Celts and Scythians Linked by Archaeological Discoveries
The 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.
