Bozkırın Mirası: İskit Atının İzleri

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The domestication of the horse and the economic, social, military and cultural benefits from the horse in time, in a sense, is one of the important events in history. Although there are different opinions on this issue, cultural historians agree that the Turks played the biggest role in the domestication of the horse for the first time. The use of the horse as a riding animal by the Turks is essentially a cultural breakthrough. Considering the North China and central Inner Asia, where the Turkish culture emerged, the vast grasslands and wide steppe land, it is obvious that the horse brought dynamism both to itself and to the Steppe Culture over time. The Scythians, who lived in the steppe life in the region that included the east of Europe, the Tian Shan and Fergana Valley between the 8th century BC and the 3rd century AD, and were accepted as the ancestors of the Turks, were the best example of the strong connection between humans and animals at that time. While talking about the Scythians, Hippocrates mentions that they always have a horse with them and that they fight with the enemy on the horse. Ancient historians and geographers such as Herodotos, Strabo, and Xenophon defined them as "equestrian tribes" with the information they brought to the present day. We can also provide this information from Assyrian and Urartian written sources. The Scythians, who taught the world how to use the horse skillfully and were able to show many knowledge and skills about the horse, showed the tribes of the region that the horse could also be used for military purposes in every geography they went. Strabo especially mentioned "horse training" in the information he gave in his sources, and also included the love and respect that the Scythians felt for their horses. In light of archaeological findings and the written sources of the period, this study was conducted to answer the question of how the horse figure is based on cultural wealth in the military, political, social and religious lives of the Scythians.