Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus

Abstract

First published in 1913, Scythians and Greeks is a monumental work, covering the archaeology, ethnology and history of the region between the Carpathians and the Caucasus. Written evidence on Scythia is mostly from Greek sources, but archaeological evidence provides another picture of these nomadic tribes who moved west in about the eighth century BCE, coming into contact with Greeks, Persians and Egyptians. The book is particularly valuable for its research and bibliography on Siberia and Southern Russia, then less well known to western scholars, from where there are many excavated burials containing magnificent jewellery. Sir Ellis Minns (1874–1953) discusses the pre-history and ethnography of the Scythians, and their shifting territories, and also how they were viewed by outsiders. There is a full exposition on Scythian art and the influence on it of Greek art from the Black Sea colonies, and the book contains hundreds of illustrations.