The Scythian period in the northern Black Sea region (750–250 BC)

Abstract

Several cultural features distinguish the northern Black Sea region from the rest of the Antique world. The region is rare or unique in that it was the scene of direct contact over a long period, not only between communities at different stages or levels of socio-economic development, but between communities of different economic and cultural types: nomadic pastoralists on the one hand and and sedentary plough agriculturalists (both autochthonous and immigrant Greek) on the other.