The Scythians and central Europe - a historical interpretation of the archaeological reality

The fact that the Scythians installed themselves in the forest-steppe and steppe areas of Eastern Europe at the transition between the 8th and 7th centuries BC brought about changes in the ethnic, geopolitical and cultural situation in the region. It also created a new, important factor influencing the history of the central part of the continent. This was the opening moment for a long period of confrontation, which continued until historical times, between the settled Central-European societies and herding groups originating from the Great Steppe, distinguished by a specific lifestyle and economy as well as by a different model of other socio-cultural behaviour. This confrontation most often took a violent course, which in historical times was reflected by a whole list of expansionist peoples (the Mongols, the Magyars, the Avars, the Huns, the Sarmatians/Iazyges) who all chose the Carpathian Basin as their destination. For the proto-historical period, however, given the lack of a written record that would shed light on the discussed region and its history, the interpretation of the above processes has provoked a lot of controversy and posed a methodological dilemma. Some scholars regard them as symptoms of the population movements and physical presence of the nomads, while others prefer to speak of a cultural transfer, still within the limits of dialogue between cultures representing different civilization models. As early as in the beginnings of the 7th century BC, there appear cemeteries with skeleton burials in Transylvania, furnished with sets of weaponry typical of Scythian warriors. The appearance of the Transylvanian group was most likely connected with the formation of Scythian groups in the forest-steppe zone on the middle Dnieper River in the 7th century BC. It was the westward continuation of the same processes that were the effect of the search for new ecological niches in circum-steppe areas by Scythian nomads. Slightly later than the Transylvanian group, but still in the 7th century BC, in the middle and upper Dniester basin another group with Scythian cultural traits started to develop, namely the so-called Western Podolia group. However, this grouping had a clearly syncretic character. The Scythian ethnos probably played the role of a predominant social superstratum, although the newcomers were mainly men - warriors. The formation of groups with a Scythian component in the Carpathian Basin was crowned with the development of the Vekerzug culture in the Great Hungarian Plain. Its oldest assemblages appeared in the north-eastern part of this region around the transition between the 7th/6th centuries BC. The Vekerzug culture is represented by large biritual cemeteries, with the predominance of skeleton burials over cremations. Its unique trait is the presence of separate horse burials, and, exceptionally, the burials of horses with wagons. These burials reflect the important economic role played in this environment by horse breeding (the breeds which were descended from Tarpans). Generally, Scythian-type elements were not particularly numerous here, and they were typically discovered in richer assemblages (the graves of the elite). However, the most striking manifestation of Scythian expansion directed towards Central Europe is a wave of nomadic military infiltration, referred to in the literature as the 'Scythian invasions'. Archaeological finds that provided the basis for the concept of military incursions by invaders equipped with Scythian weaponry were recorded in the zone stretching from Transdanubia, through Moravia towards the Moravian Gate and further, along the Oder River, as far as to Lower Lusatia, and to central Poland in the north. These are primarily arrowheads of the Scythain type, discovered in defensive settlements and the rock shelters used by the local population as refu-gia. Among other places, the arrowheads were found lodged in the embankments or walls of fortified settlements that bore traces of conquest and destruction (by fire). In the so-called 'acropolis' of the Hallstatt-era fortified settlement at Smolenice, with strong defenses in the form of stone walls, the concentrations of arrowheads were found close to the gates and around the most easily approachable part of the fortifications. Sometimes, human skeletons are also discovered in such settlements, and their context suggests they belonged to victims of a surprise attack. The best evidenced cases of the destruction of such defensive settlements date within a period spanning more or less 100 years, between the transition from the 7th/6th centuries BC and the late 6th century BC. The driving force behind these looting raids were no doubt the elites whose mentality was typical of the Scythian (nomadic) set of cultural behaviours. The character of the archaeological record clearly indicates that these raids were not aimed at gaining control of new lands, but rather on gaining booty that would offer economic profits. The lack of written records confirming the western direction of the Scythian expansion, raised from time to time as an argument in the context of the issues discussed in this paper, does not fully take into account the historical context and objective circumstances in which such written sources were created. Central Europe remained beyond the limits of the world known to the ancient authors, which obviously made the identification of particular episodes impossible. At the same time, we cannot ignore the fact that the picture emerging from the archaeological evidence is virtually the same as that recorded over the Caucasus and in Asia Minor, i.e. in the territories affected by the historically confirmed expansion of the Scythians. In light of the above, we cannot regard Central Europe as a zone 'beyond history' in that period, if only because of the effects of the expansion that bore all the traits of a nomadic war strategy. Thus, a 'historical' diagnosis requires a detailed and comprehensive assessment of the archaeological context. The lack or paucity of written sources cannot be an obstacle to building an historical vision of socio-cultural processes.

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