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Civ: Scythians


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The Scythians

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Above: Scythian Commoners (left), Scythian Slaves (right)

 

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Above: Skilurus, King of Crimea

 

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Above: Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae

 

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Above: Ateas, King of Scythia

 

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Above: Scythian Shaman (Healer)

 

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MAP OF THEIR INFLUENCE

Spoiler

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Units

Support Units

  • Scythian Peasant
  • scyth_support_citizen.png.936ac68d3b9c39790be32913aef7022c.png
    • Male and Female variations
    • References
      •  
  • Resource Wagon
  • xion_support_wagon.png.053936b67dbfd257de84d65c60043f12.png
    • Dropsite for all Raw Resources
    • Can "unpack" into these buildings
      • Yurt (+10 to pop cap)
      • Storehouse
        • Can train Slaves once the Trade Depot is built
        • scyth_support_slave.png.626d0f1deaca6e72d01189dab51f023c.png
  • Enaree Shaman
    • Healer/Priest Class unit
    • They wear shaggy clothing, drooping robes, tassels, and animal skins. They have eagle feather or deer antler head gear and carry a stretched leather drum.
    • References
      • Spoiler

        enaree.thumb.jpg.00fc4a8e5b1eb511825590df883778df.jpg123773330_4139187836097725_2038809058382327825_n.thumb.jpg.2872be1b1ad0d408ae3b2b73f8753da0.jpg184371198_4687196967963473_1582076574846945792_n.thumb.jpg.fa6fa5e9b9d5e188c01dd3e5a417f7be.jpgnew_9902e5749e5a4e55de38be1ebdbf89860bb0averoeweb.jpg

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Barracks Units

  • Scythian Spearman
  • scyth_infantry_spearman.png.c71139817056829adb2a467e3fe01347.png
    • Spear Infantry
  • Saka Axeman
  • scyth_infantry_swordsman.png.3912022fad69501a124ed206036f6995.png
    • Sword Infantry
  • Scythian Archer (male and female actor variations)
  • scyth_infantry_archer.png.958c6ec5f5113034a3e8c678d0f57a43.png
    • Archer Infantry
  • Maiden Archer
  • scyth_maiden_archer.png.b2461d0ff3a45a4d30c052374f2dec5c.png
    • Female Archer Infantry
    • Less armor, faster speed
    • Only costs Glory resource
    • References
      • Spoiler

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Stables Units

  • Scythian Scout
  • scyth_cavalry_scout.png.0f29b04977942ba39864069114edff02.png
    • Scout Cavalry
  • Sarmatian Lancer
    • Spear Cavalry
  • Massagetae Sagaris Cavalry
    • Sword (Ax) Cavalry
  • Dahae Cavalry Archer
  • scyth_cavalry_archer.png.fbd02393f78b8463f27fba4186f944d3.png
    • Archer Cavalry
  • Royal Maiden Headhunter
  • scyth_maiden_cavalry.png.3b4461a8edc4d000890a3d5de683c236.png
    • Female Archer Cavalry
    • Less Armor, faster speed
    • Only costs the Glory resource
    • References
      • Spoiler

        _PMW-1no7QQ.thumb.jpg.04a13139d789f81b0483d251a2399dbc.jpgScythian-Female-Horse-Archer.thumb.jpg.2a6c0547a50a513b25150c6aa34d5f97.jpg

Mercenary Camp Units

  • Bosporan Hoplite
  • scyth_merc_hoplite.png.88fc94dc0ffe9a10daf528e738fcdba4.png
    • Hoplite
  • Thracian Peltast
  • athen_merc_peltast.png.59661010fe89d2ff09d3b4088d458aab.png
    • Javelin Infantry
  • Tocharian Swordsman

Fortress Units

  • Alani Cataphract
  • scyth_champion_cavalry_lancer.png.d1033ae1e7793761016aa183cbc9560e.png
    • Champion Lancer Cavalry
    • Extra Armor, slower speed
    • Can upgrade to a strong anti-building attack (flames)
    • References
      • Spoiler

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  • Royal Cavalry Archer
  • scyth_champion_cavalry_archer.png.af4109d552159c54707ced6fd2a41433.png
    • Champion Archer Cavalry
    • Extra Armor, slower speed
    • References
      • Spoiler

        8gkpGDxj6ZE.thumb.jpg.08f2544b78198bb70828c6608f794468.jpg

  • Battering Ram
  • scyth_siege_ram.png.2098008c676384c6bb07675868803414.png
    • An uncovered Ram
    • Lower armor, faster speed

Heroes

A civ bonus for Scythians is that their Heroes are allowed to upgrade to Mounted from Village Phase, while all other heroes in the game have to wait for City Phase.

 

  

  • Tahm-Rayiš (Tomyris)
    • Hero Cavalry
    • Queen of the Massagetae, a powerful Eastern Scythian confederacy. Her army defeated Cyrus the Great and checked his expansionist ambitions.
    • Her look is very Eastern or central Asian, in contrast to the more Western look of the other heroes.
    • References
      • Spoiler

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  • Ateas (Ateas)
    • Hero Cavalry
    • United dozens of Western Scythian tribes to form a kind of "Scythian Empire" over his lifetime. Fought against and was killed by Philip II of Macedon.
    • References
  • Skilurus (Skilurus)
    • Hero Chariot
    • King of the Crimean Scythians, whose capital was the Greco-Scythian city of Scythian Neapolis. Warred against Mithridates of Pontus.
    • He has a mix of Greek and Scythian equipment.
    • References
      • Spoiler

        MNLxIGNADKw.thumb.jpg.32cbed320b15ae151d661397333bfec6.jpg

        Exactly this reference.

 

Scythian Structures

Scythian structures, like the Huns and Xiongnu, can be built anywhere on the map, in neutral, allied, or enemy territory. This is their "nomad" bonus. They also have half the build time and cost. Consequently, they are the weakest buildings in the game, at 50% health of standard. Their buildings are very fragile. These bonuses and weaknesses also apply to their Fortress. 

Cult Statue: Ovoo

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This is the "Cult Statue" building for the Scythians (and Xiongnu). Not only does it give a trickle of Glory like all Cult Statues, but also a trickle of free Stone resource. As an additional bonus, Enaree Shaman healers gain greater healing powers when in range of this structure.

 

Wonder: Royal Kurgan tumulus.

  • A large earthen mount with eye candy around it (see how the mound is surrounded by standing stones; we can add additional culture by using the enigmatic Scythian "statues" found throughout the steppe instead of simple stones).

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Spoiler

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  • Can have various "stages" of construction like the other Scythian and Xiongnu buildings do:

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Technologies

"Fill of Blood"

  • Prereq: Choosing Tomyris 
  • Tomyris +25% attack when mounted on her war horse, +50% attack vs. Enemy Heroes.

 

Social Reforms

  • Prereq: Choosing Ateas
  • Scythian Peasants +50% health; Scythian Slaves +100% Loyalty.

 

Greek Engineering

  • Prereq: Choosing Skilurus
  • Unlock the ability for Scythian citizen-soldiers to construct Catapults.

 

Goldsmithing

  • Prereq: City Phase
  • Research at: Forge (the only economically-focused Forge tech in the game)
  • Traders +40% trade profit per trip.

 

Archery Tradition

  • Prereq: Village Phase
  • Research Building: Barracks
  • Archers -50% experience needed to promote, +10% faster firing rate

 

Parthian Tactics

  • Prereq: Town Phase, Archery Tradition, Advanced Cavalry
  • Research Building: Cavalry Stable
  • Ranged Cavalry will automatically kite away from approaching targets if the enemy targets get within 15 meters.

 

Falconry

  • Prereq: Village Phase (also requires Basic Husbandry)
  • Research Building: Civic Center
  • All Structures and Cavalry +25% vision range. Scouts +25% meat gathering rate.
    • Scouts gain a new Falcon prop actor that circles over them.

 

Extensive Husbandry

  • Prereq: Town Phase (also requires Basic Husbandry)
  • Research Building: Cavalry Stable
  • Domestic Animals -25% train time, +25% health.

 

Slave Trade

  • Prereq: Town Phase
  • Research Building: Market
  • Slaves -50% train time.
    • Other civs have to first capture a Trading Post before being able to research this tech. Scythians can research it from their Market.

 

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We need to find a Scythians expert to help parse all of the reference material. I don't think it has to be super granular, but I would like to separate everything into some categories:

 

Western Scythians

  • Cavalry
  • Infantry
  • Potential Hero References (Ateas and Skilurus)

Eastern Scythians

  • Cavalry
  • Infantry
  • Potential Hero References (Tomyris)

Support Units

  • Healers
  • Peasants
    • Males
    • Females
  • Traders
  • Fishing Boat (necessary for gameplay)
  • Trading Ship (necessary for gameplay)

Structures

  • Specific Buildings
  • Materials

 

Need to try to find era-specific reference materials: 6th-4th centuries BC.

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Edited by wowgetoffyourcellphone
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 Female Clothing

Unit Types: Scythian Female Citizens, Maiden Head Hunters

Spoiler

 

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 Shaman Clothing and Props

Unit Types: Healer

Spoiler

(Minus the flaming sword woman; the others look great)

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Inside the Drum, plus the mallet:

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Animation Refs:

Spoiler

 

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 Basic Tunics and Jackets

Unit Types: Basic and Advanced Soldiers, Scythian Male Citizens, Trader

 

Spoiler

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Trader and Cart:

(trading goods in lieu of family members)

Spoiler

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Edited by wowgetoffyourcellphone
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Archaeological evidence suggests that portable dwellings evolved in parallel with the development of the wheeled cart. The first ox-carts with solid wooden wheels appeared during the second half of the 4th millennium among people belonging to the Tripolye culture, the descendants of Neolithic farmers from the Balkans, who lived on the wooded steppes of Moldova and the Ukraine – the so-called Pontic Steppes. Later cultures, such as the Repin and the Yamnaya, used this new-found mobility to spread out westwards and eastwards into the wide expanse of open steppe land.

 

 

 

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Clay models of Scythian covered wagons recovered from archaeological sites in the Crimea.
Dated about 600 BC. From "Die Welt der Skythen" by Renate Rolle, 1980.

Quote

Towards the end of the 3rd millennium two main cultures occupied the steppes to the north of the Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas, both possessing the wheeled-cart: the Srubnaya to the west and the Andronovo to the east. During the 2nd millennium Indo-Iranian tribes associated with the Andronovo culture migrated towards the south and south-east with their slow-moving ox-carts, reaching as far as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. One small group of cattle-breeders settled in the lower Amu Darya. Named the Tazabagyab culture by archaeologists after a nearby canal, they left behind the circular footprints of some type of temporary or portable dwelling in the pastures surrounding their villages.

 

 

Quote

The development of equipage in the late 2nd millennium BC led to the emergence and expansion of the so-called Scythian culture, which ranged from Europe to the Altai and from Siberia to Iran. By 750 BC Saka nomads belonging to the Massagetae confederation migrated into the Khorezm oasis from the north, the Kuyasay culture in the Sarykamysh delta and the Apasiaks in the marshlands to the east of the Aral Sea. Over four hundred years later Alexander encountered similar nomadic Saka and Massagetae warriors along the Syr Darya.

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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Herodotus wrote about the Massagetae nomads living to the east of the Caspian, noting that their way of living was like the Scythians and, while the men were great horsemen, their women travelled in ox-drawn wagons. Later he described the Scythian way of life in more detail:

"A people without fortified towns, living ... in wagons which they take with them wherever they go, accustomed, one and all, to fight on horseback with bows and arrows,

and dependant for their food not upon agriculture but upon their cattle...

"

 

at this point, may be we need a new game system. to reproduce or train cattle.

 

hRG2y9p.jpg

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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The Sarmatians too travelled with their women and children in wagons, which in this case were covered with hides. During the 2nd century BC they displaced the Saka nomads in the Khorezm region. In 378 AD the Roman General Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of one of the later Sarmatian tribes known as the Alans:

"For they have no huts ... and dwell in wagons, which they cover with rounded canopies of bark and drive over the boundless wastes. And when they

come to a place rich in grass

, they place their carts in a circle and feed like wild beasts. As soon as the fodder is used up, they place their cities, as we might call them, on the wagons and so convey them: in the wagons the males have intercourse with the women, and in the wagons their babes are born and reared; wagons form their permanent dwellings, and wherever they come , that place they look upon as their natural home.

 

interesting... the cattle can fatten like AOM and Husbandry can give 30% more of that.

http://ageofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Husbandry_%28Age_of_Mythology%29

 

@wowgetoffyourcellphone

at this point I need your opinion.

 

and I give to you  another idea about art concept. first as art designer I need have solid defense of my own concept. Archeologically acepted.

Spoiler
Quote

 

The first Mongol-like migrants to reach Khorezm were the Huns in the 4th century. Like the Saka, who arrived one millennium before them, they were nomads who lived on horseback and travelled with their families in covered wagons. Marcellinus left us a disparaging description of their dwellings as well:

"They are all without fixed abode, without hearth, or law, or settled mode of life, and keep roaming from place to pace, like fugatives, accompanied by the wagons in which they live; in wagons their wives weave for them their hideous garments, in wagons they cohabit with their husbands, bear children, and rear them to the age of puberty."

Although Chinese reports show that the Hsiung-nu had both carts and felt-covered tents, it is not clear whether the Huns had pitched tents as well.

By the 6th or 7th century the Pecheneg confederation had emerged along the Syr Darya, after waves of Hunnic and Turkic immigrants had been progressively absorbed by the former Iranian population of the region. They too used the covered cart and made camp in a similar way to the Huns, by forming a circle of wagons with their livestock in the centre. So important was the cart that the Pechenegs who eventually settled in the Ukraine were known by the Russians as kibitki or cart people.

Clearly the wheeled ox-cart had little in common with the yurt apart from its felt covering. Nevertheless by the second half of the 1st millennium AD it had become firmly established as the predominant dwelling of the nomad across the Eurasian steppes.

 

 

So they change their form of live or their live style. in Milleniums.

 

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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and their units are own looking but with influence by their neighbors. this process is know as transculturation.

Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947[1] to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.

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OK this mean , have Greek, and Iranian(Persian) clothes and stuff. see the armor and helmet or caps/hood.

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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so this kind of tents is called Yurts, with what is it exactly a Yurt?

Quote

A traditional yurt (from the Turkics) or ger (Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt and used as a dwelling by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises an angled assembly or latticework of pieces of wood or bamboo for walls, a door frame, ribs (poles, rafters), and a wheel (crown, compression ring) possibly steam-bent. The roof structure is often self-supporting, but large yurts may have interior posts supporting the crown. The top of the wall of self-supporting yurts is prevented from spreading by means of a tension band which opposes the force of the roof ribs. Modern yurts may be permanently built on a wooden platform; they may use modern materials such as steam-bent wooden framing or metal framing, canvas or tarpaulin, Plexiglas dome, wire rope, or radiant insulation.

some History...

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Yurts have been a distinctive feature of life in Central Asia for at least three thousand years. The first written description of a yurt used as a dwelling was recorded by Herodotus, the 'father of history', who lived in Greece between 484 and 424 BC. He described yurt-like tents as the dwelling place of the Scythians, a horse riding-nomadic nation who lived in the northern Black Sea and Central Asian region from around 600 BC to AD 300

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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Just now, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Well, now I think all their building can be forms of ox carts. Units can train unit after all, and with classes can be added. Also, I have prove that units can not BUILD units too. So, Scythian unit can build a ox cart like other civs build a storehouse.

ok we need define that now. which buildings werre replaced by a Oxcart, may be Storehouses...

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scythian-camp.jpg

 

Scythians Camp

https://smallsagas.wordpress.com/my-armies/dba-i43-cimmerian-scythian-or-early-hu/

 

if this not gorgeous pic... I'm not sure what is.

its like to travel in time.

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Quote

The Museum figures are not modelled with the gorytoscombined bow-case and quiver that was unique to the Scythians, but other ‘Scythian’ cultures like the Parthians do not seem to have had them. I have some other Museum figures that I didn’t paint for this army, one that I was particularly tempted to include is wearing a helmet decorated with embossed ram’s horns, which was manufactured in Northern Italy.

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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3 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Well, I was meaning, house = ox cart, storehouse = different ox cart, and so on.

Now, do all the ox carts become trained from the Civic center or do units build them? Hmmm.

Have sense... I thought the same...

but if they dont have properly defense need an alternative.

we need keep in mind victory conditions.

by structures and by units.

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VeKBM8v.jpg

 

But if the horse-herding Scythians were mobile, they also were able to maintain the kind of rich court culture one usually associates only with city dwellers.

They were able to due so thanks to their use of carriages like this one, which was found disassembled in the Pazyryk tombs.

Their carriages enabled them not just to easily move their tents and other necessities, but also carry along stores of luxury goods, some which they imported and others they produced themselves.

One of the things the Scythians are best remembered for today is their intricate gold jewelry, which regularly tours the world in museum exhibits.

The other thing they are best remembered for is the size of their royal burial mounds, known as kurgans, which sometimes could reach over 20 meters high. Inside, as in the Egyptian pyramids, nobles were buried with their treasure for use in the afterlife.

Scythia-Parthia_100_BC.pngThis map roughly shows the extent of the Scythian lands at the time of the Roman Empire.

The other great nomadic people of northern Eurasia at this time, located farther east, were the Turkic-speaking tribes.

Later the Turkic-speaking nomads would sweep west in a centuries-long confrontation with the Persian speakers that would be chronicled in classical Persia’s epic poems.

Still, if much is known today about the Scythians due to their mention in ancient histories and the excavation of their burial mounds, very little is known about their carpets and carpet culture.

The only certainty is that their carpets included both pile rugs (the only example of which is the Pazyryk) and felt rugs.

Spoiler

there are how they stuff were decorated

 

 

Quote

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Here is a close-up of a felt saddle blanket found in the Pazyryk tombs.

Both the pile and felt work show a level of technical sophistication that makes it clear they belong to a very old artistic tradition.

But whether that tradition was the Scythians’ own or was borrowed from neighbors is impossible to know for sure.

Most carpet scholars believe the Pazyryk pile carpet could not have been woven in a nomadic setting in such a remote corner of the Siberian steppe.

Murray Eiland Jr. and Murray Eiland III note in their book 'Oriental Carpets' (1998) that the carpet "raises the question as to how pastoral nomads could have acquired such a technically proficient work of art."

They answer that "it could have been through trade, as some Chinese silk fabrics were found at Pazyryk and other early nomadic burials on the steppes."

Theories of the carpet's origin generally assume it was woven in either a major population center of Achaemenid Persia or perhaps an outpost of the Persian Empire nearer to Pazyryk itself.

If the carpet were made in Persia, that would make it not only the earliest intact carpet ever found but also a striking example of the early carpet trade.

With its motifs of horsemen and deer, it may have been expressly designed for export to the steppes. Or, it might have been specifically commissioned by a Scythian chief.

pazyryk+saddle+1.jpgHere is a saddle found in the Pazyryk tombs, showing the same kinds of tassels that can be seen on the saddles depicted in the carpet.

The mystery of the Pazyryk carpet's exact origin may never be solved. And perhaps it does not need to be, because the Pazyryk itself makes a still more important point.

That is, that carpets, whether woven at home or imported from afar, seem to be a universal human interest as old as time.

How did the Scythians use their rugs which – judging by their inclusion in a royal burial tomb – were clearly prized possessions?

The answer must be left to the imagination.

pazyryk+lion+table.jpgOne possibility is that the carpets were at the center stage of decorating schemes that also included elaborate furniture like this table, also found in the Pazyryk tombs.

Perhaps the lion motifs of the table combined with the motifs of both natural and fantastic creatures on the carpets to fill Scythian tents with the echoes of the things their culture most prized.

The Pazyryk carpet alone includes horses, griffins, and deer. Its size is 180 x 198 cm (5'11" x 6' 6").

Today, the Pazyryk carpet is regularly reproduced by modern carpet weavers who find its design still has a magical appeal.

pazyryk.jpgThis high-quality replica is produced by weavers working in northern Afghanistan using natural dyes and handspun wool. It is available from Nomad Rugs in San Francisco.

It is interesting to think of the Pazyryk carpet, placed in a royal tent, as the world’s earliest known example of a room with a rug.

And it is even more fascinating to think that this earliest known example is so stunning in its beauty that it can equally express all the pleasure and excitement people have taken in furnishing their rooms with rugs ever since.

 

 

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http://newobserveronline.com/how-the-scythians-vanished/


 

Quote

 

A group of researchers led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has discovered the first scientific evidence of genetic blending between Europeans and Asians in the remains of ancient Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia.

Contrary to what was believed until now, the results published in PLoS ONE indicate that this blending was not due to an eastward migration of Europeans, but to a demographic expansion of local Central Asian populations, thanks to the technological improvements the Scythian culture brought with them.

The Altai is a mountain range in Central Asia occupying territories of Russia and Kazakhstan to the west and of Mongolia and China to the east.

 

“The results provide exceptionally valuable information about how and when the population diversity found today in Central Asian steppes appeared. They point to the possibility that this occurred in Altai over 2,000 years ago between the local population on both sides of the mountain range, coinciding with the expansion of the Scythian culture, which came from the west”, explains Assumpció Malgosa, professor of Biological Anthropology at UAB and coordinator of the research.

Seseg9R.jpg

 

so they have Tatoos?

And they are  from Europe?

Spoiler

 

The results obtained demonstrate that the population from the Iron Age, corresponding to the time when the Scythian culture resided in the Altai Mountains, had a perfect blend (50%) of European and Asian mitochondrial DNA lineages or sequences.

The idea poses a new hypothesis on the origin of today’s population diversity in Central Asia and allows for a better understanding of the demographic processes which took place.

From 2005 to 2007, UAB researchers worked jointly with French and Mongolian researchers in a European project to excavate Scythian tombs in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains.

In the three excavation campaigns carried out over twenty tombs were excavated. Many of them were frozen and contained mummified human remains of warriors buried with their possessions and horses. This was the first time Scythian warrior tombs had been discovered in Mongolia, since all other tombs previously found had been located on the western side of Altai.

The Scythians were an Indo-European people dedicated to nomadic pasturing and horse breeding.

They crossed the Eurasian steppes from the Caspian Sea until reaching the Altai Mountains during the 2nd and 7th century BCE. The Scythians are known most of all thanks to ancient texts written by the Greek historian Herodotus.

Image above:

it is from Novosibirsk/ the museum of Siberian branch of RAS, so-called princess of Ukok

 

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According to DNA, Scythians had R1a (M458, Z280), which concentrate today is in Poland, Czech Republic and Baltic states. So looks like they didn’t vanish

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Spoiler

Scythian Warrior Girl

The female warriors of the Scythians were probably the actual Amazons described by the Greek Historian Herodotus. In his story a race of women warriors left their homeland on the south shores of the Black Sea, traveled north, and took husbands among the local males and founded a new society.

A team of archeologists investigating 2,400-year-old burial mounds built by the Scythian people on the upper River Don has found that five of 21 graves contained the bodies of young women with their weapons.

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“Usually such women are found in large kurgans (Scythian burial mounds), buried with the same rituals as for men,” said Valery Gulyayev of the Russian Institute of Archeology in Moscow. “They are buried with womanly things — mirrors of silver and bronze; necklaces of gold, glass or clay; earrings; and sometimes a symbolic spindle,” Gulyayev said. “But alongside these are weapons — a quiver, bow and arrows, and often two throwing spears.”

Detail from illustration by Angus McBride

reblogged from vandrare

The Amazons...

 

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About Amazons.

Herodotus, with his usual flare, tells a remarkable story of how the Amazons came to be with the Scythians which makes a great deal more sense when one understands that the nomadic Scythians were later arrivals and the Amazons were part of an earlier civilization still existing to the south of the Black Sea but in constant threat from the Greeks as the accounts of many battles suggest. He recounts that after the Battle of Thermodon, several galleys carrying Amazon prisoners were retaken by the captives and the women came ashore in the land of Scythia on the north shore of the Black Sea They engaged some of the Scythians in combat who upon discovering that the dead were actually women decided not to try to kill the newcomers but woo them instead. They eventually approached them unarmed and the two groups decided to merge but not without negotiations. The Amazons refused to live as Scythian women, they would not give up their place in society so their new Scythian husbands agreed and asked for their inheritance to be given them and they left for lands to the northeast. This story seems to tell of a merging of the nomadic Scythians with the earlier matriarchal society and their migration away from the patriarchal societies rising to power to the south and eventually the entire world.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/tattooed-scythian-warriors-descendants-amazons-part-two-001158

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The Ice Maiden.

Also called Princess of Ukok or Altai Princess. Her mummified body was found in 1993 in a kurgan (burial mound) of the Pazyryk in what is now known as the Republic of Altai.

She was dressed in a long shirt made from Chinese silk, and had long felt sleeve boots with a beautiful decoration on them. 

Chinese silk before was only found in ‘Royal’ burials of the Pazyryk people - it was more expensive than gold, and was a sign of a true wealth. 'There was jewellery and a mirror found by the log.

The great value of Pazyryk burials is that they were all made in permafrost, which helped the preservation.

It was quite unusual to have a single Pazyryk burial. Usually men from this culture were buried with women. 

In this case, her separate burial might signify her celibacy, which was typical for cult servants or shamans, and meant her independence and exceptionality. 

She had no weapons buried with her, or on her, which means that she certainly was not one of the noble Pazyryk women-warriors

Most likely, she possessed some special knowledge and was a healer, or folk tale narrator.

Her head was completely shaven, and she wore a horse hair wig.  

On top of the wig there was a symbol of the tree of life  - a stick made from felt, wrapped  with black tissue and decorated with small figures of birds in golden foil. 

The princess’s face and neck skin was not preserved, but the skin of her left arm survived, and we saw a tattoo, going all along it. 

She had tattoos on both arms, from shoulders to wrists, with some on the fingers, too. The best preserved of all was a tattoo on her left shoulder, featuring a deer with griffon’s beak and a  Capricorn’s horns. A bit below is a sheep, with a snow leopard by its feet.

It is said tattoos, once done, are for life. In this case, though, it was a whole lot longer. The experts say they were made with paint, partially concocted  from the burned bits of plants, their soot or ashes which contained a high level of potassium. The drawings were pierced with a needle, and rubbed with a mixture of soot and fat.” (Siberian Times) 

She died between 20 and 30 years of age, she was around 1.65 metres tall, and the cause of death is unknown, the only sure thing is that there are no traumas present on her skull or on her bones.

The mummified remains of the “Ice Maiden,” a Scytho-Siberian woman who lived on the Eurasian Steppes in the 5th century BC, were found undisturbed in a subterranean burial chamber.

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From Wikipedia

The Pazyryk culture is a Scythian Iron Age archaeological culture (c. 6th to 3rd centuries BC) identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans found in the Siberian permafrost, in the Altay Mountains, Kazakhstan and nearby Mongolia. The mummies are buried in long barrows (or kurgans) similar to the tomb mounds of western Scythian culture in modern Ukraine. The type site are the Pazyryk burials of the Ukok Plateau.(NOVA 2007) Many artifacts and human remains have been found at this location, including the Siberian Ice Princess, indicating a flourishing culture at this location that benefited from the many trade routes and caravans of merchants passing through the area.(State Hermitage Museum 2007) The Pazyryk are considered to have had a war-like life.(Jordana 2009)

Other kurgan cemeteries associated with the culture include those of Bashadar, Tuekta, Ulandryk, Polosmak and Berel. There are so far no known sites of settlements associated with the burials, suggesting a purely nomadic lifestyle.

 

Edited by Lion.Kanzen
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Of course most mainstream historians call the Amazons creatures of myth not because there are not ample records of their battles and individuals but for the reason Strabo the Greek historian put it 2000 years ago, “For who can believe that an army of women, or a city, or a nation, could ever subsist without men? and not only subsist, but make inroads upon the territories of other people, and obtain possession not only of the places near them, and advance as far as the present Ionia, but even dispatch an expedition across the sea to Attica?”  Who indeed could believe such a thing? Certainly not the men who have written history but now we have their bodies, women buried with the respect once though only reserved for men and these tattooed women warriors are much harder to call a myth

. -source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/tattooed-scythian-warriors-descendants-amazons-part-two-001158#sthash.iJdKkuqc.dpuf

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The origin of the word Amazon may have come from the Iranian language.  The work ha-mazan (phonetic pronunciation) meant warrior and the nomadic Scythians that migrated into the eastern European region are believed to have been Indo-Iranian tribes so the etymology of the word seems right.  As the Scythian nomads moved across the area, described in Herodotus’ third story of their origin, a stratified society developed  in which the farmers and herders (the earlier inhabitants) were lower status and the newer Scythian warrior class became the royal or ruling class.

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However, unlike most societies that are absorbed by a warrior based culture, this one did not immediately or exclusively denigrate women to the lowest status.  It seems that in their world there was a place for the warrior woman, a practice perhaps influenced by their female deities. Herodotus believed that the Samatians were the result of the merging of the Scythian and Amazon cultures. Whether this acceptance came from the merging of a society, such as the Amazonians that already had such practices, or it was inherent in the customs of the early nomads is not clear, but archaeological evidence shows that women both as warriors and as high status individuals existed in the Scythian society and similar cultures in the region of Pazyryk.

the article are divided in 3 parts.

Source: http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/tattooed-scythian-warriors-descendants-amazons-part-three-001171#sthash.HcSVAlGW.dpuf

The Scythians buried their high status dead in mounds called kurgans or tumuli. The dead were laid out often as if asleep in a hollowed out log, facing the east.  Grave goods included fine clothes, jewellery, food, cannabis, hand mirrors (also carried by the followers of Hathor), horse tack, bows, swords, shields, entire chariots and often other humans and horses.  The horses were sacrificed by axe blow and then buried with the deceased.  A later excavation, such as the one of the Pazyryk mummy known as the Ice Maiden excavated by Natalia Polosmak, has shown that at least in this instance the horses were older rather than younger stock suggesting a hint of practicality when killing the livestock.  The bodies were mummified in a complex process involving the removal of internal organs, packing the body cavity with aromatic herbs and spices and then embalming the flesh with oils and resin.  Some of the kurgans also filled with ground water and subsequently sealed the mummies in ice which further preserved all of the burial goods. The craftsmanship of the gold work, textiles, leather items and wood carving is exceptional and equally so for both male and female burials.

Royal Scythians were also tattooed and apparently those tattoos attested to their elite status.  Their tattoos are almost modern in appearance and were created not by the most common ancient method of sewing dye soaked thread under the skin but instead by the puncture method.  This technique allowed the artists to create stylized designs in the shapes of goats, horses, deer and leopards.  A tattoo stencil (pattern used for creating the design) was actually found in one of the burials. The males and females wore the same designs and there is also evidence of more medicinal tattoos that as usual were only lines.  Among the Scythians it is relatively easy to separate the therapeutic tattoos from the decorative because they had such advanced tattooing skills.

There are many very interesting Scythians and Pazyryk burials and it would take a book to describe them all, but some contained women, or men and women together, who were buried as warriors with bows, shields and swords as well as their horses.  It is apparent that this society accepted the participation of women in warfare and allowed them the honours afforded to such a status and perhaps it is this very custom that earned these people the title of barbarian because the cultures that surrounded them found the very thought of women in such roles as unthinkable, even mythical. It has long been an accepted practice in anthropology to draw inferences about people and gender role within a society based on the way they are treated in death and there must have been some degree of equalitywithin this society.

Just as the Pazyryk culture greatly resembled the Scythian culture to their west, I think we can also see cultural similarities in the Norse and Celtic peoples to the east of Scythia who, whether from intermingling in trade or migration, exhibited the same treatment of women until the spread of Rome and Christianity across Europe destroyed the native culture and purposefully erased any pagan history especially Goddess worship.

 

By Margaret Moose

some text about this can be controversial but indeed interesting point of view.

 

Source 4th http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/tattooed-scythian-warriors-descendants-amazons-part-four-001174#sthash.C3uCwWiv.dpuf part

 

 

 

 

 

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