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The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths ( or Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian peoples Eurasian nomads people who migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia, where they remained until the 3rd century BC.
Skilled in mounted warfare, the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as the dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and often raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians.
In the 6th century BC, they were expelled from West Asia by the Medes, and retreated back into the Pontic Steppe , and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By the 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths, and by the early Middle Ages, the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe.
After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them.
From this earlier term was derived:
The Urartian name for the Scythians might have been ().
Due to a sound change from /δ/ () to commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name evolved into , which was recorded in ancient Greek as (Σκωλοτοι), in which the Greek plural-forming suffix -τοι was added to the name.
The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles () represented this later form, .
In modern archaeology, the term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC.
Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for the various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in the "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper.
This broad use of the term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures, and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore, the narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik.
Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as .
Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to the limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section. These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art.
The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka. The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer the use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads.
However, while the Cimmerians were an Iranic people sharing a common language, origins and culture with the Scythians and are archaeologically indistinguishable from the Scythians, all sources contemporary to their activities clearly distinguished the Cimmerians and the Scythians as being two separate political entities.
Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated, along with the Saka, in Central Asia and Siberia in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region. The Scythians were already acquainted with quality and sophisticated bronze-casting at this time, as attested by gold pieces found in the 8th century BC Aržan-1 kurgan.
This western migration of the early Scythians lasted through the middle 8th century BC, and archaeologically corresponded to the westward movement of a population originating from Tuva in southern Siberia in the late 9th century BC, and arriving in the 8th to 7th centuries BC into Europe, especially into Ciscaucasia, which it reached some time between and , thus following the same migration path as the first wave of Iranic nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.
Thus dominance of in the Caspian Steppe transferred from Cimmerians to Scythians. Remaining Cimmerians were assimilated by the Scythians, which was facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles. Later, the Scythians settled the Kuban steppe where they established their capital, between the Araxes river to the east, the Caucasus Mountains to the south, and the Maeotian Sea to the west.
The arrival and establishment of the Scythians corresponds to a disturbance of the development and a replacement of the Cimmerian peoples' Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex during to in southern Europe. Nevertheless, early Scythian culture had links to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex. Also, Scythian culture shows links to the older Bronze Age Srubnaya culture in the north Pontic region, including elements of funerary rituals, ceramics, horse gear, and some weapon types.
The Scythians extracted tribute from the native Koban culture and Maeotians populations of Ciscaucasia, such as agricultural, clay and bronze goods, weapons and horse equipment. Maeotians provided large wide-necked pots, jugs, mugs, and small basins. Through the 8th and 7th centuries BC, these interactions and assymilaton led to a mixed culture.
Small nomad groups from Ciscaucasia might have acted in West Asia since the 9th century BC, which laid the ground for the larger migrations. The migration of the Scythians was not directly connected to that of the of the Cimmerians. Scythians became active there after arriving in Transcaucasia around , and maintained contact with the Scythian kingdom in Ciscaucasia.
In West Asia, the Scythians settled eastern Transcaucasia and the northwest Iranian plateau, in today's Azerbaijan, which became their centre until . Akkadian sources from Mesopotamia called this "land of the Scythians" (, ). Unlike Cimmerians, the Scythians there remained a single polity. Local craftsmen became their suppliers.
The Mannaean king Aḫšeri () welcomed the Cimmerians and the Scythians as useful allies against the Neo-Assyrian Empire. During the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon (), the Scythians acted in with Mannai and Media; their first known mention in Neo-Assyrian records is in . Around this time, Aḫšēri hindered Neo-Assyrian operations between its own territory and Mannai. The Scythians even attacked distant Neo-Assyrian provinces, and on one occasion core territories.
Between and , Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon, retaliated deep into Median territory. The first known Scythian king Išpakāya was killed. His successor Bartatua might have immediately negotiated with whom Esarhaddon. By 672 BC, Bartatua had asked to marry Esarhaddon's eldest daughter Šērūʾa-ēṭirat. Thus Scythia in West Asia became a vassal and nominal extension of Assyria and would remain so.
The eastern Cimmerians soon left the Iranian Plateau westwards for Anatolia.
Without the alliance with the Cimmerians and Scythians, Mannai was weaker. Thus between 660 and 659 BC Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal () attacked Mannai. Bartatua, acted as an intermediary and annexed Mannai into the Scythian kingdom. After this, the centre of Scythian power in West Asia shifted to Sakez near Lake Urmia, where fertile pastures allowed the Scythians to rea large herds of horses.
Scythian rulers began emulating West Asian kings by using luxury goods as status markers. the spoils acquired by the Scythians as diplomatic presents or as plunder was used to enhance their status back in the Ciscaucasian Steppe. In addition, artistic concepts also enhanced the range of the craftsmen serving the Scythian aristocracy: the Scythians had absorbed West Asian tastes and customs such as the concept of the divine origin of royal power, and as their material culture was absorbing West Asian elements, so was their art absorbing West Asian artistic modes of representing these.
Even West Asian horses were imported to Ciscaucasia. It was also only when the Scythians expanded into West Asia that they became acquainted with iron smelting and forging, before which they were still a Bronze Age society until the late 8th century BC. The Scythians also borrowed the use of the Chariot and of scale armour from West Asians, and Scythian warriors themselves obtained iron weapons and military experience during their stay in West Asia. Within the Scythian religion, the goddess Artimpasa and the Snake-Legged Goddess were significantly influenced by the Mesopotamian and Syro-Canaanite religions.
During the 7th century BC, the bulk of the Cimmerians were operating in Anatolia. The disturbances they caused led to many of the rulers of this region to break away from Neo-Assyrian overlordship, by the time of Ashurbanipal. In 644 BC, the Cimmerians and their allies the Treres defeated the Lydians and captured their capital city of Sardis. Despite this and other setbacks, the Lydian kingdom was able to grow in power. Around , and with Neo-Assyrian approval, the Scythians under Madyes conquered Urartu, entered Central Anatolia and defeated the Cimmerians alongside the Lydians.
Scythian power in West Asia thus reached its peak under Madyes, with the territories ruled by the Scythian kingdom extending from the Halys river in Anatolia in the west to the Caspian Sea and the eastern borders of Media in the east, and from Transcaucasia in the north to the northern borders of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the south. Meanwhile, the new Lydian Empire became the dominant power of Anatolia.
Nevertheless, the Scythians took advantage of the temporary power vacuum to raid into the Levant some time between and . It is unknown whether this raid damaged the hold of the Neo-Assyrian Empire on its western provinces. The raid reached as far south as Palestine, but did not affect the kingdom of Judah. It reached the borders of the Saite Egyptian kingdom, but pharaoh Psamtik I turn them back by offering them gifts. The retreating Scythians sacked several cities in Palestine. Later Scythian activities were limited to the eastern border of Neo-Assyria and the importation of West Asian goods into the Ciscaucasian steppe.
By 615, Scythia was an ally of Cyaxares in his war against the Neo-Assyrian Empire, possibly out of necessity. Scythia supported the Medo-Babylonian conquests of Aššur in 614 BC, of Nineveh in 612 BC, and of the last Neo-Assyrian remnants at Ḫarran in 610 BC, which permanently destroyed the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
By the , the ascending Median Empire of Cyaxares annexed Urartu, after having annexed Mannai in 616 BC. This rise of Median power forced the Scythians to leave West Asia and retreat north to the Ciscaucasian Steppe. Nevertheless, they continued complex relations with the Median kingdom.
Some splinter Scythian groups remained in eastern Transcaucasia. the Medes called this area (); this name was later recorded as Sakasene (Σακασηνη) by Ptolemy. Later Graeco-Roman sources claimed that these Scythians left the Median kingdom and fled into the Lydian Empire, beginning Lydo-Median War: These Scythians who had remained in West Asia had been completely assimilated into Median society and state by the mid-6th century BC.
From these settlements, Scythian aristocracy bought luxury goods, especially wine and vessels to mix and drink it, and even used those as grave goods. Greek colonists made gold and electrum items for Scythians. After Scythian activity in West Asia declined in the , ties with the Greek colonies grew, and the Scythians started buying pottery imported from the Aegean islands. Greek influences on the Scythians replaced West Asian ones from the beginning of the 6th century BC.
The Scythians ruled as elites over the local populations and assimilated them into a tribal identity while allowing them to continue their lifestyles and economic organisations. Thus, the area became called , and many ethnically non-Scythian peoples were called "".
At this time, the Scythians introduced iron working from West Asia to the Bronze-Age peoples of the Pontic Steppe. The Scythian establishment in the Pontic Steppe was especially facilitated by the iron weapons and the military experience they obtained in West Asia, for example scale armour used by Scythian aristocracy.
After the centre of Scythian power shifted to the Pontic Steppe, from around the Scythians often raided adjacent regions such as central and southeast Europe: Transylvania, Podolia the Pannonian Steppe, Southern Germany, Lusatian culture (causing its destruction), Gaul, and possibly even the Iberian peninsula. They destroyed multiple Lusatian settlements. Scythian arrowheads were found in today's Poland and Slovakia, such as at Witaszkowo, , Strzegom, , and . The Scythians destroyed many important Iron-Age settlements north and south of the Moravian Gate and ones of the eastern Hallstatt culture. For example, Scythian-type arrows were found at the Smolenice-Molpír fortified hillfort's access points at the gate and the south-west side of the acropolis. From the 7th century BC, the Scythians attacked forest steppe tribes in the East European forest steppe to the north, who built many fortified settlements to repel these attacks. Overall, these incursions were similar to those of the Huns and the Pannonian Avars during the Migration Period, and of the Mongols in the mediaeval era, and were recorded in Etruscan bronze figurines depicting mounted Scythian archers.
The establishment of the Pontic Scythian kingdom stimulated the development of extensive trade connections. After the bulk of the Scythians moved into the Pontic Steppe, permanent Greek colonies were founded there: the second wave of Greek colonisation of the north coast of the Black Sea, which started soon after , involved the formation of settlements possessing agricultural lands () for migrants from Miletus, Ancient Corinth, Phocaea and Megara seeking to establishing themselves to farm () in these regions where the land was fertile and the sea was plentiful. The contacts between the Scythians and the Greeks led to the formation of a mixed Graeco-Scythian culture, such as among the "Hellenised Scythian" tribe of the Callipidae, the Histrians, the Geloni to the north of Scythia, and the Hellenised populations in and around Crimea.
In , Cyrus II's Persian Achaemenid Empire had conquered the Lydian Empire and Anatolia, causing a large outflow of Greek refugees and a third wave of Greek colonisation of the Black Sea, from around until . The importance of the Greek colonies of the north Black Sea coast drastically increased after the Persian Achaemenid Empire's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC, which deprived the states of Greece proper of the Egyptian grain that they depended on.
The then-dominant Greek power of Classical Athens therefore established well-defended colonies on the north Black Sea coast near already existing settlements, including Nymphaion near Pantikapaion, Athēnaion near Feodosia, and Stratokleia near Phanagoreia, where high-quality grain was produced. The various Greek city-states of the Aegean Sea also imported fish, furs and slaves from Scythia during this period, and from the mid-6th century BC the Greeks employed Scythian Mercenary in the form of mounted archers to support their own hoplite armies.
From the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the Scythian kingdom had good relations with the Sauromatians to the east. Scythian art was influenced by the Sauromatian culture. However, from to , Sauromatians from the Ural Mountains to the Caspian Steppe were pressed by the Massagetae of Central Asia due to campaigns against them by Cyrus II. In response, the Sauromatians took over Ciscaucasia from the Scythian kingdom. By the 5th century BC, the Scythians had completely retreated from Ciscaucasia.
This process caused Sauromatian nomads to immigrate near the Royal Scythians, and intermarry with local nomad inhabitants. This may have caused the replacement of the Scythian dynasty of Spargapeithes by that of Ariapeithes. This immigration introduced new social norms, including women warriors.
In the 6th century BC, the Scythian sage Anacharsis, brother of then-king Sauaios, traveled to Greece. He was respected as a philosopher, was granted Athenian citizenship and became popular in literature as a "man of Nature" and "noble savage" incarnating "Barbarian wisdom", and a favourite figure of the Cynics.
The results of this campaign are unclear, with Darius I himself claiming that he had conquered the (), that is the Pontic Scythians, while the ancient Greek literary tradition, following the account of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, claimed that the Persian campaign had been defeated by the Scythians, due to which the Greeks started perceiving the Scythians as invincible thanks to their nomadic lifestyle.
Herodotus's narrative is considered dubious, and his account of the failure of Darius appears extremely exaggerated. Some form of Achaemenid authority might have been established in Pontic Scythia as a result of this campaign without it having been annexed.
Due to the need to resist Persian encroachment, the Scythian kingdom underwent political consolidation in the early 5th century BC, during which it completed its evolution from a tribal confederation into an early state polity capable of dealing with the polities threatening or trading with it in an effective way; during this period, the Scythian kings increased their power and wealth by concentrating economic power under their authority. It was also during this period that the control of the Scythians over the western part of their kingdom became tighter. At some point between and , Ariapeithes was succeeded as king by his son Scyles.
A second direction where the Scythian kingdom expanded was in the north and north-west: the Scythian kingdom had continued its attempts to impose its rule on the forest steppe peoples and by the 5th century BC, it was finally able to complete the process after destroying their fortified settlements. Their cultures later fused with that of the Scythians. During the 5th century BC, Scythian rule over the forest steppe people became increadingly dominating and coercive, leading to a decline of their sedentary agrarian lifestyle. This in turn resulted in a reduction in the importation of Greek goods by the peoples of the forest steppe in the 5th century BC.
The peaceful relations which had until then prevailed between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek colonies of the northern Pontic region came to an end during the period of expansionism in the early 5th century BC, when the Scythian kings for the first time started trying to impose their rule over the Greek colonies. The Greek cities erected defensive installations while losing their agricultural production base. At the same time, because the Scythian kingdom still needed to trade with the Greeks in the lower Tanais region, in the early 5th century BC it replaced the destroyed Greek colony of Krēmnoi with a Scythian settlement. The hold of the Scythian kingdom on this region became firmer under Scyles, who was successfully able to impose Scythian rule on the Greek colonies such as Nikōnion, Tyras, Pontic Olbia, and Yevpatoria. Scyles' control over Nikōnion was at the time it was a member of the Delian League, putting it under the simultaneous hegemony of both the Scythian kingdom and Classical Athens. This allowed the Scythian kingdom to engage in relations with Athens when it was at the height of its power. In consequence, a community of Scythians also lived in Athens at this time, as attested by Scythian graves in the Kerameikos cemetery.
The Scythian kingdom was however less successful at conquering other Greek colonies, around 30 of which, including Myrmēkion, Tyritakē, and Porthmeus, banded together into an alliance and successfully defended their independence. After this, they united into the Bosporan kingdom. The Bosporan kingdom soon became a centre of production for Scythian customers living in the steppes and contributed to the development of Scythian art and style. Despite the conflicts between the Scythian kingdom and the Greek cities, mutually beneficial exchanges between the Scythians, Maeotians and Greeks continued. There was consequently a considerable migration of Scythians into Pontic Olbia at this time. The Greek colonies of the Black Sea coast continued adhering to their Hellenic culture while their population was very mixed. During this period Greek influences also became more significant among the Scythians, especially among the aristocracy.
The Greek cities in the Aegean Sea had started to import slaves from Scythia immediately after the end of the Persian invasions of Greece. The Greek cities acted as slave trade hubs but did not themselves capture slaves, and instead depended on the Scythian rulers to acquire slaves for them: the Scythian aristocrats nonetheless still found it profitable to acquire slaves from their subordinate tribes or through military raids in the forest steppe. One group of slaves was bought by the city of Athens, where they constituted Scythian archers employed by the city as an urban police force.
Under these conditions, the grain and slave trade continued, and Pontic Olbia experienced economic prosperity. The Scythian aristocracy also derived immense revenue from these commercial activities with the Greeks, most especially from the grain trade, with Scythian coins struck in Greek cities bearing the images of ears of grain. This prosperity of the Scythian aristocracy is attested by how the lavish aristocratic burials progressively included more relatives, Retinue, and were richly furnished with grave goods, especially imported ones, consisting of gold jewellery, silver and gold objects, including fine Greek-made toreutics, vessels and jewellery, and Gold plating weapons. Scythian commoners however did not obtain any benefits from this trade, with luxury goods being absent from their tombs.
A consequence of the Scythians' close contacts with Greeks was a progressive Hellenization of the Scythian aristocracy. The Greek supply of luxury goods also influenced Scythian art. Greek influence also shaped the evolution of Scythian weapons and horse harnesses: the Scythian composite armour, for example, was fitted with Greek-type Spaulder in the 5th century BC.
This process led to the foundation in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC of several new city-sites including important sites located on major routes which provided access to the major rivers of Scythia. For example, the city of Kamianka had become the economic, political and commercial capital of the Scythian kingdom in the late 5th century BC. Until the 3rd century BC, the majority of Scythians nevertheless still remained composed of nomads.
A Thracian aristocrat named Spartocus I seized leadership of the Bosporan kingdom in . He was possibly connected to the accession of the pro-Odrysian Octamasadas. These changes in the Bosporan Kingdom also led to cultural changes within it in the late 5th century BC, so that the Greek customs which had until then been normative there gave way to more Scythian ones. Under the Spartocid dynasty, the Bosporan kingdom thrived and maintained stable relations with the Scythian kingdom which allowed it to expand its rule conquer several non-Greek territories on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus. This process transformed the Bosporan kingdom into a cosmopolitan realm.
It was then that Pontic Olbia started declining, partly due to the instability within the Scythian steppe to its north, but also because most of the trade, including the grain exports of the Scythian kingdom, passing through Oblia until then shifted to transiting through the cities of the Cimmerian Bosporus constiting the Bosporan Kingdom at this time. The Scythians instead started importing luxury goods made in Bosporan Greek workshops, whose products thus replaced Olbian ones. Around that same time, Athenian commercial influence in the Bosporan Kingdom started declining, and it had fully come to an end by 404 BC.
Pressured by groups of the Massagetae, sometime between and , a second wave of migration of Sauromatians entered Scythia, where these newcomers intermarried with the Scythian tribes already present there after which they may possibly have established themselves as the new ruling aristocracy of the Scythian kingdom. The sedendary communities of the forest steppe also came under pressure from this new wave of nomadic incomers. This, as well as internal conflicts among the Scythians, caused a temporary destabilisation of the Scythian kingdom which caused it to lose control of the Greek cities on the north shores of the Black Sea. The Greek colonies of Pontic Olbia, Nikōnion, and Tyras started to not only rebuild their , but even expanded them during the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC. Meanwhile Nymphaion was annexed by the Bosporan kingdom.
The rule of the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom under the kings Leucon I, Spartocus II and Paerisades I was also favourable for the Scythian kingdom because they provided stability. Leukon employed Scythians in his army, and he was able to capture Theodosia with the help of Scythian horse cavalry, which he claimed to trust more than his own army. Extensive contacts existed between the Scythian and Bosporan nobilities, possibly including dynastic marriages between the Scythian and Bosporan royalty; the rich burial of Kul-Oba belonged to one such Scythian noble who chose to be buried in a Greek-style tomb.
During this time, and with the support of the Scythian kings, the sedentarised Scythian farmers sold up to 16,000 tonnes to Pantikapaion, who in turn sold this grain to Athens in mainland Greece. The dealings between mainland Greece and the northern Pontic region were significant enough that the Athenian Demosthenes had significant commercial endeavours in the Bosporan kingdom, from where he received a 1000 Medimnos of wheat per year, and he had the statues of the Bosporan rulers Pairisadēs I, Satyrus I and Gorgippus insalled in the Athenian market. Dēmosthenēs himself had had a Scythian maternal grandmother, and his political opponents Dinarchus and Aeschines went so far as to launch racist attacks against Dēmosthenēs by referring to his Scythian ancestry to attempt discrediting him.
The Scythian kingdom experienced an early wave of immigration by a related Iranic nomadic people, the Sarmatians, during the 4th century BC, to the Pontic steppe. This slow flow of Sarmatian immigration continued during the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, but these small and isolated groups did not negatively affect its hegemony.
Since both Ateas and Philip had been interested in the region to the immediate south of the Istros, the two kings formed an alliance against the Histriani. However, this alliance soon fell apart and war broke out between the Scythian and Macedonian kingdoms, ending in 339 BC in a battle at the estuary of the Istros where Ateas was killed. The Scythian kingdom had lost its new territories in Thrace due to this defeat. The power of Scythian kingdom was not immediately harmed by the death of Ateas, and it did not experience any weakening or disintegration as a result of it: the Kamianka city continued to prosper and the Scythian burials from this time continued to be lavishly-furnished.
In 309 BC, the Scythian king Agaros participated in the Bosporan Civil War on the side of Satyrus II against his half-brother Eumēlos. Agaros provided Satyros with 20,000 infantrymen and 10,000 cavalrymen, and after Satyros was defeated and killed, his son fled to Agaros's realm for refuge. In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom started declining economically as a result of competition from Egypt, which under the Ptolemaic dynasty had again become a supplier of grain to Greece.
In the early 3rd century BC, the Scythian kingdom faced a number of interlocking unfavourable conditions, such as climatic changes in the steppes and economic crises from overgrazed pastures and a series of military setbacks, as well as the intensifiation of the arrival from the east of the Sarmatians, who captured Scythian pastures. With the loss of its most important resource, the Scythian kingdom suddenly collapsed, and the Scythian capital of Kamianka was abandoned. The Sarmatian tribe responsible for most of the destruction were the Roxolani.
As a consequence, the material culture of the Scythians also disappeared in the early 3rd century BC. The peoples of the forest steppe also became independent again, returning to their sedentary lifestyle while all Scythian elements disappeared from their culture. Grain exports from the northern Pontic region declined drastically, while Greek inscriptions stopped mentioning names of Scythian slaves. Following the invasion, the Sarmatian tribes became the new dominant force of the Pontic Steppe, resulting in the name "" () replacing "" as the name of the Pontic Steppe.
Sarmatian pressure against the Scythians continued in the 3rd century BC, so that the Sarmatians had reached as far as the city of Chersonesus in the Tauric Chersonese by 280 BC, and most native and Greek settlements on the north shore of the Black Sea were destroyed by the Sarmatians over the course of the to , Celts, the Thracian Getae, and the Germanic peoples Bastarnae from the west, also put the Scythians under pressure by seizing their lands. By the early 2nd century BC, the Bastarnae had grown powerful enough that they were able to stop the southward advance of the Sarmatians along the line of the Istros river.
By this time, although the Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had managed to retain some of their nomadic lifestyle, the limited area of their polity forced them to become more and more sedentary and to primarily engage in stockbreeding in far away pastures, as well as in agriculture, and they also acted as trading intermediaries between the Graeco-Roman world and the peoples of the steppes.
With sedentarisation, both fortified and unfortified settlements replaced the older nomadic camps in the basin of the lower Borysthenēs river, which prevented the remaining Scythians from continuing to maintain a steppe economy. Therefore, the number of fortified settlements in the Tauric Chersonese increased with the retreat into this territory and away from the steppe of the Scythian aristocracy, who was then rapidly embracing a Hellenistic lifestyle. By the 1st century BC, these Scythians living in the Tauric Chersonese had fully become sedentary farmers.
These later Scythians slowly intermarried with the native Tauri and the infiltrating Sarmatians, and their culture had little to do with the earlier classical Scythian culture, instead consisting of a combination of those with the traditions of the Tauroi from the mountains of the Tauric Chersonese and of the Greeks of the coasts, and exhibiting Sarmatian and La Tène Celtic influences.
In the 1st century BC, both Little Scythias were destroyed and their territories annexed by the king Mithridates VI Eupator of the kingdom of Pontus despite the Scythians' alliance with their former enemies, the Roxolani, against him.
These late Scythians were slowly assimilated by the Sarmatians over the course of to AD, although they continued to exist as an independent people throughout the 2nd century AD until around AD: in the settled regions of the lower Borysthenēs, lower Hypanis, and the Tauric Chersonese, an urbanised and Hellenised Scythian society continued to develop which also exhibited Thracian and Celtic influences.
The Scytho-Sarmatian Iranic nomads' dominance of the Pontic Steppe finally ended with the invasion of the Goths and other Germanic tribes around , which was when the Scythian settlements in Crimea and the lower Borysthenēs were permanently destroyed.
The Scythians nevertheless continued to exist until the invasion of the Huns in the 4th century AD, and they finally ceased to exist as an independent group after being fully assimilated by the other populations who moved into the Pontic Steppe at the height of the Migration Period in the 5th century AD.
The first mention of the Scythians in ancient Greek literature is in Hesiod's , which refers to them as the "mare-milking Scythians" () and as the "milk-drinkers who have wagons for houses" () Hesiod also referred to the Scythians along with the Ethiopians and Libyans as peoples "whose mind is over their tongue," that is who approve of prudent reserve.
Herodotus wrote a legendary account of the arrival of the Scythians. Herodotus's narrative also contracted the events of the Scythians' arrival into West Asia by portraying Madyes as the king led them from the steppes into West Asia. Herodotus also exaggerated the power of the Scythians in West Asia by claiming that they dominated all of it. Herodotus's narrative depicted Scythia as an opposite of Africa, especially Ancient Egypt, which was a theme continued by other ancient Greek authors, such as Pseudo-Hippocrates, who represented Greece as being the mean situated between these two extremes.
By the 5th century BC, the image of the Scythians in Athens had become the quintessential stereotype used for barbarians, (non-Greeks). They increasingly associated the Scythians with drunkenness. Ancient Greek authors considered the Scythians and Persians, not as related Iranic peoples, but in opposition to each other. The Scythians represented "savagery" and were linked to the Thracians, while the Persians represented "refined civilisation" and were connected to the Assyrians and Babylonians.
The 4th century BC Greek historian, Ephorus, described the Scythians as one of the "four great barbarian peoples" of the known world, along with the Celts, Persians, and Libyans. Ephorus used the perception of Anacharsis as a personification of "Barbarian wisdom" to create an idealised image of the Scythians being as an "invincible" people, which became a tradition of Greek literature. Ephorus created a fictitious account of a legendary Scythian king, named Idanthyrsos or Iandysos, who became the ruler of all Asia.
The Ancient Greeks included the Scythians in their mythology, with Herodorus making a mythical Scythian named Teutarus into a herdsman who served Amphitryon and taught archery to Heracles. Herodorus also portrayed the Titan Prometheus as a Scythian king, and, by extension, described Prometheus's son Deucalion as a Scythian as well. The Romans confused the peoples whom they perceived as archetypical "Barbarians," namely the Scythians and the Celts, into a single grouping whom they called the "Celto-Scythians" () and supposedly living from Gaul in the west to the Pontic steppe in the east.
Strabo of Amasia idealised the Scythians as leading a nomadic life founded on simplicity. According to Strabo's narrative, the Scythians became "corrupted" and lost their simple and honest life because of the influence of the Greeks' "love of luxury and sensual pleasures." Following Strabo, the Scythians continued to be represented as an idealised freedom-loving and truthful people. Later Graeco-Roman tradition transformed the Scythian prince Anacharsis into a legendary figure as a kind of "noble savage" who represented "Barbarian wisdom," due to which the ancient Greeks included him as one of the Seven Sages of Greece and he became a popular figure in Greek literature.
The richness of Scythian burials was already well known in Antiquity, and, by the 3rd century BC, the robbing of Scythian graves had begun, initially carried out by Scythians themselves. During Late Antiquity itself, another wave of grave robbery of Scythian burials occurred at the time of the Sarmatian and Huns domination of the Pontic Steppe, when these peoples reused older Scythian kurgans to bury their own dead.
Various cultures of North Europe started claiming ancestry from the "Scythians" and adopted the Graeco-Roman vision of the "barbarity" of ancient peoples of Europe as legitimate records of their own ancient cultures. In this context, the similarity of the name with the Latin name of the Irish, , led to the flourishing of speculations of a Scythian ancestry of the Irish. Drawing on the confusion of the with both and the , as well as on the conceptualisation of Scythia as a typical "barbarian land", Bede invented a Scythian origin for the Picts in his .
The Irish mythological text titled the repeated this legend, and claimed that these supposed Scythian ancestors of the Irish had been invited to Egypt because the pharaoh admired how Nel, the son of Fénius, was knowledgeable on the world's many languages, with Nel marrying the pharaoh's daughter Scota. According to the , the Scythians fled from Egypt when pharaoh drowned after Moses parted the Red Sea during the flight of the Israelites, and went back to Scythia, and from there to Ireland via Africa and Spain while Nel's and Scota's son, Goídel Glas, became the eponym the Gaels.
Large scale robbery of Scythian tombs started when the Russian Empire started occupying the Pontic steppe in the 18th century: in 1718 the Russian Tsar Peter I issued decrees overseeing the collection of "right old and rare" objects to Saint Petersburg in exchange for compensation, and the material thus obtained became the basis of the Saint Petersburg Hermitage Museum's collection of Scythian gold. This resulted in significant grave robbery of Scythian burials, due to which most of the Scythian tombs of the Russian Empire had been sacked by 1764. In the 19th century, Scythian kurgans in Ukraine, Kuban, and Crimea had been looted, so that by the 20th century, more than 85% of Scythian kurgans excavated by archaeologists had already been pillaged. The grave robbers of the 18th and 19th centuries were experienced enough that they almost always found the burial chambers of the tombs and stole the treasures contained within them.
In the later 19th century, a cultural movement called () emerged in Russia whose members unreservedly referred to themselves and to Russians as a whole as (). Closely affiliated to the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, the were a movement of Russian nationalist religious mysticists who saw Russia as a sort of Messiah-like figure who would usher in a new historical era of the world, and their identification with the ancient Scythians was a positive acceptance of Dostoevsky's view that Europe had always seen Russians as being Asiatic. The culmination of was the famous poem written in 1918 by Aleksandr Blok, titled (), in which he depicted Russia as a barrier between the "warring races" of Europe and Asia, and he made use of the racist Yellow Peril ideology by threatening that Russia was capable of stopping its "protection" of Europe and allow East Asians to overrun it.
The scholar Adrienne Mayor hypothesised that the legend of the griffin originated among the Scythians, who came across fossilised skeletons of the dinosaur Protoceratops. This hypothesis was contested by the palaeontologist Mark P. Witton, who argued that the imagery of the griffin originated in early Bronze Age West Asia. The imagery of griffins in Scythian art itself was borrowed from the artistic traditions of West Asia and ancient Greece. The scholar David Anthony has also hypothesised that the martial role of women among Scytho-Sarmatians had given rise to the Greek myths about Amazons. However, according to the Scythologist Askold Ivantchik, the imagery of the Amazons was already known to Homer and was originally unrelated to the Scythians, with the link between Scythians and Amazons in Greek literature beginning only later in the 5th century BC.
Scythian society was stratified along class lines. By the 5th to 4th centuries BC, the Scythian population was stratified into five different class groups: the aristocracy, very wealthy commoners, moderately wealthy commoners, the peasantry, who were the producer class and formed the mass of the populace, and the poor. The Scythian aristocracy were an elite class dominating all aspects of Scythian life consisting of property owners who possessed Landed property large enough that it sometimes took a whole day to ride around them. These freeborn Scythian rulers used the whip as their symbol. Their burials were the largest ones, normally including between 3 and 11 human sacrifices, and showcasing luxury grave goods. The elite classes rewarded their dependants' loyalty through presents consisting of metal products whose manufacture was overseen by the elites themselves in the industrial centre located in the Scythian capital city at Kamianka.
The were free but still depended to some extent on the aristocracy. They were allowed to own some property, usually a pair of oxen needed to pull a cart, hence why they were called () in Greek. By the 4th century BC, the economic exploitation of these free commoners became the main economic policy of Scythia. The burials of these commoners were largely simple, and contained simpler furnishings and fewer grave goods. Serfdom belonged to the poorest sections of the native populations of Scythia and were not free and did not own cattle or wagons. Stablemen and were recruited from the serf class. Although Scythian society was not dependent on slavery, the Scythian ruling class nevertheless still used a large number of slaves to till the land and tend to the cattle. Slaves were also assigned to the production of .
The Scythian society was patriarchal; while women from the upper classes were free to ride horses, women from the lower classes may have not been free to do so and may have spent most of their time indoors. Among the more nomadic tribes, the women and children spent most of their time indoors in the wagons. With increased Sauromatian immigration in the late 6th century BC, among whom women held high social status, the standing of women improved enough that they were allowed to become warriors from the Middle Scythian period. Within Scythian priesthood there existed a group of transgender soothsayers, called the Enaree (), who were born and lived their early lives as men, and later in their lives assumed the mannerisms and social roles role of women. Polygamy was practised among the Scythian upper classes, and kings had in which both local women and woman who had been bought lived. Some of these women were the kings' legal wives and others were their concubines. After the deaths of Scythian men, their main wives or concubines would be killed and buried alongside them. The wives and concubines could also be passed down as inheritance.
The Scythians were ruled by a triple monarchy, with a high king who ruled all of the Scythian kingdom, and two younger kings who ruled in sub-regions. The kingdom composed of three kingdoms which were in turn made of nomes headed by local lords. Ceremonies were held in each nome on a yearly basis. Such structures were also present among the ancient Xiongnu and the late nomadic Huns.
The Scythians were organised into popular and warrior assemblies that limited the power of the kings. Although the kings' powers were limited by these assemblies, royal power itself was held among the Scythians to be divinely ordained: this conception of royal power was initially foreign to Scythian culture and originated in West Asia. The Scythian kings were later able to further increase their position through the concentration of economic power in their hands because of their dominance of the grain trade with the Greeks. By the 4th century BC, the Scythian kingdom had developed into a rudimentary state after the king Ateas had united all the Scythian tribes under his personal authority.
Scythian kings chose members of the royal entourage from the tribes under his authority, who were to be killed and buried along with him after his death to serve him in the afterlife. Warriors belonging to the entourage of Scythian rulers were also buried in smaller and less magnificent tombs surrounding the tombs of the rulers.
Scythian pastoralism followed seasonal rhythm, moving closer to the shores of the Maeotian Sea in winter and back to the steppe in summer. The Scythians appear to have not stored food for their animals, who therefore likely foraged under the snow during winter. The strong reliance on pastoralism itself ensured self-sufficiency, the importance of which is visible in Scythian petroglyphic art. Hunting among the Scythians was primarily done for sport and entartainment rather than for procuring meat, although it was occasionally also carried out for food.
The settlements in the valley of the Borysthenēs river especially grew wheat, millet, and barley, which grew abundantly thanks to the fertile black soil of the steppe. This allowed the Scythians to, in addition of being principally reliant on domesticated animals, also complement their source of food with agriculture, and the Scythian upper classes owned large estates in which large numbers of slaves and members of the tribes subordinate to the Royal Scythians were used to till the land and rear cattle.
The metallurgical workshops which produced the weapons and horse harnesses of the Scythians during the Early Scythian period were located in the forest steppe. By the Middle Scythian period, its principal centre was at a site corresponding to present-day Kamianka, where the whole process of manufacturing bog iron was carried out. Other metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc were also smelted at Kamianka, while gold- and silversmiths also worked there. This large-scale industrial operation consumed large amounts of timber which was obtained from the river valleys of Scythia, and metalworking might have developed at Kamianka because timber was available nearby.
The most important export was grain, especially wheat, The importance of the Black Sea coast increased in the later 6th century BC following the Persian Empire's conquest of Egypt, which deprived the states of Greece proper of the Egyptian grain that they depended on. The relations between the Scythians and the Greek colonies became more hostile in the early 5th century BC, with the Scythians destroying the Greek cities' and rural settlements, and therefore their grain-producing hinterlands. The resulting system saw the Greek colonies adjusting from agricultural production to trade of grain produced elsewhere. The Scythian monopoly over the trade of grain imported from the forest steppe to the Greek cities came to an end sometime between 435 and 400 BC, after which the Greek cities regained their independence and rebuilt their .
Beginning in the 5th century BC, the grain trade with Greece was carried out through the intermediary of the Bosporan kingdom. As a consequence of the Peloponnesian War, the Bosporan Kingdom became the main supplier of grain to Greece in the 4th century BC, which resulted in an increase of the trade of grain between the Scythians and the Bosporans. The Scythian aristocracy became the main intermediary in providing grain to the Bosporan Kingdom. Inscriptions from the Greek cities on the northern Black Sea coast also show that upper class Greek families also derived wealth from this trade.
The Scythians also sold slaves acquired from neighbouring or subordinate tribes to the Greeks. The Greek colonies on the northern Black Sea coast were hubs of slave trafficking.
Beginning in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Scythians had been importing craft goods and luxuries such as vessels, decorations made from previous metals, bronze items, personal ornaments, gold and silver vases, black burnished pottery, carved semi-precious and gem stones, , fabrics, oil, and offensive and defensive weapons made in the workshops of Pontic Olbia or in mainland Greece, as well as pottery made by the Greeks of the Aegean islands.
The Scythians bought various Greek products, especially amphora of wine, and the pottery such as oenochoe and kylix. The island of Chios in the Aegean Sea produced wine to be sold to the Scythians, in exchange of which slaves from Scythia were sold in the island's very prominent slave market. The Scythians also bought olive oil, perfumes, ointments, and other luxury goods from the Greeks, such as Scythian-style objects crafted by Greek artisans.
An important trade gold trade route ran through Pontic Scythia, starting from Pontic Olbia and reaching the Altai Mountains in the far east. Gold was traded from eastern Eurasia until Pontic Olbia through this route. The conquest of the north Pontic region and their imposition of a "" created the conditions of safety for traders which enabled the establishment of this route. Olbian-made goods have been found on this route until the Ural Mountains. This trade route was another significant source of revenue for the Scythian rulers.
The more nomadic Scythians lived in habitations suited for nomadic lifestyles, such as tents similar to the of the Turkic peoples and the of the Mongolic peoples that could easily be assembled and disassembled, as well as covered wagons that functioned as tents on up to six wheels. The walls and floors of these portable habitations were made of felt and the tents themselves were bound together using ropes made from horse hair.
Beginning in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the Scythians started building fortified sedentary settlements, of which the most important ones were located on major routes which provided access to the major rivers of Scythia. The largest and most important of these was the settlement of Kamianka, built in the late 5th century BC and protected by ramparts and steep banks of the Borysthenēs river. The Kamianka site was the location of the seasonal royal headquarters and the aristocrats and royalty residing in the city's acropolis, which contained stone houses and buildings built over stone foundations. It was also the residence of a farmer population and of metalsmiths. The houses of these farmers and metalsmiths were single-storeyed, with gable-rooves, ranged from 40 to 150 metres square in size and could include multiple rooms, and had clay-painted and felt-fabric adorned walls made of beams buried vertically in the ground; Kamianka also contained square pit houses made of pole constructions with recessed surfaces.
Smaller Scythian settlements also existed, where were cultivated large amounts of crops such as wheat, millet, and barley.
In addition to these, the Scythians consumed large amounts of wine, which they bought from the Greeks. Unlike the Greeks, who diluted wine with water before drinking it, the Scythians drank it undiluted. During the earlier phase of the Scythian Pontic kingdom, wine was primarily consumed by the aristocracy, and its consumption became more prevalent among the wealthier members of the populace only after the 5th century BC.
Scythian men grew their hair long and their beards to significant sizes. Nothing is known about the hairstyles of Scythian women. The Scythians were acquainted with the use of soap, which they used to wash their heads. Scythian women cleaned themselves using a paste made from the wood of cypress and Cedrus, ground together with frankincense, and water on a stone until it acquired a thick consistency. The women then applied this paste over themselves and removed it after a day, leaving their skin clean, glossy, and sweet-smelling. Scythian women also used cosmetics such as scented water and various ointments. These cleaning practices were especially performed after funerals. Scythian men and women both used mirrors, and bronze mirrors made in Pontic Olbia and whose handles were decorated with animal figures such as those of stags, panthers, and rams, were popular during the early Scythian periods.
A group of Scythian shaman-priests called the (Αγαροι, ) was knowledgeable in the use of snake venom for medicinal purposes. Ingredients they used included cannabis, as a way to relieve pain, the analgesic oil of wild cabbage to stimulate circulation and to repel insects, and the cleansing paste used by Scythian women, which had various medicinal properties. In addition to human medicine, the Scythians were adept at veterinary medicine, especially for their horses, although they also domesticated dogs.
The physical art of the Scythians comprised part of the "Animal Style", where a specific range of animals were depicted in limited poses. The style descended from the artwork of Central Asia and Siberia during the 9th century BC. The "Animal Style" emerged in the 7th century BC, during their occupation of Media, due to which the art of the Scythians absorbed West Asian themes. Scythian art was then influenced by the Sauromatians, Thracian art, Greek, and Achaemenid Persian art. The "Animal Style" later spread to the west and eventually influenced Celtic art. It also introduced Shang dynasty metalwork, such as "cruciform tubes" used in harnesses, to the Hallstatt culture.
Scythian art stopped existing after the early 3rd century BC, and the art of the later Scythians of Crimea and Dobruja was completely Hellenised.
The Scythians had several war-related customs meant to transfer the power of defeated enemies to Scythian warriors. For example, every Scythian warrior would drink the blood of the first enemy they would kill. They Headhunting of their enemies and bring them to their king, where they were Scalping. The scalps themselves were tanned and used as decorative handkerchiefs or towels, or fashioned Skull cup. Meanwhile, enemy corpses were flayed, and the skin was made into saddles, while the skin and fingernails from the enemies' right hands was used to make Gorytos.
When not used, Scythian bows and arrows were kept in a combined quiver-bowcase called a Gorytos. Scythian hung from belts at the left hip, with the arrows usually taken using the bow hand and drawn on the bowstring using the right hand, although the Scythians were skilled at ambidextrous archery. Scythian bows and arrows might have required the use of thumb rings to be drawn, although none have been found yet, possibly because they might have been made of perishable materials.
The Scythians coated their arrows with a potent poison referred to in Greek as (). To prepare this poison, the Scythians mixed decomposing with putefried human blood and dung. This combined snake venom and infections such as tetanus or gangrene from the dung, which thrived in the blood. Thus, the caused such lasting harm that even minor wounds from arrows coated were likely lethal. The was not used for hunting since the meat would not have been consumable. The rotting stench of the also functioned as chemical weapons, aided by the ancient belief that foul miasmas caused disease. Another poison used by the Scythians to coat their arrows was Conium maculatum.
Some Scythian warriors wore rich protective armour and belts made of metal plates. Commoner warriors used leather or hide armour. Aristocrats used scale armour made of scales of bone, bronze, and iron sewn onto leather along the top edge. This style, also used to protext horses, had been borrowed from West Asia. Helmets were in various types: cast bronze helmets with an opening for the face, called "Kuban type," were made by the Caucasian peoples; these were replaced by Greek-made Attic helmet, Corinthian, Chalcidic, and Phrygian helmet helmets in the 6th century BC; and composite scale helmets made of iron or bronze plates started being used in the later 6th century BC. Greek-made were imported from the 5th century BC.
Upper class Scythians were particularly tall with the men usually being over 1.80 metres tall, sometimes reaching 1.90 metres, and on some rarer occasions being even more than 2 metres tall.
The difference in height between these upper class Scythians and the Scythian commoners was of around 10 to 15 centimetres, with the height difference being a symbol of status among the upper-class men. Analysis of skeletons shows that Scythians had longer arm and leg bones and stronger bone formation than present-day people living in their former territories.
Due to his unfamiliarity with Scythian dress, Pseudo-Hippocrates inaccurately claimed that the Scythians suffered from hypermobility of the joints.
In Histories, the 5th-century BC Greek historian Herodotus describes the Budini of Scythia as red hair and grey-eyed. In the 5th century BC, Greek physician Hippocrates argued that the Scythians were . In the 3rd century BC, the Greek poet Callimachus described the Arismapes (Arimaspi) of Scythia as fair-haired. The 2nd-century BC Han China envoy Zhang Qian described the Sai (Saka), an eastern people closely related to the Scythians, as having yellow (probably meaning hazel or green) and blue eyes. In the late 2nd century AD, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria says that the Scythians and the Celts have long auburn hair. The 2nd-century Greek philosopher Polemon includes the Scythians among the northern peoples characterised by red hair and blue-grey eyes. In the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD, the Greek physician Galen writes that Scythians, Sarmatians, Illyrians, Germanic peoples and other northern peoples have reddish hair. The fourth-century bishop Gregory of Nyssa wrote that the Scythians were fair skinned and blond haired. The 5th-century physician Adamantius, who often followed Polemon, describes the Scythians as fair-haired.
Archaeological remains of the Scythians include barrow grave tombs called "kurgans" (ranging from simple exemplars to elaborate "Royal kurgans" containing the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild-animal art), gold, silk, and animal sacrifices, in places also with suspected .
Mummification techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains. Scythian archaeology also examines the remains of cities and fortifications.
Meanwhile, the scholar Askold Ivantchik instead considers Madyes, Spargapeithes, and Ariapeithes to have each belonged to a different dynasty.
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