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# Strabo and Claudius Aelian on Scythian arrows with snake venom, blood and dung
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/strabon-klavdii-elian-i-nekotorye-drugie-avtory-pishut-chto-skifskaia-boevaia-smes-dlia-nakonechnikov-strel-delalas-na-osnove-syvorotki-chelovecheskoi-krovi-navoza-i-iada-razlichnykh-zm/
- Published: 2018-07-04T13:42:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:04:45.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Science, Ethnography

Strabo, Claudius Aelianus and several other authors write that the Scythian battle mixture for arrowheads was made from human blood serum, dung and the venom of various snakes. A wound from such an arrow could cause not only direct poisoning by snake venom but also blood poisoning. In other words, the Scythians had quite literally learned to employ biological weapons as early as the first millennium BC. One curious detail: the arrow shafts were painted with a pattern imitating snakeskin, depending on the species of snake that had supplied the venom