Identifying the skins used to make Scythian leather.

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.

The sites from which leather samples were recovered: (1) Bulhakovo; (2) Ilyinka; (3) Kairy; (4) Kislychevate; (5) Ol’hyne; (6) Orikhove; (7) Otradne; (8) Sadove; (9) Tyahinka; (10) Vil’na Ukraina; (11) Vodoslavka; (12) Vysuns’k; (13) Zelene; (14) Zolota Balka. Marina Daragan in Brandt et al. (2023).

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.

A selection of the leather object fragments analysed: (1) Ilyinka Kurgan 4 Burial 2; (2) Ilyinka Kurgan 4 Burial 3; (3) Vodoslavka Kurgan 8 Burial 4; (4) Orikhove Kurgan 3 Burial 2; (5) Zelene I Kurgan 2 Burial 3; (6) Kairy V Kurgan 1 Burial 1; (7) Ol’hyne Kurgan 2 Burial 1; (8) Bulhakovo Kurgan 5 Burial 2; (9) Zolota Balka Kurgan 13 Burial 7. The units of the scale bars are cm. Marina Daragan in Brandt et al. (2023).

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.

Scythian gold pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla, Ukraine, depicting a number of domestic Animals. Brandt et al. (2023).

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.

Depictions of Scythian warriors wearing decorated sleeved leather garments: (1)–(2) Gilded silver bowl from Haimanova Mohyla, north chamber. (3)–(4) Golden cone from Perederiyiva Mohyla, Ukraine. Brandt et al. (2023).

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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The causes and impacts of dust and sand storms on the steppes of Northeast Asia.

The Eurasian Steppes stretch from Manchuria in the east to Hungary in the west, and can be loosely divided into three areas, the Mongolian Steppe, the Kazakh-Russian Steppe, and the Ukrainian-Hungarian Steppe. These are dry environments, which rely on small amounts of water reaching them from distant seas by repeated precipitation-evaporation cycles (i.e. the re-evaporation of water that has already fallen as rain once or even several times), and have suffered repeated cycles of desertification and rehabilitation with changes in the climate cycle, as fairly small changes in atmospheric moisture can lead to the advance and retreat of desert regions. This is in part due to the feedback loop between vegetation cover and heat distribution, with the air heating more rapidly above patches of ground denuded of vegetation, promoting gustier, windier conditions.

The peoples of these steppes have developed a nomadic pastoralist system which has persisted since at least the Bronze Age, which balances livelihoods with grassland stability by never staying in one place to long, thus preventing overgrazing and the desertification which would follow. While the livestock remove Grass from the system during grazing, they also contribute to the nutrient cycle by the production of manure, which returns nutrients to the soil. 

However, while over long periods of time the movements of nomadic groups are an essential part of the ecology of the steppes, over shorter periods this link can be broken by either natural forces or Human nature. From the 1970s onwards both crop cultivation and livestock farming were increased in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, resulting in a series of droughts and desertification events in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1924 and 1990 the Mongolian People's Republic viewed all livestock in Mongolia as property of the state, and maintained livestock at low densities in keeping with traditional practices. However, following the peaceful democratic revolution of 1990, the nation's herds were privatised, following which the number of Animals being raised in the grazed in the country rose from 25 million in 1991 to 56 million in 2015, despite two severe winter livestock disasters within this period.

These severe winter events are called 'dzud' in Mongolian, and are periods when the steppes are visited by waves of extreme cold, accompanied by frozen ground and sometimes heavy snowfall. These events can lead to large-scale die-offs of livestock, but do not always do so; livestock die-offs generally only happen in years when there has been a summer drought, causing the Animals to enter the winter season with low fat reserves. On average, a dzud event happens every 4-5 years, causing significant hardship for nomads who lose their stock, but also enabling the grasslands to recover by reducing the number of grazing Animals.

Southward of the Mongolian steppes lie the deserts of the Gobi and the Hexi (or Gansu) Corridor, which are major suppliers of material to the dust and sandstorms of Northeast Asia. These storms are largely driven by weather conditions over the distant Pacific, Indian, and even Atlantic oceans, but are a major source of public health concerns, due to the high density of particulate matter in the air. For example the Korean warning threshold of 800 μg of particulate matter per square meter of air was last surpassed in the spring of 2021, when northern China was also affected by severe dust storms.

Northeast Asia suffered a string of these dust storm events in the early 2000s, leading to changes in agricultural policy in Inner Mongolia, which were thought to have alleviated the problem, but the storms returned in 2010, 2015, and 2016, underlining the difficulty of trying to predict such events, and their complicated relationships to other weather phenomena. Notably, dust storms appear to be connected to desertification and dzud events on the steppes, with dust storms and dzuds often occurring in the same years.

In a paper published in the Journal of Ecology and Environment on 26 November 2022, Sinkyu Kang of the Department of Environmental Science at Kangwon National University, Sang Hun Lee of the Center for Global Cooperation at the Korea Environment Institute, Nanghyun Cho and Casmir Aggossou, also of the Department of Environmental Science at Kangwon National University, and Jungwha Chun of the Forest ICT Research Center at the Korean National Institute of Forest Science, present a review of the current understanding of the causes and consequences of dust storm events in Northeast Asia, taking account of the geographical, climatic, and Human influences on these events.

The dust storms of Northeast Asia receive material from the shifting sands of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, the Loess Plateau of north-central China, and the Gobi, Taklamakan, and Hexi Corridor deserts, with the majority of the dust reaching as far east as Korea and Japan coming from the Gobi Desert, Hexi Corridor, and Inner Mongolia.

A conceptual map of the geography and climate for major sources of dust and sandstorms in Northeast Asia. Major sources of dust and sandstorms are italicised. The straight line shows the approximate boundary of the dry area. The block arrows indicate the inflow path of moisture, and the stars are sample cities selected to demonstrate long-term climatic variability: Ulaanbaatar, Dalanzadgad, Yinchuan, and Lanzhou in the southward direction. Kang et al. (2022).

The contribution of different areas to dust and sandstorms from different areas varies over time, with the amount of dust and sand coming from the Taklamakan Desert and Loess Plateau having fallen steadily over the past few decades, while the amount of material coming from the Hexi Corridor and Mongolian Plateau fell off in the 1980s and 1990s, then rose again in the 2000s. In particular, the amount of dust coming from the southeastern Mongolian Plateau and Manchurian Drylands has risen during this time. 

The dust and sandstorms reach Korea are driven by the prevailing westerly winds coming from Central Asia. These events are most likely to happen in spring, with 80% of days affected by dust storm events since records began in 1960 having occurred between March and May. The frequency of such events appears to have varied on both five and thirty year cycles, and risen sharply after 1990, with an average of 2.6 dust storm days before 1990 and 7.1 after, rising to 9.7 in the 2000s and falling back to 6.1 in the 2010s. The worst affected year was 2001, when there were 23 dust storm days. At the same time, the these events shifted earlier in the year, with April being the most affected month in the twentieth century, but events in March becoming as common as those in April in the twenty first. By May 2021 the number of days with dust storm events recorded in that year had reached 9.3, exceeding the average for the 2010s (6.1).

A dust cloud moving from China over Korea and towards Japan on 21 March 2001. SeaWIFS Project/NASA/Godard Space Flight Center/Wikimedia Commons.

During dust and sandstorms sediment particles are swept up by winds, often reaching hundreds of metres into the atmosphere. Larger particles generally fall back to Earth close to the source, but fine dust particles, in the size range 1-10 μm, can be carried for hundreds of kilometres on the westerly winds, often falling on Korea or Japan two or three days after being picked up by the storm.

These storms only develop when strong winds blow over dry sediments, and a combination of high and low pressure centre's generates a strong updraught. As air is swept from an area of high pressure to one of low pressure it is deflected by the Coriolis forces generated by the Earth's rotation, at a direction tangential to the boundary between the two systems, forming what meteorologists refer to as a trough. The greater the difference between the pressure centres, the higher the wind-speed, and when the wind-speed reaches the 'dust point' it is able to lift dust into the atmosphere. In Asia this dust is then carried eastwards by the prevailing westerly winds. Thus, as the Sun more readily heats exposed soil, leading to higher air pressures, the dust storms are driven by the combination of strong sunlight and dry conditions.

This means that dust is easily generated in areas of semi-desert and desert grassland; as the vegetative cover increases, the roots of Grass and Shrubs hold the soil in place more effectively, and the amount of organic matter, which tends to bind the soil together increases. Eventually the ground vegetation becomes dense enough for leaves and branches to slow the winds, effectively preventing dust formation.

Plants also cool the ground through the transpiration process, further hampering the development of low pressure systems, effectively stopping dust formation. Whereas exposed soil absorbs heat from the Sun, then radiates it back into the atmosphere above, fuelling the generation of low pressure systems. Eventually this will manifest as strong gusts or even a whirlwind as a new trough forms.

A dust storm sweeps across Beijing in March 2021. Todd Lee/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock. 

A straight line can be drawn across a map of East Asia, separation the lowlands to the south and east from the highlands to the north and west. North of this line lie the Mongolian and Tibetan plateaus, and the drylands between them. To the south lie the forests and agricultural lands of China. This line also marks the effective limit of the Asian Monsoon climate.

During the Northern Hemisphere summer, high evaporation over the Indian and Pacific oceans form rain clouds, which are driven north and east by the prevailing westerly winds, depositing rain across East Asia. An atmospheric system known as the North Pacific High blocks the eastward migration of these rain systems, pushing them northward onto land. However, as these systems move north they meet the prevailing westerlies of Central Asia at the margins of the plateaus, preventing them from carrying their moisture onto the steppes, and creating a permanently arid climate across the interior of Northeast Asia.

However, this system is not immutable, and has changed throughout the Holocene. Around 8000 years ago, during the Holocene Climatic Maximum, global temperatures were significantly higher than today, leading to a much stronger Monsoon, which pushed further inland, causing the drylands to shrink. As the climate cooled after this event, the Monsoon limit retreated to something like its current mark, and the drylands moved eastwards into formerly fertile areas. However, the Monsoon line has continued to shift to a lesser extent throughout Human history, with the rise of the nomad empires of East Asia occurring during the Medieval Warm Period, when the drylands retreated and the plains of Mongolia became more fertile.

A small amount of moisture does make its way northward to the Asian steppes from the East Asian Monsoon, although most is pushed back by the prevailing westerly winds. Similarly, a small amount of moisture from the Sount Asian Monsoon, makes it over the Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau, and the lands to the northeast. However, the largest source of moisture to this region is the remote Atlantic Ocean; the prevalent westerly winds blowing across Europe and Asia can carry moisture as far as Siberia and the drylands to the east, making this the biggest single source of rainwater in Mongolia and western China.

The annual formation of two weather systems over the North Atlantic, the Azores High and the Icelandic Low, creates a strong pressure trough which directs a stream of rain clouds towards northern Europe in the summer and central Europe in the winter, with some of these rain clouds moving onwards through eastern Europe and Siberia into Mongolia. This is not a simple process, with a series of high and low pressure systems along the way serving to keep pushing the moisture eastwards. The Mediterranean on the other hand, appears to make no contribution to the climate of Central and East Asia.

Thus the three largest contributors of moisture to the drylands of Northeast Asia are the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, and the climate of these drylands is influenced by climatic events over these oceans, such as the El Niño/La Niña oscillations, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Thus desertification cycles and dust storm events can be driven by climatic oscillations far from the drylands where they occur.

Rainfall records exist since 1940 for the cities of Ulaanbaatar and Dalanzadgad in Mongolia and Yinchuan and Lanzhou in China, to the north and south of the Gobi Desert, respectively. These records show that rainfall in Mongolia follows a roughly twenty year cycle, while in the two northern Chinese cities it follows a roughly five year cycle. This is likely to be connected to the arrival of dust storms in Korea, which has been shown to vary on both five and twenty year cycles. In addition, a general climatic warming in the region from 1970 onwards appears to have fuelled a series of droughts across Northeast Asia, by increasing the rate of evaporative water loss.

Schematic illustration of the recurrent circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) and Atlantic-Eurasian teleconnection (AEA) patterns in summer (June-July-August). The six ellipses denote the six centres of action of the circumglobal teleconnection. The shades areas denote the five centres of action of the Atlantic-Eurasian teleconnection. The solid black and green curves with arrows denote the wave paths of the circumglobal teleconnection and Atlantic-Eurasian teleconnection, respectively. Li & Ruan (2018).

Natural cycles are not the only cause of dust storm events in Northeast Asia. A range of Human activities, including excessive livestock farming, inappropriate crop cultivation in dryland environments, and large-scale mining operations can all reduce vegetative cover, and lower groundwater reserves, leading to droughts and desertification. Nevertheless, desertification does not automatically lead to dust storm events, it simply increases the size of the area in which these conditions can develop. This may mean that global climate change has a greater impact on the formation of dust storms than local desertification events. In the 1980s and 1990s, the drylands of northern China experienced extensive deretification, but this did not lead to a rise in dust storms due to a fall in wind speeds over the same period.

Desertification is the process by which non-desert areas are converted into deserts, a process with is accompanied by a loss of vegetative cover, leading to more exposed soil areas where dust storms can form. Furthermore, this process promotes the development of low pressure systems, and the accompanying winds, by leaving the ground exposed to direct sunlight.

The Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, the area which includes the Kubuqi Desert, has had a 2000 year climatic record reconstructed from lake core samples. This shows that high levels of dust formation were associated with periods when the levels of Human settlement in the area were the highest. This in turn coincided with a period when the Asian Monsoon was strong, and higher levels of moisture were reaching the Plateau, leading to more vegetation growth, indicating that Human actions were overwhelming the natural processes in the region a thousand years ago.

Pastorialism has occurred for a long time on the steppes of Asia. Livestock grazing crops the the grass close to the ground, lowering the wind speed needed for dust uplift, while at the same time increasing ground temperatures by leaving more soil exposed to the direct sun.  Thus livestock farming has an inherent tendency to drive desertification and dust storm generation, particularly if to many Animals are raised densely in a small area of the dryland.

In the 1980s and 1990s attempts to convert parts of the drylands of northern China, including Inner Mongolia, into arable land led to widespread desertification. Then in the early 2000s a severe drought led to a series of massive dust storm events, leading to a change in policy. Since this time efforts have been made to reverse this desertification and restore natural vegetation to the area. These have been successful in some places, but the extent to which the dry grasslands of Inner Mongolia have recovered remains uncertain.

Livestock farming has also increased rapidly in Mongolia since 1991, when the country transitioned from a socialist to a market economy. This has been partly driven by the herding of Goats for cashmere, a valuable commodity. Overgrazing of the grasslands has accompanied this expansion in herding, particularly in areas around cities, and there are concerns that this may lead to a major desertification event. At the same time, a change in rainfall patterns has led to a recovery of the grasslands of northern and eastern Mongolia, which had previously been affected by desertification, which has caused many to question the link between overgrazing and desertification within the country.

Mongolia suffered severe dzud events in 2000-2002 and 2009-2010, during each of which periods about 30% of the country's livestock was lost. These years were also severe dust storm years. The term dzud can refer to any severe winter, but livestock die-offs generally happen when a summer drought is followed by a severe winter. Ecologically speaking, this is an effective control mechanism, reducing the number of grazing Animals, and therefore enabling the grasslands to recover from overgrazing. However, this caused severe social problems for the people involved, destroying the livelihood of nomads, causing migrations of impoverished people to the cities, and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

Over the past few decades, a variety of efforts have been made to prevent desertification events on the grasslands of Northeast Asia, some of which have been quite successful. However, the difficulty in proving a direct connection between Human activities and climatic events, in this case desertification, can place pressure on policy makers to pursue other priorities. Nonetheless, the reduction of desertification and dust storm genesis hinges in maintaining vegetative cover in the drylands, although this will often be complicated by far away events beyond the control of policy makers.

A herder with her goats in southern Mongolia.. Adam Oswell in McLaughlin (2019).

Dust storms in Northeast Asia are driven by the geography, climate, and vegetation cover of the grasslands of the Asian Steppes, which in turn are driven by global climatic events. Thus any future global climate change will have an impact on the climate of these grasslands, and the occurrence of dust storms across Northeast Asia.

Rising spring temperatures appear likely to cause earlier onsets of the spring dust storm season, while alterations to the Siberian High pressure system may increase the number of dust storms in the autumn, and effect the spring weather in unpredictable ways. Intensification of the El Niño/La Niña oscillation could potentially destabilise the climate of Northeast Asia, by causing larger fluctuations in annual rainfall in the drylands. A decrease in the Arctic ice cover is likely to increase the range of temperature fluctuations in the region, with adverse affects for both livestock and vegetation.

Desertification, dust storms, and dzuds are all the result of a combination of events hitting the grasslands of Northeast Asia. The most obvious factors are droughts and vegetation cover, but these in turn are driven by a variety of other factors, including distant climate systems and grazing management by Humans. Ultimately, all other factors are probably less important than global climate patterns, which fluctuate on a scale of decades, and currently considered to be under threat of severe modification by Human actions.

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Production of dairy products drove the expansion of the Yamnaya peoples of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Bronze Age.

The nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppes have long been a source of fascination to both archaeologists and the general public, with, sometimes less than flattering, fictionalised versions appearing in popular fantasy novels such as JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and GRR Martin's Game of Thrones. The later phases of these groups, such as the Xiongnu and Mongol Empires are relatively familiar, but the origins of these groups in the Eneolithic (the Late Neolithic plus the Chalcolithic, or 'Copper Age') are rather more obscure. The archaeology of these groups has been studied for a long time, but new technologies have recently shed new light on the field. For example, it has been demonstrated that European populations had a significant influx of DNA from steppe-dwelling groups during the late Neolithic. The same Neolithic steppe populations (referred to as Yamnaya by archaeologists) also have also been shown to have genetic links to the Afanasievo people of the Altai Mountains and even the peoples of Mongolia. Both archaeological and genetic data suggest extensive population movements in this area during the Early Bronze Age (roughly 3300 to 2500 BC), with links being established between the Yamnaya peoples of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the peoples of Siberia and Scandinavia.

Thus, it is understood that the Yamnaya peoples underwent a significant expansion of their geographical range during this period, but the drivers of this expansion are less certain. One popular explanation is that innovations such as the use of Horses and wagons enabled the rapid spread of a pastoralist lifestyle across large swaths of Eurasia, and that this, combined with the consumption of dairy products, made large areas of the Eurasian steppes previously unoccupiable open to Human habitation. However, while this model provides a plausible explanation for the successes of the Yamnaya peoples, it is not, at the current time, very well supported by the available evidence. There is archaeological evidence for the use of carts and bridles in the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age, but not for the use of Horses or dairy products.

The story of Horse domestication has long been a controversial subject in archaeology. Horse remains are known from the Eneolithic of Botai in northern Kazakhstan, but these have recently been shown to have been Przewalski's (or Mongolian) Wild Horses, Equus przewalskii, not the modern domestic Horse, Equus caballus, a species which has not confidently been found in association with Humans at sites older than the Early Bronze Age, and which cannot be confidently asserted to have been used as a riding Animal or even a beast of burden, rather than something which was being hunted, at Early Bronze Age sites. It is currently thought that Horses were not ridden, or milked, on the Eastern European steppes before about 1200 BC, and they may not have been an Animal used much by the pastorialist peoples of the period at all. 

Data on the early consumption of milk is equally lacking. Isotopic studies of Human remains have been used to suggest that dairy products were being consumed, but cannot confirm this. Palaeoproteomics (the analysis of ancient sets of proteins) could potentially be used to identify dairy consumption, but so far has only been applied to a very limited number of sites on the Eurasian steppes. Studies of the Yamnaya and Afanasievo peoples have only, to date, shown evidence of dairy consumption among a few individuals from the Eastern Steppes, and was only able to give a very ambiguous result on the producer of the peptides (short amino acid chains, or fragments of proteins) found, which was probably a Sheep or Cow.

In a paper published in the journal Nature on 15 September 2021, a group of scientists led by Shevan Wilkin of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and the Institute for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zürich, present the results of a study which examined palaeoproteonomic evidence from dental calculus from 56 Humans from across the Eurasian steppes, dated to between 4600 and 1700 BC.

Wilkin et al. collected data from 19 Eneolithic idividuals; six from Murzikha 2, nine from Khvalynsk 1 and Khvalynsk 2, one from Ekaterinovka Mys, one from Lebyazhinka 5, and two from Khlopkov Bugor. Studies of Ancient DNA obtained from Khvalynsk and othe Eneolithic burrials in this area of the the Volga and northern Caucasus, suggest that the local population was related to the Yamnaya Peoples, but lacked the input of genetic materials from Anatolian farmers seen in the later. 

Studies based upon archaeological evidence and stable isotope analysis have suggested this population had a diet based upon the gathering of local plants, fishing, and the consumption of domestic Animals. Wilkin et al. also extracted dental calculus from two individuals from Botai in northern Kazakhstan, a site dating to about 3500 BC, where faunal remains are dominated by domestic Horses, and proteins extracted from ceramics have suggested Horses were being milked.

Map showing sites that yielded individuals with preserved ancient proteins. (a) Eneolithic, (b) Early Bronze Age and (c) Middle–Late Bronze Age sites in the Pontic–Caspian region, showing the number of individuals with a positive dairy identification out of the total number of individuals with preserved ancient proteins for each site. Strong evidence of preservation of Equine or Ruminant milk protein identifiers are depicted with black Animal icons; the single individual with equivocally identified casein peptides is shown with a grey icon. Wilkin et al. (2021).

In addition, Wilkin et al. sampled 35 Bronze Age Humans from 20 sites. These include sixteen Early Bronze Age individuals; two from Krasikovskyi 1, one from Krasnokholm 3, two from Krivyanskiy 9, two from Kutuluk 1, one from Leshchevskoe 1, one from Lopatino 1, two from Mustayevo 5, one from Nizhnaya Pavlovka, one from Panitskoe, one from Podlesnoe, one from Pyatiletka, and one from Trudovoy; as well as fourteen individuals the Middle–Late Bronze Age transition; one from Bolshekaraganskyi, two from Kalinovsky 1, three from Kamennyi Ambar 5, one from Krasikovskyi I, three from Krivyanskiy 9, one each from Lopatino 1 and Lopatino 2, one from Potapovka 1, one from Shumayevo 2, and five from Utevka 6.

 

Maps of all sites and individuals included in this study from the (A) Eneolithic; (B) Early Bronze Age; and (C) Middle and Late Bronze Age. Wilkin et al. (2021).

Previous archaeological isotopic studies of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya sites have suggested a diet strongly focused on herd Animals, including Cattle, Sheep and Goats. Horse remains have also been found at Early Bronze Age Yamnaya sites, but whether these were domestic Animals or wild Horses hunted for their meat is unclear. The Middle–Late Bronze Age transition was marked by an increased use of Horse-based technologies, such as chariots, which clearly indicates these people were using domestic Horses.

Fifty five of the fifty six dental calculus samples tested yielded identifiable protein data, and forty eight of those produced strong enough signals of proteins commonly found in the oral cavity that they were included in the study. 

The nineteen oldest individuals examined, all dated to between 4600 and 4000 BC, came from five Eneolithic sites close to the Volga River, or tributaries of that river, in southwestern Russia. Of these nineteen, eleven yielded good enough data to be included in the final study, with ten showing no evidence for the consumption of dairy products. The remaining individual yielded to peptides associated with Bovine α-S1-casein milk curd protein, although Wilkin et al. do not take this as absolute proof of milk consumption, as the most common dairy protein, β-lactoglobulin, was not recovered. Neither of the Botai individuals returned any evidence for dairy consumption. 

Fifteen of the sixteen Early Bronze Age individuals included in the study yielded multiple Ruminant dairy peptides including β-lactoglobulin, with some also producing α-S1 casein, α-S2-casein or both. Many of these peptides were identifiable to genus level, with the most common genera being Ovis (Sheep), Capra (Goats), and Bos (Cattle, Buffalo, Bison, and Yaks, although presumably Cattle were the most likely milk-producers). Interestingly, two individuals, both from Krivyanskiy 9, on the southwestern fringe of the study area, yielded Equus (Horse, Donkey and Kiang, although only Horses would have been present in the study area) β-lactoglobulin. These individuals were estimated to have died between 3305 and 2633 BC.

Histogram of taxonomic specificity of dairy peptide spectral matches per individual. Histograms for individuals with evidence for consumption of dairy, from the Eneolithic (a), Early Bronze Age (b) and Middle and Late Bronze Age (c). PSM, peptide spectral match. Wilson et al. (2021).

Fifteen of the nineteen Middle–Late Bronze Age transition yielded positive evidence for the consumption of Bovine milk products, including peptides from β-lactoglobulin, α-S1-casein and α-S2-casein, and the whey protein α-lactalbumin. It was possible to identify some of these peptides as being Ovis or Bos, but both Capra and Equus were absent from the sample.

Wikin et al.'s results point to a clear shift towards milk consumption between the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age, with 10 of 11 Eneolithic individuals showing no evidence of dairy consumption, whereas 15 of 16 Early Bronze Age individuals showed such evidence. A single Eneolithic individual, from Khvalynsk, showed possible evidence of dairy consumption, but this result cannot be taken with any confidence. This strongly suggests that the widespread adoption of dairy products as part of the Human diet was associated with the Eneolithic-Early Bronze Age transition on the Pontic–Caspian Steppe. This is in contrast to the situation to the west, where settled European farmers were clearly consuming dairy products in the Eneolithic. This in turn suggests a cultural frontier between the European farmers and the Steppe herders. 

The ability of proteonomics to identify the Animals producing the milk used for Human consumption sheds light on the Animals being kept by these peoples. The Pontic–Caspian Steppe provides a rich environment capable of supporting a range of herd Animals, including Cattle, with a relatively high water-demand, and Sheep and Goats, which favour more arid conditions. Interestingly, a recent study of Early Bronze Age individuals from the steppes suggests that the persistence of lactase (the enzyme that allows digestion of whole milk) production into adulthood in these individuals was rare, but this does not rule out the production of milk-derived products such as yogurts, cheeses or fermented milk beverages.

The milking of Horses has previously been suggested for the Botai culture of Kazakhstan, but Wilkin et al. found no evidence of this (although their sample size, two individuals, was quite small). Horse milk was apparently consumed by two individuals from the Early Bronze Age of the Pontic–Caspian Steppe. These findings, combined with the discovery that the Horses of Botai were not the Domestic Horse, Equus caballus, supports the idea that Horse domestication originated on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe rather than with the peoples of Central Asia. The oldest Horse remains shown to contain genetic markers for modern domestic lineages date from between 2074 and 1625, and come from sites in Russia, Romania and Georgia. The discovery of the oldest known evidence in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe region, which also saw the first appearance of Horse-drawn chariots around 2000 BC, contributes further evidence to this hypothesis.

Wilkin et al.'s findings contribute to the growing understanding of a significant cultural and technological revolution associated with the Eneolithic-Early Bronze Age transition on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. As well as the, obvious, adoption of bronze as a metal for making tools and weapons, this shift included the abandonment of riverine settlement sites, the appearance of kurgan cemeteries on formerly uninhabited arid plateaus, the appearance of wheeled vehicles, and the occasional placement of Horse bones in Yamnaya burials. This was accompanied by a rapid expansion of the range of these peoples, both to the west into Europe and to the east into the Altai Mountains. Wilkin et al.'s findings shed no direct light upon the role of Horses in this expansion, but evidence for the consumption of Horse milk is clearly evidence for Horse domestication, which is likely to also imply Horses were being used for other purposes. The combination of a dietsry shift to include nutritionally rich dairy products, the adoption of Animal-drawn vehicles as a means to transport greated loads, and the domestication of highly versatile Horses is likely to have significantly transformed the cultural and economic environment of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, enabling Humans to venture into previously uninhabitable areas, and thereby access further new resources, such as seasonally snow-covered upland pastures. It is, of course, possible that all of these elements were present to some extent before the Eneolithic-Early Bronze Age transition, but that transition clearly shows the widespread adoption of all these technologies by populations over a wide geographical area.

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