warriors of the steppe in movies, music and art

[deuce]

Scythian treasures of Siberia:



siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0212-focus-on-tuva-stunning-treasures-and-macabre-slaughter-in-siberias-prehistoric-valley-of-the-kings/?comm_order=best&c_page=2

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2017 9:39:10 GMT -5 deuce said:

Scythian treasures of Siberia:



siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0212-focus-on-tuva-stunning-treasures-and-macabre-slaughter-in-siberias-prehistoric-valley-of-the-kings/?comm_order=best&c_page=2

Yeah, I remember reading about this find. The ancient nomads certainly loved their gold and they were highly skilled artists.

[deuce]

Jul 11, 2017 18:45:27 GMT -5 deuce said:

Good post on Timur...

www.camrea.org/2017/07/11/tamerlanes-invasion-of-india-part-i/

Part 2:



www.camrea.org/2017/07/18/tamerlanes-invasion-of-india-part-ii/

[Deleted]

'Barbarism vs. Civilization'
A discussion between the East Roman Diplomat/Sophist Priscus of Panium and a Greco-Roman turned 'Hun'.

Kinda like the 'Barbarism vs. Civilization' and 'Physical vs. Mental' discussions between REH and HPL - only around 1,400 years earlier 


Feast Of Attila by Mór Than

In 448/9 Priscus joined his friend and diplomat Maximinus (Maximin in excerpt below) on an embassy to the great Attila the Hun. Unbeknownst to the two diplomats the Emperor Theodosius II (reigned 408–450) and the scheming eunuch Chrysaphius conspired to have Attila assassinated by Edeco, a Hun. Anyway the assassination did fail, Edeco either duped the Emperor and eunuch or lost his nerve and revealed the plot to Attila.

Back to Priscus, he relates a first-hand contemporary account of Attila and the Huns and his work is a major source concerning Hunnic history - all later historians sourced the work of Priscus (Jordanes, Cassiodorus etc). Only fragments of Priscus' History of Attila and the Huns are extant today. In the 10th century, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959) commissioned the 'Excerpta de Legationibus' - basically an historical compilation of Roman diplomatic missions and thankfully Priscus' embassy to the Huns was one of the embassies included. 


Anyway, back to Priscus and the Greco-Roman turned Hun. At the Hunnic camp, Priscus encountered a well-dressed Hun that saluted him in Greek. Priscus enquired about how a Greek speaker became a Hun, or why?

The Hun explained how great it is to be Hun and have the power to protect yourself and your family and the honesty of the barbarians in comparison to the corrupt Roman officials. The Greek Hun related to Priscus the virtues of Hunnic life. Of course, Priscus is a man of words, a sophist, so he rebukes the Hun's arguments disapprovingly, ending with the Greek Hun in tears by the end of the encounter. I have my doubts about the outcome of this discussion, or if it even happened at all. 



I have added notes in brackets ()

After dinner we left the house of Onegesius (A high ranking Hun), and took up our quarters nearer the palace, so that Maximin(us) might be at a convenient distance for visiting Attila or holding intercourse with his court. The next morning, at dawn of day, Maximin sent me to Onegesius, with presents offered by himself as well as those which the Emperor had sent, and I was to find out whether he would have an interview with Maximin and at what time. When I arrived at the house, along with the attendants who carried the gifts, I found the doors closed, and had to wait until some one should come out and announce our arrival. As I waited and walked up and down in front of the enclosure which surrounded the house, a man, whom from his Scythian dress I took for a barbarian, came up and addressed me in Greek, with the word Xaire, "Hail!" I was surprised at a Scythian speaking Greek. For the subjects of the Huns, swept together from various lands, speak, besides their own barbarous tongues, either Hunnic or Gothic, or--as many as have commercial dealings with the western Romans--Latin; but none of them easily speak Greek, except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian sea-coast; and these last are easily known to any stranger by their torn garments and the squalor of their heads, as men who have met with a reverse. This man, on the contrary, resembled a well-to-do Scythian, being well dressed, and having his hair cut in a circle after Scythian fashion. Having returned his salutation, I asked him who he was and whence he had come into a foreign land and adopted Scythian life. When he asked me why I wanted to know, I told him that his Hellenic speech had prompted my curiosity. Then he smiled and said that he was born a Greek and had gone as a merchant to Viminacium (about 12km from Kostolac, Serbia), on the Danube, where he had stayed a long time, and married a very rich wife. But the city fell a prey to the barbarians, and he was stript of his prosperity, and on account of his riches was allotted to Onegesius in the division of the spoil, as it was the custom among the Scythians for the chiefs to reserve for themselves the rich prisoners. Having fought bravely against the Romans and the Acatiri ( Hunnic tribe), he had paid the spoils he won to his master, and so obtained freedom. He then married a barbarian wife and had children, and had the privilege of eating at the table of Onegesius.
He considered his new life among the Scythians better than his old life among the Romans, and the reasons he gave were as follows: "After war the Scythians live in inactivity, enjoying what they have got, and not at all, or very little, harassed. The Romans, on the other hand, are in the first place very liable to perish in war, as they have to rest their hopes of safety on others, and are not allowed, on account of their tyrants to use arms. And those who use them are injured by the cowardice of their generals, who cannot support the conduct of war. But the condition of the subjects in time of peace is far more grievous than the evils of war, for the exaction of the taxes is very severe, and unprincipled men inflict injuries on others, because the laws are practically not valid against all classes. A transgressor who belongs to the wealthy classes is not punished for his injustice, while a poor man, who does not understand business, undergoes the legal penalty, that is if he does not depart this life before the trial, so long is the course of lawsuits protracted, and so much money is expended on them. The climax of the misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice. For no one will give a court to the injured man unless he pay a sum of money to the judge and the judge's clerks."

In reply to this attack on the Empire, I asked him to be good enough to listen with patience to the other side of the question. "The creators of the Roman republic," I said, "who were wise and good men, in order to prevent things from being done at haphazard made one class of men guardians of the laws, and appointed another class to the profession of arms, who were to have no other object than to be always ready for battle, and to go forth to war without dread, as though to their ordinary exercise having by practice exhausted all their fear beforehand. Others again were assigned to attend to the cultivation of the ground, to support both themselves and those who fight in their defence, by contributing the military corn-supply.... To those who protect the interests of the litigants a sum of money is paid by the latter, just as a payment is made by the farmers to the soldiers. Is it not fair to support him who assists and requite him for his kindness? The support of the horse benefits the horseman.... Those who spend money on a suit and lose it in the end cannot fairly put it down to anything but the injustice of their case. And as to the long time spent on lawsuits, that is due to concern for justice, that judges may not fail in passing correct judgments, by having to give sentence offhand; it is better that they should reflect, and conclude the case more tardily, than that by judging in a hurry they should both injure man and transgress against the Deity, the institutor of justice.... The Romans treat their servants better than the king of the Scythians treats his subjects. They deal with them as fathers or teachers, admonishing them to abstain from evil and follow the lines of conduct whey they have esteemed honourable; they reprove them for their errors like their own children. They are not allowed, like the Scythians, to inflict death on them. They have numerous ways of conferring freedom; they can manumit not only during life, but also by their wills, and the testamentary wishes of a Roman in regard to his property are law."

My interlocutor shed tears, and confessed that the laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generations, were ruining the State.


Translation by J.B. Bury (Priscus, fr. 8 in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum)

[deuce]

I just want to repeat what I've said before: This thread is a treasure trove of info on the history and peoples of the steppe. From what I can tell, there isn't a blog or website on the net that packs so much cool data into such a small "space".  Great job, Hun.  

[Deleted]

Jul 29, 2017 10:00:02 GMT -5 deuce said:

I just want to repeat what I've said before: This thread is a treasure trove of info on the history and peoples of the steppe. From what I can tell, there isn't a blog or website on the net that packs so much cool data into such a small "space".  Great job, Hun.  

Wow.

Thanks for the kind words Deuce.

Hun.

[deuce]

Angus McBride. Byzantines vs Mongol:

[Jason Aiken]

From tonight's Game of Thrones....the Dothraki in action

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2017 22:12:31 GMT -5 Jason Aiken said:

From tonight's Game of Thrones....the Dothraki in action

Thanks for the clip, Jason.

Now that's how a nomad horde should look on screen. 

Even the British Museum is getting in on the act comparing the Dothraki to the Huns, Turks, Mongols and obviously the Scythians (there's a Scythian exhibition at the British Museum next month). I think there's a great deal of American Indian culture (Comanche if I remember correctly) added to the mix.

Link:
blog.britishmuseum.org/the-dothraki-and-the-scythians-a-game-of-clones/


Spot the difference: the Dothraki Sea and the Scythian steppe. Dothraki image: © 2016 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc. Steppe photo © The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2017. Photo: V Terebenin.


Here's some more of the Dothraki vs the Lannisters in action.

[Deleted]

John Man, Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World, Bantam Press, 2017.




Description
Since the time of the ancient Greeks we have been fascinated by accounts of the Amazons, an elusive tribe of hard-fighting, horse-riding female warriors. Equal to men in battle, legends claimed they cut off their right breasts to improve their archery skills and routinely killed their male children to purify their ranks.

For centuries people believed in their existence and attempted to trace their origins. Artists and poets celebrated their battles and wrote of Amazonia. Spanish explorers, carrying these tales to South America, thought they lived in the forests of the world’s greatest river, and named it after them.

In the absence of evidence, we eventually reasoned away their existence, concluding that these powerful, sexually liberated female soldiers must have been the fantastical invention of Greek myth and storytelling. Until now.

Following decades of new research and a series of groundbreaking archeological discoveries, we now know these powerful warrior queens did indeed exist. In Amazons, John Man travels to the grasslands of Central Asia, from the edge of the ancient Greek world to the borderlands of China, to discover the truth about the warrior women mythologized as Amazons.

In this deeply researched, sweeping historical epic, Man redefines our understanding of the Amazons and their culture, tracking the ancient legend into the modern world and examining its significance today.

[deuce]

Another look at the Mongol expansion and climate change:



www.realmofhistory.com/2016/05/28/mongols-retreated-europe-climatic-changes/

[Deleted]

This is a one minute teaser featuring Inner Mongolian group Anda Union.


Anda Union: Buriat, from the album "Homeland"

Link to website:
andaunion.com/

[deuce]

An in-depth look at the campaigns that built the Mongol Empire:


historycollection.co/advance-mongols-6-campaigns-built-worlds-largest-land-empire/

[Deleted]

Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia, Edited by St John Simpson, Svetlana Pankova, Thames and Hudson, 2017.



Description:
The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people, who lived in the Russian steppe from 900 to 400 BC. They established a rich, nomadic civilization stretching from their homeland in Siberia as far as the Black Sea and the edge of China. Mobility and mastery of local resources were central to their culture and their achievements. Forerunners of the Sarmatians, the Huns, the Turks and the Mongols, the Scythians were feared adversaries and respected neighbours of the Assyrians, the Persians and the Ancient Greeks. Much of what we know about them comes from the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, as they left no written records of their own.

This book offers unique insights into the life and funerary beliefs of the Scythians, whose culture has been remarkably well preserved because of the unique conditions provided by the Siberian permafrost. Also included are many rare and recently discovered finds of personal garments and possessions made from gold, leather, fur and felt, revealing the legacy of one Russia’s oldest indigenous civilizations. Drawing on the latest research, this new book will appeal to anyone interested in the ancient world and Russian culture..

Table of Contents

Introduction by Dr Alekseev • 1. First discoveries in Siberia during the reign of Peter
the Great, Elena Korolkova • 2. Early archaeological findings from Siberia, Konstantin
Chugunov • 3. People in the landscape, Svetlana Pankova • 4. Eating, drinking and the
way of life, Svetlana Pankova tbc • 5. Riding and transport, hunting and war, Elena
Stepanova • 6. Death, Elena Korolkova & Svetlana Pankova • 7. Cultural contacts and
impact, Svetlana Pankova • 8. Legacy, Svetlana Pankova & Nikolaev

Amazon links:
www.amazon.co.uk/Scythians-warriors-St-John-Simpson/dp/0500021287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502920304&sr=8-1&keywords=scythians+warriors+of+ancient+siberia
www.amazon.com/Scythians-warriors-St-John-Simpson/dp/0500021287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502921138&sr=8-1&keywords=scythians+warriors+of+ancient+siberia

[Deleted]

Jul 12, 2016 16:35:10 GMT -5 @hunnu said:

The Türk (Gök-Türk) grave complex of Mayhan Uul, Mongolia.

This find is from 2011.

The tomb probably belonged to a Türk noble, the dating is not established but, 41 gold bracteates were found in the tomb of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius 610-40AD, so, we at least have the earliest possible date.

Ironically the Türk Kaghan Illig and Heraclius were allies and fought valiantly against the Persians in the 620's. Illig Kaghan had to return back home, there was very heavy snowfall in Mongolia (Zud in Mongolian), this led to the death of livestock and a famine. In 630, disgruntled chieftains betrayed Illig Khaghan at Iron Mountain - he was captured by the Tang emperor Li Shimin. Illig was allowed to live, and offered hunting grounds and a palace, but being a typical nomad he longed for the freedom of the steppe. He was known as the 'wild one' in Chinese history, Illig a true nomad to the end could not adapt to living behind walls of sedentary civilisation, it is said he died of grief after 4 years of captivity. For fifty years the Türk aristocracy served the Tang emperors invading other nomadic tribes and Korea - they regained their independence in 682 . During this period Türks were heavily influenced by China and there are indications of that influence with this tomb.

Update: I forget to mention that the Türk noble was cremated - the urn was found by a wooden coffin. Unfortunately I've yet to find a picture online.

A presentation by Sören Stark concerning the above Türk grave complex in Mongolia. If you wanna view some of the pics they can be found on the 11th page of this thread. 


Between China, Iran, and Byzantium: The Türks in Inner Asia from the Sixth to the Eighth Century

Description.
Sören Stark will be coming to speak at the Seminar in Comparative Medieval Material Culture on Wednesday, December 2, 2015, from 6 to 7:30 pm. His talk is entitled “Between China, Iran, and Byzantium: The Türks in Inner Asia from the Sixth to the Eighth Century.”

Sören Stark is Assistant Professor of Central Asian Art and Archaeology at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He specializes in the political and cultural interrelations between pastoral nomads in Central and Inner Asia and their sedentary neighbors, and has produced a monograph on the archaeology and history of the Türks in Central and Inner Asia (published in 2008 as Die Alttürkenzeit in Mittel- und Zentralasien. Archäologische und historische Studien, Nomaden und Sesshafte 6. Wiesbaden: Ludwig-Reichert-Verlag) and a major exhibition in New York and Washington on the culture of Early Iron Age nomads in the territory of present-day Kazakhstan (see the catalogue Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan. Princeton/New York: Princeton University Press 2012, edited together with K. Rubinson). He is currently leading an archaeological field project on territorial fortifications in fourth- to eighth-century CE Bukhara (Uzbekistan). He is also (with F. Kidd) co-editor of a handbook of Central Asian archaeology and art now in preparation at Oxford University Press.

At Bard Graduate Center Professor Stark will investigate how the “World Empire” of the nomadic Türks, arising from the Inner Asian steppes around the middle of the sixth century and spanning, during its apogee some 30 years later, from Crimea to the Hindukush and to Manchuria, remains one of the least known hegemonic polities in the history of Eurasia. In popular perception it is largely overshadowed by the later Chinggisid “World Empire,” although the Mongols owed much of their imperial ideology and structures of governance to the Türks. Like the Pax Mongolica some 700 years later, the unification of large parts of Eurasia under Türk rule considerably intensified diplomatic, economic, and cultural exchange across the Eurasian continent (“Silk Roads”). In this context much attention has been given to the role of Sogdian merchants. Professor Stark’s talk will shift the focus to the nomadic Türk elites as agents of cultural communication, transmission, and appropriation in a framework of shared political culture and interstate competition between China, the Iranian world, and Byzantium. In particular, he will inquire how the Türks’ active participation in this exchange network and their competition with other imperial ‘players’ of their time impacted and shaped their own self-representation.