Homes

Scythian homes reflected different ways of making a living across the Eurasian steppe. Pontic Scythians, who dominated the northern Black Sea steppe chiefly between the seventh and third centuries BCE, used portable shelters while following pasture, but some communities also built lasting settlements. Later houses in Crimea belonged to a more settled regional history. Eastern Saka groups, including the Pazyryk culture of the Altai, were related to the broader steppe world but were not simply the same people as the Pontic Scythians.

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Portable homes for a mobile pastoral life

The Greek medical work Airs, Waters, Places describes Scythian nomads using covered wagons with four or six wheels. Felt enclosed the living space against wind, rain and snow; some wagons had internal divisions. Oxen pulled the vehicles while riders managed the herds. The shelter, household possessions and transport platform could therefore move together.

A mobile household relocated when grazing no longer supported its animals. Packing equipment and maintaining the wagon made shelter part of the work of herding. The Greek author describes women travelling in the wagons and men riding horses, a particular account of roles within these pastoral groups.

Fixed houses in growing settlements

Mobile life was not the only pattern. From the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, Scythians began building fortified settlements, while some people became semi-nomadic or settled farmers. Kamianka, which developed as a major settlement in the late fifth century BCE, shows how varied housing could be within a place where farmers and metalworkers lived alongside aristocrats and royalty.

Many houses at Kamianka were single-storey buildings, about 40 to 150 square metres in area, and could contain several rooms. Their walls were made with beams set vertically into the ground, and some were decorated with clay paint and felt fabric. Gable roofs covered the houses. There were also square pit houses, built with poles and floors set below ground level. The aristocratic and royal area differed: its stone houses and other buildings stood on stone foundations. These contrasts show that more permanent settlement did not mean that every household lived in the same kind of home.

Later Scythian Neapolis in Crimea provides a distinct example of housing in a more settled setting. Before its fortified palace phase, in the second quarter to middle of the second century BCE, the site contained groups of farmstead-like compounds. These included partly sunken dwellings and small houses built at ground level. One compound had a long, hall-like building with a hearth at its centre. Around 130 BCE, the settlement was transformed into a fortified royal centre, creating a fortified political core within the settlement.

In the residential area of Neapolis, small houses associated with families of moderate means were more common than houses attributed to wealthy families. Construction used materials including unfired brick, timber, limestone and clay. The surviving evidence describes uneven surfaces and levels in buildings, while the palace complex received more elaborate construction. This difference reflects unequal access to building resources and skill, rather than a single standard of housing throughout the settlement.

Fires, household equipment and stored food

Fire was central to domestic work. Scythian cooking used cauldrons over open fires, with dried dung among the fuels used. At Neapolis, open fires are reported for cooking and warmth in the late second-century BCE occupation. Locally made cooking vessels included pots, jugs, open containers and cups. These everyday items contrast with imported tableware and the richer goods found in the palace, and help distinguish ordinary domestic life from elite consumption.

Storage took different forms in mobile and settled settings. A tent or covered wagon could travel with its household, while fixed settlements could support larger stores. At Neapolis, evidence from the late second to mid-third century CE includes permanent granaries, grain-processing tools and substantial quantities of stored grain. Granaries and processing tools made a larger harvest available for use over the following months.

What Altai burials reveal about materials

Pazyryk burials in the Altai preserve felt, wooden objects and leather from an eastern steppe setting, mainly of the fifth through third centuries BCE. The materials show how light coverings, padding and portable furnishings could be assembled from animal products and wood.

Frozen Altai chambers contained felt hangings, cushions, textiles and wooden furniture. These were objects chosen for burial, but their manufacture depended on the same skills needed to make equipment that could be packed and moved. The fixed houses at Kamianka and Neapolis demonstrate a different arrangement, with storage and work spaces anchored to a permanent plot.

For the wider setting, see Scythian daily life.