The animal style art of the Scythians is evident in hundreds of artifacts found in kurgans (burial mounds) thousands of which were constructed in burial areas across the steppes of Russia from the Carpathian Mountains into the area of northern Iran and extending all the way to the border of China. According to archaeologists Scythian art burst upon the scene around 700 B.C. Much of what has been excavated is gold jewelry, horse ornaments (often gold or bronze), some weaponry, and some silver and gold vessels. The richness of these artifacts confirms ancient reports that the Scythians who sat on the trade routes of Asia were fabulously wealthy.

Amazingly, in addition to metal artifacts, fabric items have been found. Among them, highly decorated horse gear made of colorful felt, blankets decorated with felt appliqué and rugs of the Persian style decorated in Scythian motifs. These artifacts had been preserved in frozen tombs until their discovery in Siberia in the Altai area near the border of China. Along with them were found the preserved frozen bodies of the dead, tattooed with fascinating animal symbols. Since Scythians on the whole were not a settled people they did not leave their art in architecture or on monuments. Their art is primarily ornamental. In a nomadic society where wealth must be easily portable the craftsman's efforts were put into small items such as gold jewelry, bridle ornaments, horse gear, hand mirrors, arrow cases, swords and battle axes. Scythian clothing was often decorated with many small wafer thin gold plaques chased with geometric or animal shapes. They were attached to the fabric in such a way that when they moved with each movement of the wearer it created what must have been a dazzling sight in bright daylight.

In Scythian art the multitude of animal representations well illustrates the preoccupation of this nomadic people with animals in their environment. Usually only wild animals are represented. Commonly depicted are: stags and deer, lions or other large cats, eagles, birds heads (perhaps of ravens), cranes, swans, griffins, snakes, hounds, wolves, hares, rabbits, fish, goats, ibex, rams, boars, moose (elk), yak, sheep and bears.

The occasional exception to the wild animal rule is domesticated horses - important because the Scythians were horse breeders and their whole culture revolved around their dependence on the horse. Representation of humans is relatively rare in Scythian art, but the few pieces that have been found show these people is such a realistic style as to give us a very good idea of what at least the men looked like.

Scholars debate the purpose and meaning of the animal motifs used in Scythian ornaments. It appears that in some cases the work was intended to be purely ornamental, while many times the motifs had symbolic meaning (such as the successful dominance of the aggressor over the victim portrayed in the attack scenes). Magical use of symbols may have been intended to guarantee the power of the aggressor. In some cases a particular animal may have been a clan symbol, a mark of tribal identity.

There are several characteristics of Scythian art that make it unique from other art styles. Some of these can be found in the arts of other cultures, but taken together they represent what makes Scythian art Scythian.

1. Profusion of animals used in one piece or device. The animals are primarily used in a decorative fashion as opposed to a narrative fashion.
2. Lively depiction of animals, much movement expressed as opposed to the stiff, formal form used in the art of adjacent Near Eastern cultures.
3. "Zoomorphic Juncture" - animals combined with parts of other animals or animals depicted within other animals.
4. Attack scenes of predator upon prey.
5. Circular manifestation of animal shapes especially cats or several identical animals in circular formation.
6. Distortion or contortion of animal to fit a preconceived shape of ornament such as a rectangle or circle.
7. Preference for deer motifs.
8. Reclining deer depictions with folded legs (recumbent).
9. Exaggerated formation of antlers on deer often in curled form or with points ending in bird heads (beak heads).
10. Animals with head facing backwards over shoulder (inverted) often in reverse pairs.
11. Head to head pairs of animals.
12. Crouching lioness or cat, nose to the ground.
13. Decorative circular swirls, crescents or oval forms drawn on the haunches of animals indicating muscles. Sometimes rib cages are also indicated.
14. "Flying Leap" posture of deer or cats.
15. Frequent addition of bird's heads (known as beak heads) to extremities of animal form.
16. Queued or stacked animals.

It is interesting and somewhat ironic that an art form that is clearly of a barbaric culture and often displays its barbaric mindset openly in its art, also occasionally shows almost a sentimental or humorous touch in some of its designs. A formation of a mother cat with kitten standing on her back, or a mare with a foal or pony riding on her back is not what one expects in an expression of the barbarian mind. Neither is that of a depiction of a goat nursing her young or a cat biting its own tail. The use of the odd rabbit, that most harmless of creatures, to fill in a corner of a design in gold seems a bit peculiar but is a gentle relief to the wild aggressiveness displayed in much Scythian art.