AT THE FAR FRINGES OF THE ANTIQUE WORLD — THE HYPERBOREANS OF CENTRAL EUROPE
Authors: Chochorowski Ja. 
Published: February 2020

Comparing the northern boundary of the distribution of Greek and Italian imports from the 7th—6th centuries with the state of knowledge about Central European «barbarian» territories encapsulated in the antique tradition and conveyed primarily by Herodotus allows for an insight into the relationships between these two worlds. The appearance of Greek pottery (amphorae) in Heuneburg on the upper Danube in the 6th century BC provides an archaeological background for the rather enigmatic — but certainly existing — knowledge about this territory, reflected by Herodotus’ (II: 33) passages about the city of «Pyrene» and the «Ister» River «which has its source amongst the Celts near Pyrene». Obviously, the assessment of the relationships is based not on the presence of the amphorae themselves, but their contents: wine and olive oil. It is their consumption that can possibly hint at a cultural connection, which from the «barbaric» side takes the form of a fascination with «Mediterranean luxury». This desire to include the Mediterranean lifestyle into the subculture of Hallstatt (early Celtic) elites is well-illustrated by the presence of luxury tableware and spectacular bronze vessels (e. g. the Vix crater or the Hochdorf cauldron), which formed libation services in tombs of Hallstatt «princes».

With regard to the Podolia region, trade contacts established as early as the second half of the 7th century BC and evidenced by the inflow of amphorae and Greek tableware apparently find no reflection in knowledge about these territories and their inhabitants as presented in «The Histories». True, Herodotus (IV: 48) is well-familiar with the rivers flowing outside the Carpathian Arc through the Moldavia Upland and emptying into the Black Sea or the Danube, as well as those crossing the Walachia Plain, but his knowledge seems not to extend as far as the Greek (from Olbia?) «imports» to Podolia. This is intriguing given that the author of «The Histories» had personal experience of the Pontic reality, thanks among others to his stay in Olbia and a four-day trip up the Boh (Hypanis) River into Scythia. The strength of cultural interactions between the milieu of Pontic Greeks and the people from western Podolia in the second half of the 7th and the first half of the 6th centuries BC also seems to be emphasised by the relatively wide reception of the technique of wheel throwing and the production of so-called grey tableware. However, it is not insignificant here that this sphere of economic activity, which was utilitarian in its nature and linked with everyday life, had no significant impact on the quality of life in a broader social dimension and did not affect prestige behaviours and the status of elites.

The connections between the Mediterranean civilisation and communities from the Great Hungarian Plain in the 7th—6th centuries BC draw a completely different picture. Imports of exclusive Greek and Etruscan goods is a rare phenomenon here, while the knowledge that the Greeks from the Pontic area had gathered until the times of Herodotus (V: 9) is focused on only one ethnic group — the Sigynnae. This knowledge abounds in ethnographic details and it presents a synthetic picture of this people, including the awareness of its foreign origin in the local milieu. Apparently, the «exoticness» of cultural behaviours, the importance of civilizational achievements (for instance, the breeding of fast and durable horses), and the separate identity in the local milieu were precisely the reasons which won them particular status and renown. Undoubtedly, contacts maintained by the people from Alföld with Greek colonies on the north-western shores of the Black Sea, Olbia and its vicinity in particular, must have also been important in this respect. These contacts made the residents of Olbia aware of a certain «exoticness» of cultural behaviours of the Syginnae and their «Median» (in fact Caucasian) origin, and it was most likely they who shared this knowledge with Herodotus. The answer to the question of why these contacts had been established and maintained should perhaps be sought in the cultural mentality of the nomadic elites, whose presence is strongly marked in the social structure of the Vekerzug culture, especially in the early period (late 7th — first half of the 6th century BC). This also applies to the archetype — strongly manifested in symbolic behaviours — of a warrior, first of all the archer (burials with quivers or arrow sets), and clearly legible manifestations of the important role, utilitarian and symbolic, of the horse (individual burials of horses, horse bits in grave inventories). The context of these relationships is the inclination — inscribed in the strategy of social behaviours — of nomadic elites (whose power relied on units of mounted warriors) to undertake military expeditions, including looting raids oriented on economic gains. One example of this are the «Scythian invasions», military incursions by groups using Scythian-type weapons which affected some territories in north-west Central Europe (from Transdanubia, to the Moravian Gate, to Lower Lusatia). The result was, among other things, the destruction of fortified settlements which served as economic-political centres for local communities, and even the depopulation of certain areas. In the reality of Central Europe these raids could have generally brought only one spoil of significant importance in the «barbarian» trade with the Greeks: slaves. For nomadic elites functioning in the ethnic milieu of the Alföld, the participation in trade with the Greeks was an important factor in constructing their social and economic position (by the acquisition of prestigious attributes of wealth, e. g. gold plaques decorating their bow-and-quiver cases). Material requisites of the aristocratic subculture, such as exclusive objects of Scythian, Greek, or Hallstatt origin (Ártánd, Békéscsaba, Mezőkeresztes-Zöldhalompuszta, Tápiószentmárton, Witaszkowo), also provided an opportunity for manifesting cultural identity, which referred primarily to Scythian traditions.

An important element in the knowledge that the Greeks had about the European interior in Herodotus’ times is his mention (IV: 33) concerning legendary Hyperboreans (people from «beyond the North Wind»): anonymous communities believed to have dwelled in the northernmost reaches of the world known to the Greeks, who offered, by the intermediary of the «Scythians», their sacred gifts to Apollo’s oracle on the island of Delos. The «Scythians» from the Delian account were communities with a Scythoidal model of culture (including the typical Scythian costume) from the Hungarian Plain, and the Hyperboreans were probably a settled people, agriculturalists («sacred offerings wrapped up in wheat-straw») linked with the «Scythians» by the ties of neighbourhood, which included «mercantile» exchange but also sacralised exchange of goods of a votive nature. Opening on the Aegean Sea, the route leading through the central Balkans along the axis of the Tisa—Morava—Vardar Rivers allowed for transfer of both commodities and information. As a result, the people from the Hungarian Plain who stood out with their «Median costume» were regarded in Greece (Delos included) as «Scythians». Indeed, this cultural distinctness of the Central European nomadic enclave was also noticed by artists from the «Situla Art» circle, who left such iconographic evidence as the representation of an archer wearing a Median costume on a belt fitting from Molnik, or pointed headdresses of Sigynnae drivers of mighty chariots / bigae (heniotos) in the chariot racing scenes featuring on situlas from Kufern and Bologna-Arnoaldi. The communication route, well-evidenced by archaeological and historical sources, which crossed the lands inhabited by Hallstatt communities from the south-eastern Alpine foothills and the Eneti/Veneti on the Adriatic coast, and which to some extent was also controlled by the Sigynnae, was used to send gifts from the Hyperboreans to Delos. Attempts at identifying the cultural equivalent of the Hyperboreans known from their contact with the Delos oracle point at communities dwelling to the north of the Carpathian Arc. In the 6th—5th centuries BC they were connected with the milieu of the Vekerzug culture from the Hungarian Plain by the routes leading towards amber-bearing coasts of the Baltic Sea. With their subsistence based primarily on cereal farming, the economic strategy of communities from the Vistula and Warta basins (whose traditions were still deeply rooted in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield model) seems to fit the symbolism of the sacrifice offered by the Hyperboreans to the remote Delos sanctuary. This implies not only the awareness — reaching as far as the Vistula basin — of the existence of cult places of over-regional status in the Mediterranean world, but also some shared values in the sphere of religious mentality.

Therefore, it seems that two aspects of exploring «barbarian» Europe (i. e. the spread of imports and the state of geographical knowledge among the Greeks) by Mediterranean people (or more likely by those among them most industrious and curious about the world) were somehow related to each other. The precursors, and perhaps organizers, of the exchange procedures on the «barbarian» side were primarily the elites. Where the social role of elites was not so elevated as that of Hallstatt «princes» or nomadic (Scythian) «chieftains» from the Alföld, e. g. in Central European communities representing Urnfield traditions, the transmission of goods may have been sacralised. This sacralisation referred to values and religious symbols (and religious manifestations) which were similar for (or common to?) the Greek south and the «barbarian» north of Europe. The Mediterranean and «barbarian» parts of Europe constituted a cultural (ideological) community, connected by a network of mutual dependencies. However, their geographic and cultural awareness and the extent to which the two worlds intermingled were probably considerably greater than what emerges from the number, attractiveness, and research potential of the extant «imports» — material (archaeological) traces of mutual interest.