory which included the steppes and foothills of the Tauric Chersonese until Taurida, the lower Borysthenēs, and the lower Hypanis rivers.

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to the north, in the forest steppe, lived large settled farmer populations who produced a large variety of highly sought-after commodities such as iron, charcoal, furs, honey, slaves, and grain;

28558: 3460:, in the southeast of West Asia and the southwest of the Iranian plateau, where they were the main power, with their ruling classes being divided into pro-Assyrian and pro-Babylonian factions; 26932:

Peoples in the Black Sea Region from the Archaic to the Roman Period: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on the Black Sea in Antiquity held in Thessaloniki, 21-23 September 2018

9063:(...) It is highly probable that these two regions gave an initial spark of emergence and development of the whole Saka-Scythian world that expanded and flourished for almost a millennium. 5709:

it was easy to work into many types of tools and ornaments, such as spear shafts, arrows, battle-axes, tools, composite bows, ploughs, wagons, tents, and other objects used in daily life;

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The Callipidae were a considerably Hellenised tribe consisting of a large settled Thracian population with a Scythian ruling class who had significantly intermarried with Greek settlers.

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these latter Greek cities, who had to specialise in trading after having lost their agricultural lands, in turn acted as trading agents by selling the grain at a profit for themselves.

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after the Scythians were expelled from Central Asia by the Massagetae, they moved to the west across the Araxes, and took possession of the Cimmerians' lands after chasing them away;

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was located in the northeast of Thrace immediately to the south of the mouth of the Istros river and the west of the Black Sea, in the territory corresponding to present-day Dobruja.

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the settled populations of the forest steppe produced grain, which until then they were allowed to freely sell, but were now obliged to offer to the Scythian aristocracy as tribute;

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On the eve of Colonisation. The Northern Black Sea Region and the Steppe Nomads of the 8th - 7th centuries BC in the Ancient Literary Tradition: Folklore, Literature and History

5250:) were a semi-nomadic population of mixed Greek-Scythian origin who lived across a wide section of land adjacent to the shores of the Black sea ranging from the estuary of the 5102:

and the bend of the Dnipro, were a mixed Thracian and Iranic Scythian nomadic tribe. The Nomad Scythians and the Royal Scythians were the only fully nomadic tribes in Scythia.

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to the south, on the north shore of the Black Sea, were the Greek colonies which were seeking raw materials and manpower for their own use, as well as to export to Greece.

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to the south, on the north shore of the Black Sea, were the Greek colonies which were seeking raw materials and manpower for their own use, as well as to export to Greece.

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large bronze semi-spheric cauldrons with truncated cones as their stands, and which were decorated in cast and had either two or four animal-shaped handles on their rims;

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a tribe not named by the Greek authors lived on the north-west shore of the Maeotian Sea, and corresponded to the archaeological "Obytichna 12 type" settlements.

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sometimes, instead of armour, the Scythians used composite battle-belts, which were made of scales sewn onto wide strips of either iron sheet, hide, or leather;

3855: 200: 4262: 5109:, who were a tribe of mixed Scythian-Sauromatian origin, lived in the southeastern Pontic Steppe, between the port of Krēmnoi and the Don or the Donets river. 31106: 4438: 4295: 4273: 4183: 6094:

the dresses and mantles were decorated with triangular or round metallic plates, which were made of gold for wealthier women and of bronze for poorer women;

4427:, whose capital was Scythian Neapolis, was composed of the territories of the Tauric Chersonese and the lower reaches of the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers; 4189: 3794:

mound. Of these, the most important was the Melhuniv kurgan, which contained grave goods of West Asian origin comparable to those of the Ciscaucasian tombs.

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appears clearly on the left hip of the bare-headed spearman. The shield of the central figure may be made of plain leather over a wooden or wicker base. (

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Hashhozheva, Galena (2020). "From 'Custom is King' to 'Custom is Metal': The Early Modern Afterlife of Ancient Scythian Culture". In Grogan, Jane (ed.).

4236: 3966: 26020:Накануне колонизации. Северное Причерноморье и степные кочевники VIII – VII вв. до н.э. в античной литературной традиции: фольклор, литература и история 6518: 4251: 31672: 30416: 3941: 26532: 4256: 3960: 24160: 4981:

the populations of the Borysthenēs-Hypanis interfluve were Proto-Slavs, while those in the region of the mid-Tyras and Pyretos rivers were Thracians;

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the ancient Xiongnu, where a supreme ruler presided over several commanders and governors who ruled over different districts at various locations;

4211: 3955: 724: 6273:, dated to the second half of the 4th century BC, of Greek workmanship. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two 4869:

population of the region of the forest steppe corresponding to modern-day Belarus, lived to the north of the Aroteres. They corresponded to the

188: 31719: 31415: 29083:(2006). "Reconstructing Cimmerian and Early Scythian History: The Written Sources". In Aruz, Joan; Farkas, Ann; Fino, Elisabetta Valtz (eds.). 26061:(2006). "Reconstructing Cimmerian and Early Scythian History: The Written Sources". In Aruz, Joan; Farkas, Ann; Fino, Elisabetta Valtz (eds.). 4222: 3008: 23334:

Adalı, Selim Ferruh (2017). "Cimmerians and the Scythians: the Impact of Nomadic Powers on the Assyrian Empire and the Ancient Near East". In

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to the south of the Caucasus was the powerful but hostile Median Empire, which compromised the security of the Scythian realm in Ciscaucasia;

4227: 2972: 30204: 30034: 27956: 26275: 32312: 30296: 3219: 2269: 30256: 26119:[The Royal Ideology of the Scythians and its Expression in Greek Literature and Iconography: the Contribution of Numismatics]. 24743: 3342: 32423: 4578:

Greek authors meanwhile held the Persians as representing "refined civilisation" and connected them to the Assyrians and Babylonians.

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Young, T. Cuyler (1988a). "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses". In

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iron spears measuring between 1.70 and 2.20 metres long with bay leaf-shaped spearheads that sometimes had a ferrule at the bottom;

6329: 5521:), who were the farmer-and-peasant class, descended from Targitaos's middle son, Arpoxais, and occupied the lowest social position; 1316: 1073: 27297:

Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus

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Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Contact and Exchange between the Graeco- Roman World, Inner Asia and China

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Scythian warrior with axe, bow, and spear. Possibly Greek work 4th-2nd century BCE (archaic). Marble with red paint and gold leaf

3818: 30010: 26225:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 25758: 22578:"Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance" 31930: 31682: 31422: 30839: 29966: 26379:[The Social History of the Scythians: Main Problems of the Development of the Ancient Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes]. 8126: 8122: 8093: 8089: 7804: 7800: 7777: 7773: 7750: 7746: 7708: 7704: 7675: 7671: 7642: 7638: 6048:

the jackets and trousers were decorated with curved lines and other patterns and trimmed with decorated strips along the seams;

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this grain offered in tribute was then shipped through the Borysthenēs and Hypanis rivers to Pontic Olbia, Tyras, and Nikōnion;

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Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interaction in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (sixth Century BC - First Century AD)

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Scythian trilobate arrowheads possessed propeller twists that made them spin, thus making them more aerodynamically efficient;

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Cheung, Johnny (2017). "On the (Middle) Iranian borrowings in Qur'ānic (and pre-Islamic) Arabic". In al-Jallad, Ahmad (ed.).

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and the late nomadic Huns, who possessed a complex system of sub-kings and a complex bureaucracy who served the supreme king.

2979: 2951: 31318: 23120: 16432: 3276:, which are less reliable because the information they contain is mixed with folk tales and learnt constructs of historians. 31937: 31268: 30980: 30233: 1983: 32413: 32398: 31868: 31657: 31635: 31211: 30155: 26121: 23110: 2936: 133: 26043:(Germany); Центр сравнительного изучения древних цивилизаций Института всеобщей истории РАН (Russia); Paleograph Press. 24355:

History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A. D. 250

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were the southern neighbours of the Aroteres and, like them, might have been of mixed Thracian and Iranic origins. The

3001: 2958: 2036: 28988: 28498: 28054: 27913: 27872: 27786: 26168: 25365: 24723: 24457: 23789:(2001). "Cimmerians and Early Scythians: the Transition from Geometric to Orientalising Style in the Pontic Area". In 5751:, and metal might also have been imported from the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus. Iron was meanwhile smelted out of 31993: 31817: 31561: 31146: 31035: 30970: 30271: 30130: 29580: 29548: 29527: 29354: 29326: 28466: 28441: 27757: 27605: 26920: 25701: 25005: 24840: 24812: 24609: 24012: 23734: 23225: 23180: 8963: 7354: 3241: 1375: 29374:

Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture

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had been borrowed by the Scythians from Transcaucasian peoples, more specifically from Georgian Bronze Age weaponry.

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The Social History of the Scythians: Main Problems of the Development of the Ancient Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes

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it was considered the worst disgrace possibly by the Scythians to sit to one side due to having killed no enemies;

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Young, T. Cuyler (1988b). "The Consolidation of the Empire and its Limits of Growth under Darius and Xerxes". In

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