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  • From: "SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] OT for Don, or anyone, really
  • Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 01:28:38 -0400



Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

The only thing this offers your topic is that if it is so, they had little to do with the Finns since Finnish is not an Indo-European language.

I know, it's Ugric, Finno-Ugric..

The Scythians are also credited with inventing the compound bow which
operates very much as those modern monstrosities with pulleys. They
nearly lived on horseback or in their charriots and it is
exceedingly difficult to use a staight bow (called a 'simple' bow)
from horseback. So they invented a way of laminating horn onto thin strips of wood making a bow that when released, would propel the arrow slowly at first and then 'flip' it very hard just at the last, exactly like a modern compound bow does. The huge recurves on the Scythian bow operated just exactly like the pulleys on the modern bow.

Cool. I knew they were archers...


For centuries no army could touch them, a lesson for our modern times, because they acted much like moder terrorists: No central command, no fixed location, and no supply lines.

I read that they acted as mercenaries for 'foreign' armies, too, like
for the Huns.


They traded or
raided settlements for grain and wine, ate a lot of meat, and most of
the time didn't live in any type of housing. They were reluctant to take prisoners and when they did, they blinded the prisoners before making slaves of them and didn't keep them for long. Most of this comes from Herodotus and is not to be conidered unbiased.

Right...the Greeks wrote quite a bit about the Scythians, much of it
related to their barbaric nature.

They were defeated by Alexander the Great who understood that their mobility and lack of a base gave them a devastating advantage. He sent in light calvary and the Scythian horsemen surrounded them, pelting them with arrows. He sent in light infantry javelin troops whom the Scythias knew were no threat since they could get away on their horses much faster than the infantry could respond. But behind
the infantry and hidden by them was the heavy calvary who were able to completely surround the Scythians and cut them down.

Thanks for the added bit of knowledge, James....

Bev
--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm GO NAVY!
Proud SUBMARINE Parents of a USS Key West Sailor
Sleep well tonight for somewhere in the ocean's depths,
MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.










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