steppe Scythians, with a high density and mobility of the population, due to increased intragroup mixing and crossbreeding with neighboring groups, brachycephalization began. According to another point of view, the difference between steppe groups and forest-steppe groups is associated with their different origin. Forest-steppe Scythians are autochthonous and show the greatest resemblance to the anthropological type of logging. Steppe Scythians, judging by their resemblance to the Okunevites of Tuva, migrated to the North Black Sea from the east. In the Saka time, the Asian steppe population was characterized by mesobrachiality, with a large facial section, with moderate protrusion of the nasal bones and a weakening of horizontal profiling. Subsequently, the South Siberian race will form on the basis of these complexes.
Herodotus, outlining the “Scythian square” of the tribes, reports on nomads, steppes, who have neither arable land, nor cities, nor settlements. Herodotus speaks of them as people speaking a different language, different from the Scythian. For example, the Sarmatian language, Herodotus called “spoiled Scythian.” Herodotus writes about the Scythians: “They are generally beautiful and tall; their hair is cast in light brown color. Their look is more militant than ferocious.” The self-name of the Scythians – chipped (skolot, skolt)
Paleogenetics
According to DNA testing from Scythian burials, Scythians were carriers of the Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1a – Z2123 (both European Scythians and Asian (Siberian) Scythians and mitochondrial haplogroups G2, G2a4, F1b, F2a, U5a, U5a1 T1, T1, T1, T1,, A4 H, H2a1, D, D4b1, N1a, I3, HV2, HV6, J, K [28].
Scythians from the Republic of Tuva identified Y-chromosome haplogroups R1a-M513, R1a1a1b2-Z93, N-M231, Q1b1a-L54, Q1b1a3-L330.
Ethnogenesis
Genetic studies of Scythian archaeological cultures support two possible scenarios for the emergence of Scythians: multiregional, and, less likely, western and northern. From the regions adjacent to the Arctic Circle, as evidenced by numerous legends and the very toponymy of places in this region of Russia. According to the Western scenario, the Scythians came from Western European tribes, after which their eastern part interfered with the Asians (Han Chinese) for two centuries, according to the multi-regional scenario, the Scythians consist of Western Europeans and Asians, who interfered with each other for two centuries. For more than a thousand years (from the end of the 9th century BC to the third quarter of the 4th century AD), Iranian-speaking tribes known as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Saks, Massagets, Alans played a huge role in the history of the steppe regions of southern Russia. It was believed that the path from the boundary of the Bronze and Iron Age to the original unity of all Iranians should not be long. As early as I millennium BC. e., in the early Iron Age, for the reasons of I. M. Dyakonov (1956: 290—291), based on lexical facts, the language of the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region was within the framework of mutual understanding for the ancient Medes, and the language of the Avesta is similar to the language of the Rigveda. Discussions about the origin of the Black Sea Scythians, aggravated in recent years among craniologists [Yablonsky, 2000; Kozintsev, 2000; Krup, 2004], are related to the issue of anthropological homogeneity of this group. S. G. Efimova [2000], who upholds, like L. T. Yablonsky [2000], the theory of autochthonous anthropological consolidation of Scythians, nevertheless convincingly demonstrated that the steppe Scythians are markedly different from the forest-steppe ones. Scythian culture is actively studied by supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis. The formation of a relatively universally recognized Scythian culture, archaeologists date back to the VII century BC. e. There are two main approaches to the interpretation of its occurrence:
– according to one, based on the so-called “Third Legend” of Herodotus, the Scythians came from the east;
– another approach, which can also be based on legends recorded by Herodotus, suggests that the Scythians by that time lived on the territory of the Northern Black Sea Coast for at least several centuries, standing out from among the successors of the Srubnaya culture. – And the third option, taking into account all the legends, and the toponymy of the North, and the testimonies of Herodotus and Homer, from the Subpolar region, the Yamal Peninsula region.
The problem of the origin of the Scythians and their culture has not been resolved any convincing to this day. The abundance and inconsistency of existing points of view on this issue is simply amazing. However, most of the opinions of scientists in one way or another are adjacent to one of two traditionally opposed hypotheses.
The first hypothesis – the so-called autochthonous – was most fully substantiated by B. N. Grakov. He believed that the direct ancestors of the Scythians were the tribes of the Srubnaya culture of the Bronze Age, who penetrated the Northern Black Sea Region from the Volga Region. This penetration was very slow and long (from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. E.), and the migration of Scythians mentioned by Herodotus “from Asia” (and “Asia” began for ancient geographers right after Don Tanais) is only one of its waves most likely the latter. Migrant migrants met in the steppes of the Black Sea region with earlier migrants from the same regions, and based on the merger of these related groups, an ethnically homogeneous population of the Scythian time formed, speaking one of the dialects of the North Iranian language. It was the culture of the Srubk tribes, which experienced significant changes during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and from a semi-sedentary lifestyle to genuine nomadism, which, according to B.N. Grakov, laid the foundation of the Scythian culture itself. True, he considered the art of the Scythians (animal style) and some forms of their weapons brought from somewhere outside. The Gracian hypothesis is adjoined by the Near Asian version of the famous Leningrad archaeologist, specialist in Scythians and Khazars M.I. Artamonov. According to his point of view, the carcass culture of the Bronze Age directly preceded the Scythian in the Northern Black Sea Region and in many respects predetermined its main features. However, the emergence of the Scythian culture itself in the VII century. BC. and, especially, such a striking trait of hers as the animal style of M.I. Artamonov connected with the influence of the developed civilizations of Western Asia. According to B. N. Grakov, both the Scythians and the Cimmerians are direct descendants of the “loggers”, therefore they have a common culture and, most likely, are ethnically related. The animal style of the Scythians finds clear parallels in the art of the basin of the Perm region, with its animal style.
The second hypothesis. The completely recognized approach to solving this problem is recognized by the leader of a group of scientists who uphold the legitimacy of the so-called Central Asian hypothesis, A. I. Terenozhkin. According to this researcher, between the population of the Northern Black Sea region of the pre-Scythian and Scythian times, there is no ethnic or cultural continuity.Scythians come to the region from the depths of Asia in the 7th century. BC
Myths about the origin of the Scythians Herodotus reports three legends about the origin of the Scythians:
“5. According to the stories of the Scythians, their people are younger than all. And he happened in this way. The first resident of this still uninhabited country was a man named Targitai. The parents of this Targitai, as the Scythians say, were Zeusi the daughter of the Borisfen River. This was Targitai, and he had three sons: Lipoksai Arpoksai and the youngest – Kolaksai. In their reign, golden objects fell from heaven to the Scythian land: a plow, a yoke, an ax and a bowl.
6. The first to see these things was the older brother. He had barely come to pick them up, when the gold burned. Then he retreated, and the second brother approached, and again the gold was enveloped in flames. So the heat of blazing gold drove away both brothers, but when the third, younger brother came up, the flame went out, and he carried the gold to his house. Therefore, the older brothers agreed to give the kingdom to the younger. So, from Lipoksais, as they say, a Scythian tribe called Avkhats came from a middle brother –
