Search Results (19)

The Carpathian orogen represents a natural laboratory for the study of geodynamic interactions between lithospheres of different ages. The ancient Archean Cratons, such as the East European Craton, and Proterozoic platforms like the Scythian and Moesian platforms collided with the younger Tisza and Dacia mega-units, resulting in the formation of the current architecture of the Carpathian Mountains. To better understand how the lithospheric structure on Romanian territory changes from the East European Craton to younger European microplates, we use earthquake data recorded at the permanent broadband seismic stations of the Romanian National Seismic Network (RSN). Applying the multiple filter technique, we examine the dispersion of Rayleigh wave group velocities for earthquakes located within a 4000 km radius of the epicenter. Travel time tomography, conducted through fast marching surface tomography, helps us to construct group velocity maps for periods between 30 and 80 s. Our findings highlight a low-velocity body in front of the Vrancea slab, indicating asthenospheric upwelling due to slab verticalization. Full article

The Eurasian Iron Age Scythians, in all their regional iterations, are known for their lavish burials found in various kinds of tumuli. These tumuli, of varying sizes, are located throughout the Eurasian steppe. Based, at least partially, on the amounts and types of grave goods found within these mounds, the Scythians are usually modeled as militant, patriarchal mobile pastoralists, with rigid social structures. Yet, such interpretations are also due to accounts of Scythian lifeways provided by “classical” societies from the Greeks to the Persians, who saw the Scythians largely as barbarians, much like their neighbors to the north of the Greeks, the “Celts”. Despite recent interrogations of the barbarian trope, and the opportunity to dissect the classic formula of large mounds = elevated status, I contend that many studies on Scythian mortuary practices remain monolithic and under-theorized, especially by Western scholars. Drawing upon different conceptual and methodological frameworks, I present alternative, multi-scalar understandings of Scythian mortuary landscapes. Utilizing a spacetime-oriented, dialogical approach supplemented with geographic information systems, I interrogate how and why various meanings and experiences may have intersected in these protean Scythian landscapes of the dead, rather than reducing them to monolithic symbolic proxies of ideological status. Full article

This article explores the phenomenon of a specific type of personal adornment worn by members of the Scythian elite in the North Black Sea region in the second half of the 5th century and throughout the 4th century BCE. The discussion juxtaposes the records from 19th-century and early 20th-century excavations with contextual analyses of very recent discoveries from Ukraine, which shed significant new light on the appearance, production, and meaning of Scythian jewelry. The reconstruction of the shape of the jewelry type in question is greatly complicated by two factors: the lack of relevant depictions in the contemporary corpus of Scythian and Greco-Scythian figure scenes and misleading scholarly references to supposed analogies in a Roman-era mosaic, which became the chief reason for the misinterpretations of the ornament’s appearance. Composed of numerous gold or gilded silver tubes; beads; pendants; and, sometimes, “buttons,” this jewelry type is reconstructed in two gender-specific variants in this article: one mesh-like and the other with a cross-chest form. For over a hundred years, scholars have considered only the mesh variant to be the correct reconstruction. As a result, many costume reconstructions of this jewelry form in specialist research and museum displays alike are still proposed without a sufficient evidentiary base. Full article

In 1882, the lavishly decorated golden regalia of a steppe nomad warrior prince, which was crafted in the late sixth century BCE in a “bilingual” Scythian–Milesian workshop on the Black Sea coast, was found on the edge of a Lusatian swamp 120 km southeast of Berlin. Its discovery and the ongoing findings of steppe nomad armaments—arrows, battle axes, and swords—in central Europe have led to a lively debate about the nature of Scythian–Indigenous interaction in the Early Iron Age, ranging from benign visions of long-term acculturation to violent scenarios of short-term raiding. In this article, I argue that an analysis of the iconography of the Witaszkowo hoard and new information from excavations at its find spot make it likely that it was sent as a diplomatic gift by Scythian elites to an indigenous leader and deposited by the local community as a votive hoard. An affirmation of the compact chronological range of Scythian artefacts found in the west, growing evidence for the destruction of indigenous strongholds by horse-borne archers, and concurrent evidence for the drastic depopulation of vast landscapes in the second half of the sixth century BCE allow us to envisage the gifting of this hoard as an episode of a fierce and destructive altercation. It is posited that this onslaught was a facet of the western thrust of the Lydian and Persian Empires, and that its extirpative impact was the result of systematic, commercially driven slaving triggered by the concurrent monetisation of the economies of the Black Sea coast. The effects of these raids on Eastern Central Europe’s later prehistoric communities are made manifest by analogies to the disastrous ramifications of the transatlantic slave trade on societies of 16th-to-18th-century West Africa. Full article

The “ceremonial” forms of swords and daggers—that is, bladed weapons decorated with precious metals—occupy a special place in the culture of the early nomads. For the Scythian period, we know at least 76 ceremonial objects from 61 sites, corresponding to 3.5% of the total sample. More than half of the finds come from the northern Black Sea region (mainly Ukraine). Ceremonial forms are represented in all morphological categories (from daggers to extra-long swords), but their distribution is slightly different. Most akinakai belong to the average and long swords. Most Scythian akinakai in Eurasia belong to the dagger and short sword groups. Although most Scythian swords and daggers fall into the Middle Scythian period, most ceremonial forms belong to the last phase of Classical Scythian culture. This period is a veritable “golden autumn” of Scythia with its huge royal burial mounds and abundance of gold, perfectly illustrating our argument that conspicuous consumption coincides with periods of political and social instability. After the peak of the proliferation of ceremonial akinakai in the third quarter of the 4th century BC, we observe a generation later the complete disappearance of Classical Scythian culture, along with its characteristic weapons, horse harnesses, and animal style. Full article

This article explores the extraordinarily rich gold finds from the Early Scythian princely tomb Arzhan 2 in the Republic of Tuva, southern Siberia (late 7th to early 6th centuries BCE), through the methodological framework of the chaîne opératoire (operational sequence), in order to reconstruct the objects’ processes of manufacture. Through an interdisciplinary study of the finds at the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the principal author analyzed tool marks and surface morphologies, which allow for the comprehensive identification and documentation of the numerous techniques employed in the creation of the often very elaborate jewelry, decorated weapons, and other personal ornaments. The production of both individual pieces and extensive series of thousands of identical trimmings attests to the existence of complex craft processes and workshop organizations. The technological aspects of the gold finds impress through their diversity and outstanding quality, both artistically and in terms of their craftsmanship. As this article will demonstrate, the objects present the earliest evidence for a highly specialized goldsmith artform in southern Siberia. Full article

Archaeological landscapes can be obscured by environmental factors, rendering conventional visual interpretation of optical data problematic. The absence of evidence can lead to seemingly empty locations and isolated monuments. This, in turn, influences the cultural–historical interpretation of archaeological sites. Here, we assess the potential of integrating thermal and magnetic remote sensing methods in the detection and mapping of buried archaeological structures. The area of interest in an alluvial plain in Tuva Republic makes the application of standard methods like optical remote sensing and field walking impractical, as natural vegetation features effectively hide anthropogenic structures. We combined drone-based aerial thermography and airborne and ground-based magnetometry to establish an approach to reliably identifying stone structures concealed within alluvial soils. The data integration led to the discovery of nine buried archaeological structures in proximity to an Early Iron Age royal tomb, shedding light on ritual land use continuity patterns. Full article

This article traces the characteristics, origin, distribution, and function of alternative lateral horse gaits, i.e., intermediate speed lateral-sequence gaits. Such alternative lateral gaits (running walk, rack, broken pace, hard pace, and broken trot) are prized by equestrians today for their comfort and have been found in select horse breeds for hundreds of years and even exhibited in fossil equid trackways. After exploring the evolution and development of alternative lateral gaits via fossil equid trackways, human art, and historical writings, the functional and genetic factors that led to the genesis of these gaits are discussed. Such gaited breeds were particularly favored and spread by the Scythians, Celts, Turks, and Spaniards. Fast and low-swinging hard pacing gaits are common in several horse breeds of mountainous areas of East and North Asia; high-stepping rack and running walk gaits are often displayed in European and North and South American breeds; the broken pace is found in breeds of Central Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, Western North America, and Brazil in South America; and the broken trot occurs in breeds of North Asia, South Asia, the Southern United States, and Brazil in South America, inhabiting desert or marshy areas. Full article

This article considers finds from the Scythian monuments of the North Black Sea area that can be connected to local jewelry production from the 7th century to the end of the 4th century BCE. I wish to draw attention to the problem of prolonged bias in this area of study. The prominence of the famous masterpieces by West Asian artisans (Lyta Mohyla and Kelermes Kurgans) and of the Greco-Scythian goldwork from the North Pontic kurgans (Chortomlyk, Solokha, Tovsta Mohyla, etc.) invited the view that the vast majority of the gold objects that the Scythians used during their lifetime and later took into their graves were imported rather than locally produced. Instead of trying to consider all artifacts that could potentially be Scythian-made, my goal in this article is to review the direct archaeological evidence of local jewelry production in the form of punches, matrices, and recorded cases of workshops at Scythian settlements. Gathering this evidence, as I will argue, gives us compelling insight into the high level of Scythian goldsmithing from the beginning of Scythian culture in the 7th century BCE and its improvement and adaptation of new techniques in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, probably in the context of intensified cultural exchanges between Scythians and Greeks. Full article

The gold pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla is a masterpiece of Greco-Scythian metalwork, the most prominent and esteemed of all the finds uncovered in 260 years of excavating the Scythian kurgans. After the pectoral was discovered on 21 June 1971 by B. Mozolevsky, dozens of other scientists joined him in studying it. The researchers have raised a wide range of interesting questions revolving around the origin of the pectoral, the technology involved in its production, its stylistic features, and the interpretation of its depictions. However, so far, none of these questions has been answered definitively. This article provides an overview of the author’s recent interdisciplinary research on the Tovsta Mohyla pectoral. Full article

Axes were rare among the Scythians but are occasionally found in Scythian kurgans. Like other weapons, axes had practical as well as social and religious roles. The Scythians not only placed axes in burials as burial gifts, but also used them at various stages of the funeral ritual. This article considers several hitherto unknown, highly unusual archaeological contexts featuring axes. These contexts show that axes were used in the ritual preceding the excavation of the grave; they completed the ritual before the filling of the grave; and they were included in the final sealing of the burial. In addition to the ritual implications of Scythian axes found in kurgan burials, this article considers the meaning of the representations of related artifacts on Scythian metalwork, as well as on the coins of Kerkinitis and Olbia. A bronze votive axe similar to the one from L’vovo Kurgan 18, Burial 2 is shown on Olbian Borysthenes coins, indicating a permanent relationship between the city and the Scythians, perhaps in the form of paying tribute (“gifts”) to the Scythians. The dating of Olbian Borysthenes coinage is also discussed. Full article

The Iron Age Saka population of the eastern Eurasian Steppe is considered one of the earliest of the Scythian groups to emerge at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, consequently producing some of the earliest expressions of ‘animal style’ art. Recent excavations of burial mounds (kurgans) in the East Kazakhstan region have provided invaluable data on the depositional contexts of such objects. This paper combines contextual archaeological data and visual analysis with data on the chemical composition and technological production (through X-ray fluorescence and optical microscopy) of some of the gold artefacts from the Eleke Sazy funerary complex in East Kazakhstan. It is demonstrated that the positioning of wearable ornaments within undisturbed archaeological contexts can give vital information about their form and function, while evidence of production techniques and use-wear indicate the time investment and status the objects may have held. It is concluded that the Saka engaged in a complex process of design and execution of their art, depicting many different elements of the natural world. Further research is needed into understanding Saka lifeways and belief systems in relation to large-scale processes of climate change, land use, time, and society from securely dated and well-documented funerary and domestic archaeological contexts. Full article

This paper is devoted to the problems of differentiation of stylistic variants in the common phenomenon of the so-called Scythian and Siberian animal styles, which is one of the main distinctive features of Eurasian nomadic art. The animal style is a concept of more scale than an artistic style proper which distinguishes with some formal characteristics and depends directly on generic traditions and ethnic and cultural roots of art. Together with the technical-technological methods these formal features could be evidential indications of the origin of works of art. The Siberian collection of Peter the Great includes some different groups of golden ornaments decorated in animal styles of different origins. The paper focuses on a compact group of items originating from various mostly unknown sites from different territories in Asia including the Oxus treasure, several items from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great from Southern Siberia, a few jewelry pieces from other collections of the world museums as well as items made of leather and felt coming from the First and the Second Pazyryk kurgans. A distinctive feature of this group of zoomorphic images are colored inlays that accentuate a hind-leg or a shoulder of the animal; such inlays have the form of an intricate figure made up of a circle and a curvilinear triangle abutting to it or elongated round brackets. Genetically, such an ornamental motif, which is not generally typical for Persian art, may be linked to a periphery area of the Iranian world and nomadic culture, while the group of sites can be dated back to the 4th–3rd centuries BC. The paper considers a bracelet from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great which is the only item in this category of jewelry type of bracelets. It represents a rare type of ornament with a multi-component structure. It consists of three open-work strips with zoomorphic compositions in an animal style similar to the above-mentioned stylistic group. All three parts of the bracelet are created in a unified style, but obviously in different individual manners. There is no doubt, that the zoomorphic images show three different authors’ hands, and were made by different artisans. So, there is evidence of collective work on the object when each artisan makes his own operation to create a unique jewel at a workshop. Some parts of the composition on the bracelet are similar in style to zoomorphic images from kurgan Issyk in Kazakhstan which perhaps were made in the same workshop. This fact confirms the assumption of the origin of some of Siberian jewelry. Full article

In the North Pontic region, bronze greaves appeared among the Scythians and noble members of the tribal world of the eastern European steppe in the middle of the fifth century BC and were used until the end of the fourth. Both the “classic” full-length Greek greaves and greaves without knee pads were in use. Surviving greaves and fragments thereof from different Scythian burials allow for analysis of the peculiarities of their construction. A distinct feature of the greaves from the burial in Barrow 6 near the village Vodoslavka, Ukraine, is a series of large openings made on the inner side of both greaves, in the area where the muscles of the calves protrude most prominently. These holes are covered (both from the inside and from the outside) with sewn-on pads made of thick leather. Similar holes can also be seen on the greaves from Kerch in eastern Crimea and were likely cut to make these greaves more suited for horse riding. The greaves from Soboleva Mogyla were additionally modified for horse riding in that the parts that covered the knees were shortened and the side parts had deep cuts (more than a half-height) on the inside of the calf muscles. Thanks to this cut, the rider’s leg (around the medial gastrocnemius in particular) fitted snugly to the horse’s side. Full article

The Scythians, nomads who roamed between the Pontic steppe and the Altai mountains throughout the 7th to 3rd centuries BC, are well known for their iconic animal style art. Composed of vivid stylised representations of animals, but depicting few humans, this art poses a challenge to interpretation. The Scythians left no written sources to give insight on their beliefs, and scholars have often had to make recourse to non-nomadic Greek and Persian sources, but these sources are not without their issues. In this paper I will propose the anthropological concept of cosmological perspectivism, first developed by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, as a new way through which to think about and develop a better understanding of what Scythians thought and believed about the animal subjects of their art. I will explore the importance of predators, prey, and the contest between them in both perspectivism and Scythian art, and demonstrate how perspectivism might help us approach these works. Turning to a number of objects that combine Hellenistic and Scythian styles, I will examine how they support a perspectivist reading and explore what they can tell us about how the Scythians thought about animals and how they used them to represent human stories. Full article