Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

SISU! wrote:

> Hi Don, being a student of history, you came to mind first, but this
> question goes out to anyone, really. James, you might could help on
> this, too.  I know James and I have had several conversations about
> ancient history offlist.
> I am interested in reading more about the history of the Scythians, how
> they were related to various peoples over time, etc.  I saw a news
> article today about a blonde scythian warrior mummy that was found and
> that led me to a Wikipedia article, and now I am fascinated by these
> peoples who could actually be part of my own ancestry.  Can you
> recommend a book that recounts Scythian history, one that would give a
> general overview of their culture, migrations, habits and languages?  I
> don't want to get too bogged down in the archeological aspect, just
> something more in depth than the brief article on Wiki.
> It is my personal belief that the more we know about how ancient peoples
> lived, the better we can come to preparing for the future, and many
> times, it relates to the olde know thy own history approach to survival.
>
>
> Bev
>  
Spencer Wells wrote something about this.  Apparently they were the 
original Indo-Europeans, previously known only from their languages, 
spread via horse from Wales to Assam.  Mostly it was their culture that 
spread, since most speakers of these languages don't possess Scythian 
y-chromosomal genes today.   But in Northern India the same gene is 
found.  Here's a fun link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Scythians

Bill