Frozen Siberian Mummies Reveal A Lost Civilization

Discover Magazine ^ | 6-25-2008 | Andrew Curry

[blam]

Frozen Siberian Mummies Reveal a Lost Civilization

Global warming may finally do in the bodies of the ancient Scythians.

by Andrew Curry

That the warrior survived the arrow’s strike for even a short time was remarkable. The triple-barbed arrowhead, probably launched by an opponent on horseback, shattered bone below his right eye and lodged firmly in his flesh.

The injury wasn’t the man’s first brush with death. In his youth he had survived a glancing sword blow that fractured the back of his skull. This injury was different. The man was probably begging for death, says Michael Schultz, a paleopathologist at the University of Göttingen. Holding the victim’s skull in one hand and a replica of the deadly arrow in the other, Schultz paints a picture of a crude operation that took place on the steppes of Siberia 2,600 years ago.

“The man was crying, ‘Help me,’” Schultz­ says. Thin cuts on the bone show how his companions cut away his cheek, then used a small saw to remove pieces of bone, but to no avail. Pointing to a crack in the skull, he describes the next agonizing step: An ancient surgeon smashed into the bone with a chisel in a final, futile effort to free the arrowhead. “Hours or a day later, the man died,” Schultz says. “It was torture.” The slain warrior’s remains were found in 2003, buried with those of 40 others in a massive kurgan, or grave mound, in southern Siberia at a site that archaeologists call Arzhan 2.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[the invisib1e hand]

now, I would have reckoned it revealed a frozen civilization, but what do I know?

[docbnj]

The habit nowadays is to call any culture a “civilization.” The Scythians were nomads and savages, by the traditional definition, as they had no written language of their own.

[utherdoul]

well if the abornigies or the bush people get civilizations why not the Scythians?

[blam]

Some believe the Schytians are related to the Hurrians.

Who Were The Hurrians

"New discoveries in Syria suggest a little-known people fueled the rise of civilization"

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Blam. Busy day, eh? :') I think this topic is a duplicate of sorts, but I'm going to ping it anyway. Picked up both "National Treasure" movies on DVD (1st one used and cheap, the second one the two-disk set for $22, change, and tax, at Costco as I joined) and plan to spend the rest of the night watching 'em. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[SunkenCiv]

FWIW, IMHO there’s no chance the Hurrians and the Scythians were the same folks.

The Scythians were as literate as most groups of their time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_languages

[SunkenCiv]

Okay, that's amazing. I did a routine search for Hurrians on FR, and one of the five or six matches was the post I just made.

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Big ancient Scythian drawings found in Altai Mountains (Russia)
Kazinform | Sept. 23, 2005 | Kazakh Info Agency
Posted on 09/26/2005 8:48:37 PM PDT by FairOpinion
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1491899/posts

Archaeologists Make Unique Find In Southern Russia
Novosti | 8-26-2004
Posted on 08/26/2004 8:57:28 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1200062/posts

Capital City Of Ancient Superpower Discovered (Medes)
Independent (UK) | 10-26-2002 | David Keys
Posted on 10/26/2002 12:56:48 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/776390/posts

[stormer]

I've got to say I've never heard anyone refer to aborigine or bushman “civilization”. Culture, yes; civilization, no.

[uglybiker]

Who Were The Hurrians

They were first cousins to the Russians.

Needless to say, they were no relation to the JoeCooleans.

:-P

[blam]

"FWIW, IMHO there’s no chance the Hurrians and the Scythians were the same folks."

Where Did the Scythians Come From?

"Evidence of one source of Scythian origin does consistently appear and reappear both in the study of linguistics and in the archaeological and written record. That source is in the present day area of Luristan, in Iran. Anciently this area was occupied by the nomadic horse riding people the Medes (who were later part of the Persian empire), and the Cimmerians, a people who appear to either have been identical with or closely related to the Scythians. Artifacts from Luristan appear to be strongly Scythian in character. Researchers have concluded that a treasure found at nearby Ziwiyeh was from the tomb of a Scythian prince. (Ziweyeh was located in an area once called the kingdom of Mannae - an area eventually overtaken by the Scythians.)(1)"

"Luristan also shows strong links with an area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea known in ancient times as the kingdom of Urartu. Urartian (also known as Hurrian) art in turn shows strong links with the art of Syria and Phoenicia. (2) Its colorful style (using enamel and stone accents in their metal work) is a departure from the art of Assyria and Babylonia but more in keeping with the inlay style of the Near East and even that of Egypt. (3) One researcher, K. Jettmar, lists the different treatments of animal forms in Scythian art that come from the Near East.

[blam]

The Real Scythians of Messopotamia

"Looking at early Scythian representation one may as well be looking at the representation of a Hurrian or Assyrian, minus the curly hair.

[Fred Nerks]

Archaeologists discover permafrost mummy with fur coat.

Thursday, 17 August 2006

Research workers of the German archaeological institute have discovered a mummy in permafrost at excavation work in Mongolia of approximately 2,500 years old. At the "sensational find" of a sepulchre chamber of the Scythian rider people a crew of the German television sender ZDF were present. In front of the camera the archaeologists opened the sepulchre where the mummy of the Scythian soldier was stored. The mummy, conserved in permafrost, carried still a fur coat and had a decorated gilded head ornament. According to the scientists the discovery is similar with those of the legendary Ötzi in 1991, and the tattooed siberian ice princess from 1993.

[SunkenCiv]

Not to nitpick, but the author wrote “Messopotamia” (probably watches “The Daily Show” too much). What little survives of the Scythian language (including the probable modern descendants) shows that it was Indoeuropean. Also, the author appears to be a little nutty/jingoistic.

[blam]

On The Presence Of Non-Chinese At Anyang

Tracking The Tarim Mummies

"A solution to the puzzle of Indo-European origins?

[SunkenCiv]

Luristan also shows strong links with an area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea known in ancient times as the kingdom of Urartu. Urartian (also known as Hurrian) art in turn shows strong links with the art of Syria and Phoenicia

Urartu is another name for Hurrian; the Assyrian records refer to that people. Modern Armenia may take its name from that. The Scythians popped in during the final decades of the Assyrian empire, allied for a good while with the Assyrians against the Babylonians and Medes. Ultimately they switched sides and participated in the three-on-one storming, sacking, and destruction of Nineveh.

The Hurrians adopted Assyrian weapons to some extent after having fought and occasionally been ruled by the Assyrians over a few centuries.

[SunkenCiv]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_languages

Saka language or Scytho-Khotanese in the east: spoken in the Kingdom of Khotan (located in present-day Xinjiang, China), and including the Khotanese of Khotan and Tumshuqese of Tumshuq. Scholars classify these languages as part of the North-Eastern branch of Iranian languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka_language

Saka is an extinct Iranian language which was spoken in Xinjiang, China. There are two known dialects, identified with the cities of Khotan and Tumxuk. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from the Khotan dialect of Saka into the Tocharian languages.[1]

[SunkenCiv]

Who Were the Hurrians?
Archaeology Magazine | July/August 2008 | Andrew Lawler
Posted on 06/25/2008 6:28:07 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2036505/posts