Mark, Your post on Scythian Gold is most exciting. And photos in the
March issue of Smithsonian (entitled Scythian Gold) are excellent. So
the Scythians were Iranians and Greeks too?
Alekseev concurs. In lecture 13, Chapter VIII, A. states that Greek
sources have preserved Scythian words and place names and that the
Scythians (Sarmatians too) spoke Iranian languages. As far as placing
the Scythians in a particular locale, Alekseev says the Greek sources
are contradictory. Some claim the Scythians were from the northern
Black Sea area; others say Scythians were military campaigns in the
Caucasus and Central Asia for the purpose of prospecting for gold. Or
possibly the Scythians were a single tribe in the mountain area of
central Siberia.
IMO, likely the "Scythians" were located in all three areas (plus more)
if one defines "Scythians" as nomadic folks on horseback. If they were
both nomadic and sedentary, then they also could have been the folks
living in the northern Black Sea area with military campaigns reaching
the Caucasus and Central Asia and with a group settling in the Altai
region of Siberia.
QUESTION: In summer 1993 a female corpse was excavated from the
permafrost in the Berteck Basin of the Altai by Natalya Polosmak and
subjected to DNA testing. Have the results been published?
Ancient Greek colonies existed in coastal areas around the Black Sea and
according to Alekseev three have been excavated: Olvia, Bospor, and
Anapa. Olvia continues to be excavated (as of 1991); Bospor is s system
of Greek towns, a small independent kingdom on the Balkan Peninsula; and
Anapa is a Greek town situated in the western sector of the central
Caucasus (i.e. located on the territory of Asia).
Numerous artifacts have come from these excavations. A monumental stone
entrance to a tomb is similar to the entrance to Mycinean burials in
southern Greece. A figure of a Greek goddess has been discovered with
snakes on her head and holes in her hair. ETC. (if you wish to to
provide the additional information, I'd be pleased to do so.
Gerry
--
Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com