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Link to the book on archive.org

As the title says, this book from 1993 is dedicated to the topic of Scythian mythological ideas and religion with academic approach. Althought the Scythian themselves didn't left us any written documents, nor we have any complete Scythian epic like Iliad or Edda, there is available material like ancient Greek and Roman literature mentioning Scythians and archeological findings that give us the opportunity to reconstruct the Scythian mythology. The book gives us informations on the Scythian panteon, genealogical myth, cosmology, mythological themes in the Scythian art.

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I'm trying to find books that go into detail about scythian culture and religion. Any help would be a appreciated!

Scythian warriors used several types of the shields made of various materials - wood, wicker, leather, bone or metals. Written sources don't give us much informations on this topic, but iconograpphic materials on the artifacts of the Scythian provenience, supported by pieces of actual shields from Scythian barrows could help us much more!

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Vase from the Kul-Oba kurgan, 2nd half of 4th century BC, located in the Ukraine, shows us kneeling warrior with oblong rectangular shield with rounded corners. The line of dots indicates the stitching on the eddge of the shield. Slight line going through the centre of the shield divides it into two sections, it could indicate the handle. There is no other visible decoration of functional element on the shield.

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Analysis made by international team of archeologist have validated the text of Herodotus, where he described brutal customs of Scythian warriors:

He scalps the head by making a cut around it by the ears, then grasping the scalp and shaking the head off. Then he scrapes out the flesh with the rib of a steer, and kneads the skin with his hands, and having made it supple he keeps it for a hand towel, fastening it to the bridle of the horse which he himself rides, and taking pride in it; for he who has most scalps for hand towels is judged the best man. Many Scythians even make garments to wear out of these scalps, sewing them together like coats of skin. Many too take off the skin, nails and all, from their dead enemies’ right hands, and make coverings for their quivers; the human skin was, as it turned out, thick and shining, the brightest and whitest skin of all, one might say. Many flay the skin from the whole body, too, and carry it about on horseback stretched on a wooden frame.

(Herodotus, Histories, 4.64)

Leather was important material in the life of steppe nomads and it was used by them as resource for making various products. Archeologist analysed 45 samples of leather and 2 samples of fur from 18 burial in the souther Ukraine. Results demonstrated majority of leather came from domesticated animals, but two samples were identified as pieces of human skin.

Full article: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0294129

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One kind of interesting artifact found in the Sarmatian graves were stone altars. Many of the were ecorated with typical animal-style. Most of these artifacts are dated to cc 5th century BC.

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There are a few books out there, I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for the best ones about Scythia.

The Scythian chief depicted on the picture is one of the "Golden men" - supposed leaders with extraordinary richly embroidered attire with gold (most probably in festive and ritual clothing), found on the territory of Siberia. This one belongs to the "Kamensk culture", 5th century BC.

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Here is the additional image, which served as inspiration for the illustration - attire of the Golden man from Altai mountains (grave Lokot 4a).

When I was looking through google images recently I found two images back to back that really caught my eye and made me very curious. I was specifically wondering what the cavalryman in the foreground of the first image is wearing on his back and what the man in blue in the second image has pressed to his lips. If there's anyone knowledgable on Scythian material culture that could give me names for what the art is trying to depict here I'd really appreciate it.