Scythia

At Alexandropol and Solokha in the same district were equally elaborate tombs, the latter specially rich. Another tomb in this region, Melgunov's barrow, found in 176o, contained a dagger sheath and pommel of Assyrian work and Greek things of the 6th century. In the Kul Oba tomb, mentioned above, the cham ber was of stone and the contents, with one or two exceptions, of purely Greek workmanship, but the ideas underlying are the same —the king has his wife, his servant and his horse, his amphorae with wine, his cauldron with mutton-bones, his drinking vessels and his weapons, the latter being almost the only objects of bar barian style. One of the cups has a frieze with reliefs of natives supplementing that on the Chertomlyk vase.

East of the Maeotis on the Kuban we have many barrows; the most interesting are the groups called the Seven Brothers, and those of Karagodeuashkh, Kostromskaya, Ul and Kelermes, the latter remarkable for objects of Assyrian style, the others for the enormous slaughter of horses; on the Ul were 400 in one grave.

Art.

Certain of the objects which occur in these Scythic graves are of special forms typical for the Scythic area. Most interesting of these is the dagger or sword (akinakes), always very short, save in the latest graves, and distinguished by a heart shaped guard marking the juncture of hilt and blade; its sheath is also characteristic, having a triangular projection on one side and usually a separate tip ; these peculiar forms were necessitated by a special way of hanging the dagger from two straps that it might not interfere with a rider's movements. Just the same form of short sword was used in Persia and is shown on the sculptures at Persepolis ; the type is no doubt oriental in origin. Another special type is the bow-case (gorytos), made to take a short curved bow and to accommodate arrows as well. Further, there is the peculiar cauldron on one conical foot, round which the fire was built, the cylindrical hone pierced for suspension and the cup with a rounded bottom. Assyrian and afterwards Greek crafts men working for Scythic employers were compelled to decorate these outlandish forms, which they did according to their own fashion ; but there was also a vigorous native style that, more than anything else, expresses the distinctive individuality of the Scyths. The essence of Scythian art is the employment of animal figures— particularly elks, deer, bears, felidae and birds' heads—for the decorations of weapons, mirrors, pole-tops and horse-trappings. In every case the representation is severely subordinated to the decorative function it is to serve, and the figures are accommo dated to the shape of the object to be adorned. Moreover, several

motives are often blended together in a most fantastic way. Yet despite rigid stylization, the effect of this "animal style," as it is called, is to give an extraordinarily lifelike impression.

Though it uses oriental and even Greek motives, the roots of this queer compost of naturalism and stylization go right back to the carvings of palaeolithic hunters. Its immediate ancestry is to be sought in the naturalistic glyptic of the forest hunters of the so called Arctic stone age who ranged along the border of tundra and forest from Norway eastward for an unknown distance into Si beria. In the latter region there sprang a parallel branch from the same trunk that, at the beginning of the iron age, is still very similar to the early Scythian.

In south Russia the animal style wilted under the influence of Greek culture, and, with the expansion of Sarmatians, became choked with Iranian monsters and overburdened with polychrome enamels. Yet through this medium it was transmitted to the Teu tons at the time of their great migrations, and so to mediaeval Europe. On the other hand the reaction of Scytho-Siberian art can be traced to the borders of China at the beginning of our era, and some carpets of that date, brought back by Kozlov from Mongolia, illustrate its application to textile decoration.

History.—The oldest inhabitants of Scythia were the Cim merii; some of them were nomads, while others tilled some land in the river valleys and in the Crimea, where they left their name to ferries, earthworks and the Cimmerian Bosporus. (See Bos PORUS CimmERrus.) They were, perhaps, of Iranian race, though others regard them as Thracian. In the 7th century B.C. these Cimmerians were attacked and partly driven out by a horde of newcomers from upper Asia called Scythae ; these imposed their name and their yoke upon all that were left in the Euxine steppes, but the basis of the population remained unaltered. Their tombs even occur in Bulgaria and Hungary. The new-comers brought with them new customs and a new artistic taste. About the same time similar peoples harassed the northern frontier of Iran, where they were called Saka (Sacae), and in later times Saka and Scyths, whether they were originally the same or not, were re garded as synonymous. It is difficult always to judge whether given information applies to the Sacae (see SAKA) or the Scyths. Figures of Saka appear at Persepolis.