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Scythians
700-200BC
The inhabitants of this region called themselves Skoloti, but Scythia was the name given by the ancient Greeks after about 800 BC to the homeland of the Scythians. They occupied a region in South-eastern Europe, extending from the Danube in the west to the borders of China in the east.
The Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th century BC, and spoke an Indo-Iranian language but had no system of writing. They were nomadic conquerors and skilled horsemen and appear to be related to the Saka, another nomadic tribe that roamed the steppes of central Asia at about the same time. The Scythians are traditionally associated with the area between the Danube and the Don, but modern excavations in the Altai Mts. suggest that their origins were in West Siberia before they moved East into Southern Russia in the early 1000 BC.
The Scythians, considered barbarians by the Greeks, traded grain and their services as mercenaries for Greek wine and luxury items. They invaded upper Mesopotamia and Syria in the 7th century BC, they threatened Judah but never actually occupied Palestine and also made incursions into the Balkan Peninsula, and a century later the mysterious campaign of Darius I against them in circa 512BC may have checked their expansion, although it was no conquest.
In 325BC, they destroyed an expedition sent against them by Alexander the Great. After 300BC, they were driven out of the Balkans by the invading Celts. In Southern Russia, they were displaced in the 2nd or 1st century BC by the related Sarmatians, and part of their empire then became Sarmatia.
The Scythians produced ornaments and vases in gold and electrum with animal decoration. Their art features primarily the fauna of their homeland: leopard, deer and eagle, and an interest in motion, continuity and transformation : leaping, running and blending into each other. Some of the best-known works are gold hammered over a carved matrix.
Although there is no surviving written work, there are spectacular archaeological remains, including vast royal burial mounds which often contain horse skeletons.
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