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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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First Empires
ca. 7000 B.C. - 200 A.D.
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The Middle East was the
cradle of mankind's first advanced civilizations. In Egypt and the
Fertile Crescent, which extends in an arc from the north of the
Arabian Peninsula east through Palestine to Mesopotamia, the first
state structures emerged in parallel with the further development of
animal husbandry, agriculture, trade, and writing. The first great
empires, such as those of the Egyptian pharaohs, the Babylonians,
the Assyrians, and the Persians, evolved at the beginning of the
third millennium B.C., out of small communities usually clustered
around a city. Similar development also occurred on the Indian
subcontinent and in China, where quite distinct early advanced
civilizations took shape as well.
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The golden mask of Tutankhamun, a jewel of ancient
Egyptian artwork,
showing the pharaoh in a ceremonial robe decorated with the heraldic
animals, the vulture and cobra, ca. 1340 B.C.
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The Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes
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ca. 1000-200 B.C.
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Up to the fourth century B.C., Indo-European mounted nomads ranged the
wide steppes of the Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan until the
advancing Huns triggered the "Great Migration of Peoples." But even
before this, individual tribes left the region and moved into the
Mediterranean area, the highlands of Iran, or India. Some, such as the
Hittites, Medes, Persians, or the later Parthians, settled down and
established kingdoms. Others stayed on the move and were, like the
Cimmerians, eventually annihilated by enemies or withdrew back to their
original territory of settlement, as the Scythians did.
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The Scythians, Sakians, and Sarmatians
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Outsiders have frequently sought to divide nomads of the Eurasian
steppes into various peoples and tribes. Greek and Roman authors, in
particular, attempted to transcribe the flexible organization of these
peoples into categories familiar to them.
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The homeland of the
2 Scythians is thought to have been in the area of
present-day Kazakhstan. Some began to move westward in the first
millennium B.C. while the rest—the Sakians—remained. The Scythians drove
the Cimmerians, another nomadic people,
out of their homeland north of the Black Sea.
They 4 crossed the
Caucasus and pushed down into Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The Persian
kings were constantly at war with the various nomadic peoples on the
northern borders of their kingdom. In 530 â.ñ.
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2
Fight between a tiger and wolf.
Scythian gold plate, sixth ñ. â.ñ.
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4
The Earth according to Herodotus, showing the Scythians
and the Massagetae in the far northeast, wood carving, 19th century
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1 Cyrus II fell in battle
against Tomyris, the Queen of the Massagetae, part of the Sarmatian
tribe related to the Scythians and Sakians. Darius I's attempt to
subjugate the Scythians in 513-512 B.C. also failed.
1Tomyris kills King Cyrus II.
Book illustration, 14th century
The Persians and
other Near East rulers recruited nomads as mercenaries for their armies or made alliances with
them. Even in Athens, Scythians were used as police. These peoples and
tribes never formed fixed units for a long period of time, but rather
joined into confederations under a common figure when an outside threat
made it necessary. The Scythian high king Atheas, who died in battle in
339 against Philip II of Macedonia, was one such leader.
Starting in the third century B.C., the Scythians were slowly
absorbed by the Sarmatians, and by the first century B.C. only a small
group in 5 Crimea remained.
During the "Great Migration of Peoples,"
most of the Sarmatians merged with the Goths and the Huns. The Sakians
arrived in India around 100 B.C., where they established kingdoms that
survived for centuries.
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5 Scythians offer milk to the Roman
poet Ovid living in exile
on the Crimean Peninsula, painting by Delacroix, 19th century
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The Scythian Culture and Society
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The Scythians left no written records of their own. Greek and Roman
sources, along with archaeological finds, provide the only information
about their lives.
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The leaders of the Scythians were princes and were buried in elaborate
burial mounds called kurgans. The dead were often embalmed and interred
in a central burial chamber. Many times, the horses of the deceased were
buried with them in adjoining chambers, highlighting the importance of
these animals to the Scythians.
Weapons and finely worked 6 gold
objects were common burial gifts; other items included drinking
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vessels, jewelry, and armor, and pictures of hunting, battles, or
banquet scenes. Domesticated animals seem to have frequently accompanied
the dead to their tombs.
10 Women were also buried with weapons of war,
which seems to suggest that not only queens like Tomyris but also common
Scythian women may have fought in conflicts.
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6 Beard comb with a carved handle showing
Scythian soldiers in combat, ca.
500 B.C.
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9 Scythian warriors, gold vessel, fourth century B.C.
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10 Women riding on horses in a procession, stone relief, fifth century B.C.
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The "Wild" Scythians
Come, friends! let's not shout
and scream
like Scythian drunks
but let us study our wine,
friends
and accompany its drinking
with beautiful songs.
(Anacreon, Greek lyric poet, sixth century B.C.)
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3 Sarmatian cavalrymen on armored horses,
detail from Trajan's Piliar,
Rome, 113 a.d.
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Some historians have cited this as a possible historical basis for the Greek myth of
the Asiatic women warriors, the Amazons.
One of the main facts known about the Scythians was their custom of
"blood brotherhood," which was widespread among warriors and formed the
basis for lifelong fighting bands.
The 3 mounted warriors were lightly
armed and wore coats of chain mail for protection. In the hands of
skilled archers, poisoned arrows could do great damage from a distance.
For close combat, the short sword, battle-ax, and spiked mace were the
preferred weapons. Their battle technique— a short, fast attack followed
by immediate retreat—was widely feared and gave them the advantage over
unwieldy armies of infantry. The Scythians also practiced trade,
agriculture, and herding. Scythian grain, furs, livestock, and slaves
were exported through the Greek colonies on the Crimean Peninsula.
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An Amazon warrior, marble statue,
Roman copy of the Greek original, fifth century B.C.
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Amazons
Scythian women warriors, who even led armies, perhaps served as a model
for the Amazons of Greek mythology. Like the Scythians, the Amazons were
supposed to have lived on the shores of the Black Sea.
They only
temporarily lived together with men. Of their children, they only raised
the girls. The girls' left breasts were burned off so that later they
would not hinder them shooting the bow and arrow—thus, perhaps, the
origin of the name Amazon, from amazos (Greek for "without breast").
Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., however, wrote about a matriarchal
society in Asia Minor that also could have served as a model for the
Amazons.
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Marble statue of a wounded Amazon
Roman, imperial period, 1st-2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 450-425 B.C.
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Battle of the Amazons,
by
Peter Paul Rubens
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Peter Paul Rubens
with
Jan Bruegel the Elder, The Battle of the Amazons, about
1598
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Dying Amazon, by
Franz von Stuck,1905
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