Tuesday, May 12, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

Scythian

Scythian, Sarmatian, Taurian, Alan, Black Sea, and northern-steppe witnesses from classical literature, history, geography, and inscriptions.

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

Texts

GlossaryA compact glossary for the Scythian shelf: peoples, places, source families, and recurring ritual or historical terms.Introduction to Scythian ReligionA critical introduction to Scythian religion as Iranian steppe religion and imperial theology: sky, fire, sword, horse, burial, animal style, Saka, Avestan, Scytho-Mede kingship, and the Central Eurasian horizon.Reader's Guide to Scythian SourcesA reader's guide to the Scythian shelf, with safe paths through Greek and Roman witnesses, inscriptions, and imperial source lanes.
Chinese Frontier Sources36 pages

Chinese historical and frontier-administrative witnesses for Xiongnu, Wusun, Yuezhi, Kangju, Sai/Saka, Dawan, oasis states, and the eastern side of the Scythian source-world.

Greek and Roman Sources91 pages

Greek and Roman literary, historical, geographical, and philosophical witnesses for Scythia and the northern Black Sea world.

Greek Philosophical Sources3 pages

Greek philosophical and ethnographic testimonia for Anacharsis, the Saka, and the intellectual afterlife of the Scythian world.

Inscriptions and Dedications47 pages

Greek inscriptional witnesses for Olbia, Hylaea, Achilles Pontarches, the Mother of the Gods, and North Black Sea sacred geography.

Iranian and Imperial Sources8 pages

Iranian, Achaemenid, and Zoroastrian source texts for Saka, Scythian, and steppe-imperial history.

Near Eastern Sources3 pages

Assyrian, Babylonian, and Near Eastern witnesses to Scythians, Cimmerians, Medes, and the northern frontier.

Rare Inscription Dossiers1 page

Rare Greek inscription dossiers for Scythian, Bosporan, Chersonesite, and north Black Sea source evidence.