Daily Life

Scythian daily life was shaped by the grasslands and river valleys of the Eurasian steppe, but it did not follow one pattern everywhere. In the northern Black Sea region, Pontic Scythians included mobile pastoralists as well as settled farmers and craftspeople. Their political power expanded during the first millennium BCE, while many Scythian communities in Crimea later became more settled. The name also appears in wider archaeological and historical usage: the Saka of Central Asia and the Pazyryk communities of the Altai were related steppe peoples, but they had distinct regional histories. Indo-Scythian kingdoms in South Asia belong to another history, not a continuation of a single Scythian empire.

Mobility was central to many steppe communities, yet it coexisted with agriculture, trade, and permanent settlements. These different ways of life affected how households were built, how food and materials were obtained, and how people marked status and belonging. The evidence also points to differences between elites and ordinary families: richly furnished tombs and imported objects reveal the resources of powerful groups, not the everyday circumstances of everyone.

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Homes and settlement

Felt-covered wagons could carry shelter and possessions alongside a household’s animals. The Greek work Airs, Waters, Places describes four- and six-wheel vehicles pulled by oxen, with divided living spaces inside. Moving as pasture was exhausted kept the household connected to its herds and required regular work on the vehicle and its equipment.

Other Scythian-era communities lived in houses and farmsteads. In the forest-steppe, people built both partly sunken and above-ground dwellings, alongside storage pits, cellars, barns, and work areas. The settlement at Bilsk, for example, preserves evidence of varied dwellings and household plots, as well as storehouses and craft workshops. At Kamianka, a settlement that grew into a major political and economic centre, houses and workshops stood alongside buildings used by farmers and metalworkers. These settlements show that Scythian rule encompassed people whose lives depended on fields and fixed homes as well as those who moved with their herds.

In Crimea, the communities of the later Scythian period developed in a different setting. Settlements and fortified centres became more important as steppe territory contracted and people increasingly relied on farming, stockbreeding, and exchange with neighbouring Greek cities.

Kinship and clan relationships helped organise Scythian communities and political loyalties. Family ties could also connect ruling groups across regions: the marriages and households of elites had political as well as domestic importance. Society was unequal. Aristocrats controlled substantial resources, while free commoners, dependent agricultural populations, and enslaved people had different degrees of control over property and work. Enslaved people were used in activities including farming and tending animals, so the visible wealth of an elite household could rest on labour performed by people with little freedom.

A later fourth-century BCE tomb at Devitsa V in the Don region contained four females of different ages. One had a gold-decorated headdress, while another lay with two spears. These particular graves combine personal display and martial equipment within a shared burial group.

Children could also receive symbols of rank. At fourth-century BCE Tovsta Mohyla, a child aged about two or three was buried with small vessels and a bow made for the funeral. The objects placed the child within an elite household’s traditions of display and remembrance.

Herding and the work of the household

Herding supplied much of the material basis of steppe life. Horses were essential for riding and transport, and also provided meat and milk. Cattle and sheep supplied food and other useful products. Pastoralists had to manage access to grazing as the seasons changed, moving animals between pastures rather than relying on a single permanent supply. This work shaped daily schedules and made knowledge of animals, routes, and local conditions valuable.

Herding was not confined to people who moved constantly. Settled and semi-settled communities also kept livestock, while agricultural populations raised crops and animals together. In some Pontic regions, grain from farming communities entered trade networks managed by Scythian rulers and intermediaries. These arrangements connected pastoral households, farmers, and towns, though the gains from commerce were not shared equally.

Food and cooking

Meat from horses, cattle, and sheep formed part of the diet described for Pontic Scythians. Mare’s milk was consumed and made into dairy products, including cheese and a fermented drink comparable to kumys. The importance of particular foods varied with location and livelihood: farming communities could add wheat, millet, and barley, while rivers provided fish and some groups also ate hunted animals.

Cooking could be done over open fires or in metal cauldrons. Where firewood was scarce, dried animal dung served as fuel. These practical choices reflect the resources available to mobile households and settled communities alike. Wine, much of it obtained through trade with Greek cities around the Black Sea, was a prized drink. Ancient writers associate its consumption especially with elites in earlier periods, with drinking spreading among wealthier people more broadly later on.

Craftsmanship, trade, and material life

Scythian material culture depended on skilled work in metal, leather, wood, bone, textiles, and felt. Craftspeople made tools, weapons, horse equipment, vessels, clothing, and ornaments. In the Pontic region, workshops produced bronze and iron goods; metalworking centres also processed copper and other metals. Some workshops were located in or near settled centres, linking specialist production to agricultural supplies, timber, and trade.

Many objects were designed for mobility. Felt coverings, leather gear, decorated clothing, and portable ornaments could be carried with a household or worn on horseback. Scythian animal-style decoration used stylised images of animals, sometimes shown in motion or struggle. Such designs appeared on personal ornaments and horse equipment, and their materials and quality could signal wealth or status. Greek workshops also made goods for Scythian customers, while Greek imports such as pottery and wine vessels circulated through Black Sea trade. The resulting material culture combined local production with exchange and outside influence.

Preserved objects from the Pazyryk culture offer a separate view of eastern steppe life. These Altai burials, dating principally to the first millennium BCE, preserved textiles, felt, leather, wood, and horse trappings because ice formed within some burial chambers. They reveal the elaborate craft traditions of this eastern region.

Clothing and personal care

Clothing suited to riding and changing weather was commonly made from wool, leather, fur, and felt. Close-fitting garments and trousers allowed movement in the saddle, while warm layers protected wearers from cold and wind. Clothing could also be carefully decorated with embroidery, appliqué, or small metal plaques. The amount and quality of decoration varied.

The Ukok woman’s grave in the Altai preserved a shirt, woollen skirt, tall felt legwear and an elaborate headdress. Mirrors and other objects supported personal presentation. Herodotus also describes a scented cleansing paste made with ground woods, frankincense and water, then spread on the body and removed.

Burial customs and remembrance

Many Scythian burials were placed beneath a kurgan, a mound built over a grave. Burials varied widely in size and richness. Elite mounds could require substantial communal labour and contain valuable objects, clothing, vessels, weapons, and horse equipment. These offerings expressed status and reflected beliefs about life after death, but grave goods were not distributed evenly across society.

Horse remains and equipment occur in some graves, and lavish elite burials could include the remains of attendants. The Pazyryk burials of the Altai offer their own regional pattern: timber chambers beneath stone mounds sometimes preserved sacrificed horses, furnishings, textiles, and food or drink containers. Their exceptional preservation makes them especially informative about that community’s funerary practices, not about every Scythian burial.

Herodotus describes a royal funeral procession through the ruler’s territory, while grave chambers preserve provisions, clothing and equipment chosen by mourners. At Kul-Oba, the principal occupants lay with rich ornaments, vessels and food remains. Building and furnishing the tomb mobilised the resources of an elite household.

Feasting and communal ritual

Eating and drinking could also give social and ritual meaning to gatherings. Herodotus reports an annual feast at which warriors who had killed an enemy were allowed to drink from a communal vessel; those without such a record of fighting were excluded from the honour. This account presents a connection between military standing and public recognition.

Funerals also brought food into communal life. Ancient descriptions mention farewell meals for a deceased person, while vessels, animal remains, and imported wine found in graves provide archaeological evidence for food and drink associated with burial. Feasts could therefore mark both the bonds among the living and the treatment of the dead. The vessels and provisions selected for a funeral also displayed the standing of the household.

Music is represented by a small harp preserved in a Pazyryk burial in the Altai. Its five sinew strings ran between a rod and a resonating box. A player plucked them to sound different notes. The instrument gives a physical example of performance equipment within the eastern steppe world.

For the wider setting, see Scythian. See also Scythian historical context.