Forum editor lectures on "mystery" of ancient Scythians

TORONTO - "The Mystery of the Scythians" was the title of a lecture presented by Andrew Gregorovich at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Toronto on February 1.

Sponsored by the Ucrainica Research Institute, this is the first of several lectures announced by Ihor Steciw, president of the institute. He introduced the guest speaker as a former department head for 30 years in the University of Toronto library system, a former member of the Academic Board of the University of Toronto, the editor of the Ukrainian Fraternal Association's Forum magazine and now the senior researcher at the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center.

"I have been studying the Scythians for 35 years," said Mr. Gregorovich, "and I would like to share with you some of my ideas on the mysteries of the ancient Kingdom of Scythia which existed in Ukraine between 700 and 200 B.C."

Mr. Gregorovich is the author of "Scythia and Scythian Gold," published as Forum magazine No. 103-104 in 2001 and the "Scythian Bibliography" of 675 entries published in 2002.

The Scythians are considered the world's first horsemen. They also were to be among the finest ancient warriors and archers, because in 513 B.C. they defeated mighty King Darius the Great of Persia.

Herodotus, the ancient Greek "Father of History" visited Scythia (Ukraine) in about 460 B.C. and dedicated his Book Four to ancient Scythia. Mr. Gregorovich said that Herodotus, and especially the research of archeologists in this past century, have given us a window on Scythia.

Since the Scythians ruled the Middle East (Israel and Babylon) for 28 years, they are mentioned in the Bible three times. Mr. Gregorovich said that there may be a relationship between the Scythians and the Scots. He offered a brief comment on the discovery of Amazon graves, which proves that the ancient Amazons actually existed on present-day Ukrainian territory and are more than a Greek myth. He also noted that the world's first horse ridden by a man was in Dereivka, Ukraine, in about 4,350 B.C., in the center of the future Scythia.

It was thought for over 2,000 years that the Scythians were a short, yellow, Mongol people who had come from Central Asia, Mr. Gregorovich related, but archeologists now know that "The Scythians were a tall, white European people whose kings were 2 meters (six feet, six inches) tall."

Scythian gold artifacts found in hundreds of kurhan burial mounds - one such kurhan had 1,200 gold artifacts - are made of exquisite gold. The mystery has been to determine who created them. In the past century it was thought that Greek craftsmen made all of them, but Mr. Gregorovich suggested that some researchers now think they are the work of Scythian craftsmen.

The greatest work of Scythian gold art, the Kyiv pectoral from the Tovsta Mohyla kurhan found in 1971, according to Mr. Gregorovich must have been created by a Scythian artisan goldsmith. He calls the piece the Kyiv pectoral because it is on exhibit in the Pecherska Lavra Museum in Kyiv.

The greatest mystery remaining today about the Scythians is whether there is any relation between the ancient Scythians of 2,500 years ago and modern Ukrainians. Mr. Gregorovich said that we will soon know the answer to this question once DNA research is done and gives us definite scientific proof. It is his opinion that there is likely to be some Scythian ancestry found among the population of Ukraine today.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 24, 2002, No. 8, Vol. LXX

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