Scythian golden comb from Solokha kurgan 4th C. BCE
"Once Kiaksar and the Medians invited the Scythians to a feast, and killed them. This suggests that the Scythian leadership were annihilated by treachery. At any event, the bulk of the nomad army drifted back north of the Caucasus at the end of the 7th century.
Much remains unclear, however, about the campaigns of the Scythians in the Middle East. It is not known whether they came south as disorganized nomad bands of plunders, each following the tales of rich pickings which may have drifted back in the wake of the first bands to make the journey; or as a unified people with a disciplined 'state' army. We are also ignorant of the extent to which they returned to the Black Sea steppes, or remained in the Middle East.
Undoubtedly, they learned a lot from contact with the progressive civilizations of the Middle East. In the realm of warcraft, they learned how to fight effectively against cavalry and infantry alike, how to fight mounted and dismounted, and how to take well-fortified cities by storm. Bravery and a warlike nature alone would not have enabled them to defeat powerful and sophisticated ancient empires.
Of great importance, obviously, were the weapons and armor which enabled the warrior to strike down his enemy while protecting himself and his horse. The complex of Scythian war-gear was formed, by experience and by imitation, during their great campaigns in the Middle East; before this period the Scythians did not use defensive armor. Our knowledge of their weapons and armor comes from their funerary customs. Scythian dead were buried in barrow-mounds ('kurgans'), and the warrior was accompanied on his journey into eternity by the possessions which were most important to him in life. Rich finds of weapons and armor of many kinds have rewarded the excavation of Scythian barrows, including the tombs of many Scythian women. The grave of a common warrior usually contained a bow and several dozen arrows, and a pair of spears or a spear and a javelin. Royal tombs often yield whole arsenals of defensive armor, helmets, swords, quivers of arrows, dozens of spears, and - in the early period - large numbers of horse skeletons."
-The Scythians 700-300 BC: Dr. E.V. Cernenko, Angus McBride, & Dr. M.V. Gorelik
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| Scythian golden comb from Solokha kurgan 4th C. BCE. Possibly of Greek manufacture for a Scythian noble. |
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| Warrior detail from reverse side of Golden Solokha comb. Clearly shows rider’s shield protecting back, typical left slung Gorytos and swordsman’s Greek style Linen cuirass ( with added scale protection on breast) & “feathered skirt”. |
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The Scythians 700-300 BC: Dr. E.V. Cernenko, Angus McBride, & Dr. M.V. Gorelik
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