Wooden cups of the scythian period with gold appliques featuring birds of prey

The paper reviews a group of wooden cups of the Scythian period with goldappliques featuring birds of prey. Typical traits of these birds suggest that most of themare diurnal birds of prey (Falconiformes), predominantly, falcons. Striking similarity ofvessels shaped as birds from the Sea of Azov region, the Middle Don and the SouthernUrals (Filippovka) raises the issue of close trade and cultural links among these threeregions, located at a rather long distance from each other. Given a number of indirect data,it is suggested that falconry was practiced in Eurasia as early as the Scythian period, whichmeans in I millennium BC.