Scythian Gold From Siberia Said To Predate The Greeks

NY Times ^ | 01-09-2002 | John Varoli

[blam]

Bump ( Someone besides me must be interested in this)

[thinktwice]

adorned the bodies of a Scythian man and woman, presumably royalty, and dated from the fifth or sixth centuries B.C.

Alexander the Great lived from 356 to 325 BC, so this might be material picked up during his conquest of Persia.

[thinktwice]

Darius the Great lived from 558 to 486 BC, and Homer basically wrote a history of the Trojan War -- "The Illiad" -- sometime around 850 BC.

Loot from one of those eras?

[alphadog]

you bet

[DAnconia55]

Da. Another piece of the puzzle....

[rightofrush]

Another great find of the interesting and unusal. Thanks.

[LostTribe]

Interesting find.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, quite interesting. Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1965) collected stamps from Tannu Tuva as a boy and later got the idea of visiting the place. Unfortunately the Soviet bureaucracy took forever to grant approval; notification of approval finally arrived shortly after Feynman's death. There was a delightful TV program about his quest to visit Tuva some years ago.

From The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1970, article "Scythia":

The Scyths worshipped the elements, the Great Goddess, and -- above all -- the graves of their ancestors. For their kings and chieftains they built elaborate, richly furnished tombs, all of which took the form of horse burials. Many of the objects and horse trappings recovered from these are of considerable intrinsic value, being of gold or bronze, often enhanced with enamel inlays or jewels. All are profusely decorated, the majority with animal designs which endow them with permanent artistic value. Indeed, the technical skill, linear mastery, intense vitality, and profound sensibility of these renderings is so remarkable that the designs form a distinct school of art. It is one which ensures its Scythian creators of an important place in the history of European culture.

[blam]

Shield Emblem,Scythian, end of 7th century B.C.
Northern Caucasus, Korstromskaia Kurgan

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

I wish I could have robbed that grave they found for the $$$. Just joking

[StoneColdGOP]

I'm interested in this! I love history, thanks for this post!

[LostTribe]

>Scythian, end of 7th century B.C. Northern Caucasus, Korstromskaia Kurgan

One Guess: Who were the Scythians, and what were they doing in the Northern Caucasus in 600BC? -ggg-. (For answer, click on Profile.)

[an amused spectator]

I usually take pieces like this and put them in my atlases. Good eye!

[DensaMensa]

>Scythian, end of 7th century B.C

That is a stunning piece of Celtic art. I bought (another) book on Celtic art today. As usual, the author has Celtic history all screwed up, but the Celtic art is beautiful.

[blam]

"A hundred years later, this "lost" Northern Kingdom of now over 5 Million Israelites escaped and migrated north through the Caucasus Mountains and past the Black and Caspian Seas, to appear in history ~610 BC as The Celts, eventually joining other scattered Israelites who left Egypt a thousand years earlier. These Millions of Celts grew to become a huge population as they migrated west and northwest to Galatia, Ephesus, Corinth, Phillipi, to what is today Hallstadt, Austria and Neuchatel, Switzerland (where there are major Celtic digs and museums) and beyond to the North and West. They are the rootstock of today’s Europeans, and Americans.

Oh, you mean this.(smile) Works for me.

[razorback-bert]

A Feynman bump.

We can tell exactly where this gold was mined today, I hope someone in the industry get to test it.

[blam]

Stag, 4th century B.C.
Filippovka, Kurgan 1
Wood, gold, silver & bronze
(I've read that all the curly Q's have a meaning all their own)

[okie01]

( Someone besides me must be interested in this)

Damnbetcha!

Went down to San Antonio a couple of years ago to see the touring exhibit of Scythian gold.

This stuff looks spectacular, too.

[Big Horn]

very interesting