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Scythian language
Herodotus (Hist, book 4) specifically records that European Scythians spoke multiple languages. Some scholars ascribe certain "runic" inscriptions found in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to the Scythians, but apart from that no Scythian texts survive; however, the personal names found in the contemporary Greek literary and epigraphic texts suggest that the language of the Scythians and the Sarmatians (who spoke a dialect of Scythian according to Herodotus, Hist. 4.117) has strong similarities to well-attested Eastern Iranian dialects such as Sogdian, modern Ossetic and Pashto.
Contemporaries also commonly referred to the subject peoples in the periphery steppes as "Scythians", but that does not necessarily mean that they spoke Iranian languages as did the Scythians proper. Priscus, the Byzantine emissary to Attila, referred to Attila's followers repeatedly as "Scythians"; some of the Huns may have had Scythian ancestry.
Naming and etymology
According to Herodotus (Hist. 4.6), the Scythians called themselves Skolotoi. The Greek Skythēs probably reflects an older rendering of the very same name, *Skuδa- (whereas Herodotus transcribes the unfamiliar [đ] as Λ; -toi represents the North-east Iranian plural ending -ta). The word originally means "shooter, archer", and it ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *skeud- "to shoot, throw" (compare English shoot). [2]
The Sogdians' name for themselves, Swγδ, probably represents the same name (*Skuδa > *Suγuδa with an anaptyctic vowel). The name also occurs in Assyrian in the form Aškuzai or Iškuzai "Scythian". This name may have provided the source of biblical Hebrew Ashkenaz (original *אשכוז ’škuz got misspelled as אשכנז ’šknz), later a Jewish name of the Germanic areas of Central Europe and hence a self-descriptor of the Central European Jews who lived there among the Ashkenazim (Germans).
The Old Persians used another name for the Scythians, namely Saka, which perhaps derived from the Iranian verbal root sak- "to go, to roam", i.e. "wanderer, nomad".
The Chinese knew the Saka (Asian Scythians) as Sai (Chinese character: 塞, Old Sinitic *sək).
Scythian society
Scythians lived in confederated tribes, a political form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organized a common defence against encroaching neighbors for the pastoral tribes of mostly equestrian herdsmen. While the productivity of domesticated animal breeding was much higher than of the settled agricultural societies, the pastroral economy also needed a supplemental agricultural produce, and stable nomadic confederations developed either symbiotic, or forced alliances with sedentiary peoples, in exchange for animal produce and military protection. They invaded many areas in the steppes of Eurasia, including areas in present-day Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, southern Ukraine and southern Russia. Ruled by small numbers of closely-allied élites, Scythians had a reputation for their archers, and many gained employment as mercenaries.
Scythian élites had kurgan tombs: high barrows heaped over chamber-tombs of larch-wood — a deciduous conifer that may have had special significance as a tree of life-renewal, for it stands bare in winter. Burials at Pazyryk in the Altay Mountains have included some spectacularly preserved Scythians of the "Pazyryk culture" — including the "Ice Maiden" of the 5th century BC.
Scythian women dressed in much the same fashion as the men, and at times fought alongside them in battle. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s confirms this. It contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. "The woman was dressed exactly like a man. This shows that certain women, probably young and unmarried, could be warriors, literally Amazons. It didn't offend the principles of nomadic society", according to one of the archaeologists interviewed for the 1998 NOVA documentary "Ice Mummies".
Scythian warrior-women have become popular contenders for the honour of having inspired the Greek myths of the Amazons. The work of Jeannine Davis-Kimball (Secrets of the Dead August 4, 2004) provides archaeological and genetic evidence that the Sarmatians may have provided the source of the Greek tales.
As far as we know, the Scythians had no writing system. Until recent archaeological developments, most of our information about them came from the Greeks. The Ziwiye hoard, a treasure of gold and silver metalwork and ivory found near the town of Sakiz south of Lake Urmia and dated to between 680 and 625 BC, includes objects with Scythian "animal style" features. One silver dish from this find bears some inscriptions, as yet undeciphered and so possibly representing a form of Scythian writing.
Homer called the Scythians "the mare-milkers". Herodotus described them in detail: their costume consisted of padded and quilted leather trousers tucked into boots, and open tunics. They rode with no stirrups or saddles, just saddle-cloths. Herodotus reports that Scythians used cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke (Hist. 4.73-75); archaeology has confirmed the use of cannabis in funeral rituals. The Scythian philosopher Anacharsis visited Athens in the 6th century BC and became a legendary sage. Scythians also had reputations for their usage of barbed and poisoned arrows of several types, for a nomadic life centered around horses — "fed from horse-blood" according to Herodotus — and for skill in guerrilla warfare. Some see the Scythians as the first to tame the horse and to use it in combat as well[citation needed] (compare Domestication of the horse).
Scythians in the historical record
To date, no widely-accepted explanation exists for the origin of the Scythians, nor of how they migrated to the Caucasus and Ukraine; but many scholars conjecture that they migrated westward from Central Asia between 800 BC and 600 BC.
Herodotus gives the name of the land where the Scythians originated as Gerrhos. They would prepare their dead and travel with them long distances to bring them for burial in Gerrhos.
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