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Chapter 4 : Celts and Scythians Linked by Archaeological Discoveries |
T
he Celtic Hallstatt culture and the Scythian Vekerzug or Thracian culture are excellent
examples that show how closely these two peoples interacted with one another.
Historians and archaeologists label the people who established the Hallstatt Culture
(700-450 B.C.) as either proto-Celts or just plain Celts. The culture as represented
by the grave goods of the Hallstatt aristocracy is remarkably universal and distinct.
The Hallstatt Celts were innovative metal workers. Their iron weapons provided them
with a distinct military advantage. Like the Scythians, they also brought with them
an improved breed of horses that could run faster with great stamina in comparison
to the horses already in northern-central Europe, giving them greater mobility.
Many of the richest Hallstatt burial places contain sturdy four-wheeled wagons that
show a significant technical competency. Their spoke wheels were fitted with iron
tires shrunken and nailed around the composite wooden rims. Their wooden yokes were
decorated by patterns of bronze nail heads.
These artifact-rich sites seem to have been initially concentrated from the area
of the Upper Danube to Bohemia. Later in the 500s B.C., however, the Celts' Hallstatt
cultural zone of control expanded to the west.
Significantly, vehicle burials were also a distinctive trademark of the Scythian
culture. The late eighth and seventh centuries B.C. were a time of disruption and
change not only at the headwaters of the Danube, but also in the Black Sea and Caucasus
regions, where there were migrating tribes of Scythians.
The Hallstatt Celts' lifestyle had many similarities to that of the Scythians. A
Hallstatt sword in Vienna's Natur-Historisches Museum has ornamentation that shows
a Celt wearing profusely decorated trousers. This is comparable to the Scythian dress
as pictured on the Chertomlyk vase (from the Black Sea area). This Vienna sword also
depicts a tailcoat strikingly similar to Eastern
Scythian apparel found by Russian archaeologists at Katanda in the southern Altai
(Siberia). Another Celtic sword found at Port Bern, Switzerland, was stamped during
its manufacture with a decoration of two standing horned animals flanking a tree
of life-a classic Near Eastern, Scythian theme.
The archaeological evidence shows that the Celts and Scyths both freely shared and
mingled. Russian and Eastern European excavations plainly reveal the blending of
these two groups.
Most scholars also agree that it is evident that the Scythians of Eastern Europe
maintained close relations with the Scythians still on the steppes in the east and
the Hallstatt-La Tène Celts in the west.
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