Pages: 260-273

The basic postulate of contemporary science is that the Scythes-nomads conquered the aborigines of forest-steppe areas of Northern Pontic Region. The spreading of so called «Scythian triad», anthropomorphic statues and changes of funeral rite in early Scythian times in the forest-steppe areas are in the fundament of this theory. But analyses of all these facts contradict not only the «theory of conquering», but generally the idea of «triad» as a whole complex – an indicator of some concrete ethnos. What can we say about united Scythian culture, if some Scythian types existed in the steppe, but others – in the forest-steppe area only? The «triad» is the abstract image, made by scientists, not Scythes. But the decisive reason is spreading of the Scythian statues, which were called one of the most important indicators of the Scythian culture, only in the steppe area of Northern Pontic Region. The funeral rite does not unite the Northern Pontic Region too, moreover, we clash with a problem of choice – what type of funeral rite is really a Scythian? However, we have some categories of material culture, which is not connected with Scythian conquering and these categories, on the contrary, just unites the Northern Pontic Region in one whole. And if we pay attention to these categories, we’ll see very strong influence from the west, from Hallstatt cultures, especially Illirians, to the Ukrainian forest-steppe areas in the early Scythian times. We are talking about polished ceramics, ornaments and sacrificed grounds. Western influence in the Northern Pontic Region in the early Scythian times was very strong, and was more important than that from the east. But the question about concrete mechanisms and their nature remains, so that a simple change of eastern priorities to westerns ones didn’t appear in the evaluation of the archaic Scythian phenomenon and instead of the theory about the Scythian invasions from the east didn’t appear the theory about the Illirian invasions from the west. However, this is only a preliminary outline to the decision of these problems, an attempt to attract your attention and an invitation for discussion.

Information about author :

Aleksey Romanchuk (Kishinev, Moldova). Master of Anthropology. High Anthropological School University.
Е-mail: [email protected]