Scythians

2,300-year-old boots that belong to a Scythian woman, preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains. The Scythians (pronounced 'SIH-thee-uns') were a nomadic tribe that lived in southern Siberia from around 900 to 200 B.C. Much of our knowledge about the Scythians comes from the writings of Greeks, Assyrians, and Persians, as the Scythians themselves did not keep written records.

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "None who attacks them can escape, and none can catch them if they desire not to be found. For when men have no established cities or fortresses, but all are house-bearers and mounted archers, living not by tilling the soil but by cattle-rearing and carrying their dwellings on wagons, how should these not be invincible and unapproachable?"

Herodotus also describes how the Scythians enjoyed a ritual involving getting high on hemp in a type of mobile "weed sauna":

"They anoint and wash their heads; as for their bodies, they set up three poles leaning together to a point and cover these over with woollen mats; then, in the place so enclosed to the best of their power, they make a pit in the centre beneath the poles and the mats and throw red-hot stones into it... The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and, creeping under the mats, they throw it on the red-hot stones; and, being so thrown, it smoulders and sends forth so much steam that no Greek vapour-bath could surpass it. The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapour-bath. This serves them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water."

Archaeologists have also discovered that nearly a third of all Scythian women were buried with bows and arrows and other weapons; they had injuries from war just like their male counterparts. These were female warriors who trained, hunted, and fought alongside men on the Eurasian steppe. It is believed that these Scythian women were the Amazon warriors described in the stories written by the Ancient Greeks.

Credit: Mazi Okochi Ozola