Scythians-msg - 1/31/00

A Eurasian Nomadic people. 700 - 300 B.C.

NOTE: See also the files: Celts-msg, England-msg, Mongols-msg, East-Eur-msg, Picts-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Subject: ANST - More on Tattoos, Scythians, and Celts
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 99 19:47:19 MST
From: Gunnora Hallakarva <gunnora at bga.com>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG

'wolf asked:
> is this a decent resource?  have a particular fondness for
> the "horse barbarian" ciltures, especially the scythian and
> was thinking of incorporating something with scythian /
> pictish iconography into the master plan.

Your fondness is perhaps more Celto-tribal than you know.  The Romans
fetched with them to Britain fairly large numbers of... you guessed it,
Sarmatian auxiliaries (a people very closely related to the Scythians).
Some very well-researched scholarship beginning with Georges Dumezil, has
gone into quite a lot of detail proving that the origin of the entire Grail
Cycle was these auxiliaries.  (For instance,
see http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tomgreen/arthur.htm)

But even before then, the Celts originally migrated from the area that the
Scythians and Sarmatians called their home, so it is also very possible that
the Celts brought these legends (and art and other cultural baggage) with
them in their migrations north and west.

Here are some sources:

I believe that the first report of Scythian tattoos surviving in
freeze-dried kurgan occupants was in the May 1965 Scientific American.

Rolle, Renate.  The World of the Scythians.  London: B.T. Batsford.  1980.
ISBN 0520068645. [Contains some very incorrect information, but also has
some of the best pictures of horse trappings, tattoos, and line-art of
Scythian artifacts I've ever seen.  Get the book for the pictures.  Get
better sources for the real meat of the subject.]

Rudenko, Sergei I. Frozen Tombs of Siberia: the Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age
Horsemen. Berkeley: The University of California Press. 1970.
[Probably the best over-all source on the kurgans and their frozen
inhabitants.]

"Nyt om gammelt m, artikel af Søren Nanche-Krogh om hans tatoveringer".
Skalk No 4, 1969.
[Magazine with article on Scythian tattooing, in Danish.]

Cernenko, E.V.  The Scythians: 700 - 300 B.C.  Men-at-Arms Series 137.
London: Osprey.  1983. [Very good book -- nice reconstructions of Scythian
costume, arms and armor. No tattoos.]

M. I. Artamonov. Treasures from Scythian tombs in the Hermitage Museum,
Leningrad.  ISBN 0500231125.[Contains some of the most famous and most
beautiful photos of Scythian artifacts, particularly the gold belongings of
chieftains.]

Glusker Irwin, Christian von Rosenvinge and Lilly Hollander, eds.  From the
Lands of the Scythians: Ancient Treasures from the Museums of the U.S.S.R.,
3000 B.C.-100 B.C.  New York:  (Museum Catalog)  Metropolitan Museum of Art
in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  1975. [This book
has many gorgeous photos of the most spectacular Scythian art and artifacts
known today.  No tattoos, but lots of very worthwhile art and art design.]

Michael Vickers. Scythian Treasures in Oxford (Ashmolean Museum Archaeology,
History & Classical Studies) Oxford: Ashmolean. 1979.  ISBN 0900090618. [I
have a copy of this one.  This contains info only on the Scythian artifacts
held at the Ashmolean Museum, and this is a fairly small collection.  None
the less, the information is very interesting and there's some nice jewellry
pictured. No tattoos.]

Minns, Ellis H.  Scythians and Greeks:  A Survey of Ancient History and
Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the
Caucasus.  Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. P.  1913.  [Very dry, but also very
informative. Predates the frozen kurgan finds.]

Herodotus.  Selections from the Persian Wars, Book IV. from The Greek
Historian.  ed. Francis R. B. Gondolphin.  New York: Random House.  1942.
[This is the famous description of the Scythians and the Sarmatians.]

Here's another website that shows more of the Scythian tattoos... too bad
the book being advertised is $108.
http://www.zapcom.net/~phoenix/TriBible.html

see also

Mummified Scythians and their Tattoos
http://tattoos.com/jane/steve/mummies.htm

Scientists work to preserve 3,000-year-old mummy found in Siberia
http://detnews.com/menu/stories/14161.htm

Scythian Archaeology of the Middle Don River Basin
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/News/CentralAsiaArchy/Scythians.html

A HairRaising Report of A Modern Archaeological Excavation of a Kurgan
http://www.asianart.com/forum/golden.html

The Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads
http://garnet.berkeley.edu/~jkimball/table.contents.html

Ukrainian Museum of Historical Treasures (Scythian Gold) in the Monastary of
the Caves-Pecherska-Lavra
http://mat.hut.fi/Ukraine/Kiev_Historical.html

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 11:38:53 -0600
From: Stephanie Howe <olga at icon-stl.net>
To: Calontir Newslist <calontir at crcvms.unl.edu>
Cc: "sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Gold of the Nomads

The current issue of Archeology magazine (Jan-Feb 2000) contains a brief
article and schedule for the "Gold of the Nomads: Scythian Treasures
from Ancient Ukraine" exhibit.

San Antonio Museum of Art: Current through Jan. 30

Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore:  March 7- May 28

Los Angeles County Museum of Art:  July 2- Sept. 24

Brooklyn Museum of Art:  Oct.29- Jan. 21, 2001

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, KC:  May 27- August 11, 2001

Lilies War field trip, anyone?
Olga

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 13:41:45 -0500
From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Gold of the Nomads

Stephanie Howe wrote:
> The current issue of Archeology magazine (Jan-Feb 2000) contains a brief
> article and schedule for the "Gold of the Nomads: Scythian Treasures
>from Ancient Ukraine" exhibit.

> Olga

The book, Scythian Gold, which accompanies this exhibition is
stunning and fairly large. It's currently selling for $65.

Magnus

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 20:29:46 -0500
From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Gold of the Nomads

J. Kriss White wrote:
>
> I saw the tour "Scythian Gold" at the L.A. County Museum of Art back in the
> mid '70s.  (75?  76?)  Do you know if new things have been added, or if
> this is the same bunch of (beautiful and interesting!) artifacts, making
> the rounds again?  It's interesting that the book you mention has the same
> title as the tour did back over 20 years ago.

I have both exhibitions' catalogs. The old one was a hardback
a little over a half inch thick. The new one is larger and about
an inch and a quarter thick. It's also better done. It comprises
some of the old stuff which was an exhibition with much of which's
material was collected from Russia. The new one is based largely
on finds from the UKRAINE in the last twenty years with some of
the finest pieces of the other exhibition added in to make a
much better book.

The 1975 catalog was entitled _From the Lands of the Scythians_
and can be commonly found on Bibliofind. Last week when I was
too lazy to go get it for a citation I noticed it was selling
from $6-45.

Of course this a all pre period but it's also some of the most
fantastic work ever created. I hope that is ebullient enough
and honest enough for you.

One of my friends is having a complete set of high
quality Scythian garb and armor and weapons made for him. I've
seen the helmet and it is very impressive. He intends to be buried
in it one day. By birth he's Sicilian, and for some strange reason
I've never been able to convince him one has nothing, or very
little, to do with the other. Go figure.

Magnus, who really, really likes the Scythians and similar
peoples.

<the end>