Why are the Scythians called mysterious? It is because until this day scientists cannot really say who they are, where this “group of people” came from and where they disappeared. As it is claimed, the Scythians lived more than 3 thousand years ago in the territory of modern Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia and up to the Great Wall of China, all this territory was called Great Scythia.
Skula - ta
There is a widespread opinion of official science that relates them to a branch of the ancient Iranian people, who came from somewhere to the steppe north of Iran in about 1 millennium BC, and the Scythian language is classified as one of the eastern Iranian languages. The main sources on the history of the origin of the Scythians are the works of ancient authors, the main of which is the “History” of the Greek Herodotus of Halicarnassus, who lived in the 5th century BC, who mainly describes the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region. It is generally accepted in science that the Scythians are a Greek name, and they called themselves - Skolots, which historians derived from the Iranian "skula-ta", which means archers.
There are still enough of not destroyed evidences that the Scythians fought with Ancient Egypt, founded powerful states in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Palestine, India, and China, that almost the entire continent of Eurasia, up to the Arctic, 5 thousand years ago was occupied by a huge Power - Great Scythia. Recall at least that relatively recently people knew that in ancient times the Arctic Ocean was called Scythian.
For example, on the map of Scythia and Serica of Christopherus Cellarius, published in 1703 in Germany, where you can also see the ancient name of the Volga River - RA (Rha) on the left and the Hyperborean or Scythian ocean at the top, and the whole of Siberia was called Serica. In ancient times, the territory of Siberia on ancient maps is written as Upper India.
At the beginning of I millennium BC. e. almost the entire steppe zone of Eurasia fell under the control of the "Scythian" ethnopolitical community, connected by kinship and cultural unity. This unique in size and internal homogeneity "Scythian world" is perfectly traceable thanks to archaeological finds.
The medieval map of Claudius Ptolemy is indicated as Upper India
One more significant fact should be said, which sheds light on the riddle of the sudden “disappearance” from the history of such powerful people as the Scythians. Note that if in ancient times the Scythians-plowmen lived in the Middle Dnieper, and the royal Scythians were in the Crimea, then in the 9th century AD, Polyanye (Rus' people) lived on the same lands of the Dnieper, the subjects of Askold and Dir, and Rus' people lived in the Crimea Black Sea, also were Slavs.
The Byzantines also knew the capital of this Azov-Black Sea Rus' - the city of Russia(Roosia) on the Kerch Peninsula. These Rus' people that later formed the Slavic population of the Russian principality of Tmutarakan. And these Russes were genetically the direct descendants of the royal Scythians, just as Polyanye (Rus' people ) of the Nestor Chronicle were direct descendants of the Scythian plowmen. That means that the Scythians didn't disappear anywhere.
Scythian from the Nikopol mound
Skull reconstruction
There is a version that there was a clear geopolitical task to tear off the Scythian historical heritage from the Slavs and to prove a kind of historical “illegitimacy” of the expansion of the Russian Empire to the lands of the Northern Black Sea Region, Siberia and Central Asia, once occupied by a single Scythian tribe, who called themselves, as Herodotus testified, Skolots - sons of kolo-sun.
The Scythian's king Skilur reconstruction of the look
Hundreds of Scythian gold objects with Scythians depicted on them were found in the mounds. A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes.
An insignificant part of Scythian artifacts also explains to us that they were multinational, just as during the times of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and these minorities survived to the present day.
The Warriors
Scythian warriors also did not disappear anywhere, they just simply began to be called Cossacks and they led their way of life from the Scythians up to the Petrine era and partially until the events of 1917.
The Scythian warriors had their own patron - a deer with branching horns, symbolizing speed, fiery flames and a shining sun. The reindeer plaques of the Scythian warriors are found everywhere, almost throughout the Eurasian continent.
Scythians sometimes decorated their horses with deer horns
Golden Pectoral
Below you see the Scythians on the golden Pectoral - a princely breastplate adornment from the mound. The discovery became a full-fledged sensation of the century. It is considered the most famous and authentic decoration of the tribe. You can find information about this pectoral in every history schoolbook as the master of Scythian jewelry craftsmanship and tribal development.
The discovery of the golden Pectoral turned the history upside down and became a landmark event because the job was extremely accurate and the weight of the item was more than a kilo. No one has understood yet the full meaning and assessment of the plot of the Pectoral. Separate fragments, which are deciphered, make it possible to understand the life culture of the Scythians, their everyday life.
Scythian gold was considered a symbol of the sun, personified fire, royal power and, most importantly, eternal life.
Peter the Great & Siberia
Siberia is the ancestral home of many nations. For the first time, the culture of Scythians became known precisely from the territory of Siberia, due to the fact that Peter I (the Great) began to organize excavations of Scythian burials in Siberia. Tsar Peter I (1689-1725) at the beginning of the 8th century received a collection of gold objects from Siberian mounds as a gift from Nikita Demidov (a Russian industrialist). As the result of these excavations, wonderful finds made of precious metals were found, stored in the Hermitage, in St. Petersburg. “Scythian Gold” is one of the richest collections of the Hermitage, which has recently been exhibited around the world.
This event can be considered a starting point in the study of Scythians and Siberia, although Peter I most likely already saw several years earlier some beautiful gold objects from the collection of Nicolaes Witsen, who was mayor of Amsterdam when Peter I visited this city. It is known that they met several times. In any case, it was this period that laid the foundation for the Siberian collection.
A distinctive feature of the royal kind of Scythians was ram's horns. Therefore, horns are always present in shrines and temples, both in Zoroastrianism and in the Vedic culture.
The Jewelers
Scythians were amazing jewelers, judging by the finds int he mounds.
The treasures of the Scythians excited the minds of historians and archaeologists since Herodotus himself mentioned them in his writings. Moreover, the territories of the Scythians were relatively close.
In addition, the Scythians began to collaborate in jewelry craftsmanship with the Greeks, who explained to them the intricacies of the work. It was the Greeks who were considered upscale jewelers.
Initially, jewelry was made only for the top of the Scythian settlement, but then even ordinary people could afford to buy the jewelry.
Scythian gold has characteristic features that archaeologists evaluate:
- The reason the Scythians made jewelry was that it was possible for them to compete with the Greeks and prove the power of their settlement;
- Their creations necessarily had to carry some sense, tell a story or symbolize something;
- Creations were famous for the fineness of lines and the completeness of images. To distinguish Greek jewelry from Scythian, you need to pay attention to the motive: if it is associated with mythology and antiquity, then the product is made by the Greeks;
- Scythians were making male and female jewelry. Men's jewelry was made more rudely, had a warlike character, and motifs were associated with wars and conquests or aggressive animals;
- It was the tribe’s love for animals that singled out a separate style of Scythian culture, which was called the “Scythian animal style”. And also some features of the ornaments indicate that the settlements had their own religious rites and they were priests.
If we talk about the most ancient decoration of the Scythian heritage, then its approximate age is 20 thousand years. Most creations were found in mounds. Only very wealthy Scythians or brave warriors were buried in such places.
The tribes used gold precisely because they considered it to be divine, magical metal. They were attracted by the brilliant appearance of the products, and they considered jewelry a talisman even in battles. The most common were images of a deer or goat - animals that tribes saw.
Also among them are images of griffins, chimeras, sphinxes.
In addition to jewelry or tools made of precious metals, mounds often contain Scythian household items, which have historical value than material. Regarding the excavations of famous gold creations, coins, stamps, and other things are issued.
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