 Then the Scythians influenced Celtic art. The Scythians and the Celts were two great civilisations of the ancient world, and the evidence is emerging of the interaction between the two cultures. But first, who were these two groups? The Celts were bound together by their use of Celtic languages as well as cultural traits. They stretched from the British Isles to Western Europe, and they gradually started migrating east into Eastern Europe and places as far as Turkey. The traditional view was that the proto-Celts emerged around 1200 BC in central Europe, and then migrated and diverged from there. The golden age of ancient Celtic civilisation started around 500 BC, and lasted until the Roman Empire conquered much of Celtic territory by around the 1st century AD. The exact origins of the Celts is debated, but we'll leave that for another video. Celtic languages are still spoken today, however, in places such as Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Wales and Brittany and modern France. These are some of the high-level details on the Celts, but I'm actually going to make a full video on the history of the Celts coming up soon. The Scythians, on the other hand, were a nomadic people that roamed the Eurasian steppe, a region of grasslands perfect for riding horses, stretching from Hungary all the way to Mongolia. And the Scythians were known for the love of horses. They briefly established a kingdom in the Pontic Caspian steppe, just north of the Black Sea, centred around Crimea and the territory of Ukraine today, from around the 6th to the 3rd century BC. They entered the historical record around the 9th century BC, and they disappeared from history around the 3rd century AD, although they do survive with various Scythian groups surviving well after that point. The Alans in the Caucasus region is one main example that was referenced as the Alans up until the 14th century, and many people in Asetia still claim descent from the Alans to some degree at least. There does seem to be some cultural crossover between the two groups, between the Celts and Scythians. As the Celts migrated from Western Europe, east into Eastern Europe, and potentially the Pontic Caspian steppe, whereas the Scythians, on the other hand, were located or centred in Central Asia, and then spread west into the Pontic Caspian steppe to establish their kingdom there for a few hundred years. The bulk of the cultural crossover is potentially still buried under the ground, in places such as Ukraine and Hungary, but we do have some insight into the influence of the Scythians on the Celts and vice versa. I did make a full video on the Scythians that I'll link above where I go into much more detail. Many have argued that Celtic art was influenced by the Scythians. Sir Arthur Evans, a British archaeologist from the 19th century, wrote in the origins of Celtic art. The Celtic art emerged from the interaction of numerous cultures. He notes that Celtic art was influenced by the Greeks, their Truscans, which was a kind of pre-Roman civilization, as well as the Hallstatt culture of the East Alpine region. And he also writes that Scythian motifs also influenced Celtic art. Barry Cunliffe, the Emirates Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, wrote in his book The Ancient Celts about some of the potential interactions between the Scythians and the Celts. It should be noted that the interactions between these two cultures is still somewhat limited at the moment, but it certainly could be the case given the geography and the timelines of the two cultures, the two civilizations, that there certainly would have been crossover between the two peoples. Cunliffe notes that a bronze drinking horn, found in Hungary, which ends with an open-mouthed dragon wearing a torque, maybe just one example. A torque made of iron and covered in silver, depicting two ram's heads, found in Germany, which may have been of local origin, would have been comfortably familiar to a Scythian. Cunliffe also notes that various Latin or Celtic metalwork has been found in numerous Scythian graves. Cunliffe also notes that Celtic swords have been found in Scythian graves, and the Celtic bracelets have been found in other Scythian cemeteries, potentially signifying the exchange of goods and women among the elites. A general theme in Scythian art is struggling animals. Cunliffe notes a scene of a deer being attacked by two ferocious wolves, inscribed on a pottery vessel from Hungary, as being just one potential example of steppe art in Eastern Europe. Geographically, we know that Celts settle large parts of the Balkans, including moving into modern Serbia, with the Celtic tribe known as the Skardisi in this area, which I have previously made a video on. Cunliffe writes that the notion that groups of Celts move further east into Moldova and parts of Ukraine now seems tolerably certain, with this mentioned on a marble inscription in Albia from around the 3rd century BC. Albia was an important Greek outpost in the Black Sea that allowed the Greeks to trade with the Scythians. Given the geographical migration patterns of the Celts and the Scythians, the Celts moving from west to east, and the Scythians moving from east to west, it seems almost impossible that there wasn't a cultural crossover, particularly considering the dates of these migrations. The full extent of this cultural clash of civilisations is still to reveal itself, yet we are gaining some insights into the cultural presence of Celts in Ukraine in recent years. The Celts and the Scythians, unfortunately, did not keep written records like the Greeks or the Romans. If they did, it would make my job much easier trying to trace the origins of these peoples. It does seem the case though, that the Celtic presence in Ukraine is slowly revealing itself, with certain archaeological finds just in the last couple of years. But the true extent of the clash of civilisations between the Scythians and the Celts still seems buried under the soil. Just waiting to reveal itself. For a full breakdown on the history of the Scythians, please click here, where I go through the people in much more detail. Thanks for watching, please support this work through Patreon, buy me a coffee and PayPal, all the links are in the description below. Thanks again for watching, please subscribe and hit the bell, and I'll see you next time.