Androphagi

The Androphagi were an ancient Scythian tribe whose existence was recorded by ancient Greco-Roman authors.

The Androphagi were closely related to the Melanchlaeni and the Budini.

Name
The name Androphagi is a Latinisation of the ancient Greek name Androphagoi (Ἀνδροφάγοι), which meant "Man-Eaters." This name is a descriptive one based on this tribe's practice of cannibalism, and their own tribal name is unknown.

Location
The Androphagi lived in the region to the east of the middle Dnipro river, especially in the valley of the Sula and some smaller rivers.

The neighbours of the Androphagi were the Neuri to the west and the Scythians to the south.

Origin
The Scythians originated in the region of the Volga-Ural steppes of Central Asia, possibly around the 9th century BC, as a section of the population of the Srubnaya culture containing a significant element originating from the Siberian Andronovo culture. The population of the Srubnaya culture was among the first truly nomadic pastoralist groups, who themselves emerged in the Central Asian and Siberian steppes during the 9th century BC as a result of the cold and dry climate then prevailing in these regions.

During the 9th to 8th centuries BC, a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe started when another nomadic Iranic tribe closely related to the Scythians from eastern Central Asia, either the Massagetae or the Issedones, migrated westwards, forcing the early Scythians to the west across the Araxes river, following which some Scythian tribes had migrated westwards into the steppe adjacent to the shores of the Black Sea, which they occupied along with the Cimmerians, who were also a nomadic Iranic people closely related to the Scythians.

Over the course of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Scythians migrated into the Caucasian and Caspian Steppes in several waves, becoming the dominant population of the region, where they assimilated most of the Cimmerians and conquered their territory, with this absorption of the Cimmerians by the Scythians being facilitated by their similar ethnic backgrounds and lifestyles, after which the Scythians settled in the area between the Araxes, the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis. The section of the Scythians from whom the Androphagi originated participated in this migration, and had established itself in Ciscaucasia around c. 800 BC.

From their base in the Caucasian Steppe, during the period of the 8th to 7th centuries BC itself, the Scythians conquered the Pontic and Crimean Steppes to the north of the Black Sea up to the Danube river, which formed the western boundary of Scythian territory onwards, with this process of Scythian takeover of the Pontic Steppe becoming fully complete by the 7th century BC.

Archaeologically, the westwards migration of the Early Scythians from Central Asia into the Caspian Steppe constituted the latest of the two to three waves of expansion of the Srubnaya culture to the west of the Volga. The last and third wave corresponding to the Scythian migration has been dated to the 9th century BC. The expansion of the Scythians into the Pontic Steppe is attested through the westward movement of the Srubnaya-Khvalynsk culture into Ukraine. The Srubnaya-Khvalynsk culture in Ukraine is referred to in scholarship as the "Late Srubnaya" culture.

Migration towards the forest steppe
From the Caucasian steppe, the tribe of the Royal Scythians expanded to the south, following the coast of the Caspian Sea and arrived in the Ciscaucasian steppes, from where they settled in eastern Transcaucasia until the early 6th century BC.

The Royal Scythians were finally expelled from West Asia in the c. 600s BC, after which, beginning in the later 7th and lasting throughout much of the 6th century BC, the majority of the Scythians migrated from Ciscaucasia into the Pontic Steppe, which became the centre of Scythian power.

The retreat of the Royal Scythians from West Asia into the Pontic steppe pushed a Scythian splinter group to the north, into the region of Donets-Kramatorsk, where they formed the Vorskla and Sula-Donets groups of the Scythian culture, of which the Donets group corresponded to the Melanchlaeni, the Sula group to the Androphagi, and the Vorskla group to the Budini, with all of these groups remaining independent from the Scythians proper. This splinter group arrived in the forest-steppe region in part from the Kuban region, but for the most from northern Ciscaucasia.

Of these groups, the Androphagi and the Melanchlaeni were closely related tribes.

The Persian invasion
When the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I attacked the Scythians in 513 BC, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned the kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a meeting to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The kings of the Budini, Gelonians, and Sarmatians accepted to help the Scythians against the Persian attack, while the kings of the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, and Tauri refused to support the Scythians.

During the campaign, the Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with the Persians pursuing them.

Society and culture
The ancient Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus described the Androphagi as wearing Scythian-type clothing, and speaking a "peculiar language."

Lifestyle
The Androphagi were largely engaged in agriculture and farming, and hunting was of lesser importance among them.

Language
The "peculiar language" of the Androphagi might have been a dialect of Iranic language different from that of the Pontic Scythians. The Sula group of the Scythian culture which corresponded to the Androphagi was part of an area of Iranic toponymy and hydronymy.

Ritual cannibalism
Herodotus of Halicarnassus claimed that the Androphagi were the only ones who practised cannibalism among the peoples living near Scythia, which seems to be confirmed by the intact and unbroken human bones of seventeen individuals which were found along with cut and broken animal bones in the kitchen refuse of seven Androphagi earthworks. However, traces of similar ritual cannibalism are recorded from seven earthworks of the Melanchlaeni and Budini, as well as in the Smiela kurgan 15, which was one of the earliest burials of the Tiasmyn group of the Scythian culture.

The Sauromatians who lived in the Urals and the lower Volga, and Massagetae and Issedones to the east of the Urals, practised similar ritual cannibalism, suggesting that the early Scythic peoples of the Central Asian steppe had customs and beliefs connected to ritual cannibalism.

Trade
Trade relations between the Androphagi and the ancient Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea had been established in the 6th century BC.

Archaeology
The Androphagi archaeologically belonged to the Scythian culture, and they corresponded to its Sula group, which was the largest Scythian culture group of the eastern European forest steppe zone.

The Donets, Sula and Vorskla groups of the Scythian culture, respectively corresponding to the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Budini, are sometimes grouped the Zolnichnaya (that is "Ash-Mounds") culture because of the presence of several zolnyk (зольник), that is ash mounds containing containing refuse from kitchens and other sources, near dwellings. The three groups of the Zolnichnaya culture were closely related to each other, with the Vorskla group nevertheless exhibiting enough significant differences from the Sula and Donets groups that the latter two are sometimes grouped together as a Sula-Donets group distinct from the Vorskla group.

The earliest Scythians had belonged to the Srubnaya culture culture, and, like the Donets group of the Scythian culture which corresponds to the Melanchlaeni, the Sula group of the Scythian culture contained an important element of the Srubnaya culture in its substratum, although there were some differences between the Donets and Sula groups.