Seashells and Nomads of the Steppes (Early Scythian Culture and Molluscs of the Cyprea family in Eastern Europe)

AbstractThis article is devoted to the question of the sudden and relatively large-scale spread of pendants made of cowrie shells, which is to be observed in the southern parts of Eastern Europe in the Early Scythian period – the 7th-6th Centuries BC. The traditional use of these shells was characteristic of the population of the cultures and civilizations of the Ancient East starting in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The appearance of cowrie shells in Eastern Europe is associated with the spread in this part of the world of sites of the Early Scythian Culture: the Early Scythians had adopted this kind of adornment during the Cimmerian-Scythian campaigns into Transcaucasia and the Near East in the 7th Century BC.