The Horsemen of the Steppes

The Horsemen of the Steppes PDF Author: Albert Seaton
Publisher: Random House (UK)
ISBN: 9780370305349
Category : Cossacks
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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The Horsemen of the Steppes

The Horsemen of the Steppes PDF Author: Albert Seaton
Publisher: Random House (UK)
ISBN: 9780370305349
Category : Cossacks
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Horsemen of the Steppes

Horsemen of the Steppes PDF Author: Walter Ashlin Fairservis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cossacks
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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The Scythians

The Scythians PDF Author: Barry Cunliffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192551868
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Brilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south - the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks - and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe. Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. This led to the development of a brilliant art style, often depicting scenes from Scythian mythology and everyday life. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, from the graves of kings on the Pontic steppe, with their elaborate gold work and vividly coloured fabrics, to the frozen tombs of the Altai mountains, where all the organic material - wooden carvings, carpets, saddles and even tattooed human bodies - is amazingly well preserved. Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia.

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language PDF Author: David W. Anthony
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831105
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.

Art of the Steppes

Art of the Steppes PDF Author: Karl Jettmar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animals in art
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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The Horse in Human History

The Horse in Human History PDF Author: Pita Kelekna
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521516595
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
This book assesses the impact of the horse on human society from 4000 BC to 2000 AD, by first describing initial horse domestication on the Pontic-Caspian steppes and the early development of driving and riding technologies. It traces the radiation of newly mobile equestrian cultures across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It then documents the transmission of steppe chariotry and cavalry to sedentary states, the high economic importance of the horse, and the socio-political evolution of equestrian empires, which from antiquity into the modern era expanded across continents.

Warriors Of The Steppe

Warriors Of The Steppe PDF Author: Erik Hildinger
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9780306810657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The nomadic peoples of central Asia—Huns, Bulgars, Magyars, Mongols—are still known to us for their legendary fighters Attila, Genghis Khan, and Timur Lenk (Tamerlane), as well as for their feats of calculated brutality. (Timur Lenk would leave piles of severed heads in his conquered cities; another tribe sent nine sacks of ears to their khan.) Less studied is the remarkable effectiveness of their battle techniques: For two thousand years, these horse-archer armies were an unstoppable force to sedentary peoples, be they Romans, Crusaders, Chinese, or medieval. Erik Hildinger introduces the most important of these raiders as well as a host of other tribes and examines in detail their tactics, strategies, and weaponry—a form of highly mobile and defensive warfare that even armies of today can learn from.

Riders of the Steppes

Riders of the Steppes PDF Author: Harold Lamb
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803299761
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 732

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Book Description
A master of driving pace, exotic setting, and complex plotting, Harold Lamb was one of Robert E. Howard's favorite writers. Here at last is every pulse-pounding, action-packed story of Lamb's greatest hero, Khlit the Cossack, the "wolf of the steppes." Journey with the unsung grandfather of sword and sorcery in search of ancient tombs, gleaming treasure, and thrilling landscapes. Match wits with deadly swordsmen, scheming priests, and evil cults. Rescue lovely damsels, ride with bold comrades, and hazard everything on your brains, skill, and a little luck. This four-volume set collects for the first time the complete Cossack stories of Harold Lamb: every adventure of Khlit the Cossack and those of his friends, allies, and fellow Cossacks, many of which have never appeared between book covers. Compiled and edited by the Harold Lamb scholar Howard Andrew Jones, each volume features essays Lamb wrote about his stories, an informative introduction by a popular author, and a wealth of rare, exciting, swashbuckling fiction. In this third volume, the wily old Cossack Khlit may have aged but he's lost none of his guile. He shepherds his dashing grandson Kirdy into one adventure after another, finally uniting with his allies Ayub and Demid in the climactic story White Falcon--out of print since the 1920s. Here too are the exploits of Ayub and Demid, risking all to safeguard the perilous Russian border from marauding Turks, Tatars, and even bloodthirsty Russian nobles.

Early Riders

Early Riders PDF Author: Robert Drews
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134340737
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
In this wide-ranging and often controversial book, Robert Drews examines the question of the origins of man's relations with the horse. He questions the belief that on the Eurasian steppes men were riding in battle as early as 4000 BC, and suggests that it was not until around 900 BC that men anywhere - whether in the Near East and the Aegean or on the steppes of Asia - were proficient enough to handle a bow, sword or spear while on horseback. After establishing when, where, and most importantly why good riding began, Drews goes on to show how riding raiders terrorized the civilized world in the seventh century BC, and how central cavalry was to the success of the Median and Persian empires. Drawing on archaeological, iconographic and textual evidence, this is the first book devoted to the question of when horseback riders became important in combat. Comprehensively illustrated, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of civilization in Eurasia, and the development of man's military relationship with the horse.

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean PDF Author: Barry W. Cunliffe
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199689172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
The story of the peoples of Eurasia, from the birth of farming to the expansion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century. An immense historical panorama set on a huge continental stage, this is also the story of how humans first started building the global system we know today.