Scythia · 700-300 BC

The Scythians: horse lords of the steppe

North of the Black Sea lived nomads who fought from horseback, buried their kings under huge mounds full of gold, and beat the Persian Empire without fighting a single battle. Students meet the Scythians through Herodotus and through their tombs.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 650 BC to 300 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

North of the Black Sea lived nomads who fought from horseback, buried their kings under huge mounds full of gold, and beat the Persian Empire without fighting a single battle. Students meet the Scythians through Herodotus and through their tombs.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the Scythian steppe north of the Black Sea and the Greek colonies on its coast.
  • Explain how the Scythians defeated Darius's invasion around 513 BC.
  • Describe what a kurgan is and what the gold found in them tells us about Scythian life.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

650 BC

Riders replace riders

Open the map in 650 BC north of the Black Sea. The map shows Cimmerians and a "Proto-Scythian" culture. The Scythians rode in from the east and pushed the Cimmerians out around 700 BC. Look at the land: flat grassland with no mountains. Why is this country perfect for a people living on horseback?

Open this view on the map
b

440 BC

Greeks on the shore

Jump to 440 BC. Now the map shows the Scythians across the steppe and Greek colonies on the Crimean coast. Herodotus visited the Greek city of Olbia, at the mouth of the Bug river, around this time and wrote down what he learned about the Scythians. Find the Crimea and the strait of Kerch.

Open this view on the map
c

300 BC

The Bosporan Kingdom

Go to 300 BC and look at the strait of Kerch. A Greek kingdom called the Bosporan Kingdom ruled both shores and sold Scythian grain to Athens. Zoom in on the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Why would Greeks and Scythians both profit from this spot?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Herodotus says that when Darius invaded around 513 BC, the Scythians retreated, burned the grass and filled the wells, until the Persians gave up. Why is a people with no cities so hard to conquer?
  2. Scythian graves contain women buried with weapons. Greek writers told stories of Amazons, women warriors, in this region. How might the two be connected?
  3. The famous gold pectoral from Tolstaya Mogila was probably made by a Greek craftsman for a Scythian king. What does that say about the relationship between the two peoples?
  4. The Scythians wrote nothing down; what we know comes from Greek writers and from graves. How do you tell a people's history fairly when only their neighbors described them?
  5. Nomads need grassland; farmers need the same land for crops. Where in the world today do you still see this conflict?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Cyrus the Great and find the ruling about the nomads of the eastern steppe and their queen Tomyris. Cyrus attacked and, according to Herodotus, died. Then ask: what should Darius have learned from this before marching against the Scythians?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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