Table Of ContentT
H
The history of movement across the Eurasian
E T H E
steppe since prehistory and its effect on Europe.
E
The steppe is a geographical entity, not a political
U E U R A S I A N
one, connecting the western and eastern parts of
the Eurasian land mass. As such, it is always open, R
subject to constant movement between Asia and
A
Europe. The peculiar nature of the steppe has
S S T E P P E
resulted in peoples originating in parts of Asia
I
now forming a permanent part of the European
A
community, and that movement has affected
N
European history and identity since earliest times.
P E O P L E , M O V E M E N T, I D E A S
Taking a panoramic view, Warwick Ball covers the
history of that movement from prehistory to the S
present, challenging our ideas of ‘Europe’ and T
‘European’ identity as we know it. E WA R W I C K B A L L
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Cover image: xxxxx
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com
ISBN xxxxxxxx
edinburghuniversitypress.com
THE
EURASIAN
STEPPE
About the Author
Warwick Ball is a Near Eastern archaeologist and author who spent over
twenty years carrying out excavations, architectural studies and monu-
mental restoration throughout the Middle East and adjacent regions. Over
the past fifty years he has lived, worked and travelled in most countries
between Europe and China covered by this book, in particular in remote
parts of Inner Asia. He has excavated in Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, Afghanistan
(where he was Acting Director of the British Institute of Afghan Studies),
Jordan, and Iraq (where he was Director of Excavations with the British
School of Archaeology in Iraq). For five years he was founder editor and
Editor-in-Chief of Afghanistan, the journal of the American Institute of
Afghanistan Studies published by Edinburgh University Press. He has
written widely on the history and archaeology of the region, including
Syria: An Architectural and Historical Guide (3rd edition 2006) and The
Monuments of Afghanistan. History, Archaeology, Architecture (2008). His
book Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire was winner of
the James Henry Breasted History Prize and was Choice Outstanding
Academic Book in 2000, and in 2016 it was revised for a second edition. In
2019 two major academic books, The Archaeology of Afghanistan (Edinburgh
University Press) and a revised edition of the Archaeological Gazetteer of
Afghanistan, were published. The University of St Andrews confirmed in
2020 that it would be offering the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters on
the author in recognition of his work in Near Eastern archaeology. Born
in Australia, he now lives in the Scottish Borders.
THE
EURASIAN
STEPPE
People, Movement, Ideas
Warwick Ball
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic
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© Warwick Ball, 2021
Cover image: © Warwick Ball
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com
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Published with the support of the University of Edinburgh Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.
Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Maps xvii
Note on Transliteration xviii
Introduction 1
1. The Nature of the Steppe. Some Geographical
Observations 6
The steppe 7
The way of the nomad 20
Waves, hordes and movement 23
Dominoes and boundaries 26
Nomads and conquest 29
The steppe and trade 31
Language and people 38
2. The Beginnings of Eurasia. Permanence, Movement and
Prehistory 40
Permanence in a nomadic environment 42
The beginning of the nomad cultures 58
The dance of the steppe: movement over vast areas 59
3. Indo-Europe. Prehistory and Language 62
Philosopher’s stone or can of worms: the search for the
Indo-Europeans 63
Histories in prehistory 65
The devil in the divine: is there a common Indo-European
identity? 71
The great Tokharian trek 73
Westward-ho: hard-wired to win 76
4. History and Myth. Cimmerians, Scythians and
Sarmatians; Gog, Magog and Excalibur 81
The Scythian homeland 83
To the western steppe 96
vi The Eurasian Steppe
From Kurdistan to India and China: the Scythian
kingdoms in the east 98
The western steppe 103
Contact and conflict: the Greek states of the Black Sea 106
The Black Sea Scythian kingdoms 109
Sarmatian warriors 111
The Scythian and Sarmatian legacy 115
5. Amazons. Women of the Steppe and the Idea of the
Female Warrior 117
Greeks bearing myths 118
Matriarchy in ‘Old Europe’ 121
Evidence from archaeology 122
Evidence from ethnology 124
Ottoman women: a case study 125
The idea of the warrior woman 127
A ‘lande of Amazony’? 133
6. The Art of the Steppe. From Animal Style to Art Nouveau 136
Gold 137
The main elements of Scythian and Sarmatian art 141
Origins of the animal style 154
Later survivals of steppe art 163
7. Twilight of the Gods. The Huns, Attila and the End of
Antiquity 169
The end of civilisation? 170
Origins in the east 172
The Huns in central Asia, Persia and India 179
A Hun kingdom in Europe 180
The kingdom of Attila 183
Walling off the barbarian 187
Legacy of the Huns 192
8. Descendants of the She-wolf. The Emergence of
Turkish-speaking Peoples 198
What is a ‘Turk’? 199
Huns, wolves, caves and princesses 204
Turks and Buddhism: the Northern Wei of China 207
The first Eurasian Empire 209
Revival under the Uighurs 217
From slaves to conquerors 218
Prosperity, power and civilisation: the lure of Islam 219
Contents vii
9. European Nations From the Steppe. Nomads and Early
Medieval Europe 222
Finns, Karelians, Estonians and epic identities 224
The Avars and European knighthood 229
The Bulgars and the beginning of statehood in Russia 233
The formation of the Bulgarian Empire 239
From Siberia to Holy Roman Empire: the formation of
Hungary 242
Polovtsian dances 248
10. The Atlantis of the Steppe. The Khazar Empire and its
Legacy 252
Origin of the Khazars: Cossack or Caesar? 253
Conversion to Judaism 256
A route paved with silver 258
The cities of Khazaria 260
Cans of worms and the Khazar legacy 264
11. The ‘Men from Hell’. Setting the West Ablaze: The
Mongols in Europe 267
An ‘Age of Catastrophe’ 268
Dress rehearsal: the Western Liao 270
From ‘just and resolute butcher’ to ‘Buddhist holy man’ 271
The invasion of Europe 278
Prester John and the Crusades 282
Xanadu to the Volga 285
12. Golden Hordes. The Tatar Khanates of Russia 291
Under the shadow of Genghis Khan: the house of Tamerlane 292
A people of Europe? 295
Poland–Lithuania and the Horde versus Muscovy and Crimea 298
Europe’s last Mongol state 305
The last migration 308
13. A Modern Steppe Empire. Russian Identity and the Steppe 314
Russia east or west? 314
The Mongol legacy 317
Muscovy becomes a steppe empire 320
Eurasia as politics 323
The steppe, archaeology and identity in Russia 326
The steppe, art and identity in Russia 334
Notes 346
Bibliography 368
Index 394
Figures
1.1 The steppe at Salbyk in the Republic of Khakasia in Siberia 9
1.2 The western steppe in Moldova, showing the black earth
that characterises much of the earth in southern Russia,
Ukraine and adjacent regions 10
1.3 High pastures at Pazyryk in the Altai, Siberia 10
1.4 Preserved natural steppe grassland between Elista and
Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia 11
1.5 The cultivated steppe between Elista and Rostov-on-Don
in southern Russia 11
1.6 The Ural Mountains, between Kazan and Omsk, rarely
more than the low range of hills seen here, the traditional
boundary between Europe and Asia 12
1.7 Evropa-Aziya: a monument marking the ‘border’ between
Europe and Asia in the Urals between Verkhoturye and
Perm 12
1.8 A steppe–mountain combination: the Altai Mountains
near Kuray in south Siberia, dominated by the peak of Mt
Belukha, the mystical ‘Shambala’ of Nicholas Roerich 14
1.9 Upland pastures in the Altai in south Siberia 14
1.10 A ‘steppe enclave’ in central Crimea 15
1.11 A typical part of the Siberian forest belt near Yeniseisk 15
1.12 The Dniester River at Belgorod, near where it enters the
Black Sea, overlooked by the fortress of Ak-kerman 17
1.13 The upper Volga at Plyos in northern Russia 17
1.14 The middle Volga at Saratov 18
1.15 The upper Yenisei River at Kyzyl, capital of the Republic
of Tuva in the Altai 18
1.16 The lower Yenisei at Yeniseisk in Siberia 19
1.17 The Amur River at Khabarovsk in eastern Siberia 19
1.18 Nomads on the move in northern Afghanistan 21
1.19 Bronze sculpture of a Scythian horseman by Leonid Pozen
in the Russia Museum, St Petersburg 25
1.20 The second-century ad bronze so-called ‘Flying Horse of
Gansu’ in the Gansu Provincial Museum in Lanzhou 25
Figures ix
1.21 End of the Ming Great Wall at Jiayuguan in Gansu 28
1.22 A Han period beacon tower at Kizilgaha, Xinjiang 28
1.23 A pathway signposted as the ‘Silk Road’ at the medieval
Armenian remains of Ani in eastern Turkey 33
1.24 Russia and China on the Silk Road: exhibition at the
National Museum of China, 2016 34
1.25 Caption in the Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou,
2016 36
1.26 Magazine in Gaziantep, Turkey, announcing a Silk Road
Forum in 2012 37
2.1 The Lower Palaeolithic cave of Denisov in the Urals. 41
2.2 Reproductions of Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings at
Shulgan-tash in the southern Urals 42
2.3 The highly distinctive Cucuteni-Tripolye ceramics in the
National Museum, Chişinau 45
2.4 Terracotta Tripolye female figurines at the site museum of
Orheiul Vechi in Moldova and the Iasi Museum in
Romania 46
2.5 Objects from the Maikop Treasure in the Adygea
National Museum in Russia 46
2.6 Bronze Age funerary remains at Gelendzhik on the Black
Sea coast of Russia 49
2.7 Conjectural reconstruction of a tented wagon in the
Museum of Inner Mongolia in Hohhot, such as was used
by many nomadic societies 52
2.8 An Afanasievo pot in National Museum of Khakasia in
Abakan 53
2.9 Okunev stone heads in the Abakan and Minusinsk
museums 54
2.10 Model of the Arkaim settlement at the site museum of
Arkaim 55
2.11 Chariot burial at Krivoe Ozero in the Country of Towns 56
2.12 Petroglyph of a chariot and animals at Chuya in the Altai 56
3.1 The site of Subashi in the Kucha Oasis in Xinjiang, where
documents of Tokharian A were discovered 74
4.1 A selection of Karasuk bronze weapons in the Minusinsk
Museum 84
4.2 Plan and part-reconstruction of Arzhan 1 Kurgan in Tuva 85
4.3 The excavated Arzhan 2 Kurgan. Note the place of main
burial off centre to the left 86
4.4 Reconstruction of the Arzhan 2 burial in the National
Museum of Tuva in Kyzyl 86
4.5 Entrance to the excavated Tagar giant ‘royal kurgan’ of
Salbyk in the Minusinsk Basin 88
