ALPHABETIC LIST OF PAPER PRESENTATIONS

The Sasanian and Gupta Empires and their Struggle against the Huns

Prof. Hans BAAKKER1, 2

1
The British Museum (ERC Project)
2
Gonda Professor of Sanskrit and the History of Hinduism & Indian Philosophy,
Groningen, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies Emeriti, Oude
Boteringestraat 38, 9712 GK Groningen, The Netherlands

Around the middle of the fourth century Hunnic peoples, referred to by the Roman
historian Ammianus Marcellinus as “Chionitae”, were settling in the eastern parts of
the Sasanian empire in the region known as Tocharistan or Bactria (northern
Afghanistan). Soon thereafter they crossed the Hindu Kush and occupied the area
around Kabul. A gold coin of king Kidara found in the Tepe Maranjan Hoard (Kabul)
indicates that the rule of this Hunnic king and the spread of his power to the south of
the Hindu Kush must have taken place well before AD 388. In the wake of these so-
called “Kidarite Huns” another Hunnic people, whose name appears as “Alchon” on
their coinage, moved further eastwards and settled in Gandhara and the Panjab,
present-day Pakistan. These nomadic invaders from the Central Asian steppes evolved
into a formidable threat to both the Sasanian and Gupta Empires during the period AD
430 to 450, a development that has a remarkable parallel in the encroaching of Attila
and his Huns upon the Roman Empire. In this lecture I will try to give coherence to the
historic developments in Iran and India. In the second half of the fifth century the
Kidarites in the Iranian realm were superseded by yet another Hunnic people who are
known as the Hephthalites. Their expansion facilitated the Alchons in the Indian realm
to invade the Subcontinent under their King Toramana and to establish their rule in
northern and western India. To this period belongs an important artefact in the
collection of the British Museum, the famous silver bowl from the Swat Valley. It
shows four Hunnic princes on a hunting party. Although this bowl has been the subject
of several studies, it has gone largely unnoticed that it contains a brief inscription. A
new reading of this inscription will be proposed.

Keywords: Sasanian, Gupta, Huns, Swat valley, inscribed silver bowl

Traditional nomad economies: an ethnographic perspective

Prof. Thomas BARFIELD

Boston University, USA

Nomadic pastoralism was the dominant form of economic production across the steppe
zone of Eurasia for more than two and a half millennia, yet throughout that period it
was misapprehended (out of ignorance or bias) in the written records produced by
neighboring sedentary societies. Contemporary archeologists and historians therefore
need to familiarize themselves with what the nomads themselves took for granted:
how animal husbandry was organised to adapt to specific ecological contexts; the
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dynamics of regular movement that had both economic and political aspects, and the
diverse relationships they established with the outside world. The last includes the
emergence of powerful polities such as the Xiongnu who challenged China as an equal
for five hundred years, the facilitation of trans-Eurasian overland trade, and the
continual series of conquest dynasties founded by nomadic peoples in Central Asia
and the Iranian plateau over the course of more than a thousand years. Still, for
archeologists in particular, more fine grained ethnographic observations are of equal or
more importance. This can been seen in a study of Kazakh pastoralists in northern
Xinjiang conducted in 1987 where aspects of ethnoarchaeology were foregrounded
and illustrate a living tradition with deep cultural roots.

Keywords: steppe nomadism, ethnoarchaeology, Kazakhs, Altai, cultural ecology

A Scythian treasure in the lands of the Getae: new thoughts on the hoard of
Stâncești

Dr Alexandru BERZOVAN

Iași Institute of Archaeology, Romania

At the turn of the Early Iron Age, to the east of the Carpathian mountains flourished
the ancient culture of the Getae. These northern Thracian tribes built massive hilltop
forts, some covering extensive areas. Massive tumuli and impressive hoards attest to
the level of power and prosperity attained by these local elites. The relationship of the
Getae with their Scythian neighbors located further east was a long and tenuous one.
Ancient historical sources, as well as archaeological evidence, attest to complex
interactions that varied from alliance and trade to military conflict. It has been
hypothesised that one of the reasons for the Getae, and other neighboring forest–steppe
populations to build such massive forts was to defend against the feared warriors and
raiders of the steppes. During excavations in a Getae fort at Stâncești (Botoșani
County, Romania) between the years 1960–1970, a very interesting archaeological
discovery was made. This was a hoard found hidden in a niche under the floor of an
ancient dwelling and consisted of a number of harness pieces and appliques made of
iron, bronze and gold. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, the finds have
received little attention so far yet the stylistic as well as metallographic analyses
clearly point to a Scythian origin. The hoard likely represented a single set, probably
belonging to a chieftain. A large golden zoomorphic applique represented a shield
ornament, while two bronze appliques in the shape of tusks were probably designed to
transmit the power and ferocity of the boar to the rider’s horse. It is difficult to say
how this hoard ended up hidden in the Getae fort, but possible clues are offered by the
analysis of other categories of artifacts discovered during these excavations. They
pinpoint to complex and varied relations between the inhabitants of the Stâncești fort
and the Scythian world.

Keywords: Iron Age, Scythians, Getae, hoard, Stâncești

Interaction between urban societies and mobile peoples: some highlight examples

Dr Nikolaus BOROFFKA

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Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung, Im Dol 2-6, Haus 2, 14195
Berlin, Germany

Interaction between urban populations and mobile steppe inhabitants is illustrated by

examples of recent research by the Eurasia-Department of the DAI. In the third
millennium BC mobile pastoralists contacted urban societies in Central Asia, as at the
royal city of Gonur Depe, with far reaching contacts. The steppe people controlled
mining and the metal resources (Karnab, Mushiston). The Iron Age Scythians buried
their warrior chiefs with enormous effort in huge mounds, fully equipped for life in the
other world, with weapons, horses and great quantities of wealth in golden jewellery
(Arzhan 2). Besides their function as tombs, such mounds either functioned or were
specially built as sanctuaries (Bajkara, Barsuchij Log). Some such structures were
provided with paved roads of modern structure, which could be used only in ritual
processions, since they run in closed circles (Zhoan Tobe). The Scythians interacted
with urban societies in the Black Sea Region (Greek colonies), but also with the cities
of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in Central Asia. Imports at Zhoan Tobe find their
origins in the Greek fortress of Kurganzol, which was founded by Alexander the
Great.

Keywords: Central Asia, Siberia, Urban society, Mobile pastoralists, warriors,

interaction

The potential of bioarchaeological research for analyzing nomadic polities in

Mongolia

Dr Ursula BROSSEDER

University of Bonn, Germany

Methodological advances in anthropological studies opened up new trajectories for

investigating the diversity of pastoral societies in the steppes. These new methods
allow for insights into diet and nutrition, health and disease, lifeways, traumata,
mobility, ancestry and family organization as well as herd management and
movement. The lecture draws on published materials as well as insights from our
current project “Bioarchaeological Research on Cemeteries in the Upper Orkhon
Valley” of Central Mongolia.

Keywords: bioarchaeology, Mongolia, pastoralism/nomadism, Bronze and Early

Iron Age

“Royal” Burial-Memorial Complexes Arzhan 2: stages of function and internal

chronology

Dr K.V. CHUGUNOV

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

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In 2000–2004 the State Hermitage Museum and German Archaeological Institute
investigated an unrobed early Scythian burial mound dating to the seventh century BC
at Arzhan 2 in the Tuva region of southern Siberia, and some of the finds are displayed
in the accompanying exhibition. This paper is dedicated to a reconstruction of the
different building stages of this commemorative complex as the remains of above-
ground construction, burials, stratigraphy, plan and dendrochronological data combine
to give a good chronology for the development the site. In order to determine the date
of construction of the different complexes, we have made a classification of the
arrowheads found here, and compared them with arrow sets from other sites, not only
in this Tuva region of southern Siberia, but also more distant territories. This
classification shows some trends of arrowhead evolution and further research on the
similar development of other types of artifacts is very important as it may lead to the
formation of a finer chronology of early Scythian cultures in Asia. Parallels and
analogies to these elite kurgan materials, both from neighbouring and distant regions,
show that the problem of synchronization of materials from southern Siberia, Central
and Middle Asia, and some other territories remains a challenge and well dated
complexes – such as Arzhan 2 – are crucial in their resolution.

Keywords: Arzhan 2, Tuva, arrowhead classification, early Scythian period,

chronology

The production technology of Scythian archery equipment: bows, arrows and

quivers

Dr Marina DARAGAN

Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Until recently, a detailed database about Scythian bow, arrows and quivers was not
available. Numerous researchers were engaged in studying Scythian bows and arrows,
but in every case it was a compilation based on antique written sources and images of
Scythian toreutics and the great number of arrowheads excavated in Scythian burials
had not been systematically analysed. This study is based on samples of bows and
shafts of arrows, data from more than 300 quivers, organic samples such as leather,
textile and wood from quivers and gorytos from Scythian steppe burials. The focus of
my research is the perfectly preserved bow found with burial 4 in kurgan 8 near
Vodoslavka: this was excavated in 1983 and dated to the third quarter of the fourth
century BC. The bow was sufficiently well preserved to offer insights into the
technology and the mastership of its production and it might serve as a perfect model
for the reconstruction of a Scythian bow, as well as for experiments in various
museums around the world.

Keywords: Scythian, archery, bow, quiver, arrowheads.

Scythians, Persians, Greeks and Horses: Reflections on art, culture, power and
empires in the light of the frozen burial at Berel’-11 in the Altay region, eastern
Kazakhstan

Dr Henri-Paul FRANCFORT

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Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris, France

During the last decades, excavations carried out by national teams or international
programmes in Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, and China have brought to light a bulk
of new material with discoveries from the frozen burials of the Altay (Pazyryk, Ukok
plateau, Berel’ and Mongolia). As a result of the use of modern scientific laboratory
techniques to study the artefacts and ecofacts excavated from various sites, and
through more up to date analyses especially for organic material (bone, wood, textile),
a new chronology has been built on radiocarbon dates and dendrochronology and a
reappraisal of the finds may now be attempted. This presentation shows selected
examples from kurgan-11 of Berel’, excavated by a Kazakh–French–Italian team, of
which some are exhibited in the accompanying exhibition. It will attempt to delineate
the position and relations of the “Pazyryk Culture” and its arts in relation to the
Achaemenid empire of Persia, its capital cities (including Persepolis), its eastern
provinces (such as Bactria), and China’s northwest territories in the period of the
Warring States (such as Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia). Finally, the Hellenistic
arts and empires are considered within a broad perspective.

Keywords: Scythians, Berel’-11, frozen burials, horse tack, Achaemenid art, Scythian
art, Hellenistic art

Recent study of textile finds from Arzhan 1 burial mound in Tuva

Dr L. GAVRILENKO, Dr E. MIKOLAYCHUK, Dr L. MARSADOLOV, Dr S. V.

PANKOVA1
1
Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage
Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

A series of woollen cloth fragments excavated in the Arzhan 1 burial mound has been
studied in the State Hermitage in order to understand their technological peculiarities
and dyestuffs. They were found in the burials of nomadic elite of the late ninth or early
eighth century BC and represent the earliest preserved textiles of the Scythian period.
One of the main problems is establishing whether they were locally made or imported
and where they could have been produced. These skilfully made patterned fabrics
represent different weave structures (weft faced tabby/kilims, twill, patterned twining)
with pieces of braiding of different techniques. The functions of these fragmented
items are unclear and among their main features are Z-twisted threads and decorative
piping of seams and edgings. Most of the identified dyestuffs are foreign to this region.
In an attempt to find out where these cloths were made we compared them with textile
finds from approximately contemporary burials from the Zaghunluq cemetery in the
Tarim basin, a region renowned for its local textile production. The available cloths
from there have much in common with those from Arzhan 1 but are still different and
according to the results of our analysis we can exclude the Tarim basin as the main
source of the textiles found at Arzhan 1.

Keywords: textiles, dyestuffs, Scythian time, Tuva, Arzhan 1

Dyes of the Scythians: the first evidence

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Dr Margarita GLEBA,1 Dr Ina VANDEN BERGHE,2 Dr Marina DARAGAN3
1
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing
Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
2
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA), Jubelpark 1, B-1000 Brussels,
Belgium
3
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Clothing has been regarded as one of the main identifying criteria for Scythians in
Greek and Persian iconography and written sources. Leather, felt, and textiles
surviving in Scythian burials excavated in southern Ukraine provide a rich source of
information about the materials and techniques used by the Scythians for the
construction of their clothing. Traces of colour furthermore indicate that this clothing
was colourful, which is information that cannot be gained from representational arts
alone. The paper presents the first results of dye investigation from several Scythian
burials in southern Ukraine which range in date from the fifth through third centuries
BC. The results are placed in the wider context of European textile and dye cultures of
the first millennium BC.

Keywords: Scythians, Ukraine, dye identifications, archaeological science

Scythian gold from private collections of the nineteenth century in the

Department of the Ancient World at the State Hermitage Museum

Olga GORSKAYA

Department of Ancient World, The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

The collection of antique jewellery from the northern Black Sea in the State Hermitage
Museum is divided into two unequal parts. In the larger one there are objects with
well-documented find locations but in the smaller one there are items purchased from
collectors and dealers without information about their archaeological context. They are
not published and have not been available to researchers. The Ancient World
department of the State Hermitage keeps more than 300 golden clothing applique
plaques with stamps from private collections, mostly from Lemme and Mavrogordato.
The purpose of this research is to identify a group of plaques originating from
Scythian and Sarmatian barrows and for this, I carried out a comparative analysis of
the iconography of images on the plaques from private collections and those excavated
in Scythian and Sarmatian monuments. Consequently, several objects were identified
with unique impressions, analogies to which could only be found on a single Scythian
monument, so the barrows from which they originated can be accurately determined. I
identified golden plaques from famous Scythian monuments, such as the Kul-Oba
barrow, Chertomlyk, Bolshaya Bliznitsa and Semibrratnie barrows. As a result of this
work, a quarter of previously undocumented plaques from private collections held in
the State Hermitage Museum have been dated and identified with archaeological
complexes.

Keywords: Scythians, Greek and Roman jewellery, State Hermitage Museum, private
collections, ancient art

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Burying Contacts, Building Communities: Early Iron Age monumentality in
Eurasia

Dr Chris GOSDEN,1 Dr Peter HOMMEL,1 Dr Courtney NIMURA2

1
University of Oxford, UK
2
Griffith University, Australia

The early first millennium BC was a period of dramatic change, as the increasing
mobility of societies in the steppe zone brought the peoples of Eurasia into ever-closer
contact. One important indicator of these connections is a series of shared art styles
from Europe to eastern Siberia. In Europe, such styles are usually described
as Celtic Art, while on the steppe they form the basis of the “Scytho-Siberian Animal
Style”. These two great traditions, though evidently different in their range of motifs
and specific styles, share common principles in their layout, their interest in
transformation and their play with dimensions. These similarities are important.
However, in this paper we consider objects of art only briefly, turning our focus
instead onto on one of the principal contexts in which these artefacts are found:
funerary mounds. We will briefly mention the late Bronze Age background of mound
building, before concentrating attention on a resurgence of rich mound burials in the
early first millennium BC. Concentrating on the materials used to construct mounds
from a number of well-known examples across Eurasia, we will explore their
relationships with the landscape, and their significance for our understanding of Early
Iron Age interaction and aesthetics.

Keywords: burial mounds, materials of monumentality, interactions, Celtic and

Scythian world

The Scythian banquet

Dr Oleksandr HALENKO

Curator of the Centre for the Study of the civilizations of the Black Sea Area, Institute
of History of Ukraine, The Khanenkos’ National Museum of Arts, Kyiv

In his description of Scythia, the fifth century BC Greek historian Herodotus

mentioned several cases of wine drinking, notably during the oath-taking, which imply
political importance of alcohol for the Scythians (Histories, Book IV.66, 70, 78–79).
The later sources not only demonstrate continuity of this peculiar attitude to alcohol in
political culture of Eurasian pastoral nomads, but also explain its underlying idea. The
Turks derived the term for alcohol (isigti) from the word, denoting loyalty or devotion
(isig “warmth”). The historical narratives of the Ottomans, despite religious restraints,
provided examples of toasts, in which the relations between the ruler and his retinue
were expressed. This explains why the Eurasian nomads held drinking cup for the
royal regalia, as demonstrated in written, visual and archeological evidence. In this
context it appears that the Scythians in the time of Herodotus already possessed an
elaborate tradition of alcohol consumption which was inherited by later nomads. This
tradition also passed to the sedentary peoples, conquered by the steppe empires, and
survived until the present time.
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Keywords: alcohol consumption. drinking paraphernalia, political culture, Eurasian
nomads, continuity

Landscape, Community, and Labor in the Pontic Iron Age Forest-Steppe Region,
ca. 650–300 BC

Dr James A. JOHNSON

Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of

Copenhagen, Denmark

The Pontic Iron Age is primarily characterised, if not dominated, by the arrival of
nomadic pastoralists, conventionally known as the Scythians. Much of the
archaeological and historical research done on these group(s) focus on burial rites and
the deposition of large quantities of gold, silver, and other luxury items, including
foreign exotics, in burials. This may be due to Herodotus’ lengthy and detailed
description of a royal Scythian funeral yet Herodotus also indicates vibrant socio-
political and economic goings-on in the regions to the north (the forest–steppe) which
is exemplified by his discussion of Gelonus. Along these lines, this paper seeks to
explore and assess the construction of large fortified population centres, along the
forest–steppe/steppe boundary in present-day Ukraine as specific localised
developments. As an example, the eventual development of the large fortifications at
Bel’sk (Gelonus?), a 5,000 hectare settlement and mortuary complex, is the central
focus leading to an exploration of topics of interest, including: how did forest–steppe
communities respond to the socio-economic opportunities presented by the arrival of
Greek colonies along the Black Sea littoral around 700/650 BC? How did these same
communities react to the presence of the (sometimes) militant Scythian tribes in the
steppe south of the forest–steppe boundary? What did these reactions/responses mean
for community cohesion and the growth of large, possibly urban, population centres
along the forest–steppe boundary? This paper traces the emergence, development, and
abandonment of these large forest–steppe centres with regards to the presence of the
Scythians in the Pontic region in the period of about 650–300 BC.

Keywords: forest–steppe, settlement complexes, fortifications, Pontic Iron Age,

community labour

“Animal Style” art: influences and traditions in the nomadic world

Dr Elena KOROLKOVA

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

The ancient Eurasian nomadic world was at once a heterogenous conglomerate of

peoples and cultures, and a very permeable environment which was extremely
receptive to foreign influences. The nomads borrowed visual patterns and imagery
from other peoples and wove them into their own mythological context. Since the
Eurasian nomads inhabited a vast region which bordered on several major cradles of
civilisation (China, Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Greece), the Scythian “Animal
Style” does not represent a single artistic tradition but had many sources and versions,
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in spite of being, on the whole, an artistic phenomenon characteristic exclusively of
the Scythian world. The so-called Scythian “Animal Style” shows the presence of
different stylistic forms and artistic traditions, but its content and imagery remained
quite uniform throughout a vast territory. The region of southern Siberia can be
considered as the focal point for ancient cultural interactions between different Asiatic
peoples and nomadic tribes in the first millennium BC. Traces of different cultural and
artistic influences can be observed on the jewellery styles and techniques. The main
issue is establishing how and why such items of jewellery arrived in Siberia and who
produced them. Archaeological research has revealed the extent of the exchange of
goods, technology and people across the Eurasian steppe between nomadic tribes as
well as sedentary Oriental civilisations which were highly developed, both culturally
and technologically. In addition, thanks to archaeological investigations we can trace
the great cultural changes which took place across the wide area inhabited by nomadic
tribes following the great wars and other social upheavals. In particular, Alexander the
Great’s campaigns may have been a catalyst for significant change in different areas.
We can therefore assume that it was due to these circumstances that this characteristic
style of jewellery was found in the graves of nomadic noblemen from the fourth to
third centuries BC.

Keywords: “Animal Style” art, artistic influences, traditions, jewellery

Gold of the Great: Scythian goldsmithing techniques in the Peter the Great’s Siberian
collection

Elena KOROLKOVA,1 Aude MONGIATTI2

1
Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage
Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2
Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum, London, UK

The Siberian Collection of Peter the Great is the earliest archaeological collection of
any kind in Russia. It contains around 240 gold artefacts from the ancient Scythian and
Sarmatian nomadic cultures of Eurasia. This unique collection of pairs of symmetrical
buckles, torcs, bracelets and other items of personal adornment provides an important
source for understanding Scythian and Sarmatian cultures. The lack of any precise data
on their findspots, owing to their discovery through tomb robbing rather than
archaeological excavation, the gradual accumulation of objects and frequent museum
transfers, adds to the complexity of the story of this collection. However, it remains
one of the most valuable sources for research on the history of the Eurasian nomadic
peoples, and provides clues to their material and spiritual cultures.

15 gold artefacts, including two torcs, a roundel, an aigrette, a fluted bowl, a coiled
armlet, a horse breast plaque and eight belt plaques from this collection, were studied
non-invasively for their technology and alloy composition using digital microscopy,
scanning electron microscopy and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF). Both microscopic
techniques capture images at various magnifications to identify and record features,
tool marks and surface textures, which are characteristic of the goldsmithing
techniques used to manufacture and decorate the artefacts, while XRF allows for semi-
quantitative surface identification of the gold alloy composition. This investigation
revealed that all belt plaques but one were cast while most other artefacts were
manufactured by hand-working gold sheets and further decorated by chasing, repoussé
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and punching. The coiled armlet combines both casting and hand-working, as the solid
terminals were separately cast to be then soldered onto a hammered and coiled solid
wire.

The wide range of identified techniques was widely known and commonly used by
goldsmiths in the first millennium BC, although the casting process involving textile
seems to be more confined to the Far East and is so far largely unknown in the Near
East and Central Asia. The hand-working manufacturing and decorative techniques are
similar to those previously identified on Achaemenid Court-style and Scythian-style
artefacts from the Oxus Treasure. This may suggest some close contact and exchange
of knowledge and skills between Achaemenid and Scythian goldsmiths.

Keywords: Peter the Great, gold, digital microscopy, tool marks, manufacturing
techniques

The deerstone-khirigsuur complex at Sandaohaizi

Dr Catrin KOST 金秋月

Assistant Professor Chinese Archaeology, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social
Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

Monuments belonging to the so-called ‘deerstone-khirigsuur complex’ occur across

vast parts of the eastern Eurasian Steppes during the late Bronze Age. Hitherto mainly
documented and published across the region of western Mongolia, similar structures
are also common in the northwest of the modern-day People’s Republic of China. By
focusing on the deerstone-khirigsuur complex at Sandaohaizi 三道海子 (Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region), this talk aims to fill a void in research. Located at 3484
m above sea-level in the Altai mountains, the area of Sandaohaizi is used as summer
pasture – and thus for a limited time each year – until the present day. Radiocarbon
dates and stylistic comparison suggest that the site itself was mainly in use from the
late ninth/early eighth century BC. Both the deerstones, as well as components of the
khirigsuurs located at Sandaohaizi, show parallels to finds and depictions documented
for sites in Transbaikalia and Mongolia, as well as the large kurgans (burial mounds)
at Arzhan in the Tuva Republic of southern Siberia. Introducing the results of the
fieldwork campaigns carried out by members of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences from 2013–2015, this presentation highlights some of these features before
offering further thoughts on the specific function the Sandaohaizi might have served.

Keywords: late Bronze Age, monuments, mobile pastoralists, northwest China,

kinship relations

Scythian archery

Mike LOADES

Weapons historian, author and practising horse-archer, California, USA

This paper will consider the quiver, bows, arrows and saddle used by Scythian horse
archers. These are portrayed in art wearing a gorytos/quiver on the left hip. It faces
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rearward and is suspended by a single strap. This begs questions of practicality, such
as how an archer could retrieve his arrows from this position and why the warrior
would choose to wear his equipment in this fashion. Using reconstructed equipment
the speaker will demonstrate a probable technique and highlight the distinct military
advantages of this mode of carriage. Secondly, the length of Scythian bows and the
length of the draw have also been frequently debated. There are inconsistencies in
some of the art with archaeological finds. There are practical considerations, both bio-
mechanical for the archer and mechanical for the bow, which need to be taken into
account. Thirdly, there are a wide range of sizes and forms of Scythian arrowheads.
The speaker will demonstrate the manner in which these could all be fitted to arrows
with sufficient strength, and thus diameter, to withstand failure when shot from a
powerful bow. Finally, Scythian saddles have features which aid the horse-archer. The
speaker has reconstructed a Scythian saddle, ridden in it and shot a bow from it. He
will share his observations to date of experimental work that remains ‘in progress’.

Keywords: Scythians, bow, arrows, saddle, archery, gorytos, quiver

From Tatarlı to Taksai: the Iconography of Scythian Warriors in Anatolia and

Altai

Dr Yana LUKPANOVA,1 Dr Latife SUMMERER2

1
Senior research assistant, History and Archaeology Centre of Western Kazakhstan,
184, Dostyk Avenue, Uralsk, Republic of Kazakhstan
2
Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,
Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, Munich, Germany

In 2012 a very rich tomb was excavated in mound 6 at Taksai, 8 km from Dolinnoe
village in Terekti district of western Kazakhstan. This tomb belonged to a noble
woman, nicknamed Altun Hanum (“Golden Lady”) because of the very rich gold grave
goods. Among these was a wooden comb which is of special interest because of its
carved imagery, and a replica of which is shown in the accompanying exhibition as the
original is too fragile to transport. It was placed in a wooden box together with a knife,
a small alabaster vessel, wolf teeth, of which some were pierced and inlaid in gold
frame to be used as pendants or amulets. The comb was carved from poplar wood and
is double-sided. On one side the comb teeth are short and fine and on the other side
wide and large. The central part of the comb is decorated with a figural composition,
repeated on each side, and depicting a battle scene. A heavy chariot drawn by a pair of
rams-headed horses is approaching from the left and carrying a bearded charioteer and
a clean-shaven bowman who are combating a single enemy on foot coming from the
right. Both opponents are clad with long sleeved jackets, but are differentiated by their
head gear: while the warriors in the chariot are wearing a flat cap on their straggly
straight hair, their opponent has a pointed soft cap tied under the chin. Although a
quiver is hanging from his belt, the foot soldier is combating barehanded by holding
the reins of the horses in an attempt to stop the chariot moving forwards. With his
raised right bare hand he seems to argue in a last desperate act of defence. This paper
will analyse this combat scene as an abbreviated depiction of the multi-figured battle
friezes illustrating a generic Persian victory over the Scythian tribes and compare it
with a very similar battle frieze shown inside a Persian-period tomb at Tatarlı in
Phrygia, southwest Turkey.
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Keywords: Taksai-1, Tatarlı, priestess, zoomorphic style, еarly nomads

The Okunevo Culture and its links with the later Scythian and Tashtyk cultures

Dr L. S. MARSADOLOV

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

For a long time many archaeologists and art historians have sought the origins of the
Scythian “Animal Style” in the Near East, Greece or China. Excavations over the past
50 years have uncovered yet another major influence upon early Scythian art and
coming from southern Siberia. The Bronze Age Okunevo Culture flourished in the
third and early second millennia BC in the Minusinsk valley of modern Khakassia, a
republic in the Altai region of the Russian Federation but the unusual finds associated
with it remain poorly known outside Russia. In 1928, S. A. Teploukhov (1888–1934)
excavated several barrows at Okunev Ulus in the south of Khakassia, but the
corresponding Okunevo Culture was only defined in the 1960s by G. A. Maksimenkov
(1930–1986). Various scholars have assumed that its carriers immigrated from
Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the Near East, Mongolia, China, Tibet or even India.
Physical anthropology shows that the region’s population at the time comprised both
indigenous, Mongoloid types and foreign, Caucasian ones. This paper presents what is
known about it now.

The Okunevo economy was based on domestic animals, primarily cattle and sheep.
Bulls were harnessed to two- or four-wheeled carts which were used for transport.
Hunting and fishing were also important, since the forests and taiga abounded in
diverse game. Animal teeth, horns, and bones were used as amulets and to decorate
shoes and clothing. The bear figurine, boar tusks, bear teeth, lynx skull, and bones
from oxen, horses, deer, and cranes found in burials and at cult sites show that animals
played a prominent role in religious belief. In comparison with earlier periods in the
region, Okunevo Culture metalworking was highly developed: knives, spears, daggers,
axes, pins, hooks, jewellery, etc. were cast and/or hammered out of copper and bronze.
Pottery is represented by flat-based vessels and ritual incense-burners with stamped or
incised geometric decoration. As for “art”, stone figures and slabs, rock drawings
(incised or painted), small works in horn, bone, stone, or metal depict both humans
and animals, both real and imaginary.

Indeed, image-making distinguishes the Okunevo Culture from other Bronze Age
cultures in Siberia and elsewhere. Its repertory includes human faces (sometimes sun-
shaped), bulls (either fattened or skinny), carts, women in childbirth, serpents and
multi-figural compositions. This imagery gradually evolved from simple shapes to
more elaborate ones and must have corresponded to complex religious beliefs. A red
sandstone slab is carved with a schematic depiction of a human face, neck, shoulders,
and left hand holding a spear or tree-branch. Three circles probably represent the eyes.
Under the central one is the nose, bisected by a serpentine line. The head wears a
trident-shaped crown. In Tibet, the “third eye” signifies spiritual vision. Scholars have
yet to establish whether this uncommon detail appeared first there or in Siberia. Some
later Tashtyk Culture funerary masks made of clay or plaster feature a red dot or spiral
on the forehead: this, too, may represent such a “third eye”. A couple of small rounded
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stone rods terminate in mongoloid women’s heads. On the edges of their faces are seen
several temple-rings. The hair is rendered with parallel lines and with concentric ovals
on the top of the head. Similar images of apparently coiffured women are also present
on carved bone plaques. Small anthropomorphic rods and plaques are usually found,
sometimes in groups, in the burials of teenage girls or young women. Many of these
rods are pierced at one end and were evidently worn with the human image pointing
downwards. They probably represent a mother-goddess or family deities and
functioned as amulets. It is also possible that they were used in coming-of-age
ceremonies. Perhaps they were originally attached to doll-like figures made of organic
material (cloth, leather, wood, etc.) but, if so, the organic components have not
survived.

The Okunevo Culture also employed various geometric signs, such as those illustrated
by a crescent-shaped stone artefact. The object’s outer edge forms a quarter-circle. Its
convex side can be positioned either upwards or downwards. The figures thus obtained
– a square or a rhombus inscribed in a circle – frequently occur on stone figures,
carved plaques and pottery vessels. A number of Bronze Age standing stones in both
Siberia and even as far away as Britain have an oblique upper edge, so that their
eastern face is taller than the western one – in correspondence with the rising and
setting of the sun. The function of such stones appears to have been similar in both
regions: compare, for example, the Ring of Brodgar on one of the Orkney Islands with
the similarly monumental stone fences round several barrows near Safronovo in
Khakassia. Large stones from Bronze Age monuments were re-used in one of Siberia’s
largest megalithic complexes: the Great Salbyk Barrow in central Khakassia,
excavated in 1954–1956 by S. V. Kiselev and dated to the seventh century BC, the
period of the early Iron Age Tagar Culture. Its stone fence consisted of ninety
vertically or horizontally placed slabs, some weighing up to 100 tons: in terms of size
and monumentality, this structure is comparable to Stonehenge. 14 more stone-fenced
barrows at Salbyk are of similarly large size, and the adjacent valleys contain a
number of smaller ones. Salbyk and Stonehenge both stand on small hills amid a plain.
The architectural plans of both are based on careful astronomical observations. Both
are built of stone quarried and transported at a great distance.

Many archaeologists have observed the influence of the Okunevo Culture during later
periods, both in the Altai and elsewhere in Eurasia. Thus, Okunevian ritual structures
of the “concentric circles” or “square and crosses” type resemble some stone
“kereksurs” (Mongolian kheregsüür) of the early Scythian period. Okunevian
geometric symbols, as well as broken or waving lines on animal imagery, recur on
later rock carvings in the Altai and Mongolia. The Cimmerian “rhombus in circle”
motif first appears in the Okunevo Culture.

Some human faces in Okunevian stone carving bear two or three decorative lines.
Traces of paint on skulls seem to indicate that these reproduce actual tattoos. Similar
tattoos are found in the much later frozen Pazyryk burials and on plaster masks of the
Tashtyk Culture. A sandstone slab of the Okunevo period shows a fierce fantastic
animal with the body of a wolf, the head of a bear and the legs of a bird. Perhaps this
corresponds to the myth about a sun-swallowing beast, which was widespread during
the Bronze Age. Similar images are found on other Okunevian sculptures and rock
carvings. Their style is echoed by the famous coiled panther on a bronze plaque from
the Arzhan 1 barrow, an early Scythian stone plaque from Tuva and other objects
found in burial mounds across Asia and Europe. Symmetrical predator heads are found
both on Okunevian stelae and on early Scythian, Pazyryk and Sarmatian artefacts. A
Page | 13
large Bronze Age rock relief at Klabak Tash in the Altai depicts a fantastic beast: this
image is also attested later, in Scythian times, in the Yenisei region and on the tattoos
of the chieftain buried in Pazyryk 2. The geometrically stylised bull depictions of the
Okunevian period find a continuation in early Scythian animal imagery in Asia and
Europe. Finally, A. G. Kozintsev has found the physical anthropology of steppe
Scythians to be “extremely similar” to that of the Okunevo inhabitants of Tuva, while
there are few anthropological similarities between the Scythians and their close
nomadic neighbours, the Sarmatians and Saka.

Keywords: Okunevo culture, Siberia, art, connections

“Openwork Style” in the art of early nomads of Eurasia

Elena MIKLASHEVICH

Museum-reserve “Tomskaya Pisanitsa”, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of

the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kemerovo, Russia

The so-called “Openwork Style” was widely spread in the applied arts of the Scythian
period in the steppes of Eurasia. Numerous images of real animals and fantastic
creatures are executed in a specific manner: a contour figure, filled inside with spirals,
helixes and other decorative elements. Images in this style were executed on various
materials and in different techniques: bronze casts, bone and wood carvings, leather
and felt applications, gold foil, embroidery, tattoo, rock carvings etc. It is most likely
that this style originates from the technique of leather or felt application which, in its
turn, might originate from painted examples but, if so, these have not survived. From
ethnographic materials we know of the existence of some patterns for openwork
embroidery and applications. Such patterns should exist as well in the culture of the
early Eurasian nomads, and moreover might have been used as patterns for making
other artistic objects, such as carvings, tattoos, cast objects and petroglyphs. In the
rock art of Eurasia we can see numerous examples of this style, and many images have
their strong analogies with objects of perishable material culture. Images on rocks
have survived here, as well as in other regions, quite well but the examples of applied
art executed on softer materials are very rare, and basically only known from the
frozen tombs of the Altai. The paper proposes some reconstructions of objects which
could have been made of leather, felt and other soft materials in the regions where
such things are archaeologically unknown but where there are some examples in rock
art, rendered in the “Openwork Style”, presumably on the basis of these same patterns.

Keywords: “Openwork Style”, art, early nomads, Eurasia

Scythian and Sarmatian weapons with gold decoration

Dr R. S. MINASJAN

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

Several oxidised iron artefacts, including an akinakes (short sword), a dagger, a

chekan (axe-type weapon), two knives and arrowheads, were found at the Arzhan 2
Page | 14
burial in Tuva Republic which dates to the seventh century BC, and some of these
objects are shown in the accompanying exhibition. These early Central Asian iron
objects, especially the akinakes, are remarkable for their exquisite form and intricate
gold decoration. The akinakes is adorned with animal reliefs and gold openwork on
both sides of the handle and blade. Scythian and later Sarmatian iron objects were
once believed to have been inlaid, the sculptural details forged and subsequently
inserted into the weapon. However, on the contrary, the dead nobleman’s possessions
were wrapped into thin gold sheets, from which decorative patterns and animal images
were cut out. As the metal oxidised, it leaked through the cut-out decorations and
covered them. Underneath the gold sheet, the oxidised metal formed hollow pockets,
which led restorers and archaeologists to believe that the weapons were in fact inlaid
with specially forged iron decorative elements. By observing the indentations in the
oxidised metal and the traces on the bottom surface of the decorative cut-out sheets,
one can tell whether the artefact was inlaid or decorated with openwork. The handles
of early iron Scythian and Sarmatian swords and daggers, just like their cast bronze
predecessors, were adorned with sculpted animal heads, but bear no signs of forging.
At this early stage of iron production, it was virtually impossible to forge objects so
complex in shape, and to create iron elements to insert through inlay. Later, when
weapons started to be only forged, ornate handles disappeared. This allows us to
consider the possibility that early iron artefacts in Central Asia were cast, as bronze
weapons also were, and that the cast was further modified through forging.

Keywords: Scythian and Sarmatian iron weapons, openwork application technique,

incrustation technique, oxidation, iron casting

Life and Death in the Scythian World of Southern Siberia

Dr Eileen MURPHY

Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s

University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland

The study of human skeletal remains and their burial environments enables
archaeologists to gain compelling insights about the lives and deaths of the people who
lived in the past. The trials and tribulations of daily life, including evidence for disease
and violence, all leave tell-tale signs in the bones and can also inform about inter-
personal and inter-group relationships. Excavated over a sixteen-year period from
1968 to 1984, the cemetery complex of Aymyrlyg, located in southern Siberia, has
yielded one of the most substantial and thoroughly analysed populations of the later
Scythian World of the third–second centuries BC. In Book IV of his Histories, the
fifth century BC historian Herodotus led us to believe that Iron Age Eurasian
populations were highly nomadic and highly violent, with their royals having elaborate
funerary practices bestowed upon their remains. Modern bioarchaeological research on
the skeletons from Aymyrlyg has somewhat corroborated his writings but the scientific
evidence derived from these remains has enabled more nuanced understandings to be
gained in relation to many aspects of their lives, including diet and subsistence
strategies, attitudes towards physically impaired individuals, weaponry and the nature
of violent death, as well as funerary practices. This paper will provide an overview of
some of the key findings of this research.

Keywords: Aymyrlyg, Herodotus, human remains, secondary burial, care, violence

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Mummies and dummies in family graves at Oglakhty: different rites from
different ancestors?

Dr Svetlana V. PANKOVA

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

Oglakhty cemetery on the Yenisey river in Southern Siberia is dated to the third–
fourth centuries AD and contains some tombs with very well-preserved organic
remains owing to the dry microclimate inside the hermetically sealed wooden tomb
chambers. Some artifacts accompanying the dead represent objects of everyday life
whereas others reflect complicated funeral rituals practised by these local people. The
preserved human remains also supply information about their appearance, ranging
from their hairstyles to their body art. Of particular interest is the fact that different
funeral rites were practised side by side in the same tombs. Burial dummies consisting
of life-size leather-grass figures with cremated human bones placed inside the
equivalent of their chest cavities were buried alongside inhumations wearing painted
plaster face masks. This bi-ritual character of the burials makes us consider whether
the families and society as a whole were multicultural. Cremation itself appears as a
new rite in Siberia at this period and suggests the influence of some foreign
community. However, searching for its probable origin faces difficulties although
there are occasional similarities in different periods and materials from Chinese
Turkestan. These comparisons might be the result of migration or may reflect common
features of related people inhabiting the adjoining regions of Central Asia and
southern Siberia. Chinese silks available in the graves clarify the dating of the site and
possibly the contacts of this local population.

Keywords: South Siberia, Chinese Turkestan, human remains, well preserved organic
remains, multicultural society, migration

New investigations on Scythian kurgans in Ukraine: non-invasive studies and

excavations

Dr Sergei POLIN,1 Dr Marina DARAGAN,1 Dr Ksenia BONDAR2

1
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 12, Heroiv
Stalinhradu Prospekt, 04210, Kyiv, Ukraine
2
Senior researcher, ESI "Institute of Geology", Taras Shevchenko National University
of Kyiv, 90 Vasylkivska, 03022 Kyiv, Ukraine

In 2004-2009 the Royal Scythian Alexandropol kurgan in the Lower Dnieper was re-
investigated. The ditch was excavated and the central tomb studied afresh, but the real
breakthrough was the discovery of remnants of a large funeral feast around the kurgan,
including amphorae, various items and 11 accompanying human burials. This
discovery has caused a complete revision of the phenomenon of Scythian kurgans as
none of those in the northern Black Sea have ever been investigated beyond the ditch.
We have also calculated the labour and resource costs for the construction of the
Alexandropol kurgan and placed it in a wider landscape context through the use of
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GIS [Geographic Information Systems]. The results obtained on Alexandropol have
spurred us to improve our methodology in the study of other Scythian kurgans,
involving, in particular, geophysical survey. Our report will discuss the excavation
results of the Alexandropol kurgan, geo-information technologies in the study of
Scythian kurgans` location, engineering development and costs for the construction of
kurgans and geophysical survey of the periphery of kurgans.

Keywords: Alexandropol kurgan, funeral feast, geophysical prospecting,

geoinformation system, accompanying burials, Scythians

The formation of the early Scythian complex in the Kuban region according to
the finds from the mounds of Kelermes

Dr Tatyana RYABKOVA

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

The mounds of Kelermes give archaeological evidence of the appearance of Scythian

tribes in the Caucasus region in the eighth century BC. Their materials demonstrate a
transformation of the main features of nomadic culture over the long term which was
caused by interactions with local inhabitants through changes in policy and military
campaigns against Near Eastern states. Central Asian features of nomadic culture are
strongest in the earliest mounds of Kelermes which were excavated by Veselovsky
whereas horse bridles made from bone and gold and ornaments from the latest mounds
have traces of influence from the Caucasus or Mediterranean geometric style, yet most
artefacts were made in local workshops. The latest mounds in this burial ground yield
luxury items which were brought back as war booty or have been especially made for
Scythian nobility by Near Eastern or Anatolian craftsmen. The process of creation of a
new culture was never completed owing to the withdrawal of the nomads from the
Near Eastern region but some features of the Near Eastern and Anatolian cultures
nevertheless were incorporated into nomadic culture.

Keywords: Kelermes, Scythian burial mounds, transformation, culture

One of the secrets of Achaemenid jewellery

Dr E. A. SHABLAVINA

Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, The State Hermitage

Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

Typical of the ancient Scythian period are gold artefacts, characteristic in style and in
technique and decorated with hollow sculptural elements. There is an erroneous belief
that these hollow details were created through casting and that they were re-worked
from the outside by plastic shaping techniques, such as chasing using punches and
chisels on a clay core. However, a different technique was used. A pair of bracelets
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dating to the sixth to mid-fifth century BC was found in the female kurgan (burial
mound) 6 at the site of Taksai-1 in western Kazakhstan, itself the subject of a separate
paper in this conference. The hoops of the bracelets are curved in the middle and
decorated with a pair of matching head-shaped hollow terminals with turquoise inlays
depicting a horned predator attacking a herbivore. The bracelets were bent from forged
metal, with hollow figures soldered to both ends. Welded seams are visible at the point
where the wire and the figures join. The animal head terminals were made using the
same matrix with modelling on the matrix (the so-called basma technique), which
involves laying a gold thin sheet metal over the carved matrix and crimping it into the
underlying relief. Judging by the perfectly geometrical terminals and by the identical
depth of the deformed metal, the matrix was metallic. Once the carved matrix was
fully reproduced, the gold sheet was cut in order to release it, and the hollow halves of
the animal heads were soldered together at the cutting line. Hollow decorative details
of similar design occur on the aigrette from Peter the Great’s Siberian collection
(shown in the accompanying exhibition in the same case as these bracelets), a diadem
from kurgan 3 in Kelermes and many other eastern metal artefacts. In other cases, the
hollow sculptural elements were shaped onto individual matrixes and the surface sheet
metal was left intact (without cutting traces), such as on the torc with lion-headed
griffin terminals from Peter the Great’s Siberian collection.

Keywords: modelling on the matrix (basma) technique, Achaemenid jewellery, Peter

the Great`s Siberian collection, hollow sculptural objects, Taksai

“Jiang Yuan” and north Chinese nomads

Dr Daniil P. SHULGA

Siberian Institute of Management, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public

Administration, Russia

In our paper the “Jiang Yuan” (将苑) (“The Vineyard of General”) treatise writing era
historical and cultural process were reviewed, as well as ancient Chinese philosophical
schools and war thinkers concepts of ideal military leader up to the third century AD
have been analyzed. The close attention is paid to the ideal military leader concept in
Zhuge Liang's treatise “Jiang Yuan”.

Keywords: Chinese written sourses, Zhuge Liang, Rong and Di, nomads

Etched carnelian beads and the spread of their technology from India into
Eurasia

Dr St John SIMPSON

Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, London, UK

Etched carnelian beads are very distinctive as they are usually dark reddish with white
lines of decoration on the surface. The first archaeological examples were recorded in
Sind in 1856 following the discoveries by A. F. Bellasis at the early medieval city-site
of Brahminabad. During the 1920s and 1930s much earlier versions were excavated in
third millennium BC contexts in southern Iraq and the Indus region. Enquiries by M.
Page | 18
G. Majumdar led to the realisation that “this art had now practically died out in Sind”
but at Sehwan “the process was known only to a single man named Sabehdino who
was about seventy-five years old”, whose demonstration showed that the decoration
was made by drawing a design with a sticky alkaline substance on the surface of the
beads which were then heated and this process transformed the painted areas to a
white appearance. In 1933 Horace Beck published a seminal article which created a
basic typological development of etched carnelian beads from the third millennium BC
to the tenth century AD and defining three major chronological groups that he called
Groups A–C. Since then, attention among Near Eastern and South Asian scholars has
mainly focused on the first of these as they are a diagnostic indicator of Persian Gulf
trade. This paper instead looks at how during the early first millennium BC there was a
revival in etched carnelian bead manufacture, suggests that the diversity of designs and
different distributions point to new centres of production outside South Asia, and
reviews some of the evidence to show evidence for the dating of different types
belonging to Beck’s Groups B and C.

Keywords: Etched carnelian beads, technology transfer, India, Central Asia

Testing Herodotus: leather species identification of Scythian quivers using novel

scientific methods

Dr Luke SPINDLER,1 Dr Margarita GLEBA,2 Dr Marina DARAGAN,3 Prof.

Matthew COLLINS1,4
1
BioArCh, Environment Building, Wentworth Way, University of York, YO10 5DD, UK
2
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing
Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
3
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
4
Natural History Museum of Denmark, Sølvgade 83, Opg. S 1307 København K,
Denmark

Herodotus, often regarded as “the father of history”, reported some remarkable stories,
and the more exotic of these serve to undermine his role as a historian. However, many
of his reports are rooted in fact, as has been illustrated by historical and archaeological
finds. One such tale is of Scythian archers flaying the right arm of their dead enemies
and making the skin into a cover for their quivers (Herodotus, Histories, Book IV.64).
We used ZooMS and SEM to test 30 fragments of highly decorated leather quivers
found at 10 kurgan (burial mound) sites in southern Ukraine in order to reveal their
species identity. In this paper we present the methods and results of our investigation
and attempt to answer the question: What material did the Scythians use to make their
quivers, and was Herodotus correct in his grisly claim?

Keywords: Herodotus, Ukraine, quiver covers, human skin, leather identification,

archaeological science

The “Animal Style” and the Hindu pantheon: new observations on east-west
connections

Prof. Tim TAYLOR

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Director of the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS), Professor of the
Prehistory of Humanity, Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology,
University of Vienna, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, A-1190 Wien, Austria

This paper reports on new work on the eastern-looking mythic and historical
connections of the “Animal Style” motifs on the Gundestrup cauldron, extending
previous arguments made by the same author (1987, with Bergquist; 1992) concerning
the incorporation and metamorphosis of elements that could be considered somehow
specific to (or ethnically identified with) the worlds of the Scythians, Celts, Black Sea
Greeks, as well as – perhaps surprisingly – parts of the northwestern Indian
subcontinent. By paying attention to the various levels of referent domain (from
iconicity and notation, via the iconographic and the iconological, to the symbolic) in
individual scenes, this paper argues that the object itself, perhaps created as a magical
means to come into the presence of deities in their most characteristic aspects,
undermines simplistic notions of archaeological culture. The steppe-wide range of
demonstrable influences emphasises the importance of the Eurasian Network as a
longue durée concept.

Keywords: “Animal Style”, Indo-European phenomena, Eurasian network, identity

Scythia as exemplar of empire? Reassessing the dimensions of steppe power from

western and eastern perspectives

Prof. Timothy TAYLOR,1 Dr Christine HAVLICEK,2 Dr James A. JOHNSON,3 Dr

Sergey MAKHORTYKH4
1
Director of the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS), Professor of the
Prehistory of Humanity, Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology,
University of Vienna, Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, A-1190 Wien, Austria
2
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
3
Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
4
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Connecting the vast Central Eurasian steppe belt from the Danube to the Yellow
River, the Scythian phenomenon centred on a belief system which valorised a supreme
ruler. This was not only expressed in the archaeologically visible funerary rites of
royal burial but through the less well-known but no less spectacular settlement record.
It is only by understanding sites like Belsk in the forest–steppe zone – a fortified
‘super-oppidum’ whose massive rampart encloses an area of more than thirty-five (35
– sic) square kilometres – that we can understand the level of threat felt by Persia and
China alike by their (as we shall argue) mutual neighbour. This paper suggests that to
view Scythia and the Scythians as peripheral barbarians is to be misled by the later
propaganda of literate states who felt themselves in many ways to be economically,
logistically and militarily inferior. In reality, they were indebted to Scythia: non-
literate though it was, it may nevertheless have served as a potential model for both the
rise of Achaemenid Persia and the first Chinese empire under Qin Shihuang. From a
specifically Chinese perspective, the Scythian period on the steppes matches a time of
intense social and political struggle and coincides with the rise among the Warring
States of a cultural self-consciousness and the emergence of the idea of ‘China’ as a
realm that, while divided, should be unified.

Page | 20
Key words: Belsk, state formation, Persia, China, Warring States period

Gold and iron of early nomads: ceremonial akinakai of Eurasia

Dr Denis TOPAL

University of High Anthropological School, 5 N. Iorga St., MD-2009 Chișinău,

Republic of Moldova

The appearance of nomadism turned into a real explosion with the development of
offensive weapons, because weaponry is one of the most sensitive indicators of social,
political or ideological changes of ancient societies. Therefore, the weaponry of early
nomads became a supra-cultural phenomenon. Sword apparently held a central place
in nomadic panoply, and numerous legends and customs grew up around them,
exemplified by the fact that the Scythians, for example, idolised swords as a symbol of
god of war. Besides that, akinakes decorated with gold are mentioned in various
ancient sources as the insignia of Iranian rulers. The bulk of ceremonial swords, i.e.
those decorated with precious metals, of the early Eurasian nomads (ca 50 examples
from 40 locations) date to the Scythian period, and only one item dates to an earlier
horizon. Ceremonial swords and daggers of the Scythian period have been discovered
over a huge territory from Silesia to the Black Sea, Caucasus, Iran, Urals, and Siberia,
and predominantly from elite burials but at the same time, most relate to the northern
Black Sea region. Chronologically, there are three unequal groups of items: while the
earlier two groups cover a wider territory, the third and the later one is much more
numerous.

Keywords: Scythian, akinakes, burial, ceremony, dagger

Settled, not Saddled, Scythians: the easternmost Sakas

Burzine WAGHMAR

Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, UK

At the easternmost edge of the Iranic world, settled and not saddled Scythians ran the
kingdom of Khotan as Iranian-speaking Buddhists who traded and tussled with their
T’ang and Tibetan neighbours. Straddling the Sino-Tibetan and Irano-Indic
oecumenes, these Saka dynasts of the southern Silk Road were conquered and
converted by the Turkification and Islamisation of the Tarim Basin. Their impress,
historical and artistic, merits consideration in Scythian studies for its own
achievements. My paper is predicated on our corpora of administrative and religious
texts in Khotanese, an amply documented Middle Iranian language, which enables one
to trace the trajectory of these Scythian legatees down to the end of antiquity.

Keywords: Khotan, Tarim Basin, Silk Road, Middle Iranian, Buddhism, Tibetan
empire, T’ang China Guptas

Steppe Style in Southeastern Gansu Province, China in the Fourth and Third
Centuries BC
Page | 21
Raphael WONG

D.Phil. Candidate in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK

This paper examines a recently excavated cemetery located in present-day Majiayuan

in Gansu Province, China, which dates between the fourth and third centuries BC. The
cemetery belonged to a group of pastoralist elites. It consists of over 60 tombs, which
are predominantly catacombs. The occupants were buried with domesticated animals
and “Animal Style” gold ornaments, iron weapons and iron horse harnesses. There
were also numerous chariots decorated with beads as well as gold and silver cutouts.
Focusing on the decoration on the chariots, this paper argues for a shared material
culture between the tomb occupants and the Eurasian steppe elites, notably those
living in Pazyryk in south Siberia. The results of this study reveal that the carpet-like
decoration had its prototypes in Pazyryk and the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) in
Central Asia. Also noteworthy is that these designs were later adopted by the First
Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (r. 221–210 BC) to decorate his personal vehicles.
Overall, the present study traces the southward extension of the material culture of
steppe elites to the Chinese frontier. It also challenges the view that the pastoralist
elites in Gansu were sinicised and saw themselves as Chinese.

Keywords: Majiayuan, chariot, Pazyryk, the Achaemenid Empire, the Qin Dynasty

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ALPHABETIC LIST OF POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Fieldproject Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0), a princely kurgan of the earliest Scythian

period
G. CASPARI,1,2 T. SADYKOV,3 J. BLOCHIN,3 I. HAJDAS4
1
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
2
China Studies Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3
Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, St
Petersburg, Russia
4
Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

This poster gives the results of a first season of survey and test excavations at one of
the earliest Scythian kurgans in Tuva, southern Siberia. Preserved wooden beams were
found at a depth of a metre. The kurgan might be frozen and the survey shows that,
contrary to previous belief, it has a diameter of around 140 metres, is even larger than
the famous mound of Arzhan 1 and possibly older as the wood used in the construction
is dated to the ninth century BC. This project is a Swiss–Russian research
collaboration between the University of Bern, the Russian Academy of Sciences and
the State Hermitage Museum.
Keywords: Arzhan, Tuva, kurgan, early Scythian

Where the Steppe Meets the Sea: A Study on Azov Scythian Barrows
Alisa DEMINA

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla academy, Department of Archaeology, Ukraine

Nomadian economy is largely based on the ecosystem of plains. At the same time, the
territory between Dnieper and Don rivers in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe
Belt borders with the Azov Sea. According to Herodotus, this place was inhabited by
Royal Scythians who worshipped the god of the sea among other gods. This research
aims to investigate the patterns of the location of coastal sites and the usage of marine
resourses by Scythians. The spatial analysis demonstrates local heterogeneity of burial
sites: most of them are located within 40 km from the sea in the basins of coastal
rivers. The examination of construction features of the Azov barrows shows that
almost 70% of them use marine eelgrass and shell particles for building blocks and
decoration. Horse burial chambers contain seagrass, along with bulrush more often.
Scythian burials near the Azov Sea that contain eelgrass are dated from the sixth to the
early fourth centuries BC; however, an immense amount of eelgrass has been observed
in the barrows which are dated back to the last quarter of fourth century BC and
situated more than 80–110 km further north from the coastline. This examination
supports the hypothesis of the practical and symbolic importance of sea resources in
the nomadic people's dwelling.

Keywords: Azov sea coast, Scythians, burial mounds, spatial analysis, seagrass

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Scientific analysis of glass beads from Aymyrlyg and Znamenka

Dr Andrew MEEK,1 Dr Nikolay NICOLAEV2

1
Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum, London, WC1B 3DG
2
Department of Archaeology of Eastern Europe and Siberia, State Hermitage
Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

As part of preparations for the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia

exhibition two groups of glass beads were subjected to scientific analysis in the British
Museum Research Laboratory. The objects analysed included sixth–third century BC
blue and white ‘eye’ beads from Aymyrlyg and two sets of beads from a first century
BC–first century AD jewellery hoard at Znamenka. Non-destructive surface
compositional analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy with
energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence.

Using the analytical data it was possible ascertain the likely production areas of these
two groups of objects. They were produced from two distinct glass types. The eye
beads were made from glass produced using the sodium rich mineral natron and are
likely to have been produced in the eastern Mediterranean region. The glass used to
produce the beads found in the Znamenka hoard was made using a combination of
plant ashes and sand. Its compositional characteristics suggest that it was made in
central Asia.

Keywords: Glass; bead; Scythian; provenance; archaeometry

Scythian-style gold in the Oxus Treasure: skilled manufacturing and decorative

techniques

Dr Aude MONGIATTI,1 Dr St John SIMPSON2

1
Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum, UK
2
Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, London, UK

The Oxus Treasure is the largest known assemblage of gold and silver artefacts from
the period of the Achaemenid Empire (fifth–fourth centuries BC), which was
discovered in the late nineteenth century at the site of Takht-i Kuwad on the right river
bank of the Amu Darya, in present-day Tajikistan. Most artefacts belong to the so-
called Achaemenid “Court Style” but many bear similarities with or influences from
other cultures. Among them, a group of eight gold artefacts are associated with the
Scythian style of southern Siberia and include a pair of bracelets, a finger ring, an
ornament in the shape of a lion-griffin, a possible bow-case attachment and three
roundels.

These artefacts were studied non-invasively for their technology and alloy
composition using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). Both microscopic techniques capture images at low and high magnifications to
identify and record features, tool marks and surface textures, which are characteristic

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of the goldsmithing techniques used to manufacture and decorate the artefacts. This
close-up investigation revealed that most artefacts were manufactured by hand-
working gold sheets and wires and further decorated by chasing, repoussé and
punching, with two exceptions being the armlets, which are solid casts.

In addition to recording technological characteristics, the SEM also provides analyses

of alloy compositions. This group of artefacts shows a wide range of alloy
compositions, from high-purity gold to high-silver electrum, a natural gold-silver
alloy. The copper content varies between naturally occurring levels in unrefined gold
to being intentionally alloyed. Microscopic examination of the artefacts’ surface
detected Platinum Group Elements inclusions on most of them, which are
characteristic of unrefined alluvial gold.

The wide range of identified techniques was widely known and commonly used by
goldsmiths in the first millennium BC. They are similar to those previously identified
on Achaemenid-style artefacts from the Oxus Treasure and to those applied to the
same types of Scythian artefacts from archaeological contexts. This raises the
questions as to who manufactured these objects and where they were made, about
contacts and possible exchange between Achaemenid and Scythian craftsmen.

Keywords: Oxus Treasure, microscopy, gold, metallurgy, technology

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