Sigynnae

Template:Short description The Sigynnae (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) were an obscure nomadicTemplate:Sfn people of antiquity belonging to the Scythian culturesTemplate:Sfn who lived in the region corresponding to parts of present-day Hungary.Template:Sfn

History

The arrival of the Sigynnae in Europe was part of the larger process of westwards movement of Central Asian Iranic nomads towards Southeast and Central Europe which lasted from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD, and to which also later participated other Iranic nomads such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sauromatians, and Sarmatians.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Beginning of steppe nomadism

The formation of genuine nomadic pastoralism itself happened in the early 1st millennium BC due to climatic changes which caused the environment in the Central Asian and Siberian steppes to become cooler and drier than before.Template:Sfn These changes caused the sedentary mixed farmers of the Bronze Age to become nomadic pastoralists, so that by the 9th century BC all the steppe settlements of the sedentary Bronze Age populations had disappeared,Template:Sfn and therefore led to the development of population mobility and the formation of warrior units necessary to protect herds and take over new areas.Template:Sfn

These climatic conditions in turn caused the nomadic groups to become transhumant pastoralists constantly moving their herds from one pasture to another in the steppe,Template:Sfn and to search for better pastures to the west, in Ciscaucasia and the forest steppe regions of western Eurasia.Template:Sfn

The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex

The Sigynnae themselves originated as a section of the first waveTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn of the nomadic populations who originated in the parts of Central Asia corresponding to eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region,Template:Sfn and who had, beginning in the 10th century BC and lasting until the 9th to 8th centuries BC,Template:Sfn migrated westwards into the Pontic-Caspian Steppe regions, where they formed new tribal confederations which constituted the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex.Template:Sfn

Among these tribal confederations were possibly the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe,Template:Sfn and certainly the Agathyrsi in the Pontic Steppe, as well as the Cimmerians in the Caspian Steppe.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The archaeological and historical records regarding these migrations are however scarce, and permit to sketch only a very broad outline of this complex development.Template:Sfn

The Sigynnae corresponded to a part of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex,Template:Sfn to whose development three main cultural influences contributed to:

• present in the development of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex is a strong impact of the native Bilozerka culture, especially in the form of pottery styles and burial traditions;Template:Sfn
• the two other influences were of foreign origin:
  • attesting of the Inner Asian origin, a strong material influence from the Altai, Aržan and Karasuk cultures from Central Asia and Siberia is visible in the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complexTemplate:Sfn of Inner Asian origin were especially dagger and arrowhead types, horse gear such as bits with stirrup-shaped terminals, deer stone-like carved stelae and Animal Style art;Template:Sfn
  • in addition to this Central Asian influence, the Kuban culture of Ciscaucasia also played an important contribution in the development of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex,Template:Sfn especially regarding the adoption of Kuban culture-types of mace heads and bimetallic daggers.Template:Sfn

The Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex thus developed natively in the North Pontic region over the course of the 9th to mid-7th centuries BC from elements which had earlier arrived from Central Asia, due to which it itself exhibited similarities with the other early nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe which existed before the 7th century BC, such as the Aržan culture, so that these various pre-Scythian early nomadic cultures were thus part of a unified Aržan-Chernogorovka cultural layer originating from Central Asia.Template:Sfn

Thanks to their development of highly mobile mounted nomadic pastoralism and the creation of effective weapons suited to equestrian warfare, all based on equestrianism, these nomads from the Pontic-Caspian Steppes were able to gradually infiltrate into Central and Southeast Europe and therefore expand deep into this region over a very long period of time,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn so that the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex covered a wide territory ranging from Central Europe and the Pannonian Plain in the west to Caucasia in the east, including present-day Southern Russia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Sigynnae, who were part of this grouping of first wave nomads belonging to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, eventually moved into the Pannonian Steppe and settled there without losing their links to the rest of the western steppe.Template:Sfn

This in turn allowed the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex itself to strongly influence the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe:Template:Sfn among these influences was the adoption of trousers, which were not used by the native populations of Central Europe before the arrival of the Central Asian steppe nomads.Template:Sfn

Initial migration

As part of these migrations, the Sigynnae, who appear to have initially lived in, either Ciscaucasia or Transcaucasia,Template:Sfn or in the parts of the northern Iranian plateau immediately to the south of the Caspian Sea,Template:Sfn moved to the northwest and then travelled to the west through Caucasia and then the Pontic Steppe,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn although it is still unknown whether the Sigynnae migration route went from Ciscaucasia through Moldavia and then Wallachia, or through the forest steppes and across the northern Carpathian Mountains, to reach the Pannonian Steppe.Template:Sfn In the modern period, the Circassian people would employ this same general direction to migrate into Europe.Template:Sfn

In the Pannonian Steppe

During the 9th to 8th centuries BC,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the Sigynnae finally settled in the Pannonian Steppe,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn from where they maintained their links with the Pontic Steppe and became important participants in trade networks through which horse equipment and bimetallic daggers typical of the Eurasian Steppe arrived in the Pannonian Steppe,Template:Sfn while to their west across the Istros were the sedentary peoples of the Hallstatt culture,Template:Sfn with a demarcation existing between the western parts of the Pannonian Basin inhabited by the sedentary Hallstatt farmers and the eastern part being populated by the nomadic Sigynnae.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The presence of the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe led to very important ethnic and cultural transformationsTemplate:Sfn as they themselves eventually underwent denomadisation and mingled with the native populationTemplate:Sfn while still maintaining connections with the Pontic Steppe.Template:Sfn

These trade routes in which participated the Sigynnae provided the upper classes of the Hallstatt culture with steppe horses and harnesses and high-status equipment such as daggers, resulting in the high-quality steppe horses and elite horse gear being adopted by the Hallstatt culture,Template:Sfn thus introducing horse breeds and styles of horse-riding from the steppe into Western Europe.Template:Sfn

This role of the Sigynnae in linking the steppe and Hallstatt cultures is visible in a burial from Pécs-Jakab-hegy, where a member of the Hallstatt ruling class was buried in the traditional Hallstatt tradition, but with a weapon set from Caucasia: the deceased was cremated and their ashes were buried together with a dagger, an iron spearhead and an axe imported from Caucasia, as well as locally-made steppe-type horse gear, and an iron knife, a whetstone and pottery of the local Hallstatt tribe. This burial thus belonged to a member of the native Hallstatt aristocracy who showed his status within his society by adopting the style of the steppe warriors and riding a steppe breed of horse harnessed like those of the steppe nomads.Template:Sfn

Cultural influences of the Sigynnae

Westwards spread of equestrianism

Shortly after the first appearance of the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe and the introduction by them of long-legged horses in this region, and beginning around Template:C., the populations of the Hallstatt culture started including bits and side pieces of bronze-made horse bridles in their cremation graves, attesting of an increase in importance of equestrianism in the Hallstatt culture. These changes were the result of extensive exchanges between the Sigynnae and the Hallstatt natives of Transistria, and which must have included the trade of horses.Template:Sfn

Due to the steppe horse's better appearance and performance compared to the native horses, it quickly became a symbol of aristocratic status among the communities of the Hallstatt culture, and during the 8th to 7th centuries equestrianism was quickly adopted widely among this culture until as far as Britannia. Some new types of slashing swords might also have been developed during this period as a cavalry weapon.Template:Sfn

New burial rites

Over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC, the cultural influences of the steppe nomads of which the Sigynnae were part of led to significant changes in the burial rites of the peoples of the Hallstatt culture, whose aristocrats borrowed and adapted cultural norms from the equestrian steppe peoples.Template:Sfn

Among these changes was a new burial rite, widely adopted from Bohemia in the east to the upper Istros and the Rhenane valley region in the west, and whose characteristics were similar to those followed the steppe nomads since the 9th century BC. According to this new rite, the aristocrats of the Hallstatt culture started being inhumated rather than cremated, with the body of the deceased being placed on a funerary cart in a wooden chamber inside a pit, within which were also the trappings of the horses pulling the carts and one riding horse. The tomb itself was covered by a large mound, at the top of which was sometimes placed a stone statue of the deceased.Template:Sfn

Scythian influence on the Sigynnae

In the 6th century BC, some splinter Scythian groups followed the earlier route of the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk wave, passed through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, and settled in the Pannonian Basin,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn where some of them settled in the territory of the Agathyrsi while others moved into the Pannonian Steppe and settled in the territory of the Sigynnae, and subsequently intermarried with the local populations while remaining in contact with the Pontic Steppe through trade.Template:Sfn

Among these splinter Scythian groups were a section of the Scythian tribe of the Sindi, who had left the region of the Maeotian Sea and migrated westwards into the Pannonian Steppe, unlike the bulk of the Sindi who remained in Ciscaucasia.Template:Sfn

These migrations from around Template:C. and trade connections placed the nomads of the Pannonian Basin under Scythian influenceTemplate:Sfn and contributed to the transformation of the cultures of the Agathyrsi and the Sigynnae into a more Scythian-like form,Template:Sfn causing to the Mezocsat culture of the Sigynnae to evolve into the Vekerzug culture.Template:Sfn

Later influences of the Sigynnae

On the Hallstatt culture

From these more Scythianised Sigynnae, the eastern groups of the Hallstatt culture might have borrowed the Scythian-type arrowheads which around Template:C. destroyed several of the eastern Alpine hilltop settlements ranging from Styria (Slovenia) through Burgenland and Lower Austria to South Moravia that protected the core Hallstatt territory.Template:Sfn Among the southeast Hallstatt groups of Slovenia, only the aristocrats had access to the use of nomadic equestrian equipment.Template:Sfn

Although the direct steppe influences reached only the frontier regions of the Hallstatt culture, they resulted in the adoption of new forms of weapons and equestrian technology in the core territories of these cultures.Template:Sfn

These Hallstatt populations appear to have not borrowed the use of the nomads' reflex bows, likely due to the complication of their fabrication, or their animal-shaped pole tops used for the shamanic cults of the steppe.Template:Sfn

In Illyria

The Sigynnae also influenced the populations living in the territories corresponding to modern-day Bosnia and Serbia around Template:C., where the aristocrats had access to innovations coming from the steppe. One example of such steppe influences is the "princely burial" of Atenica, which contained lavish grave goods, including Greek imports and objects made of precious metals.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Celtic immigration

In the middle of the 5th century BC, the Hallstatt developed into the La Tène culture, whose people are identified with the Celts, who by the late 5th century BC were moving to the east along the upper Istros and initially settled in Transistria before moving into the Pannonian Steppe where lived the Sigynnae and later into the mountainous regions where lived the Agathyrsi. The relations between the Celtic incomers and the Iranic nomads appear to have remained peaceful, with the Celts later intermarrying with the local populations of the Pannonian Basin, thus exposing the Celts to the influence of the beliefs, practices and art styles of the steppe nomads so that motifs borrowed from and influenced by the steppe nomads started appearing in La Tène Celtic art.Template:Sfn

Among these borrowed artistic influences were images of predatory carnivores, sometimes attacking herbivorous beasts, as well as motifs of pairs of animals facing each other, giving rise to Celtic motif of the "dragon pairs" which decorated the tops of Celtic sword scabbards. Another motif borrowed by Celtic art from steppe art are pairs of predatory birds around circular shield bosses, reflecting not only the mere artistic influence of the steppe nomads, but also of the borrowing by the Celts of Iranic steppe nomad belief systems expressed through the image of predatory beasts.Template:Sfn

Legacy

Antiquity

The peoples of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex of which the Sigynnae were part of introduced the use of trousers into Central Europe, whose local native populations did not wear trousers before the arrival of the first wave of steppe nomads of Central Asian origin into Europe.Template:Sfn

The Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus claimed that the Sigynnae described themselves as colonists from Media.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the Middle Ages

Although the Sigynnae themselves had disappeared by the Middle Ages, the complex relations between their nomadic groupings and the settled populations of Southeast and Central Europe were continued by the Hungarians, the Bulgars, Rus and Poles.Template:Sfn

In the Modern Era

In the 19th and 20th centuries CE, some scholars attempted to connect the Sigynnae with the Romani people due to an alleged similarity of the ancient Greek name with the Hungarian name for the Romani, . This hypothesis has since become obsolete and is no longer accepted as having any validity.Template:Sfn

According to one hypothesis, the Sigynnae were a people who had been pushed towards the Pannonian Steppe by the migration of the ScythiansTemplate:Sfn into the Pontic Steppe over the course of the 8th to 7th centuries BC.Template:Sfn However, there is currently no evidence to support this hypothesis,Template:Sfn and the early date of the arrival of the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe on the contrary suggests that their migration was part of the initial spread of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, and thus preceded the arrival of the Scythians.Template:Sfn

Culture and society

Location

The Sigynnae lived in a place called by the ancient Greeks as the "plain of Laurion,"Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which was likely the eastern part of the Pannonian basinTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn to the north and east of the middle Danube river corresponding to the parts of modern-day Hungary,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn leading the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus to call them the "only tribe living to the north of Thrace."Template:Sfn

The core territory of the Sigynnae was in the Pannonian Steppe to the east of the Danube, around the valley of the Tisza and extending to the northern hillier regions of what are presently northern Hungary and south-west Slovakia.Template:Sfn To the west, the territory of the Sigynnae reached the environs of the Adriatic Sea.Template:Sfn

The Graeco-Roman author Strabo recorded the presence of another branch of the Sigynnae living in the parts of CaucasiaTemplate:Sfn located in the northern Iranian plateau immediately to the south of the Caspian Sea, where they lived along the Derbices, Hyrcanians and Tapyri.Template:Sfn

The meanwhile located the Sigynnae between Phasis and Sinope in northern Anatolia, and Stephanus of Byzantium placed them on the southeast of the Black Sea.Template:Sfn

Neighbours

After the 6th century BC, the neighbours of the Sigynnae in the Pannonian Steppe included a western group of the Scythian splinter tribe of the SindiTemplate:Sfn and the otherwise unknown Grauci.Template:Sfn

Ethnicity

Although the Sigynnae formed the westernmost expansion of steppe cultureTemplate:Sfn and were originally part of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex of Central Asian origin to which belonged many Iranic peoples like the Cimmerians and the Agathyrsi, there is no data available to identify the ethnic and linguistic affiliations of the Sigynnae. It is therefore not known for certain whether the Sigynnae were an Iranic or pre-Iranic people.Template:Sfn

Social organisation

Unlike the nomads of the Pontic Steppe, the Pannonian Basin nomads such as the Sigynnae appear to not have possessed an elite class.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Trade

The Sigynnae maintained trade links with the Pontic Steppe,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn from where they bought pottery manufactured in the region of the Tyras and Hypanis rivers and in the coast of Thrace immediately to the south of the Istros river. It was likely from these same regions that the Sigynnae bought steppe horses for breeding, in exchange of which they sold various goods to the populations of the Pontic Steppe.Template:Sfn

The Sigynnae in turn sold steppe horses to the western populations of the Hallstatt culture in exchange of several commodities, such as grain.Template:Sfn

Lifestyle

The Sigynnae were mobile pastoral nomads who depended on their sheep and cattle and who cultivated grain on a smaller scale.Template:Sfn

The Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus described the Sigynnae as having all the exact same customs as the ancient Persians.Template:Sfn

Gender roles

According to the Graeco-Roman author Strabo of Amasia, the most accomplished women charioteers of the Sigynnae had the right to freely choose their life partners.Template:Sfn

Horse-rearing

The Sigynnae used short-nosed shaggy ponies which were too small to be ridden, but were instead yoked together in four-horse teams,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and were able to swiftly pull carts.Template:Sfn

The Sigynnae employed carts pulled by these horses as their main mode of travel.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Religion

Animal-shaped pole attachments used as cult devices by shamans were used by the Sigynnae.Template:Sfn

Warfare

The Sigynnae used reflex bows and Scythian-type arrowheads, and appear to have decorated their shields with animal-shaped fittings similarly to the nomads of the Pontic Steppe.Template:Sfn

Clothing and grooming

Dress

The Sigynnae dressed themselves in the "Median fashion,"Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn that is consisting of sleeved tunics as well as trousers.Template:Sfn Because of this, they did not make use of the fibulae and pins which the native populations of the Danube region then needed to wear their own traditional clothing.Template:Sfn

Tattooing

The use of pintaders, that is clay stamps used to mark tattooed pictures on a person's skin, by the population of the Vekerzug culture corresponding to the Sigynnae implies that they tattooed themselves.Template:Sfn

Funerary customs

Unlike the previous Bronze Age cultures of the Pannonian Steppe who cremated their dead, the Sigynnae buried their deceased, who were laid in small cemeteries in a west–east orientation along with a large pot and a cup or bowls and joints of mutton of beef.Template:Sfn Unlike the nomads of the rest of the Eurasian Steppe, however, the Sigynnae had stopped including weapons among the grave goods of their deceased by the time they had arrived in the Pannonian Steppe.Template:Sfn

Archaeology

Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk origin

The Sigynnae appear to have originally belonged to the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex in the 8th century BCE,Template:Sfn when they first occupied the Pannonian Steppe,Template:Sfn and their arrival itself represented a cultural discontinuity with the previous material cultures of this regionTemplate:Sfn such as the local groups of the Urnfield culture.Template:Sfn

Mezőcsát phase

This section of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex of the Pannonian Steppe contributed to the formation of the Mezőcsát culture.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Vekerzug phase

From around Template:C., the Mezőcsát culture came under the influence of the Scythian culture, and consequently evolved into the Scythian-influenced Vekerzug culture, with this transition corresponding to a wave of destruction of Mezőcsát settlements around this period.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Sigynnae correspond to the Mezőcsát culture and the southern group of the Vekerzug culture,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which is also called the Szentes-Vekerzug group.Template:Sfn

The Vekerzug culture to which corresponded the SigynnaeTemplate:Sfn was located in the steppe land of Hungary to the east of the Danube, centred around the valley of the Tisza River and extending northwards till the hillier regions of northern Hungary and south-west Slovakia. This culture is named after a burial site of this culture from found at Szentes-Vekerzug.Template:Sfn

The Vekerzug culture's Scythian-type objects and burial practices eventually spread towards the west into the Little Hungarian Plain and south-west Slovakia, with this section being called the Chotin group of the Vekerzug culture.Template:Sfn

Objects found isolated or in graves in territories identifiable with the Sigynnae are characteristic of the Scythian culture, and consist of:Template:Sfn

• military gear such as:
  • arrows,
  • quivers,
  • ,
  • iron battle-axes,
  • scale armour,
  • shields;
• horse gear,
• personal accessories such as:
  • bronze mirrors,
  • pole-top rattles,
  • bronze kettles,
  • gold ornaments,
  • and dress attachments.

The Vekerzug culture finally came to an end with the expansion of the Celtic La Tène culture into the Pannonian Basin in the 4th century BCE.Template:Sfn

Burial sites

The archaeological remains of the Vekerzug culture consist of cemetery sites with diverse types of locally manufactured objects as well as Scythian-type weapons and horse equipment.Template:Sfn Unlike the other steppe nomads, the people of the Vekerzug culture did not bury their dead in barrow graves, but instead used shallow cemeteries where the deceased were buried in shallow and sparsely-equipped pits.Template:Sfn

One of the most elaborate burials from the Vekerzug culture is from Ártánd in the Hajdú-Bihar region of Hungary: its grave goods included an iron battle-axe, a spear, a shield, a suit of iron scale armour, as set of iron horse trappings, and several personal ornaments, as well as two bronze vessels, a Greek made in Sparta around Template:C., and an early 6th century BC swing-handled pail common to the Hallstatt culture.Template:Sfn The aristocrat of Ártánd appears to have been an exception to the general absence of evidence of elite formation among the steppe nomads of the Pannonian Basin.Template:Sfn

The Ártánd burial thus belonged to an aristocrat of a high enough status that he was able to obtain luxury goods from a wide variety of place: the swing-handled pail was obtained from the region of the Alps; the Scythian-type horse gear, battle-axe and spear were likely made within the Pannonian Steppe; the scale armour was imported from the Pontic Scythian kingdom; the Greek hydria may have arrived in Sigynnae territory either directly, or it was originally exported from Sparta to Scythia, and from there to the Sigynnae.Template:Sfn

Lack of fibulae and pins

Unlike the native populations of the Danube whose clothing required fibulae and pins to be worn, the remains of the Mezőcsát and of the southern group of the Vekerzug culture from the 6th to 5th centuries BCE contained none of these, implying that the Sigynnae wore trousers and sleeved tunics.Template:Sfn

Pintaders

Remains of the Vekerzug culture also contained pintaderas, which were clay stamps used to mark tattooed images on people's skin, and which originated from Caucasia, where they were used both in Transcaucasia and in the Kuban culture of Ciscaucasia. These, along with items of West Asian origin found throughout sites of the Vekerzug culture, attest of significant West Asian influences on the material culture of the Sigynnae.Template:Sfn

Horse sacrifice

Horse sacrifices, which were a typical aspect of the culture of the Pontic Steppe's nomads, were present in Vekerzug burials, although it occurred in small numbers among the Sigynnae, so that there was rarely more than one horse being present per burial.Template:Sfn This includes the sixteen small tarpan horses whose skeletons were found in the many barrow graves at Szentes-Vekerzug corresponding to the small horse breed that Herodotus of Halicarnassus described as being used by the Sigynnae.Template:Sfn

Genetics

Haplogroups

The Sigynnae had haplogroups R1a and G2a.

Autosomal DNA

The Sigynnae had almost equal proportions of Neolithic and steppe origins associated with the Yamnaya culture. And some had a minor WHG contribution.

File:Sigynnae-DNA.png

Autosomal DNA Sigynnae

See also

• Iazyges
• Scythian cultures