The Scythians
Mounted nomads dominate the steppe and bury their dead with gold and horses.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 400 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
From around 900 BCE Iranian-speaking Scythian groups control the Pontic steppe, fighting as mounted archers — a combination of horse, composite bow and stirrup-less riding skill that settled armies struggle to counter, since there is nothing to besiege. Their kurgans contain spectacular animal-style goldwork, and the frozen tombs at Pazyryk preserved textiles, a knotted carpet and tattooed bodies. Herodotus devotes a book to them.