The term 'Scythian' has been used to describe a vast array of nomadic people's living on the Eurasian steppes in the first millennium BC, who played an important role linking the sedentary civilizations of Europe to those of Asia. The term was originally used by Greek writers such as Herodotus to describe the peoples of the Pontic Steppes to the north of the Black Sea, a group best known in the archaeological record for their spectacular elite burials and the highly decorative gold items found within them. The lives of ordinary Scythians, however, are less well understood, as the materials from which they made the majority of their clothing, tools, and weapons, such as wood, bone, leather, and textiles, tend not to preserve well, and often degrade into unphotogenic fragments.
In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 13 December 2023, Luise Ørsted Brandt of the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Meaghan Mackie, again of the Globe Institute, and of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, also at the University of Copenhagen, Marina Daragan of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Matthew Collins, also of the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, and of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, and Margarita Gleba of the Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali at the Università degli Studi di Padova, present the results of a study of Scythian leather samples from southern Ukraine, which sought to identify the Animals whose skins were used to make the leather.
The leather examined came from 18 burials at 14 different sites in southern Ukraine. Many of the leathers were in an extremely fragmentary state, making it impossible to tell what sort of object they had come from. Some of these leathers may have come from leather clothing, particularly trousers, boots, or vessels of various types, although the majority are thought to have come two iconic Scythian leather objects, quivers, used to hold arrows, and gorytos, which were used to carry both arrows and bows. These items were clearly very important to the Scythians, and are found in almost all burials, as well as being depicted on numerous decorative items. The majority of quivers and gorytos are heavily decomposed when found, but can be identified by the presence of metal arrowheads. Quivers used by elite members of Scythian society were artistic and decorative objects, with the best-preserved examples, such as those from Bulhakovo and Ilyinka, give us some idea of how these items were constructed, but little us understood about the manufacture of the quivers used by ordinary members of Scythian society.
Traditional microscopy can sometimes be used to identify leathers, although this is difficult, as the scraping and tanning significantly alter the surface of the material significantly, and leathers from archaeological contexts tend to be further degraded by decay processes. Two samples within Brandt et al.'s study material were preserved with fur on, making it possible to use hair strands to identify the Animals from which the skin had come, but none of the other leathers could be identified by this technique. The first of the two fur samples came from what appears to have been a fur garment from Burial 1 within Kurgan 22 at the Vil’na Ukraina 3 cemetery (an adult woman, apparently of high status buried with jewellery, a mirror and mirror case, and domestic items in the second half of the third century BC), and was identified as having come from an unknown Mustelid, while the second came from a decorative quiver with fur fragments from Burial 3 (a child buried with weapons in the second or early third quarter of the fourth century BC) in Kurgan 4 at the Ilyinka cemetery, and was identified as coming from an unknown Rodent.
In order to identify the remaining leathers (and better identify the furs) Brandt et al. turned to biomolecular techniques. These have become increasingly important in archaeological investigations in recent decades, with DNA analysis allowing not just the identification of Animal and remains to species level, but quite often Human and Animal remains to specific populations, and the illumination of relationships between ancient and modern populations. DNA, however, is seldom recoverable from leather, as it is typically destroyed by the tanning process. Proteomics offers an alternative approach, enabling archaeologists to identify proteins (such as collagen in leather or keratin in hair) from small samples of material, including samples of material, which is likely to be to old, to degraded, or otherwise treated in ways which make the preservation of DNA unlikely.
Forty five samples of leather from the eighteen burials were included in the study. Of these, thirty three samples were identified, sixteen to species level, four to a probable species, seven to family level, one to probable family level, and five to one of two or more species. The majority of the leathers come from domestic Animals, with more than half coming from Sheep and Goats. One sample, from part of a quiver recovered from Burial 2 at Kurgan 3 at Orikove (two adult males buried with a variety of weapons in the first half of the fourth century BC) came from either a Goat or a Reindeer. Another sample, from one of three quiver found in Burial 2 at Kurgan 5 at Bulhakovo (a probable adult male, buried with weapons, jewellery, and domestic items in the second quarter of the fourth century BC), was identified as Cattle leather. Another three samples of leather were identified as either coming from a Bovid or a Cervid, although they were too poorly preserved for any more precise diagnosis.
One of the samples, from a fragment of a leather mirror case found with Burial 1 at Kurgan 6 at Vysuns’k, which comprised two skeletons buried with weapons, jewellery, a mirror, and a Greek kantharos cup, in the second quarter of the fourth century BC, was found to have come from a Red Fox. Another, from a decorative quiver found in Burial 2 of Kurgan 3 at Orikove, came from an unknown Carnivore, probably either a Tiger, Lion, Marten, Wolverine, Otter, or Hyena.
The piece of fur from a quiver buried with a child, previously identified as an unknown Rodent, was more precisely identified as having come from a Squirrel, although the exact species could not be determined. The fur garment buried with a high status woman, previously thought to be from an unidentified Mustelid, was re-classified as having come from an unknown Felid.
Finally, two samples of leather appear to have been made from Human skin. The first of these comes from one of the three quivers buried with a probable adult male from Kurgan 5 at Bulhakovo, and was identified as definitely Human. The second from Burial 2 of Kurgan 5 at Bulhakovo, in which two skeletons, interpreted as a man and a woman, were buried together in the second quarter of the fourth century BC, with a variety of goods including weapons, domestic items, and jewellery. This fragment was identified as coming from a member of the Family Homininae, which includes Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Gorillas, as well as Humans, though it is unlikely that any of the other Hominin species were present on the Pontic Steppes in the fourth century BC, so this leather can also be assumed to be of Human origin.
There is no simple recipe for turning skin into leather; the skins of different Animals need to be treated in different ways to achieve a leather of acceptable quality. The fact that the Scythians were using leather derived from numerous different Animals implies that they had a sophisticated understanding of the leathermaking process, and were likely selecting leather from different Animals for different purposes, just as modern leatherworkers do.
The majority of the skins used for leather by the Scythians appear to have come from domestic Animals which would have been herded on the Steppes by the pastoralist Scythians, particularly Goats and Sheep, although at least one of the leathers in Brandt et al.'s study was derived from a Cow, and Horse leathers have been recovered from burials in the Tuva Region of Russia (although this is a long way from the Pontic Steppes). Such Animals are also frequently depicted in Scythian goldware, and bones of Goats and Sheep have been found within the Kurgans of Scythians, interpreted as the remains of funeral feasts.
Several of the leathers, and in particular the furs, in Brandt et al.'s study derive from wild Animals, which appear likely to have been hunted for their skins, including a Red Fox, and unknown Cat, and a Squirrel. None of these have been previously identified in the Ukrainian Scythian archaeological record, but are consistent with the types of furs found in Scythian setting across the wider Eurasian area.
The discovery of Human skin being used to make leather by the Scythians is new, and significant. The Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote extensively on the Scythians, certainly described this practice, however Herodotus is known to have embellished his stories somewhat, leaving modern historians unclear as to what can be taken as fact and what is fiction. On this occasion, Brandt et al.'s work appears to confirm that Herodotus was telling the truth.
Both the direct presence of leather in Scythian archaeological sites, and iconography produced by the Scythians themselves depicting garments, suggests that these people made extensive use of leather to make vessels, mirror cases, quivers, shoes, garments such as trousers and coats, and the lining for metal armour such as greaves. The Scythians are also known to have made extensive use of scale armour, in which metal scales were sewn onto a leather base. It is presumed that the Scythians made leather themselves, as described by Herodotus, although no direct evidence for this has been found on the Pontic Steppes (the such evidence has been found for the nomads of Kazakhstan and Eastern Tibet, whose life-styles are not thought to have been dissimilar to those of the Pontic Scythians). Notably, the Tovsta Mohyla pectoral appears to show two Scythian men engaged in either skinning a Sheep or production of a garment made of sheepskin.
However, many of the embossed decorations on quivers from southern Ukraine have a very Hellenic feel to them, suggesting that the Scythians of this region were obtaining materials by trade with the Pontic Greeks, and that some of the goods obtained in this way were either quivers, or materials used in the making of quivers. It is also possible that those Scythians in contact with Greeks adopted some of their decorative styles. Given that high status objects buried with members of the Scythian elite are often decorated with Greek mythological and decorative motifs, either seems plausible.
Some of the fragments of quivers had traces of a red pigment, which was found to be cinnabar, a naturally occurqring form of mercury sulphide. This pigment is known to have been used by the Scythians for a range of decorative purposes, making its presence on quivers a probable indicator of Scythian manufacture.
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