Sarmatia Europea in
Scythia map 1697 AD
"''Sarmatia Europæa''" separated from "''Sarmatia Asiatica''" by the
Tanais (the
River Don), based on Greek literary sources, in a map printed in London, ''ca'' 1770
The 'Sarmatians', 'Sarmatae' or 'Sauromatae' were a people originally of
Iranian stock.
[1] Mentioned by classical authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around 5th century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans.
Pliny the Elder (
★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#80 N.H. book iv) wrote that the Latin ''Sarmatae'' is identical to the Greek ''Sauromatae''. At their greatest reported extent these tribes ranged from the
Vistula river to the mouth of the
Danube and eastward to the
Volga, and from the mysterious domain of the
Hyperboreans in the north, southward to the shores of the
Black and
Caspian seas, including the region between them as far as the
Caucasus mountains. The richest tombs and the most significant finds of Sarmatian artifacts have been recorded in the
Krasnodar Krai of
Russia.
It is perhaps no coincidence that the boundary between the so-called
Centum-Satem isogloss in the
Indo-European languages apparently split at the European border of the Sarmatians.
Around the year 100 BC, Sarmatian land ranged from
Barents Sea or
Baltic Sea ("Oceanus Sarmaticus") to tributary of
Vistula River, to the
Carpathian Mountains, to the mouth of the
Danube, then eastward along the northern coast of
the Black Sea, across the
Caucasus to the
Caspian Sea and north along the
Volga up to the
polar circle.
The Sarmatians flourished from the time of
Herodotus and allied partly with the
Huns when they arrived in the 4th century AD.
The Sarmatians were closely related to the
Scythians.
There used to be a popular belief (
Sarmatism) in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 16-th and 19-th century, that nobility is a direct descendant of Sarmatians. Insufficient scientific evidence exists to back up such claim.
Archaeology and ethnology
In 1947, the leading Soviet historian
Boris Grakov defined a culture apparent in late
Kurgan graves, sometimes reusing part of much older Kurgans. It is a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the
Black Sea to beyond the
Volga, and is especially evident at two of the major sites at
Kardaielova and
Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe.
The date of the culture (from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD) and the location are in sync with the written information we have about the Sarmatians. Accordingly Grekov defined four phases:
#Sauromatian, 6th-5th centuries BC
#Early Sarmatian, 4th-2nd centuries BC
#Middle Sarmatian, late 2nd century BC to late 2nd century AD
#Late Sarmatian: late 2nd century AD to 4th century AD
The Sarmatians of
Ptolemy fall into the Middle Sarmatian period. However, Grekov’s Sarmatia does not extend at all into the
Balto-Slavic range, where the two elements have their own archeologies descending to the
Balts and the
Slavs.
Already anchored in the west in east Europe, the Huns were located to the north of the
Alans and extended east to the borders of the
Han Dynasty. These Huns were quite peaceful trading partners of the Alans. Their archeology and mode of life is nearly indistinguishable from that of the Alans. The various peoples of the extensive eastern plains did own distinctive bronze
kettles. Also, the graves of the people of central Asia, including those of the Huns, include remains that many believe are of mixed features, just as are the peoples of central Asia today.
Whatever happened in the east to bring warriors from there upon the Alans did not introduce a new people to the steppes or to Europe. As far as the Sarmatians are concerned, the Hunnic augment from the east only worked an ethnic reversal of dominance. Some Alans chose to flee to the Romans and others to fight for the Huns. The former disappeared into Europe long ago, while the latter remain in the Caucasus region
History
Herodotus
Herodotus (
Histories 4.21) in the
5th century BC placed the land of the Sarmatians east of the
Tanais, beginning at the corner of the
Maeotian Lake, stretching northwards for fifteen days' journey, adjacent to the forested land of the
Budinoi. Herodotus describes the Sarmatians' physical appearance as blond, stout and tanned; in short, pretty much as the Scythians and
Thracians were seen by the other classical authors.
Herodotus (4.110-117) reports a tale of the origin of the Sauromatae (sg. ''Σαυρομάτης''), as the descendants of a band of young Scythian men and a group of
Amazons. In the story, some
Amazons were captured in battle by Greeks in
Pontus (northern
Turkey) near the river
Thermodon, and the captives were loaded into 3 boats. They overcame their captors while at sea, but were not able sailors. Their ships were blown north to the
Maeotian Lake (the
Sea of Azov) onto the shore of
Scythia near the cliff region (today's southeastern
Crimea). After encountering the Scythians and learning the Scythian language, they agreed to marry Scythian men, but only on the condition that they move away and not be required to follow the customs of Scythian women. According to Herodotus the descendants of this band settled toward the northeast beyond the
Tanais (Don) river and became the
Sauromatians. Herodotus' account, in a way, explains the origins of the Sarmatians' language (as an impure form of Scythian). Moreover, it explains the unusual freedoms of Sauromatae women, including participation in warfare, which is deemed as an inheritance from their Amazon ancestors. Later writers call some of them the "woman-ruled Sarmatae" (γυναικοκρατούμενοι).
Hippocrates
Hippocrates (''De Aere'', etc., 24) explicitly classes them as Scythian.
Strabo
Strabo mentions the Sarmatians in a number of places, never saying very much about them. He uses both Sarmatai and Sauromatai, but never together, and never suggesting that they are different peoples. He often pairs Sarmatians and
Scythians in reference to a series of ethnic names, never stating which is which, as though Sarmatian or Scythian could apply equally to them all.
In Strabo the Sarmatians extend from above the Danube eastward to the Volga, and from north of the
Dnepr into the
Caucasus, where, he says, they are called Caucasii like everyone else there. This statement indicates that the
Alans already had a home in the Caucasus, without waiting for the Huns to push them there.
Even more significantly he points to a Celtic admixture in the region of the
Basternae, who, he says, are of
Germanic origin. The
Celtic
Boii,
Scordisci and
Taurisci are there. A fourth ethnic element being melted in are the
Thracians (7.3.2). Moreover, the peoples toward the north are Keltoskythai, "Celtic Scythians" (11.6.2).
Strabo also portrays the peoples of the region as being nomadic, or Hamaksoikoi, "wagon-dwellers" and Galaktophagoi, "milk-eaters" referring, no doubt, to the universal
koumiss eaten in historical times. The wagons were used for porting tents made of
felt, which must have been the
yurts used universally by Asian nomads before pick-up trucks and mobile homes, and are still used in some locations.
Pliny the elder
Tacitus is not the only Roman military man to have been interested in the Sarmatians; the admiral,
Pliny the Elder, relying on intelligence from Roman military stations in the north (by that time amber from the Baltic was being purchased by Roman agents on location), provides the most defining statement regarding the Sarmatians (4.12.79-81):
What this passage seems to tell us is that the Scythians or Scythian rule once extended even to the Germans, but now remained only in the far districts.
Jordanes supports this hypothesis by telling us on the one hand that he was familiar with the ''Geography'' of
Ptolemy, which includes the entire Balto-Slavic territory in Sarmatia, and on the other that this same region was Scythia. By "Sarmatia", Jordanes means only the Aryan territory. The Sarmatians therefore did come from the Scythians.
Tacitus
''Sarmatian clothes''.
In
Tacitus' book (''
De Origine et situ Germanorum'') we read of “mutual fear” between the
Dacian 'Dacisque' and the Sarmatians 'Sarmatis'
We also read that, like the
Persians, the Sarmatians wore long, flowing robes (ch 17). Moreover, the Sarmatians exacted tribute from the
Cotini and Osi, and iron from the Cotini (ch. 43), “to their shame” (presumably because they could have used the iron to arm themselves and resist).
Ptolemy
By the
3rd century BC, the Sarmatian name appears to have supplanted the Scythian in the plains of what is now south
Ukraine. The geographer,
Ptolemy, reports them at what must be their maximum extent, divided into adjoining European and central Asian sections. Considering the overlap of tribal names between the Scythians and the Sarmatians, no new displacements probably took place. The people were the same Indo-Europeans they used to be, but now under yet another name.
Pausanias
Later,
Pausanias, viewing
votive offerings near the Athenian Acropolis in the
2nd century AD. (''Description of Greece'' 1.21.5-6), found among them a Sauromic breastplate.
Pausanias' description is well borne out in a relief from Tanais. These facts are not necessarily incompatible with Tacitus, as the Sarmatians on the west might have kept their iron to themselves, it having been a scarce commodity on the plains. If true, this circumstance argues for a lack of central government or even for bad communication (as opposed to the Persians).
Pontic inscriptions
The greater part of the barbarian names occurring in the inscriptions of
Olbia,
Tanais and
Panticapaeum are supposed to be Sarmatian, and as they have been well explained from the
Iranian language now spoken by the
Ossetians of the
Caucasus (the
Ossetic language), these are supposed to be the modern representatives of the Sarmatians and can be shown to have a direct connection with the
Alans, one of their tribes.
Ammianus Marcellinus
Sarmatians were still a force the Romans had to reckon with in the late 4th century A.D.
Ammianus Marcellinus (29.6.13-14) describes a severe defeat, which Sarmatian raiders inflicted upon Roman forces in the province of Valeria in
Pannonia in late 374 A.D. The Sarmatians almost annihilated both a legion recruited from
Moesia and one from Pannonia, which had been sent to intercept a party of Sarmatians who had been pursuing a senior Roman officer named Aequitius deep into Roman territory. The two legions failed to coordinate and their quarreling allowed the Sarmatians to catch them unprepared and deal a stunning blow.
At the end of antiquity
The Sarmatians remained dominant until the
Gothic ascendancy in the Black Sea area and then disappeared at the
Hunnish destruction of the Gothic empire and subsequent invasion of central Europe. From bases in Hungary the Huns ruled the entire former Sarmatian territory. Their various constituents enjoyed a
floruit under Hunnish rule, fought for the Huns against a combination of Roman and Germanic troops, and went their own ways after the
Battle of Chalons (a stand-off), the death of
Attila and the disappearance of the
Chuvash ruling elements west of the Volga.
This contradict
Priscus who see a lot 'happy' Scythian around Attila. They played a significant part in the rise of early
Russia.
Recent research
Üllő5 Sarmatian pottery
In a recent excavation of Sarmatian sites by Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, a tomb was found wherein female warriors were buried, thus lending some credence to the myths about the
Amazons. Amazons are reported as Sauromatae wives.
In
Hungary a great Late Sarmatian pottery center was reportedly unearthed between 2001-2006 near
Budapest, in
Üllő5 archaeological site. Typical gray, granular Üllő5 ceramics forms a distinct group of Sarmatian pottery found everywhere in the north-central part of the
Great Hungarian Plain region, indicating a lively trading activity. A recent paper on the study of glass beads found in Sarmatian graves suggests wide cultural and trade links
[1].
Those Sarmatians, being in the early Iranian range of south Russia, were probably
Iranian people akin to the
Scythians/
Saka. The numerous Iranian personal names in the Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea Coast indicate that the Sarmatians there spoke a north-eastern Iranian dialect related to
Sogdian and
Ossetic.
Sarmatian tribes
Below is a list of tribes considered by some to be among the people called Sarmatian, or to be in territory considered Sarmatian.
On the whole however the ancients recognized a separate unity, whether of political affiliations, language, or both, called the Sarmatian. We do not know its languages for certain.
★
Abii,
Achaei,
Acibi,
Agathyrsi,
Agoritae,
Alans (Alauni, Halani,
Alanorsi),
Alontae,
Amadoci,
Amaxobi,
Amazones,
Anartophracti,
Aorsi (Adorsi,
Alanorsi),
Arichi,
Arsietae,
Asaei,
Aspurgiani,
Atmoni,
Avarini
★
Basilici,
BasternaeBessi,
Biessi,
Bosporani Bulgarians,
Bodini,
Borusci,
Burgiones
★
Carbones,
Careotae,
Cariones,
Carpians,
Caucasii,
Cercetae,
Chaenides,
Chuni,
Cimmerians,
Costoboci,
Conapseni
★
Diduri
★
Exobygitae
★
Fenni (Tacitus was not sure if Fenni were Sarmatians or
Germanic people)
★
Hamaksoikoi,
Heniochi,
Hippophagi
★
Galactophagi,
Galindae,
Gelones,
Gerri,
Gevini,
Greater Venedae,
Gythones
★
Hippemolgi,
Hippopodes,
Hyperboreans,
Horouathos
★
Iaxamatae,
Iazyges,
Igylliones,
Isondae
★
Materi,
Melanchlaeni,
Melanchlani,
Metibi,
Modoca,
Mysi
★
Nasci,
Navari,
Nesioti
★
Ombrones,
Ophlones,
Orinei,
Osili,
Ossi
★
Pagyritae,
Perierbidi,
Peucini,
Piengitae,
Phrungundiones,
Phthirophagi,
Psessi
★
Rheucanali,
Rhoxolani
★
Saboci,
Sacani,
Saii,
Sargati,
Savari,
Scythian Alani,
Senaraei,
Serboi,
Sidoni,
Siraces,
Stavani,
Sturni,
Suani,
Suanocolchi,
Suardeni,
Sudini,
Sulones
★
Tanaitae,
Tauroscythae,
Thatemeotae,
Tigri,
Toreccadae,
Transmontani,
Tusci,
Tyrambae,
Tyrangitae
★
Udae
★
Vali,
Veltae,
Venedae,
Vibiones
★
Zacatae,
Zinchi
Name
Sarmatian language is unknown and all information on the language is hypothethical, based on a few names recorded in other languages by non-Sarmatian-native speakers. The high correlation between linguistics and parental genetic markers was unknown to majority of linguistic scholars looking for traces of presumably disappeared Samarian and their language.
Not many serious linguists are willing to tackle the etymology of the Sarmatians professionally, the main problem being the difference between Greek Sauro- and Latin Sar-. One can always find proponents of the hypothesis that two distinct peoples existed, the Sauromatae and the Sarmatae. This is not a popular hypothesis, as both peoples would have to be using many of the same tribal names. Moreover,
Jordanes, a churchman of mixed
Gothic and Sarmatian background, states that they were the same and that the Goths changed their name in some places to Sarmatians before conquering.
There is a suggestion in Lubotsky's Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon (on the Leiden University IED site) that the name is related to the
Avestan zarema-, "old", where the e is the indefinite sound (like the a in sofa). This is the same zar- that appears in
Zarathustra. The exact sense is not clear, but words with that root can mean "senior" and "undying" (through being very old) or kos'tur of sun or fire. This word has the advantage of being in the most appropriate language and of being able to be the source of both Sar- and Sauro-.
Since there is the theory that the linguistic descendants of the Sarmatians are the
Ossetians (contrary to, at that time completely unknown genetic data), one may include the three following theories for the origin of the name:
1)
Dumezil: oss. saw (black) scr. róman- (fur), oss tae (plural marker)
2)
Abaev: oss. saw (black) oss arm (arm), oss tae (plural marker)
3) Christol:
★ sarumant (archer) from scr. saru (arrow)
The Indo-European root, which is the
★ gerh- of
Julius Pokorny, "old", where the g is palatal and the h is laryngeal number 2, open out exciting speculations. The word
Greek, Latin Graeci, is from the same root, originating from an obscure Balkan tribe, the Graioi, which the ancients took to be "the old ones." In the area of 'Sauro'-matae lived Ma-'zurian'. If zur(zar -sun) is similar to saur (sol -sun) then is also related to water founded 'zur niesiemy zur', vedi vodi or (sola sla). Graroi, given ż<>g<>h may be related to Żaroi Graroi ''Haroy'' Harian Hurian or even ''Hunga'' till today sing as ''Ha'Hary'', Compare the war cray ''Hurra'' of people from this area. Sarmatian is the
satem equivalent of
centum Greek. A genetic commonality would require an original satem word in
Proto-Indo-European. Such a connection is speculative at this point.
The Iranians, however, were the last Indo-Europeans on what is thought by many to have been the original range in
Kazakhstan. The region now is occupied mainly by
Turkic speakers.
There are suggestions that Sarmatian came from the
Turkic or
Finno-Ugrian groups, such as some early form of
Hungarian. These suggestions have not so far been generally accepted, as they do not account for the large number of Indo-European tribes once under the name before the dominance of the Huns.
The numerous Iranian personal names in the Greek inscriptions from the
Black Sea Coast indicate that the Sarmatians spoke a
North-Eastern Iranian dialect ancestral to
Ossetic (see
Scytho-Sarmatian).
[2] One of the inscription reads "Clnyslovenepomnotceleshka".
Popular culture
★ "Sarmatian Knights" were prominently featured in the 2004 film ''
King Arthur''. The film also posited that Arthur was a Roman officer of half Roman (father) and half native Briton (mother) origin. This was based on the
Sarmatian connection hypothesis of Littleton and Thomas, who pointed out in 1978 that many Arthurian legends have surviving parallels among the
Ossetians, and that
Marcus Aurelius planted a Sarmatian colony of
cataphracts (''i.e.,'' heavily armoured cavalry) in
Britain.
See also
★
Hittites
★
Huns
★
Goths
★
Sindes
References
1. Sarmatian. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 20, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9065786
2. Handbuch der Orientalistik, Iranistik. By I. Gershevitch, O. Hansen, B. Spuler, M.J. Dresden, Prof M Boyce, M. Boyce Summary. E.J. Brill. 1968.
Bibliography
★ Brzezinski, R., et al, ''The Sarmatians 600 BC-AD 450'' (in series ''Men-At-Arms'' 373) ISBN 1-84176-485-X
★ Almsaodi, Aymn. ''The historic atlas of Iberia''
★ Davis-Kimball, Jeannine. 2002. ''Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines''. Warner Books, New York. 1st Trade printing, 2003. ISBN 0-446-67983-6 (pbk).
★
Tadeusz Sulimirski, ''The Sarmatians'' (vol. 73 in series "Ancient People and Places") London: Thames & Hudson, 1970. (Also published in the USA by Praeger, and translated into Polish in 1979.)
★
Alexander Guagnini (1538-1614), Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio, Spira
1581.
External links
★
''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' 1911: "Sarmatae"
★
Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians
★
Ptolemaic Map (Digital Scriptorium)
★
Map of Sarmatia 1697
★
Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
