Scythian Gold

An exhibition of treasures from ancient Ukraine illuminates a great warrior culture, notable for its relentless ferocity and remarkable art

  • By Doug Stewart
  • Smithsonian magazine, March 2000, Subscribe
 

 

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    From the seventh to the third century B.C., a violent, hard-living group of related nomadic tribes dominated the vast sweep of grasslands that stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe to Mongolia, more than 4,000 miles away. These fierce warriors, known as the Scythians, lived in the saddle and traveled light. At the same time, oddly enough, they were among the ancient world's most extravagant art patrons.

    The most elite of these warring tribes had a discriminating eye for good design and the wealth to indulge it. By the fifth century B.C., they were important patrons of master goldsmiths living in Greek cities on the northern shores of the Black Sea. Since the Scythians believed, like the Egyptians, that they could take their wealth with them into the afterlife, we've been able to learn about their culture from their tombs. Thousands of these burial sites, or kurhans, punctuate the table-flat Ukrainian landscape, and they have yielded a wealth of treasures, including priceless masterpieces of solid gold.

    A selection of these objects has been assembled in a sumptuous new exhibition "Gold of the Nomads, Scythian Treasures from Ancient Ukraine," which will be on view at Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery from March 7 to May 28. With more than 170 artifacts — fanciful and attention-getting jewelry, hammered-gold headdresses, weapons and ritual objects — this is the most comprehensive exhibition of Scythian gold to date. The show opened last fall at the San Antonio Museum of Art and will move from Baltimore to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on July 2 and to the Brooklyn Museum of Art on October 29. Next year, it travels to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, Kansas City's Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Grand Palais in Paris. A companion volume, Scythian Gold: Treasures from Ancient Ukraine, has been published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.


    From the seventh to the third century B.C., a violent, hard-living group of related nomadic tribes dominated the vast sweep of grasslands that stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe to Mongolia, more than 4,000 miles away. These fierce warriors, known as the Scythians, lived in the saddle and traveled light. At the same time, oddly enough, they were among the ancient world's most extravagant art patrons.

    The most elite of these warring tribes had a discriminating eye for good design and the wealth to indulge it. By the fifth century B.C., they were important patrons of master goldsmiths living in Greek cities on the northern shores of the Black Sea. Since the Scythians believed, like the Egyptians, that they could take their wealth with them into the afterlife, we've been able to learn about their culture from their tombs. Thousands of these burial sites, or kurhans, punctuate the table-flat Ukrainian landscape, and they have yielded a wealth of treasures, including priceless masterpieces of solid gold.

    A selection of these objects has been assembled in a sumptuous new exhibition "Gold of the Nomads, Scythian Treasures from Ancient Ukraine," which will be on view at Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery from March 7 to May 28. With more than 170 artifacts — fanciful and attention-getting jewelry, hammered-gold headdresses, weapons and ritual objects — this is the most comprehensive exhibition of Scythian gold to date. The show opened last fall at the San Antonio Museum of Art and will move from Baltimore to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on July 2 and to the Brooklyn Museum of Art on October 29. Next year, it travels to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, Kansas City's Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Grand Palais in Paris. A companion volume, Scythian Gold: Treasures from Ancient Ukraine, has been published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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