Pausanias Description of Greece 1.21.5

[5] Among the votive offerings there is a breastplate [ thōrax] originating from the people known as the Sauromatai. On seeing this, one will say that no less than Greeks [ Hellēnes] are barbarians skilled in the arts [ tekhnai]. I say this for the following reasons. The Sauromatai have no iron, neither mined by themselves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the [other] barbarians who inhabit the places surrounding them. To meet this deficiency they have invented things [ ex-heuriskein]. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades, and cornel-wood for the bows [ toxa] from which they shoot arrows, with bone points for the arrows. They throw a lasso around any enemy they encounter, and then, turning around their horses, they up-end the enemy caught in the lasso.