Scientific Analysis Shows Ancient Scythians Made Leather From Human Skin
Scientific Analysis Shows Ancient Scythians Made Leather From Human Skin
Herodotus’ brutal descriptions of complex nomadic neighbors may have been true
When it comes to history, we have a biased idea of what a civilization consists of. And it’s only logical we do. “Great civilizations” of the past left lots to study: from ruins of settlements to written languages that give much depth to the people themselves.
Moreover, they lived like us. They settled in one place and had their equivalents of cities, markets, agriculture, and land which they occupied. But civilizations are complex beasts, and the Scythians are a good example.
Not far from the Classic Greeks, this confederation of nomadic people from the Steppes did things differently. In certain ways, they resembled the Mongols. They were excellent horse riders, archers, and had a different idea about an empire.
According to Jack Weatherford in Genghis Kahn and the Quest for God, Steppe nomads didn’t conquer “land” because that seemed infinite. They conquered water instead. He says these tribes and confederations often “called one another by the name of the body of water near where they lived.”
A settled city wasn’t necessary either. They could bring the things required to maintain their economy and culture wherever they traveled. So, they didn’t leave vast ruins or writing, only burial mounds.
However, one of the greatest Greek writers, Herodotus, wrote a history about them. It sounds like the movie Predator. The historian says the Scythians drank blood, took heads, and turned the enemy’s skin into napkins and cloaks.
New scientific analysis says this description may not have been hyperbolic. It also gives us another view of a complex culture, which can alter our ideas of what a civilization can look like.
Who Were The Scythians
“Scythians are understood to be the nomads that occupied the steppes north of the Black Sea, and between the Danube and the Don Rivers, as defined by the ancient Greek ‘father of history’ Herodotus. For over three centuries (c. 700–300 BCE), Scythians served as the mobile bridge that linked the various sedentary societies of Europe and Asia and played a fundamental role in the creation and transfer of technologies, languages, ideologies, commodities, and pathogens between ‘East’ and ‘West’.”
— Brandt LØ, Mackie M, Daragan M, Collins MJ, Gleba M (2023) Human and animal skin identified by palaeoproteomics in Scythian leather objects from Ukraine. PLoS ONE 18(12): e0294129.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Scythians were among the first horse-riding people “feared and admired for their prowess in war.” In particular, they were known to be skilled archers.
The Scythians originated from around modern Iran and once controlled areas from Western Persia, through Judea, and Syria, to the very borders of Egypt. The Medes eventually pushed them out, leaving them in the border areas north of Persia and through modern Ukraine and Russia.
But Archeologist Luise Ørsted Brandt and her colleagues in the Journal PLOS One say not much is known about them. While some royal Scythians left elaborate gold pieces, they had no writing or buildings to explain their cultures. Most of what we know comes from burial mounds or the writing of others about them.
In their research paper, Brandt and her team studied forty-five examples of material found in fourteen of these mounds scattered around Ukraine. They found many pieces of leather in these graves. But time and environmental degradation had taken their toll.
At one time, this finding could only be of limited use; however, technological innovation has changed this.
Ancient Leather And Modern Technology
First, you might wonder why leather would be helpful when studying ancient people. But it can tell you a lot.
According to Brandt and her team:
“The identification of the animal species used in archaeological leather is important. It not only provides insights into the range of animal species utilized but also reveals choices made in leather production, the functionality and appearance of the leather, and potentially even specific beliefs associated with the objects.”
The original way to identify archeological leather was with electron microscopes or DNA-based methods. But, they were of limited effectiveness because of the ravages of time. Now, mass spectrometry (MS) is used, which enables proteins and peptides to be analyzed, along with another method called Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS).
A similar method was recently used to analyze letters written by Vlad The Impaler, which tied the despot to a possible unique illness.
However, in this case, MS and ZooMS were able to identify many of the living creatures that provided the leather. And it gives us a deeper view of the Scythians. Namely, the leather came from various sources, but their primary choice was herd animals.
This shows us they were extremely skilled leather workers because each animal required “different preparation methods.” So, they may have been chosen for their characteristics, availability, or cultural derived reasons. Regardless, the herd for the nomad was a store of wealth.
Moreover, most of the graves had remains of quivers for carrying arrows, which also indicates the importance of archery to the Scythians.
MS proved these quivers were complex creations and often made of different types of leather. This wasn’t necessarily a surprise. However, sections of two of the quivers analyzed show some of the leather used was made from human skin.
Now, that is interesting — not just due to the shock value — but because Herodotus mentioned this previously.
The Descriptions Of Herodotus About The Scythians
“And many take the skin together with the finger-nails off the right hands of their enemies when they are dead, and make them into covers for their quivers: now human skin it seems is both thick and glossy in appearance, more brilliantly white than any other skin. Many also take the skins off the whole bodies of men and stretch them on pieces of wood and carry them about on their horses.”
— (Herodotus, Histories, 4.64)
In Histories, Herodotus claims the Scythians drink the blood of the first man they kill in battle and bring heads to their king for rewards. They also remove the skin from dead enemies to make hand towels, which they hang from their horses’ reins. The more of these trophies they carry, the greater their reputation.
So, his claims about the quivers were valid. Brandt and her team also note that Herodotus' descriptions of Scythian royal funerals further provide evidence of truth. The old Greek says mourners mutilated themselves at the ceremonies.
Royal burial mounds in Ukraine show that men, women, and children were killed and buried with the monarch. Moreover, severed fingers were also found. So, mourners may have cut their fingers off like Herodotus indicated.
Oddly, the Scythians have a fondness for the Greek style. Brandt and her associates say examples of sword scabbards and quivers at elite burial sites have been found decorated in Greek motifs. So, they were either acquired by trade, or copied in their neighbor’s style.
Combining all these elements provides a fascinating picture of the Scythians, giving us a much different idea of civilization since classical antiquity.
A Different Type Of Great Civilization
When you think of great past civilizations, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and China come to mind. All had great architecture, settled societies, written language, and documented empires to point to. But civilization can be more complex than this — the Scythians prove it.
These ancient people ruled earth-bound water, not land. Moreover, their wealth wasn’t based in farmland, but built on an economy of leather and pastoral animals, which was mobile. They also displayed a tribal ferocity, despite their incredible craftsmanship in gold and leather.
They applied their advanced leather working, turning pieces of their enemies into trophies to prove their status. Incredibly, the world’s first historian, Herodotus, noted this during Classical Greece.
The Scythians defy our traditional image of great civilizations from the past, acting as a “mobile bridge” between societies of Europe and Asia. And while they left no writing, examples of their leather economy are proving amazing tales from Herodotus to be true.
-Originally posted on Medium 12/23/23