Seeking information on ancient Eurasian nomads

[Academia Nut]

The thrust of this thread is pretty much what it says in the title, in that I am looking for good information on the various peoples who have lived on the Eurasian steppe in antiquity, in particular the Scythians and Sarmatians, although earlier cultures would also be interesting to study. I am looking for information on culture, daily life, organization of communities, technology, and other such things. I have already done a bit of wiki-study, but I know that there are some scholars on here that could probably direct me towards some more in-depth materials to look into this topic.

Also, so this isn't entirely an info-dump thread, as a point of discussion what might have been the impact of the introduction of fully developed saddles and stirrups to these steppe nomads centuries ahead of 'schedule'?

[Straha]

I cannot believe I'm about to recommend this book...

Go find a bookstore with Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher Beckwith in it. Read it there, but do not buy it, because it has more or less what you want in it. He talks about all the Nomadic cultures (and eventually every culture) across Eurasia, and does an okay job summarizing technological change and a great job talking about culture for the first third of the book. Carry a salt shaker with you because you're going to need a lot of grains of salt and ignore everything he says about "Modernism," I think the cultural concept molested him as a child and he hasn't been able to get his anger out.

Good luck, and remember not to buy that book.

[Thanas]

Ignore Beckwith.

This book is far better and should answer your questions.

Table of contents:

David Braund, "Introduction" (1-12)

Grigoriy Bongard-Levin, "E.H. Minns and M.I. Rostovtzeff. Glimpses of a Scythian Friendship" (13-32)

V.Yu. Murzin, "Key Points in Scythian History" (33-38)

A.Yu. Aleskeyev, "Scythian Kings and 'Royal' Burial-Mounds of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC" (39-55)

M. Treister, "Masters and Workshops of the Jewellery and Toreutics from Fourth-Century Scythian Burial-Mounds" (56-63)

Yu. Ustinova, "Snake-Limbed and Tendril-Limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea" (64-79)

D. Braund, "Pericles, Cleon and the Pontus. The Black Sea in Athens c.440-421" (80-99)

A.I. Ivanchik, "Who were the 'Scythian' Archers of Archaic Attic Vases?" (100-113)

B. Bäbler, "Bobbies or Boobies? The Scythian Police Force in Classical Athens" (114-122)

S.D. Kryzhitskiy, "Olbia and the Scythians in the Fifth Century BC. The Scythian 'Protectorate'" (123-130)

V. Bylkova, "The Lower Dnieper Region as an Area of Greek/Barbarian Interaction" (131-147)

M.I. Zolotaryov, "The Civic Frontiers of Tauric Chersonesus in the Fourth Century BC" (148-152)

A.A. Maslennikov, "The Development of Graeco-Barbarian Contacts in the Chora of the European Bosporus (Sixth - First Centuries)" (153-166)

S. Saprykin, "Thrace and the Bosporus under the Early Roman Emperors" (167-175)

V.M. Zubar, "The Crimean Campaign of Tiberius Plautius Silvanus" (176-180).

I'd also recommend this book and this book.

Also, so this isn't entirely an info-dump thread, as a point of discussion what might have been the impact of the introduction of fully developed saddles and stirrups to these steppe nomads centuries ahead of 'schedule'?

Nothing changes.

[Straha]

Ignore Beckwith.

I can think of some better things to do to Beckwith than ignore him. Bludgeoning him in a locked room with his own book comes to mind. But his book is available in quite a few bookstores, condenses a fair bit of information in an accessible manner. For someone looking for the basics with a semi-decent bibliography in the back to expand your research you can do a lot worse than Beckwith.

[fgalkin]

If he's as biased as you portray him to be, then his "basics" and bibliography are likely to be biased as well. So, you're not doing yourself a service as using him as an introduction to the subject. If you need to qualify a source as "it's ok, BUT..." then you should just look for another source.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Straha]

If he's as biased as you portray him to be, then his "basics" and bibliography are likely to be biased as well. So, you're not doing yourself a service as using him as an introduction to the subject. If you need to qualify a source as "it's ok, BUT..." then you should just look for another source.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

He's not biased in the first portion of his book. His Bias comes out in the second half, when he starts attacking all things Modern. Like Modern Art, Minimalist Music, all Musicians in the 20th century who aren't Frank Zappa (I kid you not), Modern Politics, Modern Architecture, Politicians and just about anything else. My disdain for his book comes partly from that and partly because he set his goals far too wide and instead of writing a history of the Empires of the Silk Road he writes a history of the entire damn world for the second half of the book. If he'd merely kept writing like he was when he was talking about the Scythians I wouldn't have such utter contempt for him as an author. That's why I recommended the book here.