Explorers of the Ancient World

This is an interesting map depicting the routes followed by the most renowned explorers of the Ancient World.

Phoenician, Greek, Punic, Egyptian, Persian and other ‘pathfinders’ or

Scythian people stayed local

Republication from the University of Michigan

Extent of mobility of population from Scythian era and earlier sites. Image credit: James Johnson and John Klausmeyer

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As far back as the Greek historian Herodotus, a group of people called the Scythians were considered highly mobile warrior nomads.

Scythian-era people lived across Eurasia from about 700 BCE to 200 BCE, and have long been considered highly mobile warriors who ranged widely across the steppe grasslands. Herodotus describes Scythian populations as living in wagons and engaging in raiding and warfare, and this view has persisted throughout history—supported by archeologists’ observations of similar styles of horse harnesses, weapons, burial mounds and animal style motifs throughout what is now Ukraine.

Gilded Scythian akinakes sword found

Republicstion from euromaidanpress.com

[A little belated news but this sword is a unique find for ancient weapon researchers.]

Gold-plated akinakes (Scythian dagger/short sword) with a leaf-ribbed grip, a cross-guard and a scabbard for the blade tip 

An intact grave of a Scythian warrior was the main find of the 2019 season at the excavation site at Mount Mamai burial grounds in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Burial of Scythian Amazon with a golden headdress confuses experts

Republication from  www.ibtimes.sg

 

By Nirmal Narayanan

A team of researchers led by Valerii Guliaev, the head of the Don expedition has discovered a burial mound containing remnants of four Scythian women. Interestingly, the burial mound had several impressive grave goods, and it included one of the most complete golden headdresses ever unearthed in the Don excavation site, Russia.

Andronovo culture heavy charioteer warrior c. 1500 BC

 

Image copyright: A.I. Solovyev

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This is another rare representation by the Russian archaeologist A.I. Solovyev, of a heavy charioteer warrior of the Indoeuropean Andronovo culture (2nd millennium BC) which flourished mainly in western Siberia and Kazakhstan, although the first archaeological evidence of this civilisation comes from a small area southwest of Krasnoyarsk. Its southern varieties were extended to modern Uzbekistan, Kirghizistan and Turkmenistan. Minusinsk Basin is specifically a region were the Andronovo culture evolved considerably.

The Andronovo culture, named after the homonymous modern village, was the cradle of the Proto-Indo-Iranian IE group which later was divided to the Indo-Aryan and the Iranian subgroup. The Proto-Indo-Aryans gradually invaded and settled in the larger part of the Indian subcontinent although some of their tribes moved to the west, to the Zagros Mountains and the Black Sea steppes. The Proto-Iranians were divided into two branches. The southern branch – archaeologically represented along with the Indo-Aryans by Neo-Andronovo varieties and the Srubnaya culture – gradually invaded and settled in the regions of modern Iran, Afghanistan, western Pakistan, Tajikistan and the Zagros Mountains area, becoming the ancestors of the Sogdians, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and many other ancient peoples. The northern Iranian branch – archaeologically represented by the Karasuk culture being a local variety of the Andronovo– became the ancestors of the numerous Saka, Scythian and Sarmatian tribes.