Scythians Research Paper

“The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle. […] he cuts off all their heads, and carries them to the king; […] thus entitled to a share of the booty.” This account of the people of southern Russia is observed and recorded by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, a Greek philosopher and a “Father of History” who set out to document the Persian War. In his efforts to detail this event in history, he included a vast variety of additional information, including the rituals and traditions of the Scythians. According to Herodotus’ descriptions and art found in southern Russia, it is evident that the Scythians had contact with the Greeks. In 1794 the ruins of an ancient town called Olbia was found followed by excavations

They used their horses to move, to travel great distances, and pull their wagons, as righteous sacrifices and as a weapon in warfare. The significance of their horses is honored as much as their leaders as their horses are buried in kurgans with noblemen or warriors. It is in these burial mounds that magnificent art has been unearthed and clues into the culture of the Scythians revealed. The burial of horses, whether perished in battle or as sacrifices, with the deceased in the kurgan was a custom of the Scythians described by Herodotus. For example, in the Alexandropol kurgan, excavated in 1853-1856, archeologists unearthed fourteen horses in one grave and a single steed in another nearby grave. In another excavation conducted in 1898 and 1908-1909, the skeletons of more than three hundred and sixty horses were found, an “eloquent testimony to the vast herds owned by this nobleman’s tribe.” The burial of extensive amounts of horses could be contributed to the horse-borne martial elite that was the nomadic Scythians. Herodotus wrote that at a certain point, these people controlled Asia; a control that led to the invasion of the Persians. Their love and respect of horses and animals carried on into their