Scythia

thumb|Wounded Amazon of the Capitoline Museums, Rome thumb|A Greek fighting an Amazon; detail from painted sarcophagus found in Italy, 350–325 BCE thumb|upright=.8|"Amazon preparing for battle" (Queen Antiope (Amazon)|Antiope or [[Hippolyta) or "Armed Venus", by Pierre-Eugène-Emile Hébert, 1860, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]] In Greek mythology, the Amazons () were female warriors and hunters, known for their physical agility, strength, archery, riding skills, and the arts of combat. Their society was closed to men and they raised only their daughters, returning their sons to thei

Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. thumb|400px|The maximum extent of Pontic Scythia.

Greco-Scythian state near Sea of Azov (c.438 BC–c.527 AD)

ecoregion of grasslands that encompass most of the western segment of the Eurasian steppe

ancient region surrounded by the Danube at the north and west and the Black Sea at the east

thumb|right|300px|Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117–38 AD), showing the location of the Chersonnesos Taurike (Crimean peninsula), the home of the Tauri The Tauri (; in Ancient Greek), or Taurians, also Scythotauri, Tauri Scythae, Tauroscythae (Pliny, H. N. 4.85) were an ancient people settled on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula, inhabiting the Crimean Mountains in the 1st millennium BC and the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the Black Sea. According to the sources, the Tauri were the first inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula and never abandoned its bo

thumb|Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) The Arimaspi (also Arimaspians, Arimaspos, and Arimaspoi; , ) were a legendary tribe of one-eyed people of northern Scythia who lived in the foothills of the Riphean Mountains, variously identified with the Ural Mountains or the Carpathians. All tales of their struggles with the gold-guarding griffins in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind (Geskleithron), had their origin in a lost work by Aristeas, reported in Herodotus.

thumb|450px|The location of the Neuri near Scythia. The Neuri (; , also known as Neurians) were an ancient people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.

thumb|right|Map of the Roman empire under Hadrian (), showing the location of the Maeotae on the eastern shore of the eponymous ([[Sea of Azov)]]

thumb|The "Second Map of Asia" (Tabula Seconda de Asia), 1467

The Issedones () were an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia, described in the lost Arimaspeia of Aristeas, by Herodotus in his History (IV.16-25) and by Ptolemy in his Geography. Like the Massagetae to the south, the Issedones are described by Herodotus as similar to, yet distinct from, the Scythians. __TOC__

anthropomorphic stone stelae within the perimeter of a tumulus

burial mound in Kazakhstan

Gelonus () was, according to Herodotus, the capital of the Gelonians.

The Zygii (, Zygoí) or Zygians were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote: And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains. (Strabo, Geographica 11.2)

right|thumb|300px|Two coins from Pontic Olbia (3rd-1st century BC) depicting the bearded head of the river-god Borysthenes

3rd century people in the northern Sea of ​​Azov and Black Sea area

[[File:Chernyakhov.PNG|right|250px|thumb|

Iron Age cultures of the Eurasian steppe

archeological site in eastern Kazakhstan

geological natural monument in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine

ancient name for the Don Delta region

ancient settlement in Ukraine

Shilikty (Ru: Шиликты курганы), formerly Chilikti, also more precisely Baigetobe Kurgans (Ru: Курганы Байгетобе) in Shilikty Valley, is an archaeological site in eastern Kazakhstan, located in the Chilik river basin. At this site, numerous 8th-6th century BCE Early Saka kurgans were found. Carbon-14 dating suggests a more refined date of 730-690 BCE for the kurgans, and a broad contemporaneity with the Arzhan-2 kurgan in Tuva.