You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity

Chapter 2 You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity Margarita Gleba Costume has been regarded as one of the main identifying criteria for Scythians, nomadic peoples who inhabited the E urasian steppes in the 1st millennium BC. The sources for our understanding of Scythian clothing include ancient literary references, iconographic material and archaeological remains. E ach of these sources is imbued with inherent or interpretational problems, which we have to take into account when using them to reconstruct Scythian costume. By combining a variety of sources, the bias of each taken separately is reduced, thereby giving us more insight into what Scythians wore. Keywords: Scythian, identity, iconography, Greek, Persian, archaeology. Dress reflects the identity of an individual or a group of peoples more than most other aspects of material culture since it combines both technological achievements and aesthetic values of society. In a way, clothes are a language in which individual garments constitute vocabulary. The study of the costume of ancient societies not only helps in reconstructing the appearance of various peoples, but also opens up numerous aspects of their history: knowing the vocabulary helps to understand the language. Such study is, however, not an easy task as very little direct evidence of clothing has survived in the archaeological record for most ancient cultures. Ancient dress is a foreign language in which, in addition, a lot of words are missing. Textiles and other materials from which garments were made are seldom preserved. Even when they survive, the corpus of finds is in itself biased since the vast majority of ancient clothing is found in burials, usually wealthy burials. The reconstruction of ancient clothing thus has to rely heavily on literary, iconographic and archaeological sources. Costume has been regarded as one of the main iconographic identifying criteria for Scythians, a collective name given to a group of nomadic peoples of Central-Asian origin, who occupied the steppe regions of Eurasia (modern day Ukraine and Russia) from the 7th through to the 3rd century BC (see Map 2). Already in the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus describes the costume of one of the Scythian tribes in his catalogue of the Persian king Xerxes’ troops: 14 Margarita Gleba The Sacae, who are Scythians, had on their tall caps, erect and stiff and tapering to a point; they wore breeches, and carried their native bows, and daggers, and axes withal, which they call “sagaris”. These were Amyrgian Scythians, but were called Sacae; for that is the Persian name for all the Scythians (Herodotus 7.64 Loeb translation). The important detail in this description is the tall pointed hat, which Herodotus calls kyrbasia. At another point in his narrative, he mentions that headgear, belts and girdles of Scythians were decorated with gold (Herodotus 1.215). Another written source of information about Scythians is contained in roughly contemporary Achaemenid Persian inscriptions, which mention three groups of Scythians or Sakai. One of these groups is specified as pointed-hat Scythians. The name indicates that for the Persians, too, clothing in general and the hat in particular has served as an ethnic indicator. Thus, in both Greek and Persian written sources, Scythians are identified by and with their clothing. Scythians themselves left no written sources, so for historical information we are left to rely on Greek and Achaemenid Persian accounts, which are few and not always reliable. The information in the texts, however, is very scant and often too general, so that for any further investigation of Scythian clothing we must rely on other sources. What tangible evidence do we have today that would help us reconstruct the way Scythians looked, and how reliable is it? In the following pages the available evidence is examined with a critical eye on the sources. In particular, I will consider the relevant iconography and archaeological finds, supplementing them with and contrasting them to literary sources as a method of arriving at a more comprehensive understanding of Scythian costume in particular, and ancient dress in general. SCYTHIAN COSTUME IN GREEK ICONOGRAPHY Greek vase-painting constitutes one of the most frequently used sources for the study of ancient clothing. Until quite recently, Western scholarship has focused on Attic vasepainting as a primary archaeological source of information on the appearance of foreigners. Dress in particular, along with weaponry and, less frequently, phenotype has been used as a criterion for identification of Scythians and other barbarian peoples known from contemporary literature (Raeck 1981, 2). Most of the representations of what have been identified as Scythian archers on Attic vases belong to the years between 530 and 500 BC (Vos 1963). Their typical attire includes the tall pointed cap with flaps on the sides and back, and the dress consisting of a long-sleeved top and jacket with trousers, all made of patterned material and trimmed with decorated strips along the seams (Figs 2.1–2.2). Few of the archers, however, wear precisely this costume. Scholars explain some variants as being simplifications or elaborations of a decorative sort. The telling implements are often reduced to weapons and the tall pointed cap. Thus, in many cases, Scythian attire has not been used in a specific ethnic sense, but rather employed either to represent a wider range of Asians, or You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 15 to indicate the function of archer and/or his mythical character (Pinney 1983, 130, 137). Note, that the evidence discussed here is exclusively for the male costume. Scythian clothing as a symbol of archery has been suggested as an explanation for its adaptation for the images of Amazons in Greek art (Bothmer 1957; Vos 1963, passim). It can also be associated with their believed geographical origin in the Black Sea region. Starting about 550 BC, Amazons are depicted with iconographic features of foreign races, such as Persians and Scythians. The most frequent Scythian elements on Amazons include the pointed cap, bow, and gorytus or arrow holder. Often Thracian, Scythian, Oriental and Greek elements are intermixed. Thus Amazons are often depicted wearing what are believed to be Fig. 2.1: Scythian archer, Greek black-figure vase, the British Scythian garments, yet fighting Museum. (© British Museum, The Trustees of the British with Thracian weapons; the Museum) combination was possibly intended to emphasize their exotic and mythical aspect (Shapiro 1983, 111). It appears, thus, that ethnic identity based on garments can become blurred in cases where Amazons are depicted in Scythian dress or in scenes where the Scythian archers fight on both conflicting sides (Pinney 1983, 131). The simple explanation that people depicted wearing foreign clothing are foreigners, is not valid in every case. Dress and weapons as ethnic indicators are thus flexible within Greek iconography. A paradoxical development of this flexibility appears on the group of so-called Negro alabastra (Neils 1980). These vessels date to the first quarter of the 5th century BC and depict Amazons or, more frequently, Africans wearing a version of the Scythian costume: patterned 16 Margarita Gleba Fig. 2.2: Scythian archer, Greek red-figure vase, the British Museum. (© British Museum, The Trustees of the British Museum) trousers, jacket, often covered by a corselet, usually without pointed hat, but with gorytus. To what extent does Athenian vase painting reflect the appearance of Scythians then? Ancient literature suggests that Greeks could differentiate between various groups of foreigners, and did so partially on the basis of their clothing. However, it is difficult to know if the people shown on vases wearing garments corresponding to descriptions in texts are, in fact, Scythians or other foreigners. Most arguments rest on the iconography alone. Some scholars generally do not seem to question the results of such identifications (Schauenburg 1975, 106). The iconography itself is, however, often inconsistent and many figures cannot be precisely categorized as ‘Scythians’ (Miller 1991, 61). After the 5th century BC, Amazons, Persians and generic Easterners in vase painting usually wear eastern garments not necessarily particular to their origin. Descriptions by Herodotus are often used as a confirmation of their identity, yet his accounts, as mentioned above, are short and very general and should be used with caution in modern interpretations of iconography. You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 17 We also have to take into account the fact that artistic conventions played a major role in vase-painting in general and in the representation of foreigners in particular (Raeck 1981, 2–3). The appearance of barbarians on vases is based not only on historical reality, but also on artistic canons and it is difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate between the two (Raeck 1981, 3; Miller 1991, 63). The source of the craftsmen’s familiarity with Scythian appearance is yet another problem for us. For many years, the appearance of Scythian archers in Attic painting has been explained by their unsubstantiated presence in Athens between 540 and 500 BC. This premise still underlines Vos’ monograph on Scythian archers (Vos 1963, 61–80). Yet, Scythian archers disappear from the vases at the time when Scythians are known to have been brought to Athens (Pinney 1983, 131). Thus, although Greek vase-painting offers some understanding of the appearance of foreigners, we have to treat it with caution as a class of evidence. Furthermore, the question of whether vase-painting reflects everyday life or represents mythological scenes is still unresolved. The problems in distinguishing different foreigners in Attic vasepainting – if one assumes that the depictions are indeed of foreigners – show the limitations of the material for the understanding of Scythian costume. Although representations on vases are frequently used as documents of the time in which they were painted, the approach is sound only when the information gained from them can be checked against external evidence. In fact, there is quite a diverse body of iconographic and archaeological evidence for Scythian clothing of non-Greek origin. SCYTHIAN COSTUME IN PERSIAN ICONOGRAPHY The bas-reliefs of the Apadana in Persepolis (modern Iran), the great Achaemenid centre built in the reign of the most famous of Persian kings, Darius (522–486 BC), represent one such contemporary source of information (Schmidt 1953). The reliefs originally showed the enthroned king in the centre, while processions of gift-bearers of various nations, whose costumes were carefully rendered by the artists, moved towards him. The qualifier ‘pointed-hat’ found in Achaemenid written sources has led to the plausible identification of one group of gift-bearers as Scythians (Fig. 2.3). On another monument, the elaborately carved façade of the Tomb of Darius at Naqshi-Rustam, the Persian king is represented on a throne supported by various peoples representing different parts of the Persian Empire. Here, three types of Scythians are shown and labelled, which is important considering that there is not much difference in their appearance except in the shape of their hats. Finally, the rock relief at Bisitun, carved in 520–519 BC, during the reign of King Darius, to commemorate his victories over the rebel kings, shows them roped together at the neck. The last one is a Saka prisoner labelled as such (Fig. 2.4); but he also stands out by his very tall hat. Other Persian representations of Scythians occur on cylinder seals showing battles between Persians and Scythians or Scythians by themselves (Minns 1913, 61). 18 Margarita Gleba Fig. 2.3: Scythian delegation, Apadana reliefs, Persepolis, Iran. (Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) Persian depictions appear to be more precise renditions of Scythians than Greek vase paintings. However, it is difficult to identify exactly to which of the three earlier mentioned groups the Scythians in Persian reliefs belong to as hat types and other articles of clothing do not fall precisely into three mutually exclusive groups recorded in inscriptions (Miller 1991, 62). Artistic conventions hamper our understanding of the details of the costume. And, once again, the evidence is only for male costume. SCYTHIAN ICONOGRAPHY Besides Greek and Persian iconography of Scythians, the largest and most important body of evidence for the study of Scythian costume comes, not surprisingly, from Scythia itself. This material includes stone sculpture, toreutic arts or metalwork, clothing appliqués, actual textiles and implements used for the production of clothing (Artamonov 1969; Rolle et al. 1991; Rolle 1989; Reeder 1999; Aruz et al. 2000). These Scythian sources provide us with important information about not only male, but also for the first time, female Scythian clothing. Based on the apparent lack of human imagery in early metal work, it has long been You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 19 assumed, that the Scythians had no significant tradition of anthropomorphic representation. Scythian art has often been categorized as ‘nomadic’ or ‘animal’ art. This view, however, is contradicted by a Scythian tradition of monumental stone anthropomorphic images. Scythian stone statues have not been sufficiently written about in English and are not well known to Western scholars. These unquestionably Scythian monuments, however, have been used as important indicators of the geographical spread of Scythian culture in the Black Sea area. They have been found in the wide geographic area from Romanian Dobrudja in the west to the northern Caucasian mountains in the east, and mark the territory of Scythian dominion in the northern Black Sea region (Bilozor 1991, 161). Over 140 statues dated to the 7th through the 4th centuries BC are known. Predominantly images of warriors, they marked the burial mounds or k urhany of especially wealthy individuals (Olchovsky and Evdokimov 1994; Olchovsky 2005). Various interpretations of these stone warriors suggest that they may be portraits of either heroized, deceased chieftains, depictions of ancestral figures, or images of war gods (Popova 1976, 120–121; Olchovsky 2005, 114– 117). Whatever their significance, these statues are believed to have been carved by Scythian craftsmen, and are likely to reflect the appearance Fig. 2.4: Rock relief at Bisitun, Iran, of real warriors. detail of the Saka prisoner. (Drawing by The most typical attributes of sculptures Marianne Bloch Hansen after photo by representing warriors are various weapons, which, Jona Lendering) in the best examples, reflect real objects found in burials (Fig. 2.5). Most stone warriors wear jackets or kaftans. Some examples have rich protective armour. Relatively frequent in the archaic statues are helmets and hats, sometimes with a carved pointed end hanging in the back (as in Fig. 2.5). The vast majority of statues have belts, often represented as if made of metal plates. Torques or neck rings represent another ubiquitous attribute. Occasionally, earrings and bracelets are depicted. All of these elements, including parts of armour, have also been found in Scythian graves. 20 Margarita Gleba Fig. 2.5: Scythian stone stele from Ternivka, Ukraine. (After Olchovsky and E vdokimov 1994, Fig. 8) As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of the Scythian stone statues depict males. There is however, a female statue from Pregradnaya, in Russia (Fig. 2.6). This is a unique and unusual example. Because of its singularity, monumental size, original location and the fact that it stood together with two other, male statues, it is believed to have been a cult statue, possibly representing a deity. She wears a long, heavily pleated dress tied with a belt around her waist. A heavy cloak hangs from her shoulders. Her head is covered with a shoulder-length veil. She is shown wearing earrings and an elaborate torque (Olchovsky and Evdokimov 1994, 34). Scythian stone sculpture does pose some interpretive problems since it was made apparently for a specific purpose, with certain details emphasized and others underplayed. Nevertheless, this body of material is extremely important in the corpus of Scythian material culture and should be studied together with other evidence since it reflects a Scythian view of themselves closer than any other sources. Scythians in their complete attire also appear in the toreutic art of the northern Black Sea area. Gold and silver objects from Ukrainian and Russian burial mounds Kul Oba, Voronezskiy, Chortomlyk, Haimanova Mohyla and Solokha bear representations of Scythian men with astonishing details of their appearance, including their hair, clothing, You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 21 shoes and weapons, giving a visual expression to Herodotus’ description of Sacae. Scythian jackets are clearly tailored and fur-trimmed along the edges (Fig. 2.7). According to Barber (1994, 133), ancient tunics developed in two major ways. The simpler variety consisted merely of a big rectangular cloth draped over the body and pinned, tied or belted in place. Such garments were typical for ancient Greece. The more complicated type of tunic consisted of several pieces of cloth sewn together to create a sleeved garment. This was the type used by Scythians. With such garments there was no need for pins or fibulae and, in fact, very few fibulae have been found in Scythian burials. The tailoring is frequently emphasized in representations of Scythian garments. This purposeful decoration also permits us to reconstruct the way Scythian garments were tailored with some certainty. A gold-plaited silver bowl from Haymanova Mohyla (Fig. 2.8), dated to the 4th century BC, depicts Scythians in such splendidly fashioned dress. The long jackets or kaftans are most likely of embroidered, fur-trimmed leather. An element particular to the Fig. 2.6: Female stone statue from Pregradnaya, Black Sea representations of Scythian Russia. (After Olchovsky and E vdokimov 1994, clothing is the addition, all round the Fig. 74) bottom of such jackets, of long pointed flaps which must have waved up and down very effectively during horse riding (Rolle 1989, 58; Klochko 1991, 105). Trousers in iconography are of both narrow and wide types. These are always elaborately decorated. Besides the tell-tale Scythian appliqués, patterned textiles were most likely used for this purpose. As mentioned before, the decorative elements on garments have been placed in such a manner as to highlight the edges and the seams. Seams especially were emphasized with embroidery. In Slavic folk costumes even today 22 Margarita Gleba Fig. 2.7: Scythian gold helmet from Peredriyiva Mohyla, Ukraine. (Courtesy of Dr. Sergei Polin, Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine) embroidery is generally located at the seams and the openings of the clothing, such as neck-hole, wrists and shirttail. This decoration supposedly was meant to discourage demons from crawling in at the openings (Barber 1994, 163). Whatever the purpose of such specific decorating of dress in Scythian toreutics, its detailed depiction indicates intimate knowledge of the nature of Scythian dress on the part of the artists who made these objects. The pointed cap, the main iconographic indicator of Scythians in Greek vase-painting, is not a frequent attribute on metalware from Scythian burials. Only vases from Kul Oba and Voronezskiy bear depictions of Scythians wearing such headgear and these caps are not nearly as tall and elaborate as those in Greek representations. The rest of the Black Sea material shows Scythians bare-headed. Also depicted on metal vessels is a special type of Scythian boots. They were tied to the feet with narrow laces under the ankle or around the foot itself, as depicted on the bowl from Haymanova Mohyla. Incidentally, such shoes are not depicted in Greek vase-painting. You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 23 Fig. 2.8: Scythian figures on a bowl from Haymanova Mohyla, Ukraine. (Courtesy of Dr. Sergei Polin, Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine) FEMALE SCYTHIAN COSTUME Considerably less is known about the dress of Scythian women than about male garments. Ancient literature does not provide us with any descriptions and there are no known representations of Scythian women’s clothing in Greek vase-painting or Persian art. All information comes from the Black Sea material, and although there are significantly fewer depictions of women than men, and these images most likely reflect the appearance of the elite members of the society, these depictions do give some understanding of their appearance. Apart from the single female stone statue discussed earlier, clothing plaques and headdress parts constitute the only other class of representational material. The nearly identical plaques depicting a seated female figure wearing a long dress, a headdress and a cloak covering the headdress and falling down behind her shoulders, with a man standing in front of her, have been found in several Scythian burial mounds (Fig. 2.9). Another example is a 4th-century BC gold cone-shaped plaque from a headdress found in Karagodeuashkh, in Russia. Here, the scene is divided into three registers, the lowest of which depicts a frontally seated woman flanked by two female and two male attendants. She wears a long pleated dress and a tall headdress with a veil or cloak with decorated edges hanging down from it behind her back. Behind the seated woman stand two other women, wearing hood-like head covers. One more representation of a female appears on a diadem from Sakhnivka in Ukraine. On this object, again, a woman wears a long robe and a tall headdress. 24 Margarita Gleba Most scholars agree that the females depicted in all these plaques are goddesses (Jacobson 1995, 164–165). Nevertheless, their garments are representative of what real Scythian women may have worn. Thus the women of the upper social levels probably wore long dresses, and over these long richly ornamented coats. On their heads they wore magnificent headdresses of various forms frequently covered with veils. The style and representation within the metal work of the Fig. 2.9: Scythian gold plaque with seated goddess from Scythians is problematic to Chortomlyk, Ukraine. (Courtesy of Dr. Sergei Polin, Institute some extent since it is of Archaeology of Ukraine) impossible to deny that the handling of human figures on many objects derives from Hellenic taste (Jacobson 1995, 72). The apparent lack of anthropomorphic images mentioned earlier has led to the assumption that the best gold work from Scythia, and especially those objects adorned with human representations, has been manufactured by Greek craftsmen, ostensibly making them less ‘reliable’ in terms of what they can tell us about Scythian appearance. Yet, even if Greek craftsmen could have conceived and executed these human figures, it would still be impossible to find convincing models for these representations within surviving Greek art. Whatever the nationality or ethnicity of the craftsmen, the details of clothing in representations discussed above undeniably point to their close familiarity with Scythian people. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE Finally, a crucial source in our quest to reconstruct Scythian costume is archaeological material. As in the case of other sources, it is not without problems, the most significant of which is the fragmentariness of remains making the identification of specific garments and their function very difficult. Here, too, we can get a glimpse of only the wealthiest levels of society. The latter factor makes the possibility of imports among materials and even clothes themselves quite likely, so it is hard to judge how typical the surviving fragments are for the overall picture of Scythian garments. Nonetheless, some information about Scythian dress can be gleaned from these scanty remains. You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 25 Gold appliqués As mentioned in the beginning, Herodotus informs us that a characteristic element of Scythian clothing was the application of golden plaques on the clothing. In fact, such plaques are often found in wealthy burials of the Scythian aristocracy. The ornamentation of clothing with appliqués is also attested by representations on Scythian objects and even in Attic vase-painting. In Western scholarly literature, clothing plaques have been studied mostly from the iconographic standpoint (Jacobson 1995). When found in situ, however, they are also extremely useful for partial reconstruction of the original dress. We can frequently trace the contours of the garments through the location of ornaments. The exact position of plaques in situ in this case is crucial for our understanding of the appearance of the garment. Thus, dresses have been reconstructed for men and women buried in the Ukraninan kurhany of Piski, Kazenna Mohyla, Tovsta Mohyla, Zolota Mohyla (Klochko 1979; 1991). Women’s shoes, in fact, could only be reconstructed from the position of golden ornaments in burials, as, for example, in Tovsta Mohyla and Melitopol, also in Ukraine. A great deal of work has been done on reconstructing women’s headdresses. The majority of the gold ornaments found in female burials are, in fact, parts of the elaborate hats of various shapes. They range from simple diadems to close-fitting caps, to magnificent affairs over 30 cm high, sometimes called kalathoi. Various head decorations have been reconstructed with varied degree of accuracy from the material found in Chortomlyk, Kamyanka, Berdiansk and Tovsta Mohyla (Klochko 1991, 107–109; Rolle 1989, 60; Rolle, Murzin and Alekseev 1998, 144–45, pl. 24, colour pls. 15–18). They bring to life headdresses depicted in the representational art discussed before. Textiles In some cases, leather, felt and textiles of various types have survived in burials. Often traces of colour and few remains of thread indicate that the original clothing was colourful, a piece of information which cannot be gained from the representational arts. Textile and leather remains are also our only reliable evidence for the materials and techniques used to make the garments. From the 4th–3rd century BC kurhan Velyka Ryzhanivka in Ukraine, six different textiles have been recovered, consisting of wool, plant (hemp, ramie), and mixed fibres (Babenko, Bredis and Klocho 2001; Bredis 2001). As far as techniques go, there are fragments woven in plain weave and in twill, but one of the pieces is embroidered and another possibly shows evidence of tapestry weave. Numerous fragments of fabric have been recovered at Chortomlyk (Rolle, Murzin and Alekseev 1998, 22–24). Nine woollen pieces have preserved their original red and green colours. Some leather and felt fragments have been found as well. Semibratniy Kurgan 4, in South Russia, dated to the 5th century BC, yielded an interesting piece of resist-painted woollen cloth (Barber 1991, 206–209). A sarcophagus cover from the later Kurgan 6 at the same site was also resist-painted; the same burial yielded pieces of delicate tapestry that must have formed part of the funeral clothing 26 Margarita Gleba (Stephani 1881, 119–124). Finally, Pavlovski Kurgan, in Ukraine dated to the fourth century BC had preserved pieces of embroidered cloth among the bones of a woman in a sarcophagus. Both resist-painting and embroidery are techniques considered to have originated in the East. Scythians may have transmitted these techniques for the Greeks. The Semibratniy burials also yielded some silk of Chinese origin, and it is likely that Scythians played an important role in the early silk trade. In connection to this, another body of archaeological material has to be considered. Unique finds come from the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Here, complete costumes were preserved frozen on the bodies in burials (Rudenko 1970; Polosmak and Barkova 2005). The first glimpse of these costumes came in the 1940s with excavations of five burial mounds at Pazyryk. These finds are now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. More recent excavations at Ak-Alakha and other Ukok sites have added substantially to our knowledge and understanding of the Pazyryk costumes. All of this material dates to the 5th–3rd centuries BC. Although representing a more eastern and broader Scytho-Siberian culture, these finds should be considered in the study of Scythian dress, especially since many of them constitute complete articles of clothing. Thus, in Kurgan 2 of Pazyryk, an almost intact man’s hemp shirt was found. It was sewn from four panels between which sleeves were inserted, with seams emphasized with red woollen thread. It closely resembles Scythian shirts represented on the metalware discussed earlier. Kurgan 2 also produced a female upper garment of squirrel skin, breeches, part of a kaftan with applied leather cutout decoration with gold disks, similar to the clothing plaques found in the Black Sea area. Textile tools Within any society, the physical appearance of dress is limited by aesthetic standards of the culture which in turn are limited by technology. That is why technological evidence for textile production has to be considered here as well. Andersson in this anthology has aptly demonstrated that technical aspects of clothing can be investigated through implements used for its production. In Scythia, this information is scarce, mostly because of the lack of interest on the part of excavators. However, some examples provided here suggest yet another route for our study of Scythian clothing. Spinning is documented by a few, occasionally preserved spindles that have been found in burials. For example, a beautifully made silver spindle was found in Chortomlyk (Rolle, Murzin and Alekseev 1998, 22 no. 119, pl. 36.2). Numerous spindle whorls of various types also survive. The settlement of Bilske Horodyshche, in Ukraine, dated to the 7th–3rd centuries BC, produced over 400 whorls of 17 types (Jakovenko 1991, 112). It is unclear, what kind of loom Scythians utilized. Barber (1991) believes that inhabitants of the geographic areas north of the Mediterranean utilized the warp-weighted loom, which is unique in that it is archaeologically traceable through the presence of ceramic loom weights. On the territory of Scythia, however, loom weights are rare and, when found, are associated with Greek settlements, thus we may have to look at other possibilities. Still, technical aspects of recovered textiles and the You Are What You Wear: Scythian Costume as Identity 27 presence of spinning and weaving equipment within the archaeological assemblage of Scythia indicate that at least some parts of the garments were manufactured locally. CONCLUSIONS Reconstructing dress and, through it, peoples’ identity is not an easy task. We have to consider all the material carefully, taking into account its various limitations, since all evidence is biased and unreliable in some way. Thus, Greek, Persian and Scythian depictions emphasize different aspects of the appearance of Scythians. That is why we need to study all the material to learn about their clothing. By combining literary, iconographic and archaeological evidence, the bias of each taken separately is significantly reduced. All this material allows us to draw some general conclusions about Scythian appearance and learn more about their identity as perceived by other ancient peoples. To what extent we are able to understand the language of dress depends greatly on how carefully we study the vocabulary. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank Sergei Polin for reading and making valuable comments to the first draft of this chapter and for his help with illustrations; Marianne Bloch Hansen kindly provided a new drawing for Fig. 2.4. I also thank Sergey Yatsenko, whose important book on the costume of Indo-Iranian peoples (Yatsenko 2006) appeared since this article went to press. BIBLIOGRAPHY Artamonov, M. I. (1969) The Splendor of Scythian Art. New York, Frederick A. Prager. Aruz, J. et al. (2000) The Golden Deer of E urasia. Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the Russian Steppes. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Babenko, T. N., N. Y. Bredis and L. S. Klochko (2001) Фрагменты ткани из мужского захоронения в Большом Рыжановском кургане. Восточноевропейский археологический журнал 2 (9). Barber, E. J. W. (1991) Prehistoric Textiles. The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Barber, E. W. (1994) Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years. Women, Cloth, and Society in E arly Times. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Bilozor, V. P. (1991) Skythische Grossplastik aus Stein. In R. Rolle et al. (eds) Gold der Steppe Archäologie der Ukraine. Schleswig, Archäologisches Landesmuseum, 161–164. Bothmer, D. von (1957) Amazons in Greek Art. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Bredis, N. Y. (2001) Исследование скифского текстиля (нач. III в. до н.э.) из Большого Рыжановского кургана. Восточноевропейский археологический журнал 4 (11). 28 Margarita Gleba Jacobson, E. (1995) The Art of the Scythians: The Interpretation of Cultures at the E dge of the Hellenic World. New York, E. J. Brill. Jakovenko, E. V. (1991) Skythische Spindeln. In R. Rolle et al., (eds) Gold der Steppe. Archäologie der Ukraine. Schleswig, Archäologisches Landesmuseum, 111–113. Klochko, L. S. (1979) Реконструкція скіфськіх головних жіночіх уборів (за матер’ялами Червоноперекопськіх курганів). Arkheologiya 31, 16–28. Klochko, L. S. (1991) Skythische Tracht. In Rolle, et al. (eds) Gold der Steppe Archäologie der Ukraine. Schleswig, Archäologisches Landesmuseum, 105–111. Miller, M. (1991) Foreigners at the Greek Symposium? In W. J. Slater (ed.) Dining in a Classical Context. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Minns, E. H. (1913) Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the E uxine from the Danube to the Caucasus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Neils, J. (1980) The Group of the Negro Alabastra: A Study in Motif Transferal. Antike Kunst 23, 13–23. Olchovsky, V. S. (2005) Монументальная скульптура населения западной части евразийских степей эпохи раннего железа. Moscow, Nauka. Olchovsky, V. S. and G. L. Evdokimov (1994) Скифские изваяния VII–III вв. до н. э. Moskow: RAN (Russian Academy of Sciences) and UAN (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences). Pinney, G. F. (1983) Achilles Lord of Scythia. In W. G. Moon (ed.) Ancient Greek Art and Iconography. Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 127–146. Polosmak, N. V. and L. L. Barkova (2005) Костюм и текстиль пазырыкцев Алтая (IV–III вв. до н. э.) Novosibirsk, Infolio. Popova, E. A. (1976) Об истоках традиций и эволюции форм скифской скулптуры. Sovetskaja Archeologija 1, 108–122. Raeck, W. (1981) Zum Barbarenbild in der Kunst Athens im 6. und 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Bonn, Rudolf Habelt. Reeder, E. (ed.) (1999) Scythian Gold. Treasures from Ancient Ukraine. New York, Harry N. Abrams. Rolle, R. (1989) The World of Scythians. Berkeley, University of California Press. Rolle, R. et al. (eds) (1991) Gold der Steppe. Archäologie der Ukraine. Schleswig: Archäologisches Landesmuseum. Rolle, R., Murzin, V. J. and A. J. Alekseev (1998) Königskurgan Certomlyk: ein skythischer Grabhügel des 4. vorchristlichen Jahrhunderts. Mainz, Verlag Phillip von Zabbern. Rudenko, S. I. (1970) Frozen Tombs of Siberia: the Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen. Berkeley, University of California Press. Schauenburg, K. (1975) EURUMEDWN EIMI. Athenische Mitteilungen 90, 97–121. Schmidt, E. F. (1953) Persepolis I. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Shapiro, H. A. (1983) Amazons, Thracians, and Scythians. Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies 24, 105–115. Stephani, L. (1881) Compte-Rendu de la Commission Impériale Archéologique (1878–1879), St. Petersburg. Vos, M. F. (1963) Scythian Archers in Archaic Attic Vase-Painting. Groningen, J. B. Wolters. Yatsenko, S. A. (2006) Костюм Древнеŭ Евразuu. Moskow, Vostochnaya Literatura.