The Scythian's

The main purpose of my trip to London was to a) meet up with one of my very oldest friends who I have known since Primary school. and b) The Scythian exhibition at the British Museum, here
The British Museum is, arguably, one of my favourite places. If you have never been then go, just book the train or tube and, go. You will  not be disappointed! The artefacts the British Empire pilfered from the four corners of the globe and stored them all in this vast building.

We managed to get half-price tickets for the event via the Timeout website, which proved to be an utter bargain. The exhibition, sponsored by BP is held in conjunction with the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg. Both a museum and a city I would love to visit. The Hermitage was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764, when she endowed a collection of paintings she had bought. Since then the Hermitage has expanded and grown to be one of the most impressive museums in the world.

A lot of what the hermitage contains is the private collections of the very many Tsars that collected art and antiquities on a scale as impressive as any other European monarchs. A lot of the Scythian exhibition items were picked up Tsar Peter the Great.

The Scythian's were an early nomadic race of people from central Asia mentioned by Herodotus, the classical Greece historian. With the expansion of the Russian empire they began to excavate in the steppes and began to find these wealthy tombs that had been incredibly well preserved. The tombs had essentially been frozen. The tombs were dug during summer as the ground was soft enough.

The finds from these tombs, on display, are quite incredible. There level of gold work is phenomenal considering its over 2000 years old

As you can see above, the gold work is incredibly detailed. In fact, if you were to gift this to someone nowadays I think think they would be very impressed by your gift! Considering the person who created this probably lived around 2,400yrs ago then the level of skill is clearly quite considerable if you think of the fairly basic tools he or she'd have had. 

In the exhibition, although the glittering gold catches your eye more, there is still plenty of the artefacts preserved by the semi frozen tundra. The Scythian's renowned for their horsemanship and skill in fighting on the back of horses (ancestors of course to Uigats and Mongolians).

So you have examples of riding saddles, horse braces and clothing that they would have worn. The coloured, felt over-tights that a lady would have worn were absolutely beautiful; fully preserved and vibrant in colour they would not be out of place in some fashion show. 

Perhaps the most wonderful exhibit which really did take the breath away was this, below

It's a child's felt toy. It is something you could purchase from IKEA. This one though, as perfect as it looks is 2300 yrs old. It's the kind of thing my daughter would like. But this, entombed for two millennia looks brand new and so neatly made. Both myself and my friend, though appreciative of the goldsmiths they had, felt that this piece was emblematic of how the scythians are just a distant, disappeared race but, as relevant to us as other nations are now.

The future of scythian exploration I do not know, but considering the vast size of the steppes and the fact that a lot of these tombs are relatively unmarked means that frozen in the ground there are still incredible finds to be had.