The scythians can be dated back as far as the 9th century BCE around central asia, and as early as their disappearance in the Christian era (which is the period that began with Jesus). This is one of the earliest and strongest horse-riding cultures (explaining the bowed legs on many of the females in the burial mounds). Little is known about their everyday life, so all that remains of their culture is "legend and artefact". Though, Herodotus does record their customs in his 9 volume "History"; according to him the Scythians had an expansionist war policy of enslaved slaves and nations.
According to Herodotus as well the scythians never built fortresses or houses, and their cart was their home, so they lived very mobile lives (explaining the lack of archaeology). This also made them invincible to their enemies, as they were not 'sitting ducks' to use some colloquial jargon. When they did stop or anything they apparently arranged their vehicles in a circle to act as a fortress type thing. The remains of these carts can be found in the graves of some aristocracy.
There is much debate about where the amazons actually lived, also due to the lack of ruins. Some say that they lived in 'Pontus', which is part of modern day Turkey on the black sea; and if one were to look at a picture of where to loom at a map of the Scythian world you would note the closeness of the two.
According to Aeschylus, tin early times they lived in Scythia but later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon; now the Terme river in northern Turkey.
+ http//www.nationalgeographic.com.au
No comments:
Post a Comment