Starting from the second half of the 8th c. BC. until the beginning of the 3rd century. AD, in the vast expanses from the Black Sea to the Sayano-Altai, mysterious peoples roamed. Ancient writers and historians called them "Scythians". The same ancient authors put different meanings into this concept. Under the "Scythians" were understood both the tribes who lived only in the Northern Black Sea region, and other peoples who lived in territories quite remote from each other. Even the Russian state in some medieval writings was called Scythia. Russian chronicles emphasized that the peoples of Russia were called by the Greeks "Great Scythia". The Scythians are mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years:

“Oleg went to the Greeks, leaving Igor in Kyiv, but he took with him a lot of Varangians, and Slavs, and Chuds, and Krivichi, and Measure, and Drevlyans, and Radimichi, and Polyans, and Northerners, and Vyatichi, and Croats, and Dulebs, and Tivertsy, known as interpreters: these were all called by the Greeks “Great Scythia”.

Officially, there are two main versions of the emergence of the Scythians:

the first is based on the so-called "Third Tale" of Herodotus, which says that the Scythians came from the east;

the second is based on the legend recorded by the same Herodotus, and suggests that in the VIII century. BC. the Scythians settled the territories of the Northern Black Sea region, standing out from the environment of the successors of the Srubna culture

For reference: Srubna culture- an association of peoples of the Late Bronze Age (XVIII-XII centuries BC), common in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe between the Dnieper and the Urals. Separate monuments of this culture are found in Western Siberia and the North Caucasus. There is a version that the peoples of the Srubna culture were the basis from which the migration to the north-west of modern Iran took place. The Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a (subclades R1a1, R1a1a, R1a1a1b2, R1a1a1b2a2a-Z2123) was found among representatives of the Srubnaya culture who lived 3900–3200 years ago.

By the way, if we take genealogy as an argument and draw conclusions about the origin of peoples on its basis, then according to their DNA, the Scythians were also carriers of the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a. And if we take the DNA of modern Slavs, then their genotype, like that of other modern peoples, is rather heterogeneous due to assimilation and incest, but, nevertheless, the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a is characteristic of all groups of Slavs. In Russia, depending on the territory, it ranges from 34 to 55%, Belarusians 50%, Ukrainians 54%, Poles 56% (link). Of course, it cannot be argued that the Slavs descended from the Scythians. The history of the Scythians ended in the III century. AD defeat from neighbors and kindred people - the Sarmatians. The Slavs appeared on the historical arena in the 4th-5th centuries AD. Most likely, the Scythians and Sarmatians became part of the Slavic tribes, and the Scythian-Sarmatians joined the huge Slavic "family" not as poor relatives, but on an equal footing. In Russian folk art, needlework, there are connections with Scythian art, elements of clothing and symbols of the Sarmatians.

The Scythians were not a single people. The well-known Russian Scythologist A. Yu. Alekseev writes: “The Scythians, this Asian in origin, but who became a European people, had a significant impact on the culture and history of their close and distant neighbors for several centuries. They were the first in a long chain of nomadic tribes known to us, which, at intervals of 200-400 years, rolled in waves along the Great Steppe Corridor to Europe ... ". "Scythians" is the common name of many people close in culture, economic structure, way of life and ideological ideas of the nomadic tribes of Eurasia. The name of the Scythians was given by the Greeks, who first encountered them in Asia Minor, and then in the Northern Black Sea region, where the first Greek colonies arose in the second half of the 7th century BC. Thanks to the information that has come down to us from ancient historians, including those who lived in the 5th century BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the so-called European Scythians, who lived in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of the Northern Black Sea region (between the Danube in the west and the Don in the east) from the 7th century BC, became most famous. to the 3rd century AD”

What were they doing? What was their way of life? Archeology has discovered the amazing world of Scythian burial mounds, examples of magnificent unique art, grandiose burial structures. The scientific basis of Scythian archeology was created in the 20th century. The first official excavations of a large Scythian mound were carried out in 1763 on behalf of Lieutenant General Alexei Petrovich Melgunov, the Governor of the Novorossiysk Territory. From this moment the time of field Scythian archeology is counted. Then they explored the Litoy Kurgan, located 60 km from Elisavetgrad (now Kirovograd). The opened burial (Chervonnaya Mogila) turned out to be the burial of a noble Scythian, as evidenced by the magnificent gold items of the late 7th - early 6th century BC.

Masterpieces of the Scythian fine arts, stored in the best museums, have long been included in the treasury of world culture. Any educated person will recognize a thing made in the Scythian animal style. It is the animal style that constitutes the most original feature of the art of the Scythian world. Images of animals adorned horse harness, weapons, clothes, signs of power, cult and toilet items.

The artistic value of the works made by Scythian masters is great. They were well versed in the technique of casting, forging, embossing, embossing, engraving and created their own original style in art, the hallmark of which was images of animals in dynamics on things - fight, jump, run. A vivid example of Scythian art is an openwork plate - decoration of a horse dress - depicting a rider shooting a deer from a bow. And the golden pectoral (breast decoration of the Scythian king) is a unique work and a masterpiece of world art. Artists of the Scythian world mastered many genres - carving, relief, three-dimensional plastic, appliqué, embroidery. Metal products were created using casting, stamping, engraving. Basically, savages.

The death of the Scythian king was an important and tragic event for the people. He was mourned for a long time, performed a series of bloody rites. In addition to the king, animals, servants, wives, money and jewelry were buried in the grave. Then they poured a huge hill. A stone statue in the form of a standing human figure was installed on the mound. It had nothing to do with the "living prototype", it was a generalized image of a man, roughly carved from a monolithic stone. The master showed only the most necessary features - the head, face, arms and legs, clothes and weapons. The attributes of power were also depicted - a hryvnia around the neck and a rhyton in the hand. The Scythians believed that by erecting this image over the grave mound, they overcome the violation of the world order that occurs with the death of the king.

Today, the appearance of the Scythian nomads is already quite well known: the Hellenic masters depicted them ethnographically accurately on gold and silver vessels and jewelry found in many burial mounds of the highest Scythian nobility. Valuable information is also provided by the anthropological reconstruction carried out on bone remains and skulls from Scythian burials. “Yes, we are Scythians, yes, we are Asians with slanting and greedy eyes ...”- this poetic image created by Alexander Blok does not correspond to reality. The Scythians did not have any slanting eyes or other Mongoloid features. They are typical Caucasians of medium height and strong build. In terms of language, the Scythians belonged to the North Iranian group (of the existing peoples, Ossetians are closest to them in terms of language).

The Scythians were skillful and ferocious warriors. Appearing in the VIII - early VII century. BC. in the Black Sea region, moved to the Middle East and Greece. Having passed through the passes of the Main Caucasian Range, they invaded in the 7th century BC. in Transcaucasia, they defeated the mighty state of Urartu and, like a formidable storm, fell upon the flourishing cities of Media, Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia and Palestine. Shortly after these events, the Scythians moved further south and, reaching Syria and Palestine, were about to invade Egypt. But Pharaoh Psammetik I was ahead of them: he went out to meet the Scythians with rich gifts and dissuaded them from the intention to ruin the ancient country. According to Herodotus, the northern nomads remained in Western Asia for 28 years and devastated everything with their rampage and violence. The Scythians behaved in the Middle East like robbers and rapists. Thousands of bronze arrowheads found during excavations of ancient Middle Eastern cities, traces of fires and destruction in them confirm the reports of ancient written sources about the devastating raids of the Scythian cavalry on the flowering regions of Asia Minor.
Then the turn came to pay the Scythians for all the offenses they had caused. And the Median king Cyaxares, as ancient authors report, invited many Scythian leaders and commanders to his palace for a “friendly” feast and, having drunk them to unconsciousness, ordered them to be killed. Having lost their top leadership and being under the threat of a complete defeat by the Median troops, the Scythians were forced to return to their northern Black Sea possessions. And from the end of the 7th century BC. the main events of Scythian history are already associated only with the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Eastern Europe.
The table shows the main milestones in the history of the Scythians.

Findings:
1. The Scythians could not be the direct ancestors of the Slavs, although we are genetically similar.
2. The Scythians clearly had a significant impact on the formation, culture, traditions and customs of the Slavic peoples.
3. The Scythians were not one people, one ethnic group. These were nomadic tribes related in culture, language and customs.

A brief report on the Scythians will help you prepare for your history lesson. You can also find out where the Scythians lived and what they did.

Message about the Scythians

At the beginning of the 7th century BC, nomadic tribes appeared in the steppes of the Black Sea region. These were the Scythians. They belonged to the Iranian-speaking group. The Scythians dominated the territory of Ukraine for about 300-400 years, leaving behind a great legacy. In the period of the 5th-4th centuries, these tribes gradually switched to a settled way of life and created entire settlements along the lower Dnieper and in the Crimea. The Kamenskoe settlement was the largest and was the main center of handicrafts, supplying iron products to the steppe tribes.

What did the Scythians do?

The culture of the Scythians is represented by molded ceramics, amphorae, pottery, metal household items, tools. Everything was found in the places of settlement of the tribes and their funerary monuments. This is evidence that they were skillful, resourceful people.

Labor activity materialized in everyday life and economy (except for the well-known military craft). The main occupation of the Scythian population is nomadic cattle breeding. It was based on year-round maintenance and breeding of sheep, horses and cattle. For a long time, this type of economy was dominant. In the middle of the 5th century BC, semi-nomadic cattle breeding arose in the Dnieper valley. Before the death of Great Scythia, these 2 types of economy formed the basis of the economy of the Scythians.

At the turn of the 5th-4th centuries BC, another branch of the Scythian economy was formed - agriculture, focused on growing fodder for feeding livestock in winter. The tribes began to stock up on millet and filmy barley. After they began to grow grain for themselves. The land was cultivated with a fallow, having previously burned out the herbage on the site. After two years of exploitation of this site, it was turned into a pasture. And only after 10 years the land was cultivated again.

History of the Scythians

Scythians - the common name of the northern nomadic peoples (Iranian (presumably) origin) in Europe and Asia, in ancient times (VIII century BC - IV century AD) Scythians were also conditionally called semi-nomadic tribes related to them, which occupied the steppe spaces of Eurasia up to Transbaikalia and Northern China.

Herodotus reports a lot of interesting information about the Scythians, who made up the bulk of the then population of the Northern Black Sea region. According to Herodotus, which are confirmed by archaeological excavations, the Scythians inhabited the southern part of the Black Sea region - from the mouth of the Danube, the Lower Bug and the Dnieper to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Don.

Origin

The origin of the Scythians is one of the most difficult and controversial issues in historical ethnography. Some historians believe that the Scythians were an ethnically integral people and at the same time attribute them either to the Aryans or to the Mongols (Ural-Altaians), other scientists, relying on Herodotus' instructions about the cultural difference between the Western and Eastern Scythians (farmers and nomads), consider that the name "Scythians" covered ethnically diverse tribes, and classify settled Scythians as Iranians or Slavs, and nomadic as Mongols or Ural-Altaians, or they prefer not to speak out about them definitely.

Most of the available data speaks in favor of their belonging to one of the branches of the Indo-European tribe, most likely to the Iranian one, especially since the scientists who recognized the Iranianness of the Sarmatians, the words of Herodotus about the relationship of the Sarmatians with the Scythians allow the conclusions obtained by science for the Sarmatians to be extended to the Scythians.

Warfare

The army of the Scythians consisted of free people who received only food and uniforms, but could take part in the division of booty if they showed the head of the enemy they had killed. Warriors wore bronze helmets in the Greek style and chain mail. The main weapons are a short sword - akinak, a double-curved bow, a square shield and spears. Each Scythian owned at least one horse, the aristocrats had huge herds of horses.

Warriors not only cut off the heads of defeated enemies, but also made bowls from their skulls. Decorating these creepy trophies with gold and proudly showing them to their guests. The Scythians fought, as a rule, on horseback, although over time, as the settlement grew, the Scythian infantry also appeared. Herodotus described in detail the military customs of the Scythians, but perhaps to some extent exaggerated their militancy.

heyday

IV century - the Scythian king Atey, who lived for 90 years, was able to unite all the tribes of the Scythians from the Don to the Danube. Scythia at that time reached its peak: Atey was equal in strength to Philip II of Macedon, minted his own coins and expanded his possessions. These tribes had a special relationship with gold. The cult of this metal even served as the basis for the legend that the Scythians were able to tame griffins guarding gold.

The growing power of the Scythians forced the Macedonians to undertake several large-scale invasions: Philip II was able to kill Atheus in an epic battle, and his son, Alexander the Great, after 8 years went to war against the Scythians. But Alexander could not defeat Scythia, and was forced to retreat, leaving the Scythians unsubdued.

Language

The Scythians did not have a written language. The only source of information about their language is the works of ancient authors and inscriptions of the ancient era. Some Scythian words were recorded by Herodotus, for example, "pata" - meant "to kill", "oyor" - meant "man", "Arima" - meant "one". Taking as a basis fragments of these words, philologists attributed the Scythian language to the languages ​​of the Iranian family of the Indo-European language group. The Scythians themselves called themselves Skuds, which, most likely, could mean "archers". The names of the Scythian tribes, the names of deities, personal names, toponymic names have also come down to our times in Greek and Latin transcription.

What did the Scythians look like?

What the Scythians looked like and what they wore is known mainly from their images on gold and silver vessels of Greek work, discovered during archaeological excavations in such world-famous burial mounds as Kul-Oba, Solokha and others. In their works, Greek artists depicted the Scythians in peaceful and military life with amazing realism.

They wore long hair, mustaches and beards. They dressed in linen or leather clothes: long trousers-harem pants and a caftan with a belt. Shoes were leather boots intercepted with ankle straps. The Scythians wore pointed felt hats on their heads.

There are also images of Scythians on other items found in Kul-Oba. For example, a gold plaque depicts two Scythians drinking from a rhyton. This is a rite of twinning, known to us from the testimonies of ancient authors.

Religion of the Scythians

A characteristic feature of the religion of these tribes is the absence of anthropomorphic images of the gods, as well as a special caste of priests and temples. The personification of the god of war, more revered by the Scythians, was an iron sword stuck into the ground, in front of which sacrifices were made. The nature of the funeral rituals may indicate that the Scythians believed in an afterlife.

Attempts by Herodotus, listing the Scythian deities by name, to translate them into the language of the Greek pantheon were unsuccessful. Their religion was so peculiar that it could not find direct parallels in the religious ideas of the Greeks.

1) Fiala (Mid 4th century BC); 2) Golden Scythian pectoral; 3) Gold earrings with a boat-shaped pendant. Gold, enamel; 4) Cup spherical, golden (4th century BC)

Scythian gold

Initially, gold jewelry was made only for noble Scythians, but over time, even ordinary people could afford to buy jewelry, although the amount of gold in them was less. The Scythians made cheaper products, consisting of bronze. Part of the heritage is called just that - Scythian-Greek art, and part is attributed exclusively to the products of the Scythians.

The appearance of the first gold jewelry dates back to the end of the Bronze Age, when people already knew how to process gold, giving it a shape and appearance. If we talk about the most ancient gold jewelry of the Scythians, then its approximate age is 20,000 years. Most of the products were found in burial mounds. The first decorations were found during the reign of Peter 1.

They used gold because they considered it a divine, magical substance. They were attracted by the brilliant appearance, and they considered the decoration a talisman even during the battle. The thickness of the jewelry is a few millimeters, but they often looked rough, because the Scythians wanted to fit as much gold as possible into the product. There were massive chest decorations in the form of plaques, they often depicted the heads of animals, while in volume, and not in a plane.

The most common were images of a deer or a goat - animals that the tribes saw. However, sometimes fictional creatures come across, the meaning of which is difficult to unravel.

1) Bracelet with sphinx protomes (Kul-Oba mound, 4th century BC); 2) The ceremony of "drinking the oath" (fraternization); 3) a golden comb depicting a battle scene; 4) A plaque in the form of a figure of a lying deer

Scythian tribes. Lifestyle

Although the material culture of the Scythians, which spread throughout this vast territory, had its own characteristics in different regions, on the whole it had features of a typological community. This commonality was also reflected in the types of Scythian ceramics, weapons, horse sets, and in the nature of funeral rites.

According to the way of economic life, the Scythians were divided into settled agricultural and nomadic, pastoral tribes. Listing the agricultural tribes known to him, Herodotus first of all named the Kallipids and Alazons, the closest neighbors of Olviy, founded by immigrants from Miletus on the banks of the Bug-Dnieper estuary. In this city, Herodotus mainly conducted his observations.

Herodotus called the Kallipids and in another way - the Hellenic-Scythians, to such an extent they assimilated with the Greek colonists. The Kallipids and Alazons in the list of Herodotus are followed by Scythian farmers who lived along the Dnieper at a distance of 11 days of navigation from its mouth. Scythia of the times of Herodotus was not ethnically united. It also included tribes not related to the Scythians, for example, agricultural and cattle breeding, who lived in the forest-steppe.

economic life

The economic life of most of the Scythian tribes reached a relatively high level. According to Herodotus, the Alazons sowed and ate, in addition to bread, onions, garlic, lentils and millet, and the Scythian farmers sowed bread not only for their own needs, but also sold it through the mediation of Greek merchants.

Scythian farmers plowed the land, as a rule, with the help of an ox-drawn plow. Harvested with iron sickles. The grain was ground in grain graters. The inhabitants of the settlements were engaged in breeding cattle and small cattle, horses and poultry.

The nomadic Scythians and the so-called Royal Scythians, who, according to Herodotus, were the strongest and most warlike of all the Scythians, inhabited the steppe space to the east from the Dnieper to the Sea of ​​Azov, including the steppe Crimea. These tribes were engaged in cattle breeding and arranged their dwellings in wagons.

Among the Scythian nomads, animal husbandry rose to a relatively high level of development. In the 5th-4th centuries, they owned huge herds and herds of cattle, but distributed it unevenly among their fellow tribesmen.

Trade

Trade was developed on the territory of Scythia. There were water and land trade routes along the European and Siberian rivers, the Black, Caspian and North Seas. In addition to war chariots and wheeled carts, the Scythians were engaged in the construction of river and sea flax-winged ships at the shipyards of the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, at the mouth of the Pechora. Genghis Khan took craftsmen from those places to create a fleet that was intended to conquer Japan. Sometimes the Scythians were building underground passages. They laid them under large rivers, using mining technology.

A busy trade route from India, Persia, China ran through the lands of the Scythians. Goods were delivered to the northern regions and Europe along the Volga, Ob, Yenisei, the North Seas, and the Dnieper. In those days, there were cities with noisy bazaars and temples on the banks.

decline. Disappearance of the Scythians

During the 2nd century, the Sarmatians and other nomadic tribes gradually ousted the Scythians from their land, leaving behind them only the steppe Crimea and the basin of the lower Dnieper and Bug, as a result, Great Scythia became Small. After that, Crimea became the center of the Scythian state, well-fortified fortifications appeared in it - the fortresses of Naples, Palakiy and Khab, in which the Scythians took refuge, waging wars with Chersonesus and the Sarmatians. At the end of the 2nd century, Chersonese received a powerful ally - the Pontic king Mithridates V, who attacked the Scythians. After many battles, the Scythian state was weakened and bled dry.

In the I and II centuries. AD, the Scythian society could hardly be called nomadic: they were farmers, rather strongly Hellenized and ethnically mixed. The Sarmatian nomads did not stop pushing the Scythians, and in the 3rd century the Alans began to invade the Crimea. They devastated the last stronghold of the Scythians - Scythian Naples, located on the outskirts of modern Simferopol, but could not stay for a long time on the conquered lands. Soon the invasion of these lands began, ready, who declared war on the Alans, the Scythians, and the Roman Empire itself.

A blow to Scythia was the invasion of the Goths around 245 AD. e. All Scythian fortresses were destroyed, and the remnants of the Scythians fled to the southwest of the Crimean peninsula, hiding in hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

Despite the seemingly obvious complete defeat, Scythia continued to exist for a short time. The fortresses that remained in the southwest became a refuge for the fleeing Scythians, and several more settlements were founded at the mouth of the Dnieper and on the Southern Bug. But they too soon fell under the onslaught of the Goths.

The Scythian war, which after the events described was waged by the Romans with the Goths, became so called due to the fact that the word "Scythians" began to be used to refer to the Goths who defeated the real Scythians. Most likely, there was some truth in this false name, since thousands of defeated Scythians joined the army of the Goths, dissolving in the mass of other peoples who fought with Rome. So, Scythia became the first state that collapsed as a result of the Great Migration of Nations.

The Huns finished the work, in 375 they attacked the territories of the Black Sea region and destroyed the last Scythians who lived in the Crimean mountains and in the Bug valley. Of course, many Scythians again joined the Huns, but there could no longer be any talk of any independent identity.

The Scythians dominated the southeast of Europe and the Middle East for more than three centuries in a row. They were practically contemporaries of the classical Greek world. The Scythian horse archers were the first eastern army, which had a huge impact on European consciousness over the next 2,000 years. The Scythians did not belong to the Turkic-Mongoloid race, like the Huns and Mongols. They were Indo-Europeans with straight features. We know this from the images on metal that have come down to us, as well as from fragments of the Scythian language preserved in the writings of Greek historians.

The skill of horse riding and archery turned the Scythians from a nomadic steppe tribe into a powerful military force. AT different time they fought against the Assyrians, Medes, Persians and Macedonians. During their heyday, they dominated the vast territory occupied by the Soviet Union. However, the Scythians retained the customs of a nomadic tribe: they established permanent relations with settled farmers and pastoralists, from whom they regularly collected tribute.
Fragment of an image from a comb from the Solok burial. The warrior is wearing canvas Greek armor with additional protection from scales in the chest area. Shoulder pads and a hem with numerous cuts are attached to them.
We know much more about the customs and appearance of the Scythians than about many older cultures, although they left us no written records. The southern outskirts of the Scythian possessions bordered on the northern borders of Greece in the area of ​​the Black Sea coast, along which Greek trading cities were located. It was here that Herodotus, whose works are the main written source, received basic information about the Scythians. Probably, here the Scythians met with the Greek blacksmiths. Fortunately for us, these strong and courageous people had a great love for images on precious metals; good taste, which was reflected in the choice of Greek masters for the manufacture of these images; as well as the method of burial, thanks to which these relics became available for the study of historians.

The Scythians lived at the beginning of the Iron Age. They inhabited the steppes located north of the Black Sea. Although the "Scythian period" in the history of Eastern Europe lasted less than 400 years (from the seventh to the third century BC), the Scythians left vivid memories of themselves. A thousand years after the end of their existence as an independent people, the central part of their possessions, together with subordinate territories, continues to be called "Great Scythia".

From the very beginning of their appearance on the world stage, the Scythians took part in the great campaigns of their time. They defeated contemporary Assyria, Urartu, Babylonia, Media and Persia.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes that before the Scythians, the steppes adjacent to the Black Sea were inhabited by Cimmerian tribes. The Scythians conquered the Cimmerians. Pursued by them, the Cimmerian nomads crossed the Caucasus Range and scattered throughout the cities of Western Asia. The Scythians, led by King Madyas, defeated Medes, who they met on the way.

At the beginning of the VI century, the Scythians fought against Assyria. However, the Assyrian chronicles are very selective in describing events: they talk a lot about the victories of the Assyrians and pass over in silence their defeats. Fortunately, not only chronicles have come down to us, but also reports of spies, as well as records of questions that the Assyrian kings asked their oracles when they sought their advice before the battle.

After a period of hostilities between Assyria and Scythia, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon managed to conclude a truce for a while: he presented rich gifts to the Scythian king Partatuya and gave him his daughter as a wife. The Scythians meanwhile turned their weapons against Palestine and Egypt. The Biblical prophet speaks of the Scythians as “a powerful ancient people whose language is difficult to understand. The quivers of these brave warriors are like an open grave. They take away the harvest of grain and grapes, sheep and bulls, along with your sons and daughters to boot. Only after paying a huge tribute to the Scythians, Pharaoh Psammetik, who ruled in 663-609. BC, saved his country from their invasion.

From Egypt, the Scythians returned to Assyria. In 650-620. BC. Media - one of the richest states of the Ancient East - fell under their influence. In 612 BC The Scythian-Median army captured Nineveh and destroyed the Assyrian empire.

Herodotus says the following about the rule of the Scythians in Asia: “They devastated all of Asia. The Scythians not only collected tribute of a fixed amount, but also raided, taking everything they could take with them. Once Kaksar and the Medes invited the Scythians to a feast, after which they killed them. This gives reason to think that the Scythians lost their dominant position due to betrayal. In any case, at the end of the 7th century BC. the bulk of the nomadic army went back to the North Caucasus.

However, much remains unclear regarding the Scythian wars in the Middle East. It is not known what the Scythian army was: whether it was a united and disciplined "state" army or whether they were moving south in scattered nomadic detachments. We also do not know how many Scythians remained in the Middle East and how many left for the Black Sea steppes. Undoubtedly, the Scythians learned a lot of useful things for themselves, interacting with the peoples of the Middle East. In the field of military art, they had no equal: they fought with equal success on foot and on horseback, knew how to fight with cavalry and infantry, and take well-fortified cities by storm. But to win the war against powerful ancient empires, courage and military skill alone were not enough.

Armor and weapons were of great importance, with the help of which a warrior could hit the enemy, himself remaining unharmed. The military attire of the Scythians was formed during the wars in the Middle East. Before that, they did not use protective armor. We know about Scythian armor and weapons thanks to excavations of their burials. The Scythians buried their dead tribesmen in graves called barrows. Outwardly, the mound looked like a large mound of land. A warrior on his way to eternity was accompanied by the most valuable part of his property. The grave of an ordinary warrior, as a rule, contained a bow with several dozen arrows, a pair of spears, or a spear and a javelin. Royal burials contained entire arsenals. There were protective armor, helmets, swords, quivers with arrows, many spears; and numerous skeletons of horses were found in early burials.

1. Scythian king of the early 6th century BC

The appearance of the Scythian king at the end of the era of wars in the Middle East. The appearance was restored based on finds from burials near the Kuban village of Kelermesskaya. The shield was taken from the grave near the village of Kostroma. The ax of the king, the handle and the scabbard of his sword are sheathed in gold with an engraving made by a master from Urartu (Armenia) in the style inherent in the Scythians. He is also armed with a spear and a bow with arrows, which are in a “gorritos” (a case for bows and arrows) decorated with an engraved gold plate. Golden castle "gorritos", probably Greek work. Bronze helmet of Scythian origin. Armor made of iron scales sewn onto the skin is typically Scythian. In the center of the iron-studded shield is the image of a leopard. A bridle decorated with gold and a pectoral baldric of Scythian work. On the saddle is a typical Scythian cape.

2. Noble warrior from Urartu

The weapons and armor were recreated thanks to finds discovered during excavations in the Teshebani fortress on the territory of modern Armenia (the ancient state of Urartu). The warrior is wearing a helmet, typical for masters from Urartu. Armor of scaly construction consists of bronze plates. Next to the warrior we see an engraved bronze quiver and an iron sword with a carved ivory handle. The warrior's clothes were reconstructed by researchers based on wall paintings and ceramics from Urartu.

The steppes of Central Asia have been home to many nomadic peoples for centuries. Pastoral tribes from time to time raided neighboring cities. The Greek scientist Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC, was the first to describe the nomads. The tribes that lived in the territory of the modern south of Russia and Ukraine, the historian called the Scythians. The tribes related to the Scythians, which Herodotus called the Saks, lived on the territory of Kazakhstan, Altai, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Story

The Scythians migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia in the 7th and 8th centuries BC. On this land, the Scythians founded a rich, strong state with borders from the Don in the east to the Danube in the west and a center in the Crimea, which existed from the 4th century BC. to 3rd century BC.

The Scythians were feared and admired, paying tribute to their military art, especially the talents of riders. The migration of the tribe from Asia brought them to the territory of the Cimmerians, who lived in the mountains of the Caucasus, and on the plains north of the Black Sea. In a war that lasted about thirty years, the Scythians defeated the Cimmerians and found themselves at the head of an empire stretching from western Persia through Syria and Judea to the borders of Egypt. The Medes, who inhabited Persia and Turkey, expelled the Scythians from their possessions, leaving only the territories of southern Russia under their control.

Herodotus describes the Scythians of his day as a federation of tribes. Probably not all the peoples of this federation spoke the language of the Iranian group. Most of the Scythians were nomads, but there were also farmers. The tribes actively traded with the Greek cities in the Crimea.

From among the Scythians, a class of rulers stood out - rich aristocrats, whom Herodotus called "royal Scythians". The graves of the royal Scythians have been preserved - mounds with a large number of items made of gold and other precious metals.

The tribes were ruled by a king, whose power was inherited by the eldest son. During the time of Herodotus, the family of the rulers of Scythia intermarried with the Greek aristocrats.

In 514 BC, Darius, the third of the great Persian kings, decided to invade Scythia. The Persian army in the amount of 700 thousand people, led by Darius himself, marched through the southern Russian steppes. The nomads gradually retreated, showering the enemy army with a hail of arrows. As a result, Darius did not manage to impose a general battle on his opponents.

In negotiations with Darius, the Scythian ambassadors said: “We have neither cities nor fertile arable land in this land, and we are not afraid that you will ruin them. But if you want to fight us quickly, look around and see the graves of our fathers. Try touching them and see if we will fight you." In the end, the king of the Persians turned back. On the way back, detachments of the Scythians constantly attacked his army. The Persians no longer attempted to conquer the northern lands, and for the next century the Scythians single-handedly ruled the southern Russian steppes.

In the fourth century BC, the Scythian kingdom reached its peak. The great king Atey united all the Scythian tribes and expanded his territory to the Danube. In 339, Atey was killed in a battle with Philip II of Macedon at the age of 90. In the second half of the 3rd century BC, the Sarmatian tribes related to them from the East dealt a decisive blow to the Scythians.

The Scythian state survived in the Crimea and on the Black Sea coast of modern Bulgaria, where they initially captured several Greek colonies, but were defeated by the army of the Greek Pontic state. The capital of the Crimean Scythians was Scythian Naples, located in the area of ​​modern Simferopol. In the middle of the third century AD, Naples was ravaged by the tribes of the Goths, at the same time the Scythian tribes disappear from the historical scene.

Language

The Scythians did not have a written language. Some Scythian words were recorded by Herodotus, for example, "pata" - meant "to kill", "oyor" - meant "man", "Arima" - meant "one". According to these fragments of words, philologists attributed the Scythian language to the languages ​​of the Iranian family of the Indo-European language group. The Scythians called themselves Skuds, which most likely meant "archers".

Lifestyle

The Scythian people were among the first to tame the horse, and the first tribe to make extensive use of the horse in warfare. Richly decorated Scythian bridles have been preserved. The Scythians were unknown to stirrups, they rode a horse, skillfully keeping their balance.

The Scythians were polygamists. Unlike the neighboring tribe of the Sarmatians, where women fought alongside men, the Scythians had a woman in a dependent position. After the death of a relative, the son or brother of the deceased took the wives for himself. The women and children of the Scythians traveled in the wake of the army in wagons.

On the lands of the Scythians, fish was found in abundance, it was easy to get game. The diet consisted of stew, koumiss, cheese, vegetables such as beans and onions.

The Scythians were the first tribe to wear the likeness of pants. This type of clothing was created for comfort when riding. The mummies in the burials were covered in tattoos.

Army

The Scythian army was made up of free people who received only food and uniforms, but could participate in the division of booty if they showed the head of the enemy they had killed. Warriors wore bronze helmets in the Greek style and chain mail. The main weapons were a short sword - akinak, and a bow with a double bend. Each Scythian had at least one horse, the aristocrats owned huge herds of horses.

The warriors not only cut off the heads of the killed enemies, but also made bowls from their skulls. They decorated these terrible trophies with gold and proudly displayed them to their guests.

Art

This tribe left behind a huge amount of gold items. Clothes, weapons, armor were richly decorated with gold. The metal was mined from deposits in the Altai region.

The Scythians achieved great skill in the art of making jewelry, having developed the so-called "animal" style. Decorations were given the shape of animals - a deer, a tiger, a lion, a horse, a wild boar. The figurines of running animals reflected their grace, sometimes there were scenes of animals fighting each other on the decorations.

The craftsmen of the Scythians worked with a variety of different materials, including wood, leather, bone, felt. Many items of clothing trimmed with embroidery have been preserved. Often the clothes were decorated with miniature plaques in the form of animal figurines. Tapestries depicting scenes of worship of the Great Goddess or figures of half-humans, half-animals, and felt carpets have been preserved.

A rich collection of Scythian jewelry is kept in the St. Petersburg Hermitage. The collection is based on finds from the Pazyryk barrow in Altai.

Despite many well-known facts about the Scythians, there are still many blank spots in the history of this people that have yet to be unraveled.

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