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The Scythians

Nomad Warriors of the Steppe

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The Scythians

Written by: Barry Cunliffe
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
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About this listen

The Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe.

Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, where all the organic material is amazingly well preserved.

Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigor and splendor for the first time in over two millennia.

©2019 Barry Cunliffe (P)2020 Tantor
Ancient Archaeology Asia Europe Ancient History Ancient Greece Greek Mythology Greece
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Scythian History- A Tribe of the Asian Steppes

A beautiful history based largely on archeology findings. Most of the written history on the Scythians comes from the Greeks. But by relying on Archeological finds Cunliffe is largely successful in preventing it from simply being a story of what the Greeks said about the Scythians.
I would recommend a brief review of Asian geography and the rivers that drain into the Caspian and especially the Black Sea before starting this book.

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Overall an interesting but confusing listen.

To get the most out of this book you should have a very strong knowledge of the geography involved.

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