Scytho-Siberian art refers to the artwork created by nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppe, a large grassland region. This art includes items like jewelry and is linked to cultures such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Saka, as well as other groups mentioned by ancient writers like Herodotus and Chinese records, such as the Xiongnu. Modern archaeologists have identified several cultures, including the Pazyryk, Tagar, Aldy-Bel, and Ordos, with the Ordos located near Beijing. The art of these groups is often called "steppes art."
Scythian art was created between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC. During this time, the Scythians were gradually replaced by the Sarmatians in much of their territory, and Scythian burial sites with valuable items became less common. Many Scythians settled in cities and traded with nearby groups, such as the Greeks.
Early Scythian art featured stylized animal shapes, often shown alone or in battle. These designs influenced cultures as far away as China and Europe. As Scythians interacted with Greeks, their art styles influenced each other. Some Scythian items were made by Greek craftsmen. Although Greek goldwork was important, few Greek pieces have survived, and Scythian burial finds are among the most valuable examples of ancient goldwork. The mix of Greek and Scythian styles, along with influences from Persia, China, and the Caucasus, created complex artistic traditions.
Scythian gold jewelry is highly valued and displayed in museums, including the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The Pazyryk culture in Siberia created similar art, though their connections to China were different from the Scythians’ links to Greek and Iranian cultures. In recent years, archaeologists have discovered many important artifacts in this region.
Types of objects
The Scythians used many different materials, such as gold, wood, leather, bone, bronze, iron, silver, and electrum (a mix of gold and silver). They decorated clothes and horse gear with small metal and other material plaques, and larger ones, including some famous ones, may have been used on shields or wagons. Wool felt was used for decorated clothes, tents, and horse gear. A wealthy Scythian riding a horse in their best outfit would have looked very colorful and unusual. As nomads, the Scythians made portable items to decorate their horses, clothes, tents, and wagons. Exceptions included kurgan stelae, which were rough stone carvings of human figures, possibly used as memorials. Bronze-casting was the main metal technique used across the Eurasian steppe, but the Scythians often used gold. Large gold hoards, like the "Bactrian Gold" from Tillya Tepe in Afghanistan, were also found in other areas.
Earlier Scythian items showed animal-style traditions. Later, many items, especially in metal, were made by Greek craftsmen who adapted Greek styles to Scythian tastes. Some items were imported from Greece.
As the Scythians traded with the Greeks, they settled and began farming. They built permanent settlements, such as Belsk in Ukraine, believed to be the Scythian capital Gelonus, with craft workshops and Greek pottery found there. The Pazyryk burials, located east of Scythia, are important because frozen conditions preserved many objects made of perishable materials, such as wood, textiles, and felt wall hangings. These include elaborate tattoos on the body of the "Siberian Ice Maiden." These findings show that Scythians decorated their clothes, tents, and wagons with bright colors and materials. Their art includes animals, monsters, human-like beasts, and possibly deities, along with geometric designs. Archaeologists found felt rugs, tools, and well-made clothing with embroidery and appliqué designs. Wealthy people wore clothes with gold plaques, but small gold items were also found in regular burials. Imported goods include a famous carpet, the oldest surviving one, likely made in Persia.
Scythian jewelry often features animals like stags, cats, birds, horses, bears, wolves, and mythical creatures. Gold stag figures, shown in a crouching position with legs tucked and heads upright, are especially notable. Their "looped" antlers are unique and not seen in Chinese depictions of deer. Scholars believe these stags represent reindeer, which were not present in Scythian regions at the time. The largest stags were used as central decorations on shields, while smaller ones were attached to clothing. Stags may have had special meaning, possibly as clan symbols. Examples of these include:
– The Kostromskaya burial site in the Kuban (6th century BC, Hermitage)
– Tápiószentmárton in Hungary (5th century BC, National Museum of Hungary, Budapest)
– Kul Oba in the Crimea (4th century BC, Hermitage).
Another common design is an openwork plaque with a stylized tree next to a scene. Later Greek-made items often include scenes of Scythian men in daily life, more typical of Greek art. Some scholars suggest these scenes have stories, but this is not certain.
Although gold was used by Scythian leaders, bronze was the main material for animal-shaped items. These were used to decorate horse gear, leather belts, and clothing. In some cases, bronze animal figures sewn onto stiff leather jerkins and belts helped provide protection.
The use of animal shapes was not just for decoration. These designs may have given the owner the strength and abilities of the animal shown. This use extended to weapons like swords, daggers, scabbards, and axes.
The main weapon of the Scythians, who rode horses, was the bow. A special case called the "gorytus" was used to carry the powerful composite bow. This case had a separate container for arrows and was often decorated with animal scenes or images of daily life on the steppes. After the 4th century BC, Greek elements became common, as Greek craftsmen decorated many everyday items.
Scythian art is well known in the West due to exhibitions of Ukrainian and Russian museum collections, especially in the 1990s and 2000s.
Groups
The art of the Scythians was part of a specific style called the "Animal Style," which was common among people who lived in the grasslands of Eurasia. However, the "Animal Style" used by the Pontic Scythians had its own unique features and was different from the versions used by nomads in eastern Eurasia.
The Scythian "Animal Style" showed a limited number of animals in specific, standard poses. These poses changed over time. In this style, large flat areas were used to shape the bodies of animals. The most important parts of animals, such as eyes, ears, horns, claws, and beaks, were made more noticeable and stylized.
A special feature of the Scythian "Animal Style" was called "zoomorphic transformations," where parts of animals were shown as other animals or parts of animals. For example, deer antlers might look like the heads of birds with curved beaks.
Some parts of animals, like legs, hooves, and bird heads, were often shown separately.
The people of the Srubnaya and Andronovo cultures, from whom the Scythians descended, only used geometric patterns on their pottery and bone cheek-pieces.
The earliest Scythian groups and their art are believed to have started with the Early Sakas from eastern Eurasia around the early 1st millennium BC. The Scythian "Animal Style" was a version of the art used by Eurasian steppe nomads, which first developed under the Sakas in Central Asia and Siberia during the 9th century BC. This style was influenced by ancient Chinese art and the naturalistic art of people in Siberian forests. It later spread westward to eastern Europe by the 8th century BC.
Chinese art from the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, such as stylized deer figures, appeared before those of the Sakas. It is likely that there was artistic and technical exchange between these regions, but the Saka version remained unique to northern Siberian culture.
Gold-crafting techniques from the Sakas in Central Asia and southern Siberia were brought to China, influencing Chinese gold-crafting from the 9th century BCE. Examples of this influence can be seen in sites like Dongtalede and Xigoupan. Some Qin state funeral figurines may have been inspired by steppe art, as seen in Saka incense burner figurines. These exchanges show how connected China and the Mediterranean were, even before the Silk Road was established.
Examples of Scythian "Animal Style" art include:
– Saka recumbent stag plaque, Eleke Sazy, Kazakhstan; 8th to 6th century BC
– Saka flying deer, Shilikty, Kazakhstan; 7th to 6th century BC
– "Animal style" deer, Arzhan, Tuva; 7th to 6th century BC
During the Scythians' time in West Asia, especially when they controlled Media, their upper class was influenced by West Asian culture. This led to the Scythian "Animal Style" incorporating West Asian themes and motifs. The unique Scythian art style developed between 650 and 600 BC.
In the early stages of Scythian art, West Asian influences were stronger than earlier Srubnaya-inherited elements. This is seen in the Melgunov Kurgan and Kelermes kurgans, where Scythian and West Asian artifacts, like bowls and diadems, were found. Some items combined Scythian and West Asian styles, such as swords and axes that had Scythian shapes but West Asian decorations. These items suggest that West Asian craftsmen created them for Scythian patrons.
Scythian art adopted images of eagle-headed griffins from West Asia. These griffins were only found in places with clear West Asian connections, like the Kelermes kurgan. After the Scythians left West Asia, griffin images became rare and were often distorted. One common image was the griffin-ram, which had eagle heads and ram horns. This image was not found outside Scythian culture and may have represented the fārnā.
West Asian art from the 6th century BC was found in western Ciscaucasian burials, the Melgunov Kurgan in Ukraine, and the Vettersfelde Treasure in Poland.
The unique Scythian art style developed during their time in Western Asia in the 7th century BC. It was created mainly for the Scythian aristocracy and showed themes like the divine power of kings and the worship of ancestors and bravery in battle.
The "Animal Style" was first used by Scythian elites. Lower-class Scythians in West Asia and the Pontic Steppe had not yet adopted it. Their bone cheek-p
Archaeology
Kurgans are large mounds that are easy to see in the landscape. Many have been stolen at different times, and some may never have had people nearby to protect them. To stop this, treasures were sometimes hidden in secret rooms below the ground or other places. These hidden areas were sometimes found only when modern archaeologists began studying them. Many of the most important discoveries came from these hidden chambers in kurgans that had already been partly stolen.
In other areas, the steppe became dry and sandy, causing small objects that were once buried to appear on the surface. Many Ordos bronzes were found this way.
Russian explorers first brought Scythian artworks from Scythian burial mounds to Peter the Great in the early 18th century. These items formed the basis of the collection in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great was so impressed by the items found in kurgans that she ordered a detailed study of them. However, this happened long before modern archaeological methods were developed.
Nikolai Veselovsky (1848–1918) was a Russian archaeologist who studied Central Asia and led many important kurgan excavations. One of the first sites discovered by modern archaeologists was the Pazyryk kurgans in the Ulagan district of the Altay Republic, south of Novosibirsk. The name "Pazyryk culture" was given to the finds from five large burial mounds and several smaller ones, which were opened between 1925 and 1949 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko. Pazyryk is located in the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia. The kurgans contained items meant for use in the afterlife. The famous Pazyryk carpet is the oldest surviving wool pile oriental rug.
The large collection of "Bactrian gold" found at Tillya Tepe in northern Afghanistan in 1978 comes from the edges of the nomadic world. The items show the influence of many cultures from the south of the steppes and the steppes themselves. The six burials date to the early 1st century AD (a coin from Tiberius was found among the items). Though the cultural background is not fully understood, it may be connected to the Indo-Scythians who ruled in north India.
Recent excavations in Belsk, Ukraine, uncovered a large city believed to be the Scythian capital Gelonus, as described by the ancient writer Herodotus. Many craft workshops and pottery items were found there. A kurgan near the village of Ryzhanovka in Ukraine, 75 miles (121 kilometers) south of Kyiv, discovered in the 1990s, revealed one of the few tombs of a Scythian chieftain that had not been looted. The chieftain ruled in the forest-steppe area on the western edge of Scythian lands. During this time, a recently nomadic aristocratic class was slowly adopting the lifestyle of the people who farmed the land. Many jewelry items were also found in the kurgan.
In 2001, Russian and German archaeologists discovered nearly 5,000 decorative gold pieces, including earrings, pendants, and beads, near Kyzyl, the capital of the Russian republic of Tuva in Siberia. This discovery is the earliest of its kind and happened before Greek civilization had an influence. The items show images of local animals from that time, such as panthers, lions, bears, and deer.
Earlier rich kurgan burials usually included a man, sometimes with a woman, but in the 4th and 3rd centuries, there were several important burials that only had a woman.
Museums
The most important items from Scythian nomad burials are kept in the countries where they were found, or in the capitals of those countries. This means that many items from Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries are now in Russia. Western European and American museums have smaller collections, although some exhibitions have traveled to other countries. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has the longest history and the most complete collection of Scythian art. Other museums, such as several in Russia, in Budapest and Miskolc, Hungary, Kyiv, Ukraine, the National Museum of Afghanistan, and others, also have significant collections.
The Scythian Gold exhibition included items from Ukrainian museums, such as the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, the Institute of Archaeology in Kyiv, and the State Historical Archaeological Preserve in Pereiaslav. The Melitopol Museum of Local History has a valuable collection of gold Scythian artifacts, which were found near the Melitopol kurgan. These items, along with other Scythian gold artifacts, were stolen by Russian troops during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.