On the Stellar Path - Schythians or Huns?

[alanidragonrising]

I believe there were points stretched beyond credibility, but I do consider that the Scythians might be related to the groups talked about as they did cover those areas. The idea that multiple languages somehow makes this doubtful shouldn't be taken that seriously. There are nations now with multiple languages within them. What I found to be of great interest was the Chinese description of the Huns, or at least the hierarchy, as being tall and mainly Europid. My suspicions have been that the Alani were a part of the set up early on and not just later. They had been in the regions and their mode of operation suggests to me that they would gain access to as many tribes and kingdoms as they could.

[aynur]

It's interesting debate. If you ask me, none of the ancient steppe confederations and empires were controlled/inhabited by a homogeneous population. You had tribes that lived side by side that could've had both Mongoloids (Turks/Mongols/Tungus) and Caucasoids (Scythians/Saka) or the ones in between.

As for the Huns:

"They made their foes flee in horror because their swarthy aspect was fearful, and they had, if I may call it so, a sort of shapeless lump, not a head, with pin-holes rather than eyes. Their hardihood is evident in their wild appearance, and they are beings who are cruel to their children on the very day they are born. For they cut the cheeks of the males with a sword, so that before they receive the nourishment of milk they must learn to endure wounds. Hence they grow old beardless and their young men are without comeliness, because a face furrowed by the sword spoils by its scars the natural beauty of a beard. They are short in stature, quick in bodily movement, alert horsemen, broad shouldered, ready in the use of bow and arrow, and have firm-set necks which are ever erect in pride. Though they live in the form of men, they have the cruelty of wild beasts."

"...short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin."

[Ardavarz]

In regard to those accounts of the Huns I remember that Lev Gumilëv has written somewhere that they fit more Ugorian than Mongoloid type. Then I wondered what does he mean by "Ugorian type"...