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The Scythians were a nomadic people who ruled the vast steppes for nearly five centuries, from the 8th to the 3rd century BC. They spoke a language from the Northeastern Iranian family and were famous for their exceptional archery skills while riding horseback. Their accuracy with arrows left their neighbors in awe, earning them the title of 'horse-bowmen.' Their empire spanned from Ukraine to Siberia, just north of Mongolia. They even settled as far west as modern-day Romania and Hungary and appeared in what is now Iran, just as the Assyrians and Medes were fighting for dominance in the Near East.
10. The Fall of the Assyrians
The Assyrians, while trying to emulate the grandeur of the Babylonians, were held together by the might of their military and the terror instilled by their secret agents. The Scythians, after displacing the Cimmerians, drove them toward Assyrian territory, causing chaos and making it difficult for the Assyrians to react to the raids of these swift horsemen. As the Cimmerian threat grew, the Assyrians' power weakened, and their vassals rebelled. Egypt managed to expel the Assyrians and regain its independence. In panic, Assyrian King Ashurbanipal sacked Babylon and destroyed Susa in an attempt to intimidate his people into submission. Meanwhile, the Scythians, taking advantage of the weakening Assyrian front, raided the Middle East with their swift cavalry and overwhelming firepower. The Babylonians and Medes, with the help of Scythian mercenaries, brought down the Assyrian Empire.
9. Equipment
The Scythians, with their full beards, typically wore tall, pointed hats, long coats fastened at the waist with belts, and trousers tucked into boots. Wealthier warriors donned iron-scaled leather jackets, while the common Scythians relied on round, oblong wicker shields covered in leather for defense.
The primary weapon of the Scythians was their short composite bow, capable of shooting arrows up to eighty yards. For bird hunting, they used fine-tipped arrows aimed directly at the eyes, while for combat, they employed barbed arrowheads designed to inflict more damage by tearing the wound upon withdrawal. They also crafted their own poisons for the arrowheads, a deadly mix of snake venom, decayed human blood, and dung to speed up infection. The Scythians' secondary weapons included the sagaris, a curved battle-axe, and the akinakes, a short, curved sword.
8. Burial Mounds
Though the Scythian culture has long since vanished, their burial mounds continue to endure. These kurhans were constructed to house the remains of prominent Scythian chiefs and kings. Atop these mounds, crude stone figures were erected, standing as guardians over the deceased and their belongings. The largest kurhans rise to the height of a six-story building and span over ninety meters in diameter. These mounds were more than mere piles of earth; they were intricately layered with sod to provide grazing grounds in the afterlife for the horses buried alongside the departed.
7. The Death of a Great Leader
As previously noted, the burial rituals for Scythian nobility were remarkably elaborate. In one kurhan unearthed in 1898, archaeologists discovered 400 horses arranged in a geometric pattern around the body of a fallen warrior. But it wasn’t just horses that were sacrificed—consorts and retainers also joined their lord in the afterlife. Herodotus describes how mourners would pierce their left hands with arrows, slash their arms, and even sever parts of their ears to show their sorrow. A year after the burial, 50 horses and 50 slaves were killed, gutted, preserved, and impaled on posts around the kurhan. The horses, positioned upright, were mounted by the dead slaves, standing as eerie sentinels around the tomb of their fallen lord.
6. Golden Artifacts
The Scythians are often wrongly stereotyped as bloodthirsty barbarians, but their impressive gold craftsmanship speaks for itself. Scythian gold was extracted from the Altai region and collected from frequent raids on Greek and Persian cities. The gold was intricately sewn into their clothing, forming plates, belts, brooches, necklaces, torques, scabbards, helmets, earrings, and other decorative elements, as well as shaped into their weapons. Their designs were particularly notable for their depictions of fierce animals—griffins, lions, wolves, stags, leopards, eagles, and, most famously, animals locked in combat. As historian William Montgomery McGovern observed, “From the mass of evidence now before us, it seems highly probable that this Scytho-Sarmatian animal style spread to all parts of the ancient world and had an important effect not only upon European art but upon the art of ancient China.”
5. Tattoos
Herodotus recorded that the Scythians adorned their bodies with tattoos, which signified their noble status. A Scythian lacking tattoos was considered of lower rank. The confirmation of Scythian tattoos came in 1948 when a Russian archaeologist discovered the preserved remains of a Scythian chieftain. His tattoos were intricate, featuring a stag and a ram on his right arm, two griffins across his chest, and a fish on his right leg. These findings were interpreted by some experts as additional evidence that the fantastical depictions of animals by the Scythians influenced the art of regions such as China, Persia, India, and Eastern Europe.
4. Scalpings and Severed Heads
Following battle, Scythian warriors would drink the blood from the first enemy they had slain. With the taste of blood still fresh in their mouths, the warriors would then decapitate their fallen foes to use as grim tokens when distributing the spoils of war. Only those warriors who presented the severed heads would be granted their share by the chieftain or king. After receiving their portion, the warriors would remove the scalps from their collection of heads as a dark symbol of their martial prowess. These scalps were attached to bridles, clothing, and even sewn into cloaks. The skulls of the most powerful and respected enemies were often hollowed out, gilded with gold, and transformed into drinking vessels. Additionally, the skin from the limbs of their victims was used to cover quivers that hung from the warriors' belts.
3. The Confrontation with Darius
In 513 BC, the Scythians faced an invasion from Darius the Great, who assembled an army of 700,000 men to put an end to their disruptive raids on Persian territory. Using the vast expanse of the steppe to their advantage, the Scythians employed a strategy of retreat when the Persians advanced and advancing when the Persians withdrew. Scythian scouts maneuvered cleverly, striking from a distance whenever any Persian soldier was unlucky enough to break formation or expose a vulnerable flank. Herodotus recounts an incident during this conflict when both sides had set up battle lines. Suddenly, a loud whooping came from the Scythian ranks, and their horsemen impulsively broke formation, chasing after a hare. 'These fellows have a hearty contempt for us,' Darius reportedly muttered to one of his aides. Eventually, low on supplies and morale, Darius withdrew his forces.
2. The Amazons
Herodotus tells the story of a clash between Scythians and the Amazons near the Sea of Azov. When the Scythians discovered that their fierce adversaries were women, they decided to send their most powerful warriors not to fight, but to court these female fighters. Somehow, the Amazons were charmed by the wily Scythians, though they were not willing to adopt the role of wives, rejecting the domestic duties typically assigned to Scythian women. In the end, the two groups supposedly united to form a shared tribe. While this story is likely mythical, recent archaeological discoveries have uncovered the remains of several well-armed Scythian women. This suggests that Scythian society may have had a place for female warriors after all.
1. Marijuana
The Scythians had a deep fondness for marijuana and played a key role in introducing it to Egypt and Eastern Europe, bringing it from Central Asia. In one Scythian tomb, archaeologists uncovered a skull with three small holes likely made to relieve swelling. Alongside the skull, they discovered a stash of marijuana, likely intended to ease the man’s headache in the afterlife. Herodotus offers what might be the oldest recorded description of hotboxing: 'After the burial... they set up three poles leaning together to a point and cover them with woolen mats... They create a pit in the center beneath the poles and place red-hot stones in it... they take hemp seeds and, crawling under the mats, throw them onto the glowing stones, where they smolder and release so much steam that no Greek vapour-bath could rival it. The Scythians howl in their delight at the vapour-bath.'
