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September 19 - October 18, 2021
In this new-found enthusiasm for the Scythians, Herodotus’ Histories, written in Greek in the fifth century BC, which gives an extended account of the Scythian lifestyle, was translated into Russian.
Among the various grave goods recovered an Iranian seal and an Egyptian amulet showed the extent of the exchange networks then in operation.
The stand-off continued until at last a confrontation of the two armies seemed about to happen, but before the armies could engage a hare started up between them and the Scythian cavalry rushed off in pursuit leaving the Persians astonished and frustrated.
An amusing anecdote which may even be true, it nicely characterizes the stark cultural differences between the two forces, the one stolid, controlled, and over-trained, the other whose whole being was mobility and spontaneity.
‘Laws are spiders’ webs which catch little flies but cannot hold big ones’ and, about democracy, ‘Wise men speak, fools decide’.
Mongolian herders always fear the dzud—an unusually dry summer followed by a severe winter.
Different communities living in the great expanse of the steppe developed a broadly similar culture based on the care of flocks and herds rather than on the intensive growing of cereals.
The construction of such a mound implies that the lineage of the deceased wielded considerable coercive power.
Invigorating it all was the horse, providing mobility, speed, and the facility for men to work together as a horde: humans had learnt from their horses how to become herd animals.
The more elaborate and well-furnished tombs with larger kurgans belonged to the elite, though the distinction between kings and the aristocracy is not always clear.
twenty-one burials have been identified as probably being royal,
By making exotic luxury goods available to the nomad elites to help them maintain and enhance their status, the civilized world was putting pressure on the steppe societies to supply ever increasing quantities of grain, furs, metals, and slaves in exchange.
The first major advance of steppe nomads into the Carpathian Basin began in about 2800 BC with the expansion and settlement of Yamnaya pastoralists moving along the Lower Danube valley to settle on the steppe of the Great Hungarian Plain
Throughout the period from the ninth to the fifth centuries the Danube formed a cultural frontier between the nomadic-based communities of the Mezöcsát and Vekerzug cultures to the east and the Hallstatt culture of western Central Europe to the west.
The Ak-Alakha woman and the people buried in the Berel cemetery clearly belonged to the same culture as did those interred at Pazyryk, even though the cemeteries are hundreds of kilometres apart and separated by mountain ranges.
What is remarkable about the people of the Altai is their ability to acquire items of value from great distances away.
but it may be no coincidence that the Chinese goods first appeared in the Altai in the third century BC at about the time when cavalry was being rapidly developed in China during the Zhao period.
Living in such a monotonous climate, eating the same food, and wearing the same clothing the year long the nomads all look much alike, not least since the men have no facial hair.
