Saka/Scythians - shared by John Dodds - 1 April 2023

JFoliveras, digital painting

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SAKA warriors (Scythians from Central Asia and southern Siberia), 4th century BC. The world of the early steppe nomads is a very obscure one, and the names by which we know them make it even more confusing. I’ll try to make it as understandable as I can. First, let me explain the difference between historical names (known from ancient sources) and archaeological names (used by modern archaeologists based on common material culture). In ancient sources, the words “Saka” and “Scythian” refer to the same peoples: the Iranic-speaking nomads that roamed the steppes between southern Ukraine and the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan. The only difference between these names is that “Scythian” is how the Greeks called these nomads, and “Saka” is how the Persians called them. Although nowadays we tend to use “Scythian” for the nomads of eastern Europe and “Saka” for the Siberian and Central Asian ones, historically, the Persians would call the European Scythians “Saka beyond the (Black) Sea” and when Alexander the Great fought the Saka in Central Asia, to the Greeks these nomads were Scythians as well. Despite the Greek and Persian names being applied to both eastern and western Iranic nomads, the material cultures of the European Scythians and the Central Asian Saka had differences. In the field of archaeology, the Scythians and Saka mentioned in Greek and Persian historical sources are considered part of the “Scythian horizon”, which is an umbrella term for all the material cultures of the steppes that have some specific common characteristics (like the same types of weapons, a common “animal style” art, similar horse gear, similar clothing…). The “Scythian horizon” extends from eastern Europe (including parts of Thrace in the Balkans) to the Ordos desert in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and from the forest-steppe of Siberia to, at some point in history, north-west India. In such a vast territory one could expect to find quite a lot of ethno-linguistic diversity, with not only Iranic speakers but also Finnic, Ugrian, Turkic, Mongolic and Yeniseian peoples, to name a few. The problem is that none of these Scythian-like peoples left any written sources.

HQ + close-ups: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rJJoeE 

• Ben Vartok

  Looks like an easy paint!

  

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• Neil Williamson

  Dirk Heinsius Your new project?

  

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    Dirk Heinsius

    Neil Williamson already onto it

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  Vincent Cholewa

  Admin

  Group expert

  According to some, they were the origin of the myth of the centaurs