Who are the Sarmatians and what did they do?

Sarmatians are a group of Iranian-speaking tribes who roamed in the steppes of modern Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan in the ancient era. This people appeared in the VI century BC. E., And in the IV century BC. E. Almost disappeared from the historical scene after the invasion of the Huns. He was divided into several groups: languages, Alans and Roksolans.

Certificates of the Sarmatians

Most of all written information about the Sarmatians was preserved in the fourth book of "History", written by the ancient Greek Herodotus. In it he described the country to Scythia, located to the north of the Black Sea, where the Hellenes had the most remote colonies, including Olvia. Herodotus, explaining who the Sarmatians were, used the term "Sauromats". In the "History" it is said that they lived behind Tanais (that is, the Don) on the shores of the Azov Sea.

Later researchers also tried to answer the question, who are the Sarmatians and where did these nomads come from. Today, experts believe that the ancestral home of the steppe inhabitants was the Southern Urals. Their expansion began in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. E. Its cause was the emergence of a new type of warriors - mounted archers. After mastering the shooting, the nomads became a terrible disaster for their neighbors.

Restless people

Steppe folk regularly fought each other. The cause of the clashes, as a rule, was starvation or the struggle for new pastures. The theory of incessant war explains who these Sarmatians are. The people, born in the Ural steppes, gradually moved to the west under the pressure of aggressive Asian neighbors. In the new place of the nomads there was a plentiful and relatively free from competitors territory.

Masses of immigrants repeated such a Eurasian path for several millennia. Who are the Sarmatians? In short, this is another wave of such migration. Their fate was the same as that of their predecessors and successors. Over time, the nomads disappeared among neighboring settled peoples and lost their identity. That is why today the Sarmatians are another ancient historical phenomenon, from which only fragmentary information and searchable artifacts have survived to our time.

Ethnic Features

The image of the ancient steppe inhabitants is known to us in many ways due to ethnographic information. Who are the Sarmatians and who are their ancestors? They came from once a single Indo-European people. Gradually, the Iranian-speaking group emerged from this community, and inside it formed the northern Scythian branch. To her belonged Sarmatians. Based on the above, one can explain the place occupied by the Sarmatians on the ethnic map of Eurasia. Their closest relatives were the Scythians. Other Indo-European neighbors of the nomads were the Cimmerians.

Sarmatians never formed a single nation. They were divided into several tribes. Their names are known thanks to ancient sources, when the names of the steppe inhabitants inspired trembling and horror in peaceful settled neighbors. The Sarmatians had no written language, and therefore the historians do not have exact evidence, but they are sure that each tribe had its own dialect.

Linguistic research helped in its time to determine the fate of the steppe people. Thanks to the analysis of different languages, it was possible to find out who the Sarmatians are and who their descendants are. It is about modern Ossetians. This people came from a group of Sarmatians who managed to preserve their identity by moving to the Caucasus. Their culture survived and evolved at a time when other related tribes that remained in the familiar steppes were either conquered or dissolved among their neighbors. The last blow to this bulk of Sarmatians was inflicted in the IV century by the Huns. New eastern hordes arrived in Europe and not only wiped out the former steppe from the face of the earth, but also dealt a serious blow to the Roman Empire, which eventually collapsed.

Yazigi

The westernmost Sarmatian tribes were linguists. They lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, where they had to move from the eastern Black Sea coast after the appearance of the Roksolans there. Other neighbors of the languages were the various Geth tribes, including the Dniester tyragates. They also bordered on the Latin culture of the bastards. Some of the languages in the course of their migration reached the delta of the Danube. There, the Sarmatians entered into an alliance with Pontus, who then ruled the legendary Mithridates Evpatras, and began to fight against Rome. In response, the legions in 78-76 years. BC. E. Arranged a series of punitive expeditions to the lands north of the Danube, where the nomads lived.

In the first half of the I century BC. E. Its heyday reached the Dacian kingdom, located in modern Romania. It was this, together with the Romans, that held back the further expansion of the languages. Having so many neighbors against themselves, the Sarmatians finally stopped their movement in a western direction.

Roksolany

As already noted above, the Roksolans attacked the heels of the languages, thereby forcing them to move west. It was another Sarmatian tribe that lived north of Tanais (Don). Having entered into an alliance with the Crimean Scythians, it subdued all the Northern Black Sea coast. The ruler of the Roksolans was one of the few known Sarmatian kings Gatal. He became famous for the fact that he began the conquest of the Crimean Scythians, with whom the Sarmatians had previously maintained allied relations. Choosing new enemies, Gatal supported the Greek inhabitants of Kherson. This port suffered greatly from the Scythians and sought protection from the Sarmatians. The name Gatala is mentioned in the Greek document of 179 BC. E., in which he agreed to be the guarantor of an agreement between Pont and Kherson.

Modern science knows the name of another king of rockolans. The leader of Taziy (Tasia) ruled about 110 BC. E., When the Sarmatians changed their policy, having concluded an alliance with the Scythians against the Bosporus kingdom. The army under the command of commander Difant smashed the nomads. About this war in his writings reported the famous historian Strabo.

In the middle of the I century BC. E. The resettlement of the Roksolans began, facilitated by the decline of the bastards. They migrated to the steppes west of the Dnieper, once again ousting the related languages from their lands. In turn, fatefolk had to retreat under the onslaught of Aorses and Alans. As a result, these Sarmatians settled in the steppes between the Danube Delta and the Dnieper. Some detachments even reached the Carpathian Mountains. Some of the Roksolans turned south, stopping in Wallachia. Here, the borders of the Roman Empire became an irresistible frontier for nomads. Under the pressure of this group of Sarmatians from the usual places, the dacians were removed. In the Roman chronicles mention is made of the case when in 62 the many thousands of troops of northern neighbors invaded the imperial province of Moesia. These dacies, displaced by the Roksolans, eventually obtained permission to settle within the Roman domains. Sarmatians, while not being able to capture the Roman provinces, nevertheless constantly disturbed them with their destructive raids.

Economy and way of life

It is convenient to judge who Sarmatians are by looking at their farm. This people lived in the steppes, and therefore, led a nomadic way of life. The basis of the Sarmatian economy was livestock breeding. Agriculture was also present, but on a much smaller scale and mainly in the vicinity of large rivers.

Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians - all these peoples in their way of life were like each other. Instead of houses they had tents and wagons. The food consisted of meat and milk, which was given by large herds. A popular dish was horse meat. Routes of seasonal migration are another touch, which clearly shows who the Sarmatians are. The history of the steppes of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan is connected with this people by many archaeological monuments. In the summer, the Sarmatians lived on the plains, and in winter they moved to the coast of the Azov Sea. Their typical clothes were soft leather boots, long pants and felt hats.

Military traditions

Like any other nomads, Sarmatians did not imagine life without horses. These animals not only helped on the farm, but were needed in the war. Men taught boys to ride the heights from an early age. Of all of them, they raised skilful and enduring warriors. This fact is confirmed by the fact that in many children's graves archeologists found weapons. The military traditions of the steppe people have not changed for centuries.

Who are Sarmatians as soldiers? Their arsenal consisted of a curved short bow, a full arrow of a quiver, an iron sword known as akinak. Less commonly used were peaks, spears and battle axes. There is also evidence of ancient historians about the popularity of nomads with sling and lasso. Armor included armor and helmets of bull rawhide and wicker shields.

Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and other ancient steppe peoples used in battle about the same tactics. The attack was an attack by a large group of horsemen, who fired at the enemy from the bow all over the race. Especially skilled soldiers were Roksolans. The swords of the Sarmatians were huge in size. They could only be held in two hands.

Society

Ancient historians and geographers who tried to explain who Sarmatians were, noted that this people did not have an institution of slavery. All people had personal freedom. Leaders of the steppe were elected the most famous soldiers. Because of the fragmentary sources of modern science, the names of only a few such kings are known.

The social ladder of the Sarmatian people, at the top of which were the rulers, was not always the same. This is evidenced by barrows discovered by archeologists. Graves are the best source of knowledge about who Sarmatians are and where they lived. The early mounds of the Sarmatians were poor and homogeneous. However, as early as the end of the fifth century BC, E. There were rich graves, in which, together with a man buried gold and other luxury. Such findings of experts indicate a gradual social stratification of the Sarmatians. The burial grounds of the tribal aristocracy differ markedly from the usual ones, which means that even the harsh nomads had their own elites over time.

Women and religion

Particularly curious are the information that Greek writers have left about Sarmatian women. Thus, Herodotus compared them to the Amazons. Women-nomads hunted on horseback and even took part in wars on a par with men. In addition, it is known that an important role in the Sarmatian society was played by a layer of priestesses. Steppe people were pagans, they worshiped fire and the sun. At the beginning of our era, a new Zoroastrian cult spread among them.

Sarmatians believed in the afterlife, in connection with which they had a lot of scattered funeral rites. Some were formed under the influence of animism and worship of animals. All this knowledge of modern scientists about the steppe inhabitants continues to be supplemented and improved as new archaeological finds arise. The question of who such Sarmatians are and what they did was far from being closed. Specialists continue to find out curious details about the ancient inhabitants of the steppes of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

Alans

The peak of the power of the Sarmatian people Alans refers to the so-called late Sarmatian period in the I-IV centuries. At the beginning of our era they came from the eastern steppes in the Azov Sea and Ciscaucasia. In 73-74 years. The Alans unsuccessfully tried to conquer Parthia and invaded it, having traveled a long way along the eastern Caspian Sea. In 123, the nomads attacked the Roman possessions. Their invasion affected the northeast Asian provinces of the empire. This time, the military commander Flavius Arriane defeated the Sarmatians. In 133, the foray was repeated. Alans invaded the territory of modern Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The appearance of new Sarmatians in the Eastern European steppes was caused by the next wave of migration of many ethnic groups. The Iranian peoples retreated from the Asian steppes, finding themselves on the path of formidable Huns. In the IV century because of them there was a great migration of peoples, which affected not only the Alans, but also other numerous tribes, including the German group.

After the onset of the Huns, most of the Alans dissolved among them and other Turks (Khazars, Volga Bulgarians, Utigurs). Some groups of these latter Sarmatians migrated to the Caucasus. Their modern descendants are Ossetians, whose language remained the last language, somehow connected with the previously widespread Sarmatian group.

Some Alans inhabited the hard-to-reach areas of the Central Caucasus, where previously representatives of the Koban archeological culture of the Iron Age settled. In the 6th century they survived the invasion of the Altai Turks and the Avar. Approximately from the year 650 the Alans were in vassal dependence on the Khazar Khaganate. By their name was named a vast area between Dagestan and the Kuban. Alan princes marriages with the reigning dynasty of Georgia. The Sarmatian states in the Caucasus existed for several centuries. The history of Alans ended after the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the XIII century. Since then, their name has not been found in medieval chronicles.