Petuaria: Civitas or Vicus?

The Petuaria ReVisited Project, currently investigating the Roman site at Brough on Humber in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has been making the news recently: ‘Dig sheds light on Roman history of town’, (BBC News, 3 August 2024)

The news article displays a rather splendid artist's impression by graphic designer Mark Hoyle showing how the fortifications of Roman Petuaria at Brough on Humber may have looked, demonstrating the imagined scale of the fort, immediately reminiscent of the Roman coastal fort at Portchester. 

This Roman site, located about 12 miles west of Hull on the north bank of the Humber, has a rather unclear history with its full size and status yet to be determined. 

The site is mentioned by the 2nd century astronomer, mathematician and geographer Ptolemy from Alexandria, as the tribal centre (polis) of the Parisi, the only ‘town’ he attributes to their territory.  Located east of the Brigantes, the Parisi were an Iron Age people of the Arras Culture, named from the early 19th century discovery of chariot burials at Arras near Market Weighton, East Yorkshire. Since those early excavations over twenty chariot burials have been discovered in the region.

It is generally agreed that the settlement at Brough on Humber started life as a Roman fort, Petuaria, around 70 AD, then abandoned by 125 AD.  The historian and archaeologist Sheppard Frere claims earthwork defences were added during the Hadrianic period (117 AD to 138) for a short re-occupation which he suggests could be connected with the time when Hadrian became emperor as his biographer writes "the Britons could no longer be held under Roman control" which Frere interprets as indicating there was war in Britain.1

Frere suggests the early fort may have been a 30-acre site for a legionary vexillation or group of auxiliary regiments organised as a battle group, as at Derventio, modern Malton.2

By the middle of the 2nd century military occupation of the site had ceased and a civilian town was arising over the site of the Roman fort. Frere suggests that the Roman site at Brough, strategically placed on the north bank of the Humber estuary, may have remained in use as an army supply depot.3

The civil settlement expanded across the site of the fort replacing it with a walled settlement surrounded by a turf and timber rampart. The site was refortified during the later 3rd and early 4th century with a stone wall. Archaeologists believed that many of the original Roman buildings had been destroyed as the town developed over the years. The site certainly has a complex history which has led to confusing interpretations. 

The Roman walls at Brough have been known about since the 1930s, but recent archaeological excavations by The Petuaria ReVisited Project have led to new discoveries with ground penetrating radar (GPR) revealing the remains of ditches, roads and walls and located what it is believed to be a Roman road in a nearby garden. 

Petuaria marked the southern end of the Roman road known now as Cade's Road, which ran roughly northwards for a hundred miles to Pons Aelius (modern Newcastle upon Tyne). The section from Petuaria to Eboracum (York) was also the final section of Ermine Street. 

The Roman Roads of Britain (Roman Roads Research Association) 

In 1936 a stone-lined burial was found on the western side of the Roman road to York, as with the usual Roman custom interred outside the town walls. The grave contained an iron-bound wooden bucket and two sceptres, which has led to identification of the inhumation as a priest. The two sceptres had been intentionally bent and broken in preparation for their owner’s new life in the Otherworld. The intentional destructive treatment of grave goods is a native burial rite, found at many other sites across Britain, much has been found in the river Thames for example. Frere adds that nothing could illustrate better the dual character of the Romano-British civilisation; outwardly Roman, yet inwardly it remained Celtic.4

The Petuaria ReVisited Project team, including more than a hundred volunteers, are also re-visiting the Roman defences at Burrs playing field in the centre of the modern town. Recent geophysical surveys and excavations have shown many structures lie under the field. 

During the 1930s archaeological excavations were carried out at Burrs Playing Field (formerly known as Bozzes Field), which revealed traces of a stone wall, buildings and a sequence of fortified structures. However, the highlight of these excavations was the discovery of a stone inscription found lying on its edge 30m south-west of the east gate of the Roman town in 1937. Catalogued as RIB 707, the inscription refers to the dedication of a theatre and has been interpreted as referring to the capital, or the civitas, of the Parisi. The identification of Petuaria with Brough-on-Humber has depended almost entirely on this inscription.

Ptolemy, who probably never visited Britain, became confused with the location of his so-called polis of the Parisi. Rivet and Smith note that Ptolemy correctly records a distance from London to Petuaria of 170 miles, but the ancient geographer logs the distance from Eboracum (York) to Petuaria as 45 miles, when the true distance is 30 miles.5 Ptolemy’s distance would put his polis somewhere on the east coast of Yorkshire.

One would expect the location of Petuaria to be clear in the Roman Road network, as the roads go there, yet with regard to The Antonine Itinerary: ITER I, Rivet and Smith write that after York serious problems arise.

ITER I runs from the Roman fort at Bremenium (High Rochester), north of Hadrian’s Wall, to Praetorio, somewhere in east Yorkshire. Following Dere Street the route runs along the eastern side of the Pennines to York. As Rivet & Smith note, the route south of York is not clear and has been the subject of much debate over the years. After York (Eboracum) the route is recorded as travelling to three forts Derventione, Delgovicia then Praetorio. For many years Derventio has been identified as the fort at Malton, on the river Derwent, which the Notitia Dignitatum records as garrisoned by the Numerus Supervenientum Petueriensium.6

The British archaeologist and specialist in the translation of Latin text and epigraphy Roger Tomlin proposes that Numerus Supervenientum Petueriensium was a military unit, where Petueriensium would appear to refer to the fort of Petuaria, whose soldiers could have been reinforcing the fort at Malton.7 It follows that owing to the proximity of Petuaria to Malton the assumption has manifested that Derventio must be Malton. 

However, the counter-argument is that Derventio is not Malton, but the Roman site south west of Stamford Bridge, also on the Derwent. It follows that if Derventio is Stamford Bridge, then Malton must be Delgovicia.8

The lies confusion with Praetorio that has been identified as Petuaria (Brough on Humber) because of the similarity of the names. Rivet & Smith argue that Praetorio is not actually a proper name, rather it is a descriptive term meaning an official residence. They also suggest Delgovicia could be a site near Wetwang and conclude that Praetorio should be accepted as a corruption of the name Petuaria since the roads lead there.9 

However the distances don’t work; the Itinery records 26 miles from Praetorio to Delgovicia (Malton), then a further 13 miles from Delgovicia to Derventio (Stamford Bridge), a total of 39 Roman miles. Whereas Petuaria is 26 Roman miles from Stamford Bridge, and 33 from Malton. As a solution Praetorio has been identified as Bridlington on the east Yorkshire coast.10 

And just to confuse matters further, Petuaria appears in the Ravenna Cosmography as Decuaria which according to Rivet and Smith is best explained as a simple miscopying.11

The Inscription 
The inscription has been translated as:

RIB 707: "For the honour of the divine house of the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, consul for the second time, and to the Divinities of the Emperors, Marcus Ulpius Januarius, aedile of the vici of Petuaria, presented this [new] stage at his own expense." 12  

RIB 707 (Roman Inscriptions of Britain)

From this we can see the town possessed a theatre whose new stage was presented by a Roman named M Ulpius Ianuarius, aedile of the vicus of Petuaria, who set up the tablet in honour of Antoninus Pius (emperor from AD 138 to 161).13

The Theatre
The theatre is important because it links the site to the inscription and would confirm its place in history. Yet, as much as archaeological investigations have searched it has remained elusive for many years. Frere states that this theatre is known only from the inscription (RIB 707) and the physical remains are yet to be discovered.14 Needless to say, its discovery would be a major find for The Petuaria ReVisited Project.

In 2018 specialist ground scanning equipment revealed the remains of buildings with rooms arranged around a courtyard, interpreted as a forum and a substantial D-shaped feature under the playing field; was this the long lost theatre referred to in the inscription?

In 2020 a trench was cut over the D-shaped feature. At the northern end of the trench, the team uncovered a hearth that contained a burnt coin dating to around AD 330. Following two seasons of excavations over the D-shaped feature the team has failed to find the theatre. With the absence of the theatre one must question if the inscription originated at this site or was brought in from another location?

However, they have found evidence of continued Roman activity in Brough into the late 4th and probably 5th centuries AD, longer than previously thought, contra Wacher (see below), who suggested that it had faded out of use by the early 4th century.

Civitas?
The reign of Antoninus Pius saw great advances in the towns of Britain; at Brough a small town was developing on the site of the recently evacuated Roman fort at Petuaria, and a theatre was built during his reign. 

Theatres were relatively rare in Roman Britain, only three others are definitely known, from the major settlements at Verulamium (St Albans), civitas capital for the Catuvellauni, Durovernum, (Canterbury), civitas capital of the Cantiaci and Camulodunum (Colchester), the first Roman capital of the province. A ceramic theatrical mask found at Cataractonium (Catterick) does not necessarily confirm there was a theatre at the civil settlement, it may simply be from a theatre-goers personal collection. 

Accordingly, based on the inscription, the theatre at Brough has been interpreted as indicating it was also a major settlement, possibly the civitas capital of the local tribe, the Parisi.

In Roman Britain civitas capitals were the administration centres of local level government, consisting of local people installed by the Romans to control their own tribal areas. Many of these may have originated as pre-existing Iron Age settlements; it is estimated that there were over 20 Iron Age tribal territories, of which between 11 and 16 had defined civitas capitals and awarded a tribal suffix such as Calleva [Atrebatum] (Silchester) and Venta [Belgarum] (Winchester). 

However, line 8 of the inscription RIB 707 refers to Petuaria as a vicus (village) not a civitas, yet the dedication was ordered by an aedile, who maintained public buildings and was responsible for entertainment. This was a significant position, with a higher role than seems necessary for a mere `village`, hence the argument that Petuaria was the civitas capital of the Parisi. And as we have seen above the ancient geographer Ptolemy refers to Petuaria as the ‘polis’ of the Parisi.15 

Petuaria Roman fort, after Halkon 2013 p.132 & Ottaway 2013 p.174
(probable line of RR2e based upon cropmarks) (Roman Roads Reseach Association)

The limestone slab is broken along the bottom edge and on the right-hand side therefore lacking the right pelta decoration and a few letters in each line. The argument in support of civitas status follows that a letter ‘C’ apparent on the left side-panel and a letter ‘P’ on the missing right-side of the stone, has been interpreted as c(ivitas) P(arisorvm); the civitas of the Parisorum. However this interpretation has been rejected and the letter ‘C’ on the left-hand pelta said to be purely decorative.16

A vicus was a civil settlement that became established around a Roman military site, predominantly forts, as with Petuaria. There is a clear reference to ‘vici’ on the inscription and there is no evidence that Petuaria was ever granted a tribal suffix as found at other civitas capitals as noted above.

The name ‘Petuaria’ is thought to be derived from a root meaning ‘four',17 and may mean that it was the vicus of the fourth pagus, an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory. If this is correct it is possible that Marcus Ulpius Januarius held the position of aedile over all four subdivisions of the territory of the Parisi.

John Wacher, who excavated the site between 1958-1961, has argued that a series of characteristics contrast Brough from other civitas capitals where he sees a more military character for the site. These include the military nature of its defences and a lack of organised street system and early urban development.18

Wacher argued that that none of the excavated structures within the fortified area had parallels with domestic buildings normally found in Roman towns. He saw the site as military with an extensive naval base overlying the earlier fort. Wacher concludes that the occupation of Petuaria seems always to have been military and naval rather than civil and suggests the vicus Petuariensis may have been 3 miles downstream at North Ferribly.19

Wacher's Phasing for Brough-on-Humber20

This naval base, he suggested, was probably connected with the classis Britannica, the Roman Fleet operating in the English Channel. This interpretation has not been universally accepted as there is some doubt if ships of the classis Britannica were ever based as far north as the Humber as the fleet is mainly associated with the south east of Britain as attested by the profusion of stamped tiles “CL BR”21 and, to date, no tile-stamps of the classis Britannica have been found north of London.22

Although Wacher leaned towards a purely military site with a naval port,23 the current status of the site is unresolved; the origins of Petuaria appear to begin with the Roman fort but the development of the associated vicus is unclear. It is not even certain that Brough was ever known as Peturaria Parisorum or the civitas of the Parisi. And we cannot confidently identify it from The Roman Road Itinerary Iter I. 

It is significant that the stone bearing the inscription (RIB 707) was not found in its original setting where it had been erected about 140 AD but had been re-used in a 4th century building in the naval base.24 And the location of the theatre, if it was indeed ever at Brough, currently remains elusive.

The artefact assemblage is far from conclusive and the available evidence allows the site to be interpreted as a fort, a naval port and civilian settlement over sequential periods of occupation, but not necessarily in that order. It is anticipated that ongoing excavations by the Petuaria ReVisited Project will clarify the matter.

Notes & References:
1. Sheppard Frere, Britannia: A History of Roman Britain, 1967, Routledge & Kegan Paul (BCA edition, 1973), p.126.
2. Frere, p.98
3. Frere, pp.249-251
4. Frere, p.303
5. A.L.F. Rivet & Colin Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain, Batsford, 1979 (reprint ed. 1981), p.119.
6. Rivet & Smith, p.155-56.
7. RSO Tomlin, Numerus Supervenientium Petueriensium, pp.74-75, in JS Wacher, Excavations at Brough-on-Humber 1958- 1961, Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London No. XXV (1969).
8. Creighton 1988, pp. 401-2 – quoted by Roman Roads Research Association (RRRA), The Roads of Roman Britain, The Antonine Itinerary – Iter I
9. Rivet & Smith, 1979, p.155.
10. The Roads of Roman Britain, RRRA, The Antonine Itinerary – Iter I 
11. Rivet & Smith, p.437.
12. RIB 707. Dedication to the Divine House of Antoninus Pius, Roman Inscriptions of Britain,~Roman Inscriptions of Britain 
13. Frere, p.303
14. Frere, p.244
15. Rivet & Smith, p.142: Ptolemy writes"Camunlodunum [Colchester], next to whom, beside the gulf suitable for a harbour, are the Parisis and the city of Petuaria".
16. RIB 707. Dedication to the Divine House of Antoninus Pius, Roman Inscriptions of Britain,~Roman Inscriptions of Britain
17. Rivet and Smith, p.437-38: The name is a femimine of British *petuario = fourth (Welsh pedwerid, pedwyr-yd). 
Compare with the Middle Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwn from the Book of Taliesin in which Arthur  leads an expedition to the Welsh Otherworld to take a cauldron from “the Four-Peaked Fortress, four its revolutions” (ygkaer pedryuan, pedyr ychwelyt)
18. J.S. Wacher, Excavations at Brough-on-Humber 1958- 1961, Society of Antiquaries of London No. XXV (1969).
19. Wacher, The Towns of Roman Britain, Batsford, 1978, pp.394-97.
20. The Status of the Roman Settlement, 7.0 Discussion by K. Hunter-Mann, with D. Petts, The Roman settlement at Brough-on-Humber, Internet Archaeology.
21. Historic England Research Records: Petuaria Roman Town
22. 2481. Tile-stamps of the Auxilia: Classis Britannica, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain 
23. Wacher, The Towns of Roman Britain, Batsford, 1978, p.395
24. Rivet & Smith, p.438.

* * *

Roman Fort Discovered in Pembrokeshire

Romans in Wales
There are two main legionary garrisons constructed by the Romans to subdue the ancient Welsh tribes; Isca Augusta at Caerleon in South Wales and Deva (Victrix) at Chester, England. Both fortresses have been termed the "city of the Legions". Neither site has any association with Arthur's ninth battle which the 9th century Historia Brittonum tells us was "fought in the city of the Legion", and unconvincing attempts have been made to link both site's amphitheatres with the Round Table. 

Founded on the river Dee in the mid 70’s AD the construction of Deva was started by Legio II Adiutrix, who were transferred to the lower Danube in the late 80’s. Legio XX Valeria Victrix were then sent to Deva to complete the construction. The Roman fortress at Deva was built to pacify the tribes of northern England (Britannia) and vital to Rome’s ambitions to invade Ireland.

Legio II Augusta constructed the fortress at Caerleon near Newport, in AD 75, necessary to subdue the Silures who, according to the Roman historian Tacitus, were hostile. 

In Le Morte D'Arthur Thomas Malory had made Winchester his 'Camelot', but his publisher William Caxton didn't seem to agree with him, preferring South Wales for Arthur's capital, perhaps following Geoffrey of Monmouth who was no doubt inspired by the Roman remains there. Caxton was thought to be referring to Caerleon in his preface to Malory, "And yet of record remain in witness of him in Wales, in the town of Camelot, the great stones and the marvellous works of iron lying under the ground, and royal vaults, which divers now living have seen."

However, history does not record, to any great extent, significant Roman troubles conquering Wales, as with the northern tribes of Scotland such as the Caledonii. But it is fair to say, there are big gaps in Roman Wales that we know should have military installations, particularly south-west Wales, the absence suggesting a peaceful co-existence.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that Pembrokeshire, and adjoining counties in South-west Wales, were  more Romanized than previously thought. The Demetae of southwest Wales, centred on Moridunum (Carmarthen), are largely absent from Roman accounts, and it is generally considered that they were subdued with relative ease. Evidence of Roman occupation fizzles out after Carmarthen.

However, relatively recently Roman material has been recovered from a number of sites in Pembrokeshire, notably from coastal promontory forts at Brawdy, Buckspool, and elsewhere, indicating continuous, or at least periodic, occupation throughout the Roman occupation. So-called ringforts near Llawhaden and other areas suggest this was across the county. In addition, numerous Roman coin hoards have also been discovered in the county.

In 1995 a Roman road was discovered in Carmenthshire, heading west from Carmarthen and into Pembrokeshire, likely heading for Saint Davids. Then there  is a long stretch of road known as ‘the Causeway’, north of Camrose which tracks in a northwest direction (shown on old maps). A possible enclosed Romano-British villa has been identified south of its course.

A Roman villa, previously identified by the antiquarian Richard Fenton in 1811 at Ford near Wolfscastle, was revisited in 2010 by Dyfed Archaeological Trust with geophysics confirming the villa and revealed the presence of a prehistoric enclosure as well as a possible Romano-British building to the southeast of the villa.

A Roman fort was discovered at Wiston in 2012 through geophysical survey. The Wiston fort was probably built by soldiers of Legio II Augusta from Caerleon.

A Roman Fort Discovered in Pembrokeshire
Now a previously undiscovered Roman fort has been found in Pembrokeshire. This huge fort is sited right next to a newly identified Roman road in North Pembrokeshire, and may disprove the theory of Celtic-Roman peace in south-west Wales.

The discovery was made by Dr Mark Merrony, a leading Roman specialist from Oxford University, who said that this fort suggested this part of Wales was considerably more militarized than previously thought.

He noted that its form and scale was like the only other Roman fort known in Pembrokeshire, excavated at Wiston near Haverfordwest in 2013. Both forts were now linked to a Roman road network that had not previously been known, he said.

Merrony expects to find evidence of an adjacent “vicus”, a typical civilian settlement that developed alongside a fort. He suggests that this was a Roman auxiliary fort, intended perhaps for a single unit of about 500 troops.

The location of the discovery is not being revealed at present to protect the site from 'treasure hunters'.

Further information:
New find hints Wales fully-integrated into Roman Britain - BBC Wales 2 August 2024
Some Thoughts on the Romanization of Pembrokeshire - Dr Mark Merrony

* * *

The Master Metalsmiths of Minusinsk

 “The nomadic people known by the broad term ‘Scythians’ roamed across the Eurasian steppe on horseback, earning a reputation as fierce warriors, from the mouth of the Danube in the west to the Altai mountains in the east from the 9th century BC to the 1st century BC. The signature of this pastoral nomadic culture has been traced across the vast steppe landscape by the structures they left behind in the form of huge burial mounds, known as kurgans, filled with grave goods of gold, including a unique stylistic animal art, weapons, and horse tack.”1,2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The Tagar culture  in Siberia
In the previous article [The Scythian Homeland] it was noted how an improved climate in the Tuva region of southern Siberia during the 9th century BC accelerated cultural developments and population increase. Having identified the Scythian homeland as the prime pastureland of the Minusinsk Basin, a hollow some 200km across, in the Sayan Mountains, Southern Siberia, the Tuva region of modern Russia, we now look to identify the people.

The Minusinsk Basin

The areas surrounding the Minusinsk Basin contain some 30,000 kurgans (Scythian burial mounds), accumulated over a thousand year period. Among those are the distinctive burial mounds of the Tagar culture, recognisable by straight walled sides constructed of horizontal kerbstones with large pillars at the corners, enclosing stone cists or chambers. These unusual megalithic constructions form an integral part of the surrounding landscape being found everywhere; on the steppe, along river valleys and on mountain slopes.

The largest the Great Salbyk kurgan (4th Century BC) excavated in 1954-56, was 11m high and constructed with 23 gigantic stones placed at the corners, weighing up to 30-50 tonnes each set vertically at 6m high. These huge megaliths have been sourced to an ancient quarry at Kyzyl-Khaya mountain, 16 km away. The curious appearance of these burial mounds and the vast number of bronze artefacts found in the area have long attracted attention which, sadly, has led to most of these tombs being severely damaged while being looted for their grave goods.

The Minusinsk Basin, an area of elevated steppe in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, a depression surrounded on three sides by the Altai-Sayan Mountains and to the north by forest, was inhabited during the pre-Scythian, Scythian, and Early Xiongnu-Sarmatian periods, from the 7th - 1st century BC, by tribes named by archaeologists after an island in the Yenisei opposite Minusinsk. 

The Soviet scholar Sergey Vladimirovich Kiselev (1905-1962) introduced the term ‘Tagar’  (or ‘Tagarsk’), for the Minusinsk kurgans of the period, after Lake Tagar and the isle of the same name. Kiselev took a significant role in shaping Soviet archaeology, producing an important monograph on the archaeology and history of the peoples of Siberia in the early 1950s.3

Tagar sites

This work was an important milestone in the studies of prehistoric Siberia and addressed the questions of the time regarding the formation and cultural development of the ancient population from the archaeological materials accumulated at that time. Kiselev determined that by the 7th century BC the Scythian cultures of Southern Siberia had been through a formative stage and proposed the following chronology:

    • Stage 1: 7th - early 5th centuries BC,
    • Stage 2: 5th - 3rd centuries BC,
    • Stage 3: 3rd - 1st centuries BC.

During the 1950s and 1960s the Russian scientist and Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Petrovitch Gryaznov (1902–1984) considered the Tagar Culture was genetically related to the earlier local Karasuk Culture of the Bronze Age. Gryaznov developed his own chronology from the 7th century, separating the Tagar Culture into four successive phases:

    • 1 - Bainovo, 7th century BC,
    • 2 - Podgornovo, 6th-5th centuries BC,
    • 3 - Saragash, 4th-3rd centuries BC,
    • 4 - Tes', 2nd-1st centuries BC.

The four phases of Gryaznov's chronology of the Scythian Period culture in the middle Yenisei region is still accepted by many archaeologists today.4

The natural environment of the Minusinsk Basin was relatively closed which led to some obvious cultural differences between the Tagar culture and other nomadic tribes in the Central Asian steppe. This period witnessed the emergence of a horse riding elite; the Tagar culture, with their unparalleled metalworking skills, started to dominate life and change the course of history.  It is one of the most archaeologically studied groups of the early nomads of Southern Siberia. 

Tagar weapons

A substantial amount of bronze artefacts had been collected by the local population from ploughing or pillaging the burial mounds. Outside knowledge of these finds led Peter the Great (1672-1725) to send the first archaeological expedition to Siberia in the early 18th century. The first official excavation of a Tagar burial mound occurred during this expedition near the town of Krasnoturansk on the bank of the Yenisei. Huge amounts of Tagar artefacts were amassed throughout the following century as the archaeological work continued, resulting in vast collections sent back to museums.5 

Immense amounts of archaeology were in danger of being lost when work started on the construction of the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric powerstation on the Yenesei river in the Minusinsk Basin in the late 1950s. Consequently, a rescue plan was established, the Krasnoyarsk archaeological expedition, headed by M. P. Gryaznov. As a result a huge amount of archaeology for virtually all periods of the Minusinsk basins was recovered.

The 1990s saw the start of a new stage in the study of the archaeological artefacts of the Minusinsk Basins when many important discoveries were made that frequently altered modern perceptions of the evolution of Bronze Age cultures and provided a new understanding of absolute dates obtained from radiocarbon data.6 This process goes on as new finds and ever advancing technology continuously enlighten scholars perceptions of the cultures of the Minusinsk Basin.

The Skilled Craftsmen of Siberia
The Tagar peoples still practised a mobile pastoralism associated with the movement of animals, with the emphasis more on sheep, to winter pastures, continuing the traditions of the preceding Karasuk culture. However, the large number of bronze sickles found indicate that to the Tagar culture, unlike other nomadic tribes, agriculture, cultivating wild cereals aided by irrigation, played an increasingly important part in the economy.

Unlike other nomadic cultures horses were not buried with the deceased and are not found in Tagar burial mounds, yet items of horse harness are extremely numerous, although almost all of these are admittedly chance finds.  The high quality and expert craftsmanship of the horse gear, such as bonze bits, cheek pieces and harness mounts, indicates the great value placed on these objects by the Tagar society. However, horse riding was essential to the Tagar culture, as depicted on many petroglyphs in the area and on practically all the rocks and stones that enclose the Tagar burial mounds.7

The Tagar culture witnessed a gradual development over a long period without dramatic lifestyle change. However, rich deposits of ore led to the Minusinsk Basin becoming an important centre of ancient metalworking, evolving complex techniques of casting to produce intricate works of art. Over this long period they developed advanced methods of metal casting using the lost-wax casting process to manufacture bronze weapons, tools and cauldrons and horse gear as already mentioned.

Bridle piece with rams, cast bronze, Minusinsk Basin
(Tagar culture, 5th century BC)

Ornamental zoomorphic art was very prominent in the Tagar culture with extremely decorative plaques in engravings, cast bas-relief figures and in three-dimensional hollow sculptures, with representation of animals from their worlds, both real and mythical. Mountain goats and birds of prey were ubiquitous but representations of boars, bears, feline beasts of prey, griffins, wolves and tigers were also popular in Tagar art. Complex ‘Animal Style’ ornaments modelled in the round, usually standing and cast in metal, were used to decorate the hilts of daggers, battle-axes, daggers, tools and details of horse harnesses.  All of them are executed to a high technological standard.8

Yet perhaps surprisingly animals important to their culture such as horses, deer, fish and antelope are absent from the earliest artefacts. Ornamental art featuring the deer was a particular favourite among Scythian cultures and achieved wide spread popularity with steppe cultures and was adapted locally across the Yenisei River region. Bronze plaques showing deer with their legs tucked up and their antlers flowing down the back first appeared in the Tagar art of the 5th century BC.9

Funerary Rites
The Tagar burials are notable from the pyramidal mound enclosed by horizontal kerb stones with vertically standing stone slabs set prominently at the corner points. This tradition seems to have followed on from the Karasuk culture that preceded it. Many of the symbolic images found on objects and petroglyphs on stone slabs of tombs have been interpreted as likely evidence of shamanistic rituals, a widespread religious system of the Scythian period from the Yenisei region.10

Weapons, including quivers of arrows, were common in male graves, while knives, mirrors and ornaments were found in female graves. Pottery vessels of drink and supplied with select cuts of mutton and beef have been found in burials of both sexes, no doubt to provide sustenance in the next world.

Great Salbyk kurgan 

Over a period of time Tagar burial tradition increased in size and depth, with stone cists gradually replaced by timber frames with multi-layered floors. As the size of the burial mounds increased the number of bodies buried in each also increased. In the early period typically there was just one body per grave but from the 5th century small family graves began to emerge, and even collective tombs with a hundred or more burials appeared. The deceased were buried in a supine position with their heads oriented to the south-west, on odd occasion to the north-east. In the case of the collective graves, the orientation varied.11

Found in the same cemeteries alongside small and medium size mounds, the increasing size and complexity of burial mounds, such the Great Salbyk kurgan  (described above), the largest at 11m high and 500m in circumference, implies social changes and bear witness to the emergence of a hierarchical society based on property ownership and social status. 

The Metal Road
The metal working skills of the Tagar culture were obviously of great interest and very desirable to other tribes which allowed the Tagar to exert a strong influence on and establish trade networks with neighbouring regions, which during its height, spread to the north-west of the Minusinsk valley, along the outlying ridges of the Altai mountains as far as Krasnoyarsk, on the bank of the Yenisei River, today the second-largest city in Siberia.12

At the end of the first millennium BC the Tagar culture disappeared, as did many other Scythian-type archaeological cultures around that time, subsumed or merged with others, as events further east started a wave of movement in a westwards direction.

The Tagar period was followed by a period of Hunnic influence associated with the Xiongnu, which was followed by the emergence of the Late Iron Age "Tesinsky culture" in the Minusinsk Basin, from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. The Tesinky was followed by the Tashtyk culture, from the 1st - 4th century AD, designated by scholars as one of the post-Scythian Iron Age cultures of the Yenisei valley in southern Siberia. 

However, the more perplexing matter is not where the Tagar culture went but where did it come from: Did it evolve out of the Karasuk culture as conventional wisdom states, or did some other process effect the changes of the 5th - 7th centuries BC?

Notes & References
1. A series of articles exploring the claim that the prototype of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, in addition to the quest for the Holy Grail, evolved in the Iranian-speaking people of the Eurasian steppe known as Sarmatians. See: C. Scott Littleton & Ann C. Thomas, The Sarmatian Connection: New Light on the Origin of the Arthurian and Holy Grail Legends, The Journal of American Folklore , Jan. - Mar., 1978, Vol. 91, No. 359 (Jan. - Mar., 1978), pp. 513-527.
2. More recently it is claimed that the descendants of the Alans [“an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus, related to the Sarmatians”] had a tendency "for telling stories about cups, the importance of cups in the Alanic religion, and the extent of Alanic influence in the church of Gaul" suggests that the French poet Robert de Boron may have had an Alanic source for his Grail material, with the Grail Hallows being the treasure taken from the Temple of Solomon by the Romans in 70 AD. See: C. Scott Littleton & Linda A. Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot,  Garland, (Revised Edition) 2000, The Alans and the Grail, p.233.
3. S.V. Kiselev, The Ancient History of Southern Siberia, Moscow Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1951.
4. Nomads Of The Eurasian Steppes In The Early Iron Age, Edited By Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Vladimir A. Bashilov, Leonid T. Yablonsky, Zlnat Press, Berkeley, CA, 1995, p.257.
5. Frozen tombs : the culture and art of the ancient tribes of Siberia, British Museum,1978, p.79.
6. A.V. Poliakov, I.P. Lazaretov, Current state of the chronology for the palaeometal period of the Minusinsk basins in southern Siberia, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 29, February 2020. 
7. K.V. Chugunov, Early nomads of Central Asia and southern Siberia, in Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia,  p.75.
8. M.P. Zavitukhina, Ancient Art of the Yenisei Area; The Scythian Time, Iskusstvo (Leningrad), 1983, p.35; quoted in Nomads Of The Eurasian Steppes In The Early Iron Age, Edited By Jeannine Davis-Kimball, et al.
9. Frozen Tombs, p.80.
10. Bokovenko, The Emergence of the Tagar Culture.
11. Bokovenko, Ibid.
12. K. V. Chuguno, Early nomads of Central Asia and southern Siberia, in Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia,  p.75.

* * *

The Scythian Homeland

 A series of articles exploring claims that the prototypes of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as well as the quest for the Grail evolved in the Iranian-speaking people of the Eurasian steppe  known as Sarmatians.1
More recently it is claimed that the descendants of the Alans [an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus, related to the Sarmatians] had a tendency "for telling stories about cups, the importance of cups in the Alanic religion, and the extent of Alanic influence in the church of Gaul" suggests that the French poet Robert de Boron may have had an Alanic source for his Grail material, with the Grail Hallows being the treasure taken from the Temple of Solomon by the Romans in 70 AD.2

Man and Horse on the Eurasian steppe
To actually pinpoint the date when man first jumped on the back of horse and rode it is impossible to determine. However, at same point in time people of the Eurasian steppe suddenly became more mobile, managing larger herds, travelling longer distances in a shorter time. This sudden change was only possible with the domestication of the horse, a transformation which enabled the transition to full nomadism across the steppe. Accordingly, the horse became the most esteemed and valued of animals of the steppe people which saw the emergence of a horse cult as witnessed by mass horse burials interred in the Royal burials of the Scythian period.3

The earliest archaeological evidence for domestication of the horse, bred from the wild Przewalski’s horse (E.przewalskii), emerges around six thousand years ago in the western Eurasian steppe north of the Black Sea from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. This is somewhat later than domestication of the likes of sheep, goat and cattle.4

Przewalski’s horse, also known as the ‘takhi’ or Mongolian wild horse, is an endangered species today that became extinct in the wild but since the 1990s has been reintroduced to its native lands in Mongolia and Central Asia. Genetic analyses indicates that Przewalski's horse is not derived from modern domestic horses but a remnant wild population. Domestication does not appear to be a single event with the modern horse showing diverse ancestry from a mixture of ancient maternal lineages from different geographic areas. 

The Botai Culture
The prehistoric Copper Age Botai culture (3700–3100 BCE) of northern Central Asia was named after the settlement of Botai in modern northern Kazakhstan. The Botai culture has two other large sites: Krasnyi Yar, and Vasilkovka. The main settlement at Botai has been partly eroded by the Imanburlyq river, a tributary of the Ishim, however, around 153 pit-shouses have been identified.

The Botai culture emerged with the transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with a variety of game to a sedentary pastoralists lifestyle with a diet based mainly on horse meat.

A staggering 300,000 or more bone fragments, over 90% of which were derived from horses, have been identified at the main settlement. The horse bones displayed a multitude of cut and chop marks indicating the Botai were clearly consuming horsemeat – and in some quantity.

The heads of sacrificed horses were placed in pits around the perimeters of houses, facing north-east or south-east, toward the direction of the rising sun at spring and autumn. At Botai canine remains are often found with those of equids in sacrificial pits, suggesting perhaps a close working relationship in life. The dog skulls, or even whole bodies, were buried in paired pits just outside houses on the west or southwest side of the dwelling.  The association of paired canines guarding the west is common to many ancient Indo-European cultures.5

Evidence of damage to dentition in horses commonly linked with the use of bridle mouthpieces, or “bit wear”, taken together with the extraordinary equid assemblage has been presented in the argument for Botai as the birthplace of horse domestication in the 4th millennium BC.

However, recent archaeogenetic analyses has revealed that horse remains from Botai are the wild Przewalski’s horse (E.przewalskii), not modern domesticates (E.caballus), warranting re-evaluation of evidence for domestication. Furthermore, when compared with wild Pleistocene equids in North America a study concluded that the damage observed in Botai horse teeth (assumed bit wear) is likely generated by natural disturbances in dental development and wear, rather than through contact with bridle equipment.6

Not all agree and the debate for horse domestication at Botai is yet to be concluded.7

However, what is clear is that the Botai represent a dramatic shift in lifestyle on the steppe that sprung from the arrival of domesticated horses. Yet, it is argued that this change appears mature rather than sudden; therefore it is suggested that the horse was domesticated elsewhere, probably Ukraine or western Russia, and was then introduced into this region.8

The earliest unambiguously managed specimens of the domestic horse, E.caballus, originate from the Sintashta culture in the Black Sea steppes and the Trans-Ural region of Russia, Kazakshtan, and Ukraine, where paired horse burials and partial remains of chariots can be found dating to the early decades of the 2nd millennium BC.

The Bronze Age Sintashta culture, named after the fortified site in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, stretched from the east of the southern Ural Mountains across the northern Eurasian steppe (north Kazakhstan) and is thought to represent an eastward migration of peoples from the Corded Ware culture. The area shows extensive evidence of copper mining indicating the main industry was metalworking.

Here, over three quarters (77%) of Sintashta burials had evidence of animal sacrifice, especially horses, some burials contained the remains of horse dawn chariots - the earliest recorded in the world. This seems to have been a development from the wagon burials of the earlier Yamnaya culture.9

In the Late Bronze Age the nomadic peoples of the steppe can be divided into two broad cultural complexes, the Srubnaya who occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe and the Andronovo in Central Asia. The Srubnaya culture extended from the Ural Mountains to the Sea of Azov in the west, while the Andronovo culture occupied the region from the Ural Mountains to the Altai-Sayan Mountains at the far eastern end of the Central Asian steppe where modern Kazakhstan borders Russia, China and Mongolia.

Named from a village in the Minusinsk Basin in the Altai-Sayan Mountains where the first burial was excavated in 1914, the Andonovo culture (1750-1400 BC) seems to have grown out of the two earlier cultures, Srubnaya and Sintashta, displaying a cultural continuity with no requirement for displacement by an influx of new people. Around 1400 BC, toward the end of the Bronze Age, a new culture evolved out of the Andonovo in south Siberia; this new culture was named after a cemetery site by the Karasuk river. 

The Scythian Homeland
The Minusinsk Basin is an area of elevated steppe surrounded by mountains, the eastern Sayan to the north, the western Sayan to the south and the Kuznetsky Alatau and Abakan ranges to the west. The basin was formed by the upper reaches of the Yenisei River but also includes the Chulym River, a tributary of the Ob. The the fifth-longest river in the world, the Yenisei the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. The mountain hollow known as the Minusinsk Basin was a fertile environment protected by mountains, an obvious attraction for settlement. The region has experienced continuous settlement from the Andronovo period to the succeeding Karasuk, a culture that lasted from the 14th century BC to the middle of the 9th century BC

The transition from the Andronovo to Karasuk cultures was a gradual change with many traditions continuing in to the later period. Cultural development coincided with climate change which moved toward to a more humid and cooler climate which led to much lusher vegetation in the basin. This in turn provided extended grazing areas resulting in increased flocks and herds and seasonal transhumance with sheep and goats being moved from lowland steppe to fatten on mountain pastures. This directly led to a requirement for a greater number of horses to manage these flocks and herds. Evidence for increased horsemanship is reflected in the number of three-holed bone side-pieces from the bridle which appear in the archaeological record of the Karasuk period.

The increase in the available food stock lead to a steep increase in population, with estimates suggesting a tenfold increase over a five-hundred year period. It is at this time that a more hierarchical social structure developed as witnessed by the construction of elaborate tombs. The elite were buried in stone-built cists set in large circular burial enclosures up to 100m in diameter.

Situated in relative isolation, with fertile pastures and favourable climate, the Minusinsk Basin provided a microcosm of change in and around the Altai-Sayan Mountains in the Final Bronze Age (c.1200-850 BC). Other regions of the steppe, such as the isolated mountain valleys of nearby eastern Kazakhstan, experienced similar cultural developments.

The main Scythian-related archaeological sites of south Siberia
(Warwick Ball)

While the Minusinsk Basin was experiencing a dramatic increase in population, climate change across Eurasia had varied effects in different regions. On the Pontic steppe conditions became much drier in the 11th century resulting in a fall in the level of the Black Sea and a significant shift of the northern boundary of the steppe zone. Population declined, estimated, possibly, by as much as a tenfold reduction from the 14th century BC. This resulted in some people, such as the Srubnaya culture that occupied the region east of the river Don, and the Belozerka culture between the Don and the Danube, abandoning the steppe and moving to settlements on river valleys and the coastal region. 

The Tagar Culture
The unique upland environment of the Minusinsk Basin accelerated cultural developments. Pollen samples have shown that the climate of the Tuva region, which included the Minusinsk Basin, changed around the 9th century. The region experienced a rise in temperature and an increase in humidity resulting in improved grazing land and increased population. Economic and social changes during this time saw the emergence of a very different society out of the long-established Karasuk culture; the emergence of the Tagar culture saw horse riding elites start to dominate life and change the course of history.

Most of the archaeological data we have on the Tagar culture comes from their Funerary monuments, burial mounds known as kurgans. In the preceding Karasuk period burials were usually placed in stone cists, whereas in the early Tagar period burials were placed in rectangular pits within a square enclosure bounded by stone slabs. These were soon replaced with log-lined chambers and roofed with multiple log layers. 

Over time the burial mounds became larger to accommodate a larger number of burials within the mound. By the 6th century BC the burial mounds had become ever more elaborate as demonstrated in the Salbyk Valley in the centre of the Minusink Basin where barrows of about 20m in height are located. The Bolshoi Salbykskii kurgan reached 11m in height. The enclosure wall contained massive sandstone slabs, weighing around 30-50 tonnes each, set vertically at 6m high. These huge megaliths have been sourced to an ancient quarry at Kyzyl-Khaya mountain, 16 km away, a feat similar to the transportation of the huge sarsens at Stonehenge.10

The grave goods found in the Tagar kurgans provide evidence of skilled bronze casting, a tradition rooted in the Late Bronze Age. Artefacts buried with the deceased, presumably to accompany them to the afterlife, included weapons such as bows and bronze arrow heads, bronze daggers and bronze battleaxes. Horse gear was prominent, the bone side-pieces on horse bridles of the Karasuk period, as noted above, were now made of brass demonstrating advancing metalworking skills.  When combined with the many rock carvings depicting horses, the amount of horse gear found in these burials confirms that the horse played a significant role in Tagar culture, providing milk, meat and enhanced mobility. The value of the horse continued to grow among steppe cultures reaching what can only be described as cult status as we shall see.

Along with weapons and horse gear, animal art completes the so-called 'Scythian Triad' found in kurgans across the steppe and the Tagar culture is no exception. Animals cast in bronze in stylistic form are found throughout the burial mounds of the Minusinsk Basin and include felines, argali sheep standing in distinctive pose with feet together and recurved horns, recumbent deer with raised head and antlers splayed out behind with feet tucked under the body, less often are horses, boars and birds. Often these animals are found as petroglyphs on the stone slabs retaining the burial mounds.11

The earliest form of this kind of animal art, termed ‘Scythian-Siberian animal art’, is found on the so-called deer stones, deer motifs carved on standing stones in the Sayan and Altai mountains, stretching into northern Mongolia, where they have been dated to the Final Bronze Age, c.1300-700 BC. As with the Siberian Ice Princess, a shamanistic belief system is given as an interpretation. Significantly, this confirms that the stylistic animal art also found in kurgans of the Pontic steppe originated in the Bronze Age culture of the Altai-Sayan Mountains and quickly spread westward across the steppe. 

Notes & References
1.  C. Scott Littleton & Ann C. Thomas, The Sarmatian Connection: New Light on the Origin of the Arthurian and Holy Grail Legends, The Journal of American Folklore , Jan. - Mar., 1978, Vol. 91, No. 359 (Jan. - Mar., 1978), pp. 513-527,
2. C. Scott Littleton & Linda A. Malcor, From Scythia to Camelot,  Garland, (Revised Edition) 2000, The Alans and the Grail, p.233.
3. Warwick Ball, The Eurasian Steppe, Edinburgh University Press, p.25.
4. Ibid.
5. Sandra Olsen, The Early Horse Herders of Botai, University of Kansas
6. Taylor, W.T.T., Barrón-Ortiz, C.I. Rethinking the evidence for early horse domestication at Botai. Sci Rep 11, 7440 (2021). 
7. Rebuttal of Taylor and Barrón-Ortiz 2021 Rethinking the evidence for early horse domestication at Botai Outram, A; Bendrey, R; Evershed, RP; et al. Date: 28 July 2021 (excerpt):
"Taylor and Barrón-Ortiz (2021) present a reconsideration of the evidence for early horse husbandry in the Eneolithic Botai Culture of Northern Kazakhstan. However, their critique misrepresents key methodologies applied in the original analyses, demonstrates fundamental scientific misunderstanding of the stable isotopic evidence, omits key details about recent proteomic evidence and underplays or ignores a raft of other evidential lines. This rebuttal paper addresses these points. Additionally, the only primary evidence presented in Taylor and Barrón-Ortiz (2021), relating tooth wear patterns in North American wild horses, if correctly presented, adds more empirical weight to the conclusion that Botai-type wear patterns are only seen in bitted animals."
8. Sandra Olsen, The Early Horse Herders of Botai.
9. Warwick Ball, p.56.
10. Leonid Sergeevich Marsadolov, The Great Salbyk Barrow in Siberia, Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2014, 2(2), pp.59-65.
11. Barry Cunliffe, The Scythians, Oxford University Press, 2021, pp.78-95.

* * *

The First Scythian King

A series of articles exploring claims that the prototypes of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as well as the quest for the Grail evolved in the Iranian-speaking people of the Eurasian steppe  known as Sarmatians.
More recently it is claimed that the descendants of the Alans [an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus, related to the Sarmatians] had a tendency "for telling stories about cups, the importance of cups in the Alanic religion, and the extent of Alanic influence in the church of Gaul" suggests that the French poet Robert de Boron may have had an Alanic source for his Grail material, with the Grail Hallows being the treasure taken from the Temple of Solomon by the Romans in 70 AD.

The Ice Princess
In 1993 a team of Russian archaeologists led by Dr. Natalya Polosmak made a fascinating discovery on the Ukok Plateau, high up at 2,500m altitude in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, close to the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. As they started excavating the burial mound they found a huge block of ice.

Tomb of the Siberian Ice Princess

This was a tumulus known as a ‘kurgan’ typical of the early Scythian culture. A kurgan is a type of barrow-like tomb with a mound constructed over a grave, sometimes containing just a single human body, sometimes more, accompanied with grave goods such as weapons, horses and distinctive animal art. 

The burial mounds of the Altai are different to the kurgans of the Steppes in containing burial chambers constructed from logs and then covered in a low mound of stone. In this case water had trickled through the stones then froze encasing the contents in a block of ice, preserved an almost perfect state.

On melting the ice the archaeologists found the mummified body of a 25-year-old woman termed the Siberian Ice Princess. This discovery provided a rare first-hand glimpse into the world of the Pazyryk culture, a nomadic people that inhabited the Steppe region of Siberia more than 2,500 years ago. 

Body Art of the Siberian Ice Princess

The Ice Princess, also known as the Altai Lady, and the grave contents had been perfectly preserved by the ice of the cold Altai Mountains. This lady was clearly of high status as she was accompanied by six sacrificed horses arranged in a radial pattern. Individual burials of this type were usually reserved for Royalty, hence her assumed designation as a princess. Her body had several tattoos including a deer-like creature with a griffon’s beak and a Capricorn’s antlers.  Her richly decorated skin had been peeled back and her organs removed, then neatly stitched back together. In addition to the tattoo of the deer-griffin-like creature, the Ice Princess's skin was preserved and embalmed with herbs, grasses, and wool to complete the mummification process. Covering her shoulders was sable fur over a silk blouse and striped woolen skirt confirming her royal lineage as silk was usually reserved for high status people of nomadic tribes. The Ice Princess wore a pointed conical felt hat which had led to the suggestion that she was possibly a shaman. 

Frozen Tombs of the Pazyryk Culture
Five other tombs had been found in the Ukok Plateau; the first, Barrow 1, was excavated in 1929 while Barrows 2–5 were excavated between 1947–1949. The content of these burial mounds were also preserved in a similar manner as the tomb of the Ice Princess, water seeping into the tombs in ancient times had frozen and encased the grave contents in ice, which remained frozen in the permafrost until the time of their excavation.

It is apparent that ordinary people were not interred, or at least not in large burial sites. The large burial mounds, or kurgans, along with their belongings, horses and sometimes attendants, was strictly reserved for the elite across the Eurasian Steppe.

Ukok Plateau, Altai Mountains

Lower in the Altai is the huge Tuekta kurgan also of the Pazyryk Culture. The region of these Pazyryk kurgans is given protection as the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet, literally thousands of these kurgans cover the Eurasian Steppe.

The Eurasian Steppe
The Eurasian Steppe is a belt of grassland extending for 5,000 miles  (8,000 km) from near the Danube delta in modern Romania to Manchuria in north-east China. Since prehistoric times the Steppe has been a super-highway between Europe and Asia, inhabited by nomadic tribal confederations, the most well-known being the Scythians, Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Huns and Mongols.

With relatively low rainfall, typically less than 20 inches, the grassland is devoid of trees and does not support grazing for more than a generation or so requiring pastoralists to regularly move on to fresh pastures. Thus, the nomadic peoples of the Steppe left little in the way of permanent settlements yet their presence can be traced through their burial customs across the Steppe.

The Eurasian Steppe

To the north the Steppe is bounded by the forests of European Russia and Asian Russia or Siberia, to the south land becomes increasingly drier. The Steppe naturally narrows at two points, making, for convenience, divisions of three major regions.

The European, western end of the Eurasian Steppe begins near the mouth of the Danube and stretches to the southern end of the Ural Mountains, this is known at the Pontic–Caspian Western Steppe. In days of old it was bounded to the north by forest steppe, but in more recent times the forest has been cleared for agricultural land. To the south and east it is bounded by the Black Sea and Caspian Sea to the Caucasus Mountains.  Further west, the Great Hungarian Plain of the Pannonian Steppe is separated from the main Steppe by the Carpathian Mountains. 

Between the southern tip of the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea the Steppe narrows forming a natural division between the Pontic-Caspian Steppe with the Kazakh Steppe, where Europe meets Central Asia. The Kazakh Steppe, or Central steppe, forms the bulk of the Eurasian Steppe stretching from the Urals to Dzungaria, in north-western China. To the south it becomes drier, semi-desert and desert divided by the rivers Syr Darya (Jaxartes) and Amu Darya (Oxus) flowing into the Aral Sea. 

However, the Steppe has few natural barriers, the Urals, regarded as Europe’s conventional eastern boundary, regardless of its name as a mountain range is nothing more than a range of low hills and has never been a cultural barrier. Indeed, nomadic horsemen could ride unhindered from the mouth of the Danube in the west to the Altai Mountain range in the east where modern Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together in East-Central Asia. 

The Altai merges with the Sayan Mountains to the north-east, beyond this is the Eastern Steppe, stretching from the Altai Mountains in the west to the Greater Khingan Range in the east. The primary region of the Eurasian Steppe in East Asia is the Mongolian-Manchurian Steppe which covers large areas of Mongolia and the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, the two divided by the high plateau of the Gobi Desert. 

The Eastern Steppe

Being of higher altitude than the Western Steppe, the Eastern Steppe is colder and more arid with greater extremes of seasonal temperatures making it one of the most severe climates on Earth. This harsh environment duly played a significant role in human migrations either southward and eastward direction toward Manchuria and northern China or westward, passing between the Altai and Tien Shan mountains through the valley of the Ili River and past Lake Balkhash and the more inviting grasslands of the Western Steppe. Migrating people would converge through the Dzungarian Gate.

The narrowing of the Steppe at Dzungarian is defined by the Tarbagatai Mountains to the west and the Mongolian Altai Mountains on the east, to the north the Tian Shan Mountains and the Tarim Basin to the south. The Dzungarian Gate is the only mountain pass in the 3,000 mile (4,800km) mountain-wall which stretches from Manchuria to Afghanistan, the most accessible pass for nomadic horsemen between the western Eurasian steppe and land to the east. The pass is associated with the modern conception of the Silk Road connecting China with the Roman Empire and Herodotus’s tale of the legendary Hyperboreans.

This natural boundary between the Eastern and Western Steppes, is where we find the ice tombs of the Pazyryk culture on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains (as noted above) which have been dated to the 5th century BC. But these are not the earliest Steppe kurgans that have been identified to date, for that we must look at the cultures that preceded the Pazyryk.

Kurgans of the Western Steppe
The Greek historian and geographer, Herodotus tells us that the core area of Scythian tribes was around the northern shore of the Black Sea, modern southern Ukraine and southern Russia. The Royal graves of the Scythians in the steppe area north of the Black Sea were the first known and the first to be investigated in modern times. 

Western Steppe, north of the Black Sea

The kurgans of the Western Steppe were typically around 12–15m high, yet at Solokha on the bank of the Dnieper in Central Ukraine the kurgan was almost 18m high. At Chertomlyk, also in Ukraine, the kurgan was 20m high and 50m in diameter. Both are dated to the 4th century BC. The construction of these two large kurgans suggests a huge communal effort, yet the kurgans never contain burials of ordinary people being reserved exclusively for Royalty and the Elite, and on occasion their attendants.

The body in the kurgan at Solokha was wearing a gold neck-ring, gold bracelets, a gold-sheathed dagger, held a sceptre shaft in the right hand, and gold platelets sewn onto the clothing. Other chambers contained cauldrons, bronze and silver tableware, and Greek drinking vessels. Clearly this individual was interred with all of the status of a Scythian king or high chieftain.

The Scythian kurgans north of the Black Sea region typically contained catacombs, or subterranean chambers, underneath the burial mound. This would be entered through a passageway which led to the catacomb 10-18m deep with side chambers containing  further grave goods, tombs of their attendants and interred horses.

Consistently across the Eurasian steppe, the designated Scythian burial mounds from north of the Black Sea to the Altai Mountains, provide evidence that the tribal chieftain received preferential treatment after death, yet burial mound construction and grave goods could follow quite different traditions, in various regions such as southern Siberia. Dr. Hermann Parzinger has determined that “the complex structure of the kurgans should be considered as rituals which became architecture.”

Until relatively recently the kurgans of the Western Steppe were thought to be the oldest Scythian burial mounds, apparently evidence of a culture that spread east as was the knowledge at the time. This was primarily because ancient historians in the west, Greek and Roman, made the first written records of these nomadic peoples and knew little of life beyond the Ural Mountains. Until the 19th century the kurgans of the Central Steppe and particularly the Eastern Steppe were less known, and until recent times very few had been professionally excavated.

But in the last 20 years or so several Russian–German archaeological teams led by Dr. Parzinger have studied the kurgans of the Ural region, the northern Caucasus,  Kazakhstan, and southern Siberia. 

As Dr Barry Cunliffe writes, “It is no exaggeration to say that the frozen tombs of Siberia have revolutionized our understanding of the first millennium BC nomads of the Altai region.”

The archaeological excavations of the Altai kurgans has shown that a vibrant animal art existed in south Siberia that was so similar to the Scythian animal art of the Pontic Steppe, north of the Black Sea, that we are forced to conclude that the two must have been part of the same cultural continuum. Russian archaeologists refer to this as Scythian-Siberian animal art. 

Scythian-Siberian animal art: Deer-shaped gold plaque (7th century BC)

In addition, three common types of object, known as the so-called Scythian Triad have been found repeatedly in kurgans across the entire Eurasian Steppe, from west to east: Horse Bridal - dagger/composite Bow - animal style art.

The First Scythians
Tuva in Southern Siberia is situated on the eastern flank of the Altai massif, about 100km east of Pazyryk where the famous Scythian frozen tombs were discovered.  

Here on a high plateau traversed by the Uyuk River, a tributary of the Yenisei River, and enclosed by the Sayan Mountains to the east and the Kuznetsk Atatau Mountains to the west, which merge into the Altai, we find the Tuva basin, the site of the early kurgan burials at Arzhan and the largest concentrations of Scythian burial mounds so far found. 

The Arzhan cemetery, Uyuk Valley

The Arzhan culture was preceded by the Karasuk culture centred on the Minusinsk Basin in the Altai-Sayan region of the South Siberian Mountains, northwest of Mongolia. The animal art of the Karasuk culture has contributed to the development of the distinctive Scythian-Siberian animal art style.

The origins of the Karasuk culture are complex, however, it seems to have formed out of the Andronovo culture, from 2,000 BC to 900 BC in Western Siberia and the Central Asian Steppe. Most researchers associate the Andronovo horizon with early Indo-Iranian languages.

In northern Tuva is one of the largest and most important kurgan cemeteries in Southern Siberia. Here we find all of the features that characterise Scythian culture further west on the Pontic Steppe actually emerged first in Southern Siberia.

As this is the same region where the Karasuk and the earlier Andronovo cultures developed, we can, with some confidence, pinpoint Southern Siberia as the ‘Scythian homeland’. Therefore, the arrival of Scythian culture in this region cannot be viewed as something that migrated from somewhere else, but is endemic. 

The immense valley of the Uyuk River encloses a huge cemetery of a thousand large earthen or stone-built mounds dated to the 1st millennium BC, the Bronze and Iron eras. The largest reach more than a 100m in diameter and up to 6m high and often in a straight line, suggesting a relationship between the deceased. Especially numerous are cemeteries in the valley near Arzhan, which the local people have termed the ‘Valley of the Kings’. The importance of the site has been recognised by its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Sources:
Warwick Ball, The Eurasian Steppe, Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Barry Cunliffe, The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe, Oxford University Press, 2021.
Richard Foltz, The Ossetes, IB Tauris, 2023.
Ravi K. Mishra1,  The ‘Silk Road’: Historical Perspectives and Modern Constructions, Indian Historical Review, 47-1 (2020), pp.21–39.
Dr. Hermann Parzinger, Kurgans: Ancient Burial Mounds of Scythian Elites in the Eurasian Steppe, Journal of the British Academy 5 (2017), pp.331-335.

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