Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Scythians (/ ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n /) or Scyths (/ ˈ s ɪ θ /, but note Scytho-(/ ˈ s aɪ θ ʊ /) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, [7] [8] were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the ...
After the Royal Scythians had lost control of Ciscaucasia in the south-east over the course of 550 to 500 BC, they moved their centre of power from the north-west to the region of the lower Dnipro River in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC, and a fully developed Scythian culture with no local forerunners consequently appeared in this ...
The king of the Royal Scythians performed the duties of a priest during the pan-Scythian rituals which involved the hestiai of Tabiti. Among Indo-Iranian peoples, the king had a charisma which took the physical form of gold, held to be a royal metal, and therefore the king displayed his visible extraordinary powers by controlling the gold ...
The Scythian genealogical myth was an epic cycle of the Scythian religion detailing the origin of the Scythians.This myth held an important position in the worldview of Scythian society, and was popular among both the Scythians of the northern Pontic region and the Greeks who had colonised the northern shores of the Pontus Euxinus.
The territory of the Scythian kingdom of the Pontic steppe extended from the Don river in the east to the Danube river in the west, and covered the territory of the treeless steppe immediately north of the Black Sea's coastline, which was inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, as well as the fertile black-earth forest-steppe area to the north of the treeless steppe, which was inhabited by an ...
The names of the Scythians are a topic of interest for classicists and linguists. The Scythians were an Iranic people best known for dominating much of the Pontic steppe from about 700 BC to 400 BC. The name of the Scythians is believed to be of Indo-European origin and to have meant "archer". The Scythians gave their name to the region of Scythia.
From this was derived the Greek word Skṓlotoi Σκώλοτοι, which, according to Herodotus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians. [30] [31] Other sound changes have produced Sugᵘda 𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭. [24]
The Royal Scythians were finally expelled from West Asia in the c. 600s BC, [29] after which, beginning in the later 7th and lasting throughout much of the 6th century BC, the majority of the Scythians migrated from Ciscaucasia into the Pontic Steppe, which became the centre of Scythian power. [30] [31] [11]