Scythian Characteristics

Introduction
The Scythians were nomads who inhabited the Black Sea region in the early Iron Age on the territory of present-day Ukraine, Russia and Moldova. The term "Scythians" was introduced by the Greeks, while the Persians named them "Saka". The same style of life these peoples (typical for them pastoral breeding cattle, horses and sheep) and lively intertribal relations (conducting numerous conflicts and wars) were characteristic features of the Scythian culture (Kubczak, 1978). In the tradition of ancient Scythian community marked as one of the most vivid nomadic groups, which played a dominant role in Eurasia in the early Iron Age and who also create interesting cultural phenomena. The Scythians were not only pastorals, but also warriors

The vast majority of studies on Scythians was done by archaeologists and historians so far. These research included, among others, analysis of the Scythian weapons, burial practice or trade contacts (eg. Melyoukova, 1964, Monakhov, 1999, Sinika, 2007). Data on their customs, rituals and daily life give us both written sources (including descriptions of Herodotus and Hippocrates) and scene presented on the creations of material culture excavated from Scythian`s kurgans (eg. milling present on vessels coming from the Kub-Obal kurgan). In contrast, only a few anthropological works have been published about the biology of Scythians so far. It was mainly short reports (eg. Wentz and de Grummond, 2007) or paper presented only a basic anthropological characteristics of particular individuals (see Konductorova 1974, Livinova, 1999). This was probably in large part due to not numerous and / or poor preservation of Scythians osteological material, which was available for research at that

The parameters describing the state of the studied group that can be reconstructed belonging, among others, population size, the level of reproductive success. The variables describing the biological status of the population after taking certain assumptions (theoretical and empirical) allow to restore population dynamics, and thereby to determine changes in the biological state within a certain time. Acquaintance of the changes taking place within the group allows to attempt describing the assessment of ecological status based on adaptive between population and environmental conditions in which its lived, but also cultural, defined by technological equipment and group organization (Strzałko et al., 1981).
The unsatisfactory state of research on the Scythian population from the point of view of anthropology makes further studies necessary. The aim of the study was to assess the status and biological dynamics of Scythian populations from Glinoe site. In this paper we tested the hypothesis that Scythians, due to their position, style of life, as well as their dominion over vast areas of Eurasia, were characterized by relatively low fertility, low mortality and the higher life expectancy compared with other human groups from the similar