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For the first time the world heard about Scythians from Greeks who had started
to develop the Northern Prichernomorje and faced there with martial, semi-nomadic
tribes of skilled riders. Herodotus, who is supposed to visit Prichernomorje and to
see those places personally, devoted to Scythians the whole book in his "History".
There are two interpretations of the term "Scythians": ethnographical and
geographical.Scythians lived in Prichernomorje between the Danube and the Don. Greek and Latin
texts preserved some Scythian names and toponyms showing that their language
belonged to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European linguistic family. From the
modern languages the Ossetic language is the closest to the Scythian one. By their
appearance, clearly seen on the objects, shown here (the pectoral from Tolstaya
Mogila, vessels from Kul-Oba burial and from one of the Chasty burials etc), as well
as by numerous determinations of the skulls from excavated burials Scythians,
undoubtedly, were Europeoids. So A. Blok's description of Scythians as people with
"slanting and greedy eyes" - is only a fantasy of a great poet.
Nomadic tribes close to Scythians in language and culture occupied a vast territory -
the steppe belt from the Don to Pribaikalye, including foothills and mountain valleys
of the Tien Shan, Pamir , Hindu Kush, Altai and Sayans. During recent excavations
typically Scythian things were found in the remote districts of China, in Iran and
Anatolia. They undergo the name "Asian Scythians" though in Greek, Iranian and
Chinese texts they were called "Massagetae", "Saka", "Seh". Among numerous finds
in the burials of the European Scythia, together with subjects with elements of Greek
and ancient oriental traditions, one can see the "purely" Scythian manner with the
same stylistic peculiarities as on subjects, found in the middle Asia and Southern
Siberia.
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