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The British Museum has its latest blockbuster Winter show on… and it’s archery related! (and also Game of Thrones related as apparently the Scythians were the inspiration for the Dothraki – more about that via this link).

We’re lucky enough to have a club member who managed to get us a few tickets to one of the launch events which was a talk by Military historian Mike Loades. We couldn’t resist asking her for a short review.

“Mike Loades entertained the audience with his amazing skills and his reproduction Scythian bow and saddle. His enthusiasm for the history and the archaeology of the Scythians infected everyone. Who are the Scythians? Well to cut a long story short, they are an ancient nomad tribe who roamed the steppes of Russia (you can learn more here). Before the Mongolians, you had the Scythians!

Mike was fascinating. He was especially enjoyable when demonstrating the loading of the bow. His first hand experience with horse archery meant that he added some interesting points about how the Scythians would have shot from a saddle without stirrups.

Overall Mike Loades is such a great presenter, the lecture was fun and informative.”

Thanks tons to Holly both for the tickets which she made available to the club and for writing the review for us.

The exhibition runs from 14th September until the 14th January and if nothing else you should definitely click through and look at the fabulous 35 sec promo video on the British Museum page here.

It’s too late (sadly) to see Mike Loades but if this has whetted your appetite here’s a couple more Scythian related things happening that you can still catch!

• There a gallery talk on Sat 2nd December called ‘Scythian Archers: law and order in ancient Athens‘ (more details here and it’s free!).
• There is a film called ‘Scythians – Amazons of the Steppe‘, part of the Epic Warrior Women series, on Sat 16th December at 2pm (booking here – only £3)
• And there’s the final Curator’s Introduction to the Exhibition happening on Sat 13th January at 1.30pm. It’s a 45 minute illustrated lecture and it’s free but you must book (other dates have all sold out so grab it now if you want to go!)