The first is based on the so-called "Third Tale" of Herodotus, which says that the Scythians came from the east;
Starting from the second half of the 8th c. BC. until the beginning of the 3rd century. AD, in the vast expanses from the Black Sea to the Sayano-Altai, mysterious peoples roamed. Ancient writers and historians called them "Scythians". The same ancient authors put different meanings into this concept. Under the "Scythians" were understood both the tribes who lived only in the Northern Black Sea region, and other peoples who lived in territories quite remote from each other. Even the Russian state in some medieval writings was called Scythia. Russian chronicles emphasized that the peoples of Rus' were called by the Greeks "Great Scythia". The Scythians are mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years:
“Oleg went to the Greeks, leaving Igor in Kiev, but he took with him a lot of Varangians, and Slavs, and Chuds, and Krivichi, and Measure, and Drevlyans, and Radimichi, and Polyans, and Northerners, and Vyatichi, and Croats, and Dulebs, and Tivertsy, known as interpreters: these were all called by the Greeks “Great Scythia”.
Officially, there are two main versions of the emergence of the Scythians:
the first is based on the so-called "Third Tale" of Herodotus, which says that the Scythians came from the east;
the second is based on the legend recorded by the same Herodotus, and suggests that in the VIII century. BC. the Scythians settled the territories of the Northern Black Sea region, standing out from the environment of the successors of the Srubna culture
For reference: Srubna culture- an association of peoples of the Late Bronze Age (XVIII-XII centuries BC), common in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe between the Dnieper and the Urals. Separate monuments of this culture are found in Western Siberia and the North Caucasus. There is a version that the peoples of the Srubna culture were the basis from which the migration to the north-west of modern Iran took place. The Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a (subclades R1a1, R1a1a, R1a1a1b2, R1a1a1b2a2a-Z2123) was found among representatives of the Srubnaya culture who lived 3900–3200 years ago.
By the way, if we take genealogy as an argument and draw conclusions about the origin of peoples on its basis, then according to their DNA, the Scythians were also carriers of the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a. And if we take the DNA of modern Slavs, then their genotype, like that of other modern peoples, is rather heterogeneous due to assimilation and incest, but, nevertheless, the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1a is characteristic of all groups of Slavs. In Russia, depending on the territory, it ranges from 34 to 55%, Belarusians 50%, Ukrainians 54%, Poles 56% (link). Of course, it cannot be argued that the Slavs descended from the Scythians. The history of the Scythians ended in the III century. AD defeat from neighbors and kindred people - the Sarmatians. The Slavs appeared on the historical arena in the 4th-5th centuries AD. Most likely, the Scythians and Sarmatians became part of the Slavic tribes, and the Scythian-Sarmatians joined the huge Slavic "family" not as poor relatives, but on an equal footing. In Russian folk art, needlework, there are connections with Scythian art, elements of clothing and symbols of the Sarmatians.
The Scythians were not a single people. The well-known Russian Scythologist A.Yu. Alekseev writes: “The Scythians, this Asian in origin, but who became European people, who for several centuries had a significant impact on the culture and history of their close and distant neighbors. They turned out to be the first in a long chain of nomadic tribes known to us, which, at intervals of 200-400 years, rolled in waves along the Great Steppe Corridor to Europe ... ". "Scythians" - the common name of many people close in culture, economic structure, lifestyle and ideological ideas of the nomadic tribes of Eurasia. The name of the Scythians was given by the Greeks, who first encountered them in Asia Minor, and then in the Northern Black Sea region, where the first Greek colonies arose in the second half of the 7th century BC. Thanks to the information that has come down to us from ancient historians, including those who lived in the 5th century BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the so-called European Scythians, who lived in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of the Northern Black Sea region (between the Danube in the west and the Don in the east) from the 7th century BC, became most famous. to the 3rd century AD”
What were they doing? What was their way of life? Archeology has discovered the amazing world of Scythian burial mounds, examples of magnificent unique art, grandiose burial structures. The scientific basis of Scythian archeology was created in the 20th century. The first official excavations of a large Scythian burial mound were carried out in 1763 on behalf of Lieutenant General Alexei Petrovich Melgunov, Governor of the Novorossiysk Territory. From this moment the time of field Scythian archeology is counted. Then they explored the Litoy Kurgan, located 60 km from Elisavetgrad (now Kirovograd). The opened burial (Chervonnaya Mogila) turned out to be the burial of a noble Scythian, as evidenced by the magnificent gold items of the late 7th - early 6th century BC.
Masterpieces of the Scythian fine arts, stored in the best museums, have long been included in the treasury of world culture. Any educated person will recognize a thing made in the Scythian animal style. It is the animal style that constitutes the most original feature of the art of the Scythian world. Images of animals adorned horse harness, weapons, clothes, signs of power, cult and toilet items.
The artistic value of the works made by Scythian masters is great. They were well versed in the technique of casting, forging, embossing, embossing, engraving and created their own original style in art, the hallmark of which was images on animals in dynamics - fight, jump, run. A vivid example of Scythian art is an openwork plate - decoration of a horse dress - depicting a rider shooting a deer from a bow. And the golden pectoral (breast decoration of the Scythian king) is a unique work and a masterpiece of world art. Artists of the Scythian world mastered many genres - carving, relief, three-dimensional plastic, appliqué, embroidery. Metal products were created using casting, stamping, engraving. Basically, savages.
The death of the Scythian king was an important and tragic event for the people. He was mourned for a long time, performed a series of bloody rites. In addition to the king, animals, servants, wives, money and jewelry were buried in the grave. Then they poured a huge hill. A stone statue in the form of a standing human figure was installed on the mound. It had nothing to do with the "living prototype", it was a generalized image of a man, roughly carved from a monolithic stone. The master showed only the most necessary features - the head, face, arms and legs, clothes and weapons. The attributes of power were also depicted - a hryvnia around the neck and a rhyton in the hand. The Scythians believed that by erecting this image over the grave mound, they overcome the violation of the world order that occurs with the death of the king.
Today, the appearance of the Scythian nomads is already quite well known: the Hellenic masters ethnographically accurately depicted them on gold and silver vessels and jewelry found in many burial mounds of the highest Scythian nobility. Valuable information is also provided by the anthropological reconstruction carried out on bone remains and skulls from Scythian burials. “Yes, we are Scythians, yes, we are Asians with slanting and greedy eyes ...”- this poetic image created by Alexander Blok does not correspond to reality. The Scythians did not have any slanting eyes or other Mongoloid features. They are typical Caucasians of medium height and strong build. In terms of language, the Scythians belonged to the North Iranian group (of the existing peoples, Ossetians are closest to them in terms of language).
The Scythians were skillful and ferocious warriors. Appearing in the VIII - early VII century. BC. in the Black Sea region, moved to the Middle East and Greece. Having passed through the passes of the Main Caucasian Range, they invaded in the 7th century BC. in Transcaucasia, they defeated the mighty state of Urartu and, like a formidable storm, fell upon the flourishing cities of Media, Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia and Palestine. Shortly after these events, the Scythians moved further south and, reaching Syria and Palestine, were about to invade Egypt. But Pharaoh Psammetik I was ahead of them: he went out to meet the Scythians with rich gifts and dissuaded them from the intention to ruin the ancient country. According to Herodotus, the northern nomads remained in Western Asia for 28 years and devastated everything with their rampage and violence. The Scythians behaved in the Middle East like robbers and rapists. Thousands of bronze arrowheads found during excavations of ancient Middle Eastern cities, traces of fires and destruction in them confirm the reports of ancient written sources about the devastating raids of the Scythian cavalry on the flourishing regions of Asia Minor.
Then the turn came to pay the Scythians for all the offenses they had caused. And the Median king Cyaxares, as ancient authors report, invited many Scythian leaders and commanders to his palace for a “friendly” feast and, having drunk them into unconsciousness, ordered them to be killed. Having lost their top leadership and being under the threat of a complete defeat by the Median troops, the Scythians were forced to return to their northern Black Sea possessions. And from the end of the 7th century BC. the main events of Scythian history are already associated only with the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Eastern Europe.
The table shows the main milestones in the history of the Scythians.
Conclusions:
1. The Scythians could not be the direct ancestors of the Slavs, although we are genetically similar.
2. The Scythians clearly had a significant impact on the formation, culture, traditions and customs of the Slavic peoples.
3. The Scythians were not one people, one ethnic group. These were nomadic tribes related in culture, language and customs.
