Names of the Scythians

The names of the Scythians are a topic of interest for classicists and linguists. The Scythians were an Iranic people best known for dominating much of the Pontic steppe from about 700 BC to 400 BC. The name of the Scythians is believed to be of Indo-European origin and to have meant "archer". The Scythians gave their name to the region of Scythia. The Persians referred to all Iranic nomads of the steppes, including the Scythians, as Sakas. Some modern scholars apply the name Scythians to all peoples of the Scytho-Siberian world, but this terminology is controversial.

Etymology

Linguist Oswald Szemerényi studied synonyms of various origins for Scythian and differentiated the following terms: Skuthēs (Σκυθης), Skudra (𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼), Sugᵘda (𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭) and Sakā (𐎿𐎣𐎠).^[1]

From the Indo-European root (s)kewd-, meaning "propel, shoot" (and from which was also derived the English word shoot), of which *skud- is the zero-grade form, was descended from the Scythians' self-name reconstructed by Szemerényi as *Skuδa (roughly "archer").^[1] The collective endonym of the Scythians, *Skuδatā, was formed by the addition of the suffix *-tā, which denoted the plural form.^[2][3]

From *Skuδa were descended the following exonyms:^[1]

• Akkadian: 𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀, romanized: Iškuzaya, and 𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 Askuzaya, used by the Assyrians
• Old Persian: 𐎿𐎤𐎢𐎭𐎼, romanized: Skudra
• Ancient Greek: Σκυθης, romanized: Skuthēs (plural Σκυθαι, Skuthai), used by the Ancient Greeks^[4]

• The Old Armenian: սկիւթ, Skiwtʰ, is based on itacistic Greek

A late Scythian sound change from /δ/ to /l/ resulted in the evolution of *Skuδa into *Skula, from which was derived the collective endonym of the Scythians at a later date, *Skulatā, formed by the addition of the plural suffix *-tā.^[3] This designation was recorded in Greek as Skōlotoi Σκωλοτοι, which, according to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, was the self-designation of the Royal Scythians.^[2]

Due to the sound change of /δ/ into /l/, the derivation of Old Persian Skudra was instead likely done indirectly from the Median language, which had preserved the older Scythian form Skuδa due to early contacts between the Medes and the Scythians during the 7th century BC, before the sound change from /δ/ to /l/ was complete.^[5]

Other sound changes have produced Sugᵘda 𐎿𐎢𐎦𐎢𐎭.^[1]

From an Iranian verbal root sak-, "go, roam" and thus meaning "nomad" was derived the term Saka, from which came the names:

• Old Persian: 𐎿𐎣𐎠, romanized: Sakā, used by the ancient Persians to designate all nomads of the Eurasian steppe, including the Scythians^[6]
  • Old Persian: 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹, romanized: Sakā tayaiy paradraya, meaning "the Sakā who live beyond the (Black) Sea," was used specifically to designate the Pontic Scythians
• Ancient Greek: Σακαι, romanized: Sakai
• Latin: Sacae
• Sanskrit: शक, romanized: Śaka
• Old Chinese: 塞, romanized: Sək^[7][8][9]

Identification

 

For the Achaemenids, there were three types of Sakas: the Sakā tayai paradraya ("beyond the sea", presumably between the Greeks and the Thracians on the Western side of the Black Sea), the Sakā tigraxaudā ("with pointed caps"), the Sakā haumavargā ("Hauma drinkers", furthest East). Soldiers of the Achaemenid army, Xerxes I tomb detail, circa 480 BC.^[10]

The name Sakā was used by the ancient Persians to refer to all the Iranian nomadic tribes living to the north of their empire, including both those who lived between the Caspian Sea and the Hungry steppe, and those who lived to the north of the Danube and the Black Sea. The Assyrians meanwhile called these nomads the Ishkuzai (𒅖𒆪𒍝𒀀𒀀 Iškuzaya,^[11][12] 𒊍𒄖𒍝𒀀𒀀 Asguzaya^[11][13]), and the Ancient Greeks called them Skuthai (Σκυθης Skuthēs, Σκυθοι Skuthoi, Σκυθαι Skuthai).^[14]

The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed a single group of Sakā. However, following Darius I's campaign of 520 to 518 BC against the Asian nomads, they were differentiated into two groups, both living in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea:^[14][15]

• the Sakā tigraxaudā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠) – "Sakā who wear pointed caps," who have been identified with the Massagetae,^[16][17] and possibly with the Dahae as well.^[18][19][20]
• the Sakā haumavargā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠) – interpreted as "Sakā who lay hauma (around the fire)",^[21] which can be interpreted as "Sakā who revere hauma."^[22]

A third name was added after the Darius's campaign north of the Danube:^[14]

• the Sakā tayaiy paradraya (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹) – "Sakā who live beyond the (Black) Sea", who were the Pontic Scythians of the East European steppes

An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:^[23][14]

• the Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam (𐎿𐎣𐎡𐎲𐎡𐏁 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼 𐏐 𐎿𐎢𐎥𐎭𐎶) – "Sakā who are beyond Sogdia", a term was used by Darius for the people who formed the north-eastern limits of his empire at the opposite end to satrapy of Kush (the Ethiopians).^[24][25] These Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam have been suggested to have been the same people as the Sakā haumavargā^[26]

Moreover, Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions mention two group of Sakas:^[27][28]

• the Sꜣg pḥ (𓐠𓎼𓄖𓈉) – "Sakā of the Marshes"
• the Sk tꜣ (𓋴𓎝𓎡𓇿𓈉) – "Sakā of the Land"

The scholar David Bivar had tentatively identified the Sk tꜣ with the Sakā haumavargā,^[29] and John Manuel Cook had tentatively identified the Sꜣg pḥ with the Sakā tigraxaudā.^[26] More recently, the scholar Rüdiger Schmitt has suggested that the Sꜣg pḥ and the Sk tꜣ might have collectively designated the Sakā tigraxaudā/Massagetai.^[30]

Late antiquity

In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic "barbarians" living on the Pontic-Caspian steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians, such as the Huns, Goths, Ostrogoths, Turkic peoples, Pannonian Avars, Slavs, and Khazars.^[31][2] For example, Byzantine sources referred to the Rus' raiders who attacked Constantinople in 860 AD in contemporary accounts as "Tauroscythians" because of their geographical origin, and despite their lack of any ethnic relation to Scythians.^[32]

Modern terminology

See also: Scytho-Siberian world

The Scythians were part of the wider Scytho-Siberian world, stretching across the Eurasian Steppes^[2][33] of Kazakhstan, the Russian steppes of the Siberian, Ural, Volga and Southern regions, and eastern Ukraine.^[34] In a broader sense, Scythians has also been used to designate all early Eurasian nomads,^[33] although the validity of such terminology is controversial,^[2] and other terms such as "Early nomadic" have been deemed preferable.^[35]

Although the Scythians, Saka and Cimmerians were closely related nomadic Iranian peoples, and the ancient Babylonians, ancient Persians and ancient Greeks respectively used the names "Cimmerian," "Saka," and "Scythian" for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as Edward Gibbon mistakenly used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian steppe,^[36] the name "Scythian" in contemporary modern scholarship generally refers to the nomadic Iranian people who dominated the Pontic steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC,^[37] while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin;^{[37][38][better source needed][39][40]} and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian, they formed a different tribe from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians in the Pontic Steppe.^[41]

The Scythians shared several cultural similarities with other populations living to their east, in particular similar weapons, horse gear and Scythian art, which has been referred to as the Scythian triad.^[2][35] Cultures sharing these characteristics have often been referred to as Scythian cultures, and its peoples called Scythians.^[33][42] Peoples associated with Scythian cultures include not only the Scythians themselves, who were a distinct ethnic group,^[43] but also Cimmerians, Massagetae, Saka, Sarmatians and various obscure peoples of the forest steppe,^[2][33] such as early Slavs, Balts and Finnic peoples.^[6][44]

Within this broad definition of the term Scythian, the actual Scythians have often been distinguished from other groups through the terms Classical Scythians, Western Scythians, European Scythians or Pontic Scythians.^[33] Nevertheless, the archaeologist Maurits Nanning van Loon in 1966 instead used the term Western Scythians to designate the Cimmerians and referred to the Scythians proper as the Eastern Scythians.^[45]

Scythologist Askold Ivantchik notes with dismay that the term "Scythian" has been used within both a broad and a narrow context, leading to a good deal of confusion. He reserves the term "Scythian" for the Iranian people dominating the Pontic steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC.^[2] Nicola Di Cosmo writes that the broad concept of "Scythian" to describe the early nomadic populations of the Eurasian steppe is "too broad to be viable," and that the term "early nomadic" is preferable.^[35]

See also

• Names of the Celts
• Name of the Goths
• Names of the Greeks
• Name of the Franks

Notes and sources

Notes

1. Szemerényi 1980
2. Ivantchik 2018.
3. Novák 2013, p. 10.
4. Davis-Kimball, Bashilov & Yablonsky 1995, pp. 27–28 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDavis-KimballBashilovYablonsky1995 (help)
5. Bukharin 2013, p. 58-61.
6. West 2002, pp. 437–440
7. Zhang Guang-da (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750. UNESCO. p. 283. ISBN 978-8120815407.
8. H. W. Bailey (7 February 1985). Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts. Cambridge University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-521-11873-6.
9. Callieri 2016: "The ethnonym Saka appears in ancient Iranian and Indian sources as the name of the large family of Iranian nomads called Scythians by the Classical Western sources and Sai by the Chinese (Gk. Sacae; OPers. Sakā)."
10. Names of the Scythians at Encyclopædia Iranica
11. Parpola, Simo (1970). Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker. p. 178.
12. "Iškuzaya [SCYTHIAN] (EN)". oracc.museum.upenn.edu.
13. "Asguzayu [SCYTHIAN] (EN)". oracc.museum.upenn.edu.
14. Cook 1985, p. 252-255.
15. Dandamayev 1994, p. 44-46.
16. Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2000). "Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations". In Pstrusińska, Jadwiga [in Polish]; Fear, Andrew (eds.). Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka. pp. 101–140. ISBN 978-8-371-88337-8.
17. Olbrycht 2021 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFOlbrycht2021 (help): "Apparently the Dahai represented an entity not identical with the other better known groups of the Sakai, i.e. the Sakai (Sakā) tigrakhaudā (Massagetai, roaming in Turkmenistan), and Sakai (Sakā) Haumavargā (in Transoxania and beyond the Syr Daryā)."
18. Harmatta 1999.
19. Abetekov, A.; Yusupov, H. (1994). "Ancient Iranian Nomads in Western Central Asia". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Harmatta, János; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris, France: UNESCO. pp. 24–34. ISBN 978-9-231-02846-5.
20. Zadneprovskiy, Y. A. (1994). "The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After the Invansion of Alexander". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Harmatta, János; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris, France: UNESCO. pp. 448–463. ISBN 978-9-231-02846-5. The middle of the third century b.c. saw the rise to power of a group of tribes consisting of the Parni (Aparni) and the Dahae, descendants of the Massagetae of the Aral Sea region.
21. Schmitt 2003.
22. Dandamaev, Muhammad A.; Lukonin, Vladimir G. (1989). The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran. Cambridge University Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-521-61191-6.
23. Francfort 1988, p. 173.
24. Bailey, H. W. (1983). "Khotanese Saka Literature". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 3. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 1230. ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4.
25. Briant, Pierre (29 July 2006). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-57506-120-7. This is Kingdom which I hold, from the Scythians [Saka] who are beyond Sogdiana, thence unto Ethiopia [Cush]; from Sind, thence unto Sardis.
26. Cook 1985, p. 254-255.
27. Young 1988, p. 89.
28. Francfort 1988, p. 177.
29. Bivar, A. D. H. (1983). "The History of Eastern Iran". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 3. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 181–231. ISBN 978-0-521-20092-9.
30. Schmitt 2018.
31. Dickens 2018, p. 1346: "Greek authors [...] frequently applied the name Scythians to later nomadic groups who had no relation whatever to the original Scythians"
32. Vasilʹev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1946). The Russian Attack on Constantinople in 860. Cambridge, United States: Mediaeval Academy of America. p. 187.
33. Unterländer, Martina (3 March 2017). "Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe". Nature Communications. 8: 14615. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814615U. doi:10.1038/ncomms14615. PMC 5337992. PMID 28256537. Contemporary descendants of western Scythian groups are found among various groups in the Caucasus and Central Asia, while similarities to eastern Scythian are found to be more widespread, but almost exclusively among Turkic language speaking (formerly) nomadic groups, particularly from the Kipchak branch of Turkic languages.
34. Järve, Mari; et al. (22 July 2019). "Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance". Current Biology. 29 (14): 2430–2441. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.019. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 31303491. S2CID 195887262. E10.
35. Di Cosmo 1999, p. 891: "Even though there were fundamental ways in which nomadic groups over such a vast territory differed, the terms "Scythian" and "Scythic" have been widely adopted to describe a special phase that followed the widespread diffusion of mounted nomadism, characterized by the presence of special weapons, horse gear, and animal art in the form of metal plaques. Archaeologists have used the term "Scythic continuum" in a broad cultural sense to indicate the early nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppe. The term "Scythic" draws attention to the fact that there are elements – shapes of weapons, vessels, and ornaments, as well as lifestyle – common to both the eastern and western ends of the Eurasian steppe region. However, the extension and variety of sites across Asia makes Scythian and Scythic terms too broad to be viable, and the more neutral "early nomadic" is preferable, since the cultures of the Northern Zone cannot be directly associated with either the historical Scythians or any specific archaeological culture defined as Saka or Scytho-Siberian."
36. Rogers 2001.
37. • Dandamayev 1994, p. 37: "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."
    • Cernenko 2012, p. 3: "The Scythians lived in the Early Iron Age, and inhabited the northern areas of the Black Sea (Pontic) steppes. Though the 'Scythian period' in the history of Eastern Europe lasted little more than 400 years, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC, the impression these horsemen made upon the history of their times was such that a thousand years after they had ceased to exist as a sovereign people, their heartland and the territories which they dominated far beyond it continued to be known as 'greater Scythia'."
    • Melykova 1990, pp. 97–98: "From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes – the Scythians and Sarmatians [...] "[I]t may be confidently stated that from the end of the 7th century to the 3rd century B.C. the Scythians occupied the steppe expanses of the north Black Sea area, from the Don in the east to the Danube in the West."
    • Ivantchik 2018: "Scythians, a nomadic people of Iranian origin who flourished in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea during the 7th–4th centuries BC (Figure 1). For related groups in Central Asia and India, see [...]"
    • Sulimirski 1985, pp. 149–153: "During the first half of the first millennium B.C., c. 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, the southern part of Eastern Europe was occupied mainly by peoples of Iranian stock [...] The main Iranian-speaking peoples of the region at that period were the Scyths and the Sarmatians [...] [T]he population of ancient Scythia was far from being homogeneous, nor were the Scyths themselves a homogeneous people. The country called after them was ruled by their principal tribe, the "Royal Scyths" (Her. iv. 20), who were of Iranian stock and called themselves "Skolotoi" (iv. 6); they were nomads who lived in the steppe east of the Dnieper up to the Don, and in the Crimean steppe [...] The eastern neighbours of the "Royal Scyths," the Sauromatians, were also Iranian; their country extended over the steppe east of the Don and the Volga."
    • Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 547: "The name 'Scythian' is met in the classical authors and has been taken to refer to an ethnic group or people, also mentioned in Near Eastern texts, who inhabited the northern Black Sea region."
    • West 2002, pp. 437–440: "Ordinary Greek (and later Latin) usage could designate as Scythian any northern barbarian from the general area of the Eurasian steppe, the virtually treeless corridor of drought-resistant perennial grassland extending from the Danube to Manchuria. Herodotus seeks greater precision, and this essay is focussed on his Scythians, who belong to the North Pontic steppe [...] These true Scyths seems to be those whom he calls Royal Scyths, that is, the group who claimed hegemony [...] apparently warrior-pastoralists. It is generally agreed, from what we know of their names, that these were people of Iranian stock [...]"
    • Jacobson 1995, pp. 36–37: "When we speak of Scythians, we refer to those Scytho-Siberians who inhabited the Kuban Valley, the Taman and Kerch peninsulas, Crimea, the northern and northeastern littoral of the Black Sea, and the steppe and lower forest steppe regions now shared between Ukraine and Russia, from the seventh century down to the first century B.C [...] They almost certainly spoke an Iranian language [...]"
    • Di Cosmo 1999, p. 924: "The first historical steppe nomads, the Scythians, inhabited the steppe north of the Black Sea from about the eight century B.C."
    • Rice, Tamara Talbot. "Central Asian arts: Nomadic cultures". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 4 October 2019. [Saka] gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.
38. Kramrisch, Stella. "Central Asian Arts: Nomadic Cultures". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 1 September 2018. The Śaka tribe was pasturing its herds in the Pamirs, central Tien Shan, and in the Amu Darya delta. Their gold belt buckles, jewelry, and harness decorations display sheep, griffins, and other animal designs that are similar in style to those used by the Scythians, a nomadic people living in the Kuban basin of the Caucasus region and the western section of the Eurasian plain during the greater part of the 1st millennium bc.
39. Lendering 1996.
40. Unterländer 2017. "During the first millennium BC, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin [...] Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BC chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive ‘Animal Style' artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture [...]"
41. Tokhtas’ev 1991: "As the Cimmerians cannot be differentiated archeologically from the Scythians, it is possible to speculate about their Iranian origins. In the Neo-Babylonian texts (according to D’yakonov, including at least some of the Assyrian texts in Babylonian dialect) Gimirri and similar forms designate the Scythians and Central Asian Saka, reflecting the perception among inhabitants of Mesopotamia that Cimmerians and Scythians represented a single cultural and economic group"
42. Watson 1972, p. 142: "The term 'Scythic' has been used above to denote a group of basic traits which characterize material culture from the fifth to the first century B.C. in the whole zone stretching from the Transpontine steppe to the Ordos, and without ethnic connotation. How far nomadic populations in central Asia and the eastern steppes may be of Scythian, Iranic, race, or contain such elements makes a precarious speculation."
43. David & McNiven 2018: "Horse-riding nomadism has been referred to as the culture of 'Early Nomads'. This term encompasses different ethnic groups (such as Scythians, Saka, Massagetae, and Yuezhi) [...]"
44. Davis-Kimball, Bashilov & Yablonsky 1995, p. 33 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDavis-KimballBashilovYablonsky1995 (help)
45. van Loon 1966, p. 16.

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