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The rise and fall of the Scythians

A new paper on Scythians in Science, Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians:

The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.

This follows up on earlier work on Scythians and Sarmatians. The basic finding seems to be that the classical Scythians, an Iranian-speaking nomadic group, had an ethnogenesis in the eastern Kazakh steppe. And, their origins involve the amalgamation of earlier Bronze Age Eurasian pastoralists, probably out of the Indo-Iranian Andronovo horizon societies, with admixture with Bactria-Margiana populations to the south, and East Asian Bronze Age hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, to the east in Mongolia. The Sarmatians, also presumably Iranian-speaking, are somewhat different in that they had less East Asian ancestry, though they too had more Near Eastern ancestry than earlier Indo-Iranian steppe pastoralists.

The whole paper is worth reading. But I think the key thing to note is that Iron Age steppe pastoralists seem to have been much more interconnected with each other and with the world around them than their Bronze Age predecessors. Though there was some gene flow to the steppe from West Asia and elsewhere during the Bronze Age, it was a marginal phenomenon. By the Iron Age, it was ubiquitous. Additionally, there was now structure and connectedness across the steppe.

By the Iron Age the steppe had become an integrated social-political unit.

11 thoughts on “The rise and fall of the Scythians

  1. I’ve always wondered whether the Ossetians are not just linguistically Eastern Iranian, but also genetically so. I’m sure someone has already done the work on that, though. Would be an easier picture to paint if any of these genomes were not previously public.

  2. re: open threads. no. just busy.

    i have a 5,500 word substack piece i’m reshaping and that’s where my marginal time no related to genetics work is going now. i’ll post an open thread soon

  3. @Harry Jecs: Let us hope that Spencer will maintain his radio silence, until such time, if ever, as his medications are brought into proper alignment.

  4. Reading this triggered a memory. The Schlachta [Polish Nobility] of the 16th-18th centuries thought they were descended from the Samaritans. This myth produced bizarre ideas:

    https://crazypolishguy.com/2017/03/19/sarmatia-polands-mythic-golden-age/

    “Centuries earlier, ancient Sarmatians had reached modern day Poland, conquered the local people and established themselves as the ruling class. Over time, they assumed the local Slavic language and culture, but the fierce Sarmatian blood continued to run in their veins.

    ***

    “Polish nobles took it one step further than merely thinking themselves as being descended from Sarmatians. They consciously sought to live and act like the ancient people to distinguish themselves from, not only non-nobles in Poland, but everyone else in Europe.”

    see also:

    https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-evidence-for-Polish-noble-origin-in-the-ancient-Sarmatians-tribe
    https://www.hrmuzeum.ro/the-sarmatians-myth-and-reality

  5. I may offer my knowledge about Ossetians…As it is well known and often hidden, Vinca (Iron Gates, Danube civilisation) was the cradle of European civilization. At about 6000 BC or so, G2 migrants from Caucasus/Anatolia came to Vinca. This was a prosperous period which lasted for a couple of thousands of years without wars and without pushing other groups, so, these migrants were welcomed as some kind of guest workers. They probably left some toponyms, e.g. Bosnia (= forest area), Ibar (river in Kosovo) and probably the name of the future Roman province of Moesia which is now Central Serbia where Vinca is situated. These prosperous years finished when Yamnaya R1b aggressive nomads came from Russian steppes. They conducted a genocide on I2 people so G2 were also affected. They escaped in all directions up to Sardinia and Spain where also left the name of the river Ibar (now Ebro) which they brought from their old Caucasian homeland. One stream of G2 refuges escaped east, back to their old homeland. After couple thousands of years, they brought back the new language they learnt in Vinca and probably the lighter physiognomy. For example, the name of the Tbilisi is of Serbian origin and refers to the warm mineral sources around the town. Some scientists assert that these people, descendants of G2 Vinca refuges, are Ossetians.

  6. Milan it was prosperous but was it peaceful? What about the Burned House Horizon?

  7. @Walter, an older version of cf – https://mfafinski.github.io/Turboslavs/“The Strange and Terrifying Case of the Turboslav Empire”“around 2014. A weird trend started to appear in the Polish blogosphere. A bunch of people began to write about the semi-mythical “Empire of the Sarmatians” that stretched from the Rhine to Novgorod. Sort of Erich von Däniken (and yes, aliens do make an appearance) with a Slavic take. The internet is full of such nonsense, right? Nothing to worry about, right? Well…”

    Turboslav takes (and their most amusing variety “Everything was from the ancient advanced civilization of Balkans!”, TurboBalkanSlav) are nothing new, been around for centuries…

  8. @Matt – Probably I should ignore your ‘comment’ because you didn’t have a courage, neither to speak directly to me nor to spell out what you really think. Well, there is nothing really to respond. It is apparent only your animosity toward so-called Slavs, more specifically to proto-Slavs, i.e. ancient Serbs. But, this is ok, although I don’t think that this is a place for such activity.

    Speaking about Polish (=people from the fields) with alternative names – Lyasi or Lesi (=people from the forest), it should be known that they and their language are branches from the Serbian ancient tree which also include the modern Serbs, who, together with Lusitanian Serbs, preserved the original name. Unfortunately, Vatican injected cancer in their brains and they act as the most stupid part of ‘Slavic’ family. And yes, Rhine was the border between Germans (who lived in today’s France) and Serbs. It is a long history how Germans captured the Serbian land and germanised Serbs (e.g. Prussians). Some of the most prominent Germans are actually of Serbian origins – Martin Luther, Leibnitz even Bismarck. After the long period of history falsified by Wien-Berliner historical schools, Germans denounced old falsifications (should be congratulated for this) and started publishing old maps of current German territory with original Serbian toponyms (e.g. Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Laba, Lubeck, etc).

    Well you could have a look at interactive map on the link which you posted and which starts with 8500BC and where you on the first page can see only Vinca, where 95% of people lived during the Ice Age. For those who have at least a half of brain it would be enough to conclude that whole this mainstream story about so-called ‘Indo-Germansihe’ aka ‘Indo-Europeans’ people and ‘IE’ language is meaningless and cannot withstand even the basic logic. The fact is that ‘I’, the only European haplogroup, is 30000 years old (26K from the split to I1/I2) and that for example today’s Serbs are I2- 40%. This was a sufficient time for the formation of the Proto and the Regular language before Yamaya R1b came to Europe with their ”Indo-European” language. What is the “(P)IE” timeline? How so-called ‘IE’ language so quickly and absolutely replaced Vinca’s language spoken at least for 8000 years since the Ice Age until Yamnaya arrival?

    Well, finally, you deserve a credit for the term ‘PreYamnaya Romania’. I am collecting the various expressions used for not spelling a Serbian name (I will publish when I collect 1000). Romania is an artificial state and their artificial quasi-language made by Jesuits in 1859 AC, 5000 years away from Yamnaya. Let me make another one which may be applicable to you – ‘PreSoviet Yamnaya descendant’ which could be related to you, real mcCoy (and exceptional) Russian guys, not those modern Russians whose ancestors fell down from Mars in the 7th cAC and who, currently, are just spreading their malign influence through gas pipelines or via Sputnik V phials. Stay cool.

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