Continuing Mis-Identification of the Altai Culture

[Sean Manning]

Beautiful artifacts made by the Altai cultures are consistently shown in museums around the world. At the Hermitage or National Museum in Washington, or in the Ashmolian, these examples are always labeled as something like, "Scythian, 400 to 300 BC, Pazyryk."

Scythian? Excuse me, but did the Scythians move 4,000 kilometers northeast from their well-recorded geographical location? If we casually read Herodotus, Strabo, or Pliny, or look at Ptolomy's map, we know the Scythians lived in the western steppe above the Black Sea, NOT in the far eastern Altaic region.

It is sure confusing how the same word can be used for a specific people inhabiting the western steppes, and as a generic term for peoples living in the Eurasian steppes in the middle of the first millennium BCE with a similar way of life, style of art, etc. But if you look at how ancient writers use terms like Skythes, Saka, and Gimmeraya, I think that you will find that they were often used as generic words for “people from the northern steppes.” Scythians lined up next to Bactrians in Arrian's version of Gaugamela for example (Anabasis Alexandrou 3.11, 3.13) and Bactria is pretty far from the western steppes.


One thing which you might want to think about is the difference between the ways people call themselves, and the ways which they try to organize the diverse peoples in the wider world. Its pretty common for people to pick a generic name and apply it to foreigners who would not recognize it let alone use it to identify themselves, even if they know what those foreigner call themselves. Think of the beginning of the Gallic War: “there are three peoples in Gaul, only one of whom are Galli, and they call themselves something else anyways.” Or how an Anglo-American can call someone a Hispanic, when they call themself a Columbian, or a Texan, or a Maya. People need convenient names for large groups of foreigners, and they often create these names by taking the name of some specific people and applying it to people who seem similar or live in the same area.


Does that make any sense? And what is your favourite generic term for the nomadic peoples of the steppes in the middle of the first millennium BCE?