Download Scythia: The History and Legacy of the Scythians AudioBook Free
Among all the peoples of the ancient Near East, few are more misinterpreted than the Scythians. The Scythians swept into Anatolia in the early first millennium BCE and still left a large swath of devastation in their wake. They challenged old, strong, and venerable kingdoms such as the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Medes, until these were defeated by the Medes and then little by little disappeared into historical obscurity once more. According to the ancient greek language historian Herodotus, the Scythians ruled a large part of the Near East for almost 30 years, but before they disappeared from the historical record, the Scythians greatly impacted the annals of the Near East. The Scythians have been known to the world for centuries thanks to the writings of Herodotus and other Classical historians, but nonetheless much remains mysterious about the enigmatic people, and the first efforts to comprehend the usually non-literate warrior culture through archaeology were conducted by Soviet scholars through the 20th century. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Soviet research on the Scythians is becoming more accessible in the West and Russia, and other central Asian republics have been more receptive to allowing overseas scholars to perform field work in their countries. This has led to a much greater understanding of the Scythians and their devote ancient history. Via an research of modern scholarly works and archaeological reviews, as well as careful examination of literate peoples who composed about the Scythians, the value of the people can be located more securely in its proper historical framework.
