Emily Chan
A new study has found that the ancient Scythians, nomadic warriors who were known for their bloodthirsty and violent ways, did, in fact, make leather out of human skin. The Scythians were alive between 800 B.C. and 300 A.D., and they spread from Central Asia into parts of Europe.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus described how the Scythians used the slain corpses of those they had defeated in alarming detail.
Apparently, they stripped off their skin and tanned them into leather that was fashioned into quivers, which are containers that held arrows.
Researchers were able to confirm Herodotus’ written reports after conducting an analysis of leather scraps from Scythian burial sites in southern Ukraine. They examined 45 samples that were excavated at different times over the years from 18 burials across 14 sites.
They discovered that the majority of the leather was made from domesticated animals, including sheep, goats, horses, and cattle.
But shockingly enough, two samples, which came from quivers, were made of human skin. The quivers had been buried in kurgans, elaborate mounds where the bodies of rulers or other individuals of high status were laid to rest. The quivers date back to 2,400 years ago.
“The surprise discovery is the presence of two human skin samples, which for the first time provide direct evidence of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus’ claim that Scythians used the skin of their dead enemies to manufacture leather trophy items, such as quiver covers,” wrote the authors of a study published in the journal PLOS One.
In years past, an analysis of the grain of the leather would’ve needed to be taken since DNA gets wiped out during the process of tanning leather. This has caused knowledge of Scythian leather production to remain rather limited.
But, in recent years, scientists have developed more effective methods to identify the contributing species. The team of researchers analyzed the leather using a technique called peptide mass fingerprinting to inspect specific proteins in the organic material that will show what kind of animal it was made from.
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