Re-evaluating Scythian lifeways: Isotopic analysis of diet and mobility in Iron Age Ukraine.

ABSTRACT: The Scythians are frequently presented, in popular and academic thought alike, as highly mobile warrior nomads who posed a great economic risk to growing Mediterranean empires from the Iron Age into the Classical period. Archaeological studies provide evidence of first millennium BCE urbanism in the steppe while historical texts reference steppe agriculture, challenging traditional characterizations of Scythians as nomads. However, there have been few direct studies of the diet and mobility of populations living in the Pontic steppe and forest-steppe during the Scythian era. Here, we analyse strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope data from human tooth enamel samples, as well as nitrogen and carbon isotope data of bone collagen, at several Iron Age sites across Ukraine commonly associated wi

SUBMITTER: Ventresca Miller AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7946291 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature