Scythians facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Scythians

Approximate extent of East Iranian languages the 1st century BC is shown in orange.
Total population
Unknown
Regions with significant populations
Eastern Europe Central Asia West Asia Northern India
Languages
Scythian language
Religion
Animism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism
Related ethnic groups
Sarmatians Dahae Sakas Indo-Scythians Massagetes Jatts Cheemas Nairs Kambojs

The Scythians or Scyths. were Iranian nomadic Eurasian people.

They were nomadic, famous for their skills at horse riding, who dominated the Pontic steppe (modern Ukraine and Southern Russia) throughout the ancient world. By the 2nd century AD the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scyths in this area. Much of our information about the Scyths comes from the famous Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BC) in his Histories, and from archaeologically from the beautiful goldwork found in Scythian kurgan burial mounds in Ukraine and southern Russia.

Images for kids

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  Scythian comb from Solokha, early 4th century BCE

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  Scythian vessel from Voronezh, 4th century BCE. Hermitage Museum.

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  For the Achaemenids, there were three types of Sakas: the Sakā tayai paradraya ("beyond the sea", presumably between the Greeks and the Thracians on the Western side of the Black Sea), the Sakā tigraxaudā ("with pointed caps"), the Sakā haumavargā ("Hauma drinkers", furthest East). Soldiers of the Achaemenid army, Xerxes I tomb detail, circa 480 BCE.

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  PCA of ancient individuals (n = 214) of the Eurasian Steppe from three major periods projected onto contemporary Eurasians (Scythians as "Chandman_IA" symbols).

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  Gold Scythian belt title, Mingachevir (ancient Scythian kingdom), Azerbaijan, 7th century BCE

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  The 5th-century BCE Greek historian Herodotus is the most important literary source on the origins of the Scythians

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  Persian soldiers (left) fighting against Scythians. Cylinder seal impression.

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  Scythian king Skilurus, relief from Scythian Neapolis, Crimea, 2nd century BCE

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  The territory of the Scythae Basilaei ("Royal Scyths") along the north shore of the Black Sea around 125 AD

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  Scythian defence line 339 BCE reconstruction in Polgár, Hungary

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  Arzhan kurgan in Tuva Republic, southern Siberia, Russia

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  The famous gold stag of Kostromskaya, Russia

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  Distribution of Scythian kurgans and other sites along the Dnieper Rapids during the Classical Scythian period

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  West side of the Kozel Kurgans [uk]

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  Remains of Scythian Neapolis near modern-day Simferopol, Crimea. It served as a political center of the Scythians in the Late Scythian period.

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  Kurgan stelae of a Scythian at Khortytsia, Ukraine

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  Scythian archers using the Scythian bow, Kerch (ancient Panticapeum), Crimea, 4th century BCE. The Scythians were skilled archers whose style of archery influenced that of the Persians and subsequently other nations, including the Greeks.

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  Scythian bronze arrowheads, c700-300 BCE

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  Gold pectoral, or neckpiece, from a royal kurgan in Tovsta Mohyla, Pokrov, Ukraine, dated to the second half of the 4th century BCE, of Greek workmanship. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins. Scythian art was especially focused on animal figures.

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  An Attic vase-painting of a Scythian archer (a police force in Athens) by Epiktetos, 520–500 BCE

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  Scythian warrior in bronze scale armour

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  Scythians at the Tomb of Ovid (c. 1640), by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld

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  Romantic nationalism: Battle between the Scythians and the Slavs (Viktor Vasnetsov, 1881)

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  Eugène Delacroix's painting of the Roman poet, Ovid, in exile among the Scythians