The steppe endless as a sea extends by a broad strip from the Danube to the Yenisei
river and further beyond lake Baikal and to Mongolia. Cut by great fullwater rivers,
trimmed by dark coniferous forests in the north and by seas, by the highest mountain
peaks and by sandy deserts in the south, the great steppe occupies the southern part
of East Europe and Siberia. From the times immemorial this region which unified Europe
and Asia geographically and historically was homeland for related people.
Two and a half millenia ago the Great Steppe was inhabited by numerous a nd aggressive Scythian tribes.
The famous Greek Historian and geographer Herodotus called this large population
"an invincible and unaccessible people"
The father of History devoted all the fourth book of his nine-part History to a description
of Scythia and Scythians. Herodotus important account of the economy, customs, culture,
religion and political history of the Scythians was confirmed repeatedly in archaeological
investigations of the monuments.
Who were these mysterious people who struck terror not only in their neighbours but into
the powerful kingdoms of the ancient Near East where their countless hordes penetrated up to
the frontiers of Egypt? Known to the ancient Greeks as Scythians and to the Persians as Sakas
these tribes had their own names. The Scyths proper lived on the northern shores of the Balck
sea between the Danube and the Don. The Sauromatae who spoke "the distorted Scythian language"
lived in the east of the Don on the northern Caucasian steppe and in the Volga region. The
Sakian tribes occupied where is now Central (middle) Asia: The Lycae lived beyond the Urals, the
Argippaei farther east and the Arimaspians dwelled around Lake Zaisan. The tribes inhabiting the Altai
mountains were known to the Greeks by the legendary name of "griffins who guard gold". As
scientists suggest, the reason for the legends "on Griffin guarding gold" was gold mines in the
Altia. The rumours about these gold reserves of the ore Altai reached even ancient Greece.
Most probably in these ancient times the gold-diggings were guarded very reliably. Just here
the legend was born about mythical guards of gold, "blood-thirsty griffins tearing to pieces
everybody". Gold-digging was especially successful in the Altai during the Scythian epoch
(the Y-th c. B.C.) It was the Golden age of the Altai. Archaeologists are still impressed by the
abundance of gold objects which were found not only in graves of nomadic aristocrasy but in
ordinary burials of Asian altaians as well. Some scholars tried to explain this phenomenon by
a specific overstock with gold which might have taken place in connection with the marches of
Alexander Makedonsky to Central Asia and India which could dam the trade ways and commodity
markets of gold. But this curious hypothesis is out of date today. Most probably, gold-digging
fell on the period of flourishing of the vivid and original Pazyryk culture when gold was
accessible even for common people.
The ancient Chinese chronicles report probably a real name of the tribes inhabiting the Altai
2500 years ago as the Yueh-chi. The major population of the Yueh-chi lived in western Mongolia
and in the Sayan Mountains.
All these tribes spoke similar North Iranian languages and being ethnically related led similar way of
life. Their most important occupation was animal husbandry: they raised horses, sheep, oxen, and
camels. This livestock was their basic wealth and from it they obtained foodstaff-meat and
milk-and materials for clothing and domestic utensils-hide, wool, horn, and bone.
The Scythian nomads, as Herodotus evidences had no permanent dwellings. "They lived in four-wheeled or
large six-wheeled wagons, divided into two or three interior sections and
covered and walled with felt. They are protected from rain, snow and wind. Two or three
pairs of horless oxen pull these wagons". Women and children lived in the wagons, while
the men, busy pasturing and guarding their herds, spend most of their lives on horseback.
From year to year the Scythians followed the same routes through the steppes looking for
pasture for their cattle. Since it was easier for a large group to cope with their economic
problems and difficulties of the harsh migratory way of life, the ancient nomads lived in large
communities made up of the patriarchal families belonging to individual clans. When external
danger threatened, the nomads were quick to unite in order to repel aggression. The eminent
military historian of ancient Greece Thucydides, wrote in the fifth century B.C. that "not
only the nations of Europe unable to compete, but even in Asia, nation against nation, there is
none which can make a stand against the Scythians if they all act in concert...."
The Scythians clearly demonstrated their unanimity and invincibility in a war against the
Persian king Darius, who commanded an army of 700,000 men and several hundreds of warships.
Descriging Darius's campaign against them. Herodotus noted that "the Scythian
nation has made the most clever discovery among all the people we know....(for> no invader
who comes against them can ever escape and none... can catch them if they do not want to
be caught. For this people has no cities or settled forts: they carried their houses with them
and shot with bows from horseback: they live off gerds of cattle, not from village, and their
dwellings are on their wagons. How then can they fail to be invincible and inaccessible for
others?"
The Scythians knew that they could not defeat the Persian host in open battle and carried
on what was a real partisan warfare, bleeding Darius's army with frequent attacks on small
detached units and communications. Without losing a single battle the Persians had to leave
the Scythian steppe: Darius had learned that he would never conquer such a mobile and
resouceful enemy.
The main strength of the Scythian army was the cavalry which was noticed for the tireless
and undemanding nature of its horses. These features of the Scythian cavalry allowed the
warriors to move quickly and cover great distances in a short time. The weapon was obligatory
attribute of a Scythian warrior: bows and arrows, a short iron sword (akinak), pole-axes, and
spears. Ancient authors drew terrifying pictures of battle: an avalanche of Scythian cavalry
attacking with a rain of deadly poisoned arrows and flying darts threw the enemy into panic.
The warriors used axes, daggers and swords, in the hand-to-hand combat that followed. This