Ancient Kazakhstan: Gold of the Great Steppe

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

Gold and horses! 2,500 years ago, in the area of the Great Steppe that is now Eastern Kazakhstan, an extraordinary ancient Scythian culture reigned supreme. They were called the Saka, renowned for their skill as horse archers and for their elaborate elite burials.

Ancient Persian and Greek sources labelled them a barbaric, nomadic people – a scourge on the ‘civilised’ world. But new archaeological discoveries from East Kazakhstan are revealing a very different picture. A picture that highlights how the Saka were a highly-sophisticated ancient society. A culture that boasted complex settlements, expert craftsmen, extensive trade routes and more, alongside their equine mastery and their staggering wealth.

Now, for a limited time only, you can see some of these newly-discovered artefacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The exhibition is called ‘Gold of the Great Steppe’. Running from 28th September 2021 to 30th January 2022, it is the first exhibition about this ancient culture ever to be shown in the UK.

To find out more about the exhibition and what these newly-discovered artefacts are revealing about the Saka, Tristan headed up to Cambridge to interview Dr Rebecca Roberts, associated curator of ‘Gold of the Great Steppe’.

Gold of the Great Steppe Exhibition: https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/gold-of-the-great-steppe

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's
0:07.0	podcast well let's say spectacular sensational new exhibition unlike any the
0:12.4	UK has seen before. This is going to blow you away. The exhibition is called
0:18.4	Gold of the Great Step. Carls Leon adds the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and
0:24.6	this exhibition features artifacts discovered in what is now one day Kazakhstan
0:30.9	in eastern Kazakhstan that belonged to an ancient culture that lived in this
0:36.8	area of the world some two thousand five hundred years ago. They were called the
0:42.7	Saka or the Saka the Eastern Sivians. To find out more about the exhibition and
0:49.3	how the artifacts on display are shining more light or revealing new
0:54.1	information about these ancient people I was delighted to last week get the
0:59.8	opportunity to head up to Cambridge to go to the Fitzwilliam Museum and to
1:04.4	interview one of the curators Dr Rebecca Roberts. This was a brilliant chat it
1:11.2	was wonderful to learn so much more about this ancient culture and without
1:16.0	further ado here's Rebecca to talk all about Gold of the Great Step.
1:24.1	Rebecca thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. Oh
1:31.4	thank you for having me on. Not at all thank you for inviting me to this exhibition
1:35.4	today in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge I mean the first thing I know is it's just
1:39.6	looking around. There's gold everywhere Rebecca. There is gold everywhere and we
1:44.6	really wanted to get a sense of that wonder and discovery and a real sort of
1:48.9	crescendo of gold objects visually you know to have that wonderful impact because
1:55.0	they are just absolutely amazing but on the other hand of course we hope that
1:59.5	people will spend time here and also find the stories behind the gold because the
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