Scita

Scythian was the Eastern Iranian language of the Scythians (Skuda), Sarmatians, Massagetae and related steppe nomads who dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe from the 7th century BCE to the 4th century CE. Its corpus is fragmentary, consisting mostly of personal and place names recorded by Herodotus, Ptolemy and other Greek-Roman authors plus Scythian-origin loanwords in surrounding languages. No native script existed; many entries here are necessarily Iranian-cognate proxies. The modern Ossetian language (oss) of the Caucasus is the only living descendant. Scythian funerary culture (kurgans) is famous for the Pazyryk burials with their preserved tattooed mummies and gold animal-style art.