New archaeological evidence seemingly confirms the Greek historian Herodotus' account of the brutal ways in which Scythians used their dead enemies' bodies.
Ørsted Brandt et al . , PLOS One , 2023The accumulation of Scythian leather artifacts uncovered in Ukraine .
In his famousHistories , ancient Hellenic historian Herodotus wrote about the Scythians , a nomadic grouping renowned for their prowess in armed combat . As Herodotus traveled along the Black Sea , he made observance of the Scythians , paint them as savage and brutal . He publish that they blinded their slaves and , disturbingly , made leather out of human skins .
For C , historians assumed Herodotus ’ account may have been inflated .
Ørsted Brandt et al., PLOS One, 2023The collection of Scythian leather artifacts uncovered in Ukraine.
“ A Scythian drinks the blood of the first human race whom he has take down,”Herodotus compose . “ He carries the head of all whom he has slain in the battle to his king ; for if he brings a head , he receives a part of the booty charter , but not otherwise … Many too take off the skin , nails and all , from their dead enemies ’ ripe hands , and make coverings for their quivers ; the human skin was , as it turned out , thick and shining , the brightest and whitest hide of all , one might say . ”
New archaeological evidence intimate , however , that — in this representative at least — Herodotus was precise .
A fresh study publish in the journalPLOS ONEexamined 45 samples of leather excavated at 14 different Scythian sites in southerly Ukraine . For the first clock time , researchers find grounds that the Scythians did indeed make leather out of human cutis , just as Herodotus say .
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of a Scythian warrior carrying a quiver of arrows.
The team , led by Dr. Luise Ørsted Brandt at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark , find out that while most of the leather sample they recovered belonged to domesticated creature , at least two samples were of human origin .
The majority of the leather pieces unearth from the burial site were from cows , horses , goats , and sheep , though there were also leather made from carnivorous animals . The team believes these could have been World Tamil Association , Leo , marten cat , wolverines , otters , or hyenas .
One of the human skin samples had been mixed with goat , horse , and “ unidentified bovid ” skins to make a quiver . Researchers remark that there seemed to be no apparent normal when the Scythians made their quivers — they simply used whatever leather they had on hand , human or otherwise .
“ The more strange , human and carnivore , leather appear to have been used in the top parts of the shakiness , ” they wrote . “ This may suggest that each archer made their own quiver using the fabric available at the mo . ”
To an foeman of the Scythians , being turned into leather to hold Scythian arrows would have sincerely impart insult to trauma .
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of a Scythian warrior carrying a shudder of arrows .
This macabre discovery only further validates much of what Herodotus save of the Scythians , despite claim that he had a habit of lying in his historical write up . Other archaeological discoveries in recent years have also affirm some of Herodotus ’ writings , such as the re - examination of a large imperial Scythian kurgan in southern Ukraine .
This site , know as the Aleksandropol mound , bring out a nearby funerary banqueting expanse that contained the cadaver of 11 men , women , and children — all of whom were likely killed on the smudge and forget there as part of the funerary rites for the hammock ’s purple resident .
Herodotus had once publish of a Scythian king ’s funeral , describing how mourners in attendance pull deed of self - mutilation in honor of the fallen royal . It seems , however , that the Scythians occasionally took it a step further .
Other grounds of this grisly funerary practice was launch at the burial mound in Chortomlyk , where archaeologists discovered “ six phalanxes of human fingers , two with cut marks , belonging to three or four unlike people … intimate that Scythians did in fact mourn their kings by cutting off fingers . ”
These discoveries , macabre as they may be , are archaeologically significant , as they offer evidence for Herodotus ’ claims about the ancient Scythian refinement . Up until the twentieth century , Herodotus ’ account was one of the only descriptions of Scythian life , with small archaeological grounds to back it up .
In forward-looking times , excavations across Russia and Ukraine have let out much more information about this feared nomadic culture .
The Scythians were one of the earliest human groups to control the art of sawhorse riding , and they became equally skilled as mounted warriors . For days , their empire stretched across eastern Europe and Asia , expound into parts of modern - twenty-four hours Russia , until they were ultimately overcome by the Sarmatians around the 4th 100 B.C.E.
And as the evidence now shows , their refinement was specially brutal .
After learn about the ancient human leather found in Ukraine , take about the find of a previously unknown“ghost universe ” of an ancient human ancestor . Or , hear about this3,000 - class - quondam mask discover in China — that may have go to an ancient secluded society .
