Editing Sarmatians (section)

== History ==
===Origin===
{{main|Sauromatians}}
[[File:Sword types of the South Urals, Sauromatian to Early Sarmatian 5th-1st centuries BCE.png|thumb|upright=1.75|Evolution of sword types of the South Urals, from Sauromatian (5th-4th centuries BCE) to Early Sarmatian (3rd-1st centuries BCE).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Сергеевич |first1=Савельев Никита |title=Находки мечей и кинжалов скифо-сарматского времени из юго-западных предгорий Южного Урала (к вопросу об освоении территории и особенностях расселения кочевников) |journal=Oriental Studies |date=2018 |volume=4 |pages=24–31 |doi=10.22162/2619-0990-2018-37-3-24-31 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Reconstruction of Sarmatian chieftain. Araltobe mount, Kazakhstan, III-II cc. BC. Excavation of Z. Samashev. Heritage of the Great Steppe exhibition, Gdańsk Main Town Hall.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of early Sarmatian chieftain. [[Araltobe kurgan]], [[Kazakhstan]], III-II c. BCE. Excavation of Z. Samashev.<ref name="astanatimes.com">{{cite journal |last1=Ualikhanova |first1=Aruzhan |title=Archeologists Discover Golden Artifacts in Abai Region's Bozai Burial Ground |journal=The Astana Times |date=22 April 2023 |url=https://astanatimes.com/2023/04/archeologists-discover-golden-artifacts-in-abai-regions-bozai-burial-ground/ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Noyanov |first1=Edyl Noyanuly |last2=Yernazar |first2=Sergazy |title=THE "GOLDEN PEOPLE" OF KAZAKHSTAN |journal=World Science |date=2016 |page=46 |url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/the-golden-people-of-kazakhstan.pdf}}</ref>]]

The ethnogenesis of the Sarmatians occurred during the 6th to 4rd centuries BCE, when nomads from [[Central Asia]] migrated into the territory of the [[Sauromatian culture|Sauromatians]] in the southern [[Ural Mountains]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sarmatian |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica | title = Sarmatian|quote=Sarmatian, member of a people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains between the 6th and 4th century BC and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans.|date =13 February 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yablonsky |first1=Leonid Teodorovich |title=New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka (Southern Ural Region, Russia) |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=2010 |volume=114 |issue=1 |page=141 |doi=10.3764/aja.114.1.129 |jstor=20627646 |s2cid=191399666 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20627646 |issn=0002-9114}}</ref><ref>For the complexity of the interactions of these peoples see, ''e.g.'' {{harvnb|Mordvintseva|2013}} and {{harvnb|Kozlovskaya|2017}}.</ref> These nomads conquered the Sauromatians, resulting in an increased incidence of eastern Asiatic features in the Early Sarmatians, similar to those of the [[Sakas]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the Russian Steppes : the State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, and the Archaeological Museum, Ufa |date=2000 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-959-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWcjhsRCWG4C&pg=PA39 |page=39 |language=en |quote=In skull shape and facial structure, the Filippovka specimens differ considerably from remains of Scythians and Volga River-area Sarmatians. The Filipovka skulls most closely resemble those of [[Saka]] from [[Kazakhstan]] and the [[Aral Sea]] region, and those of the [[Wusun|Usuns]] from Eastern Kazhakhstan.}}</ref>

The name "Sarmatians" eventually came to be applied to the whole of the new people formed out of these migrations, whose constituent tribes were the [[Aorsi]], [[Roxolani]], [[Alans]], and the [[Iazyges]]. Despite the similarity between the names Sarmatian and Sauromatian, modern authors distinguish between the two, since Sarmatian culture did not directly develop from the Sauromatian culture and the core of the Sarmatian culture was composed of these newly arrived migrants.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}} A typical transitional site between these two periods is found in the [[Filippovka kurgans]], which are Late [[Sauromatian]]-Early Sarmatian, and dated to the 5th-4th century BCE.<ref name="Y141">{{cite journal |last1=Yablonsky |first1=Leonid Teodorovich |title=New Excavations of the Early Nomadic Burial Ground at Filippovka (Southern Ural Region, Russia) |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=2010 |volume=114 |issue=1 |page=141 |doi=10.3764/aja.114.1.129 |jstor=20627646 |s2cid=191399666 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20627646 |issn=0002-9114 |quote= with artifacts found in other barrows, afford us the opportunity to refine the chronology of each object and of the site as a whole and to date it to the second half of the fifth through the fourth centuries B.C.E. (...) Filippovka cemetery is a transition site between the Sauromation and the Sarmatian epochs.}}</ref>

===In the Pontic Steppe and Europe===
[[File:Gold mirror Mayerovsky III Kurgan 4.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Gold mirror, Mayerovsky III Kurgan 4 ([[Nikolayevsky District, Volgograd Oblast|Nikolaevsky District]], [[Volgograd]] region), 2nd-1st centuries BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yatsenko |first1=Sergey A. |title=Sarmatian Goddess with Two Horses |journal=RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. "Literary Theory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies" Series |date=2022 |issue=7 |pages=211–224 |doi=10.28995/2686-7249-2022-7-211-224 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |s2cid=256651585 |url=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Moscow State Historical Museum |url=https://www.myvirtualmuseum.ru/text/moscow/gim/greekgold.htm |website=www.myvirtualmuseum.ru}}</ref>]]
During the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, the centre of Sarmatian power remained north of the Caucasus and in the 3rd century BCE the most important centres were around the lower Don, [[Kalmykia]], the [[Kuban]] area, and the Central Caucasus.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}

During the end of the 4th century BCE, the [[Scythians]], the then dominant power in the Black Sea Steppe, were militarily defeated by the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]]n kings [[Philip II of Macedon]] and [[Lysimachus]] in 339 and 313 BCE respectively. They experienced another military setback after participating in the [[Bosporan Civil War]] in 309 BCE and came under pressure from the [[Thracians|Thracian]] [[Getae]] and the [[Celtic peoples|Celtic]] [[Bastarnae]]. At the same time, in Central Asia, following the Macedonian [[Alexander's conquest of Persia|conquest]] of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], the new [[Seleucid Empire]] started attacking the [[Saka|Sakā]] and [[Dahae|Dahā]] nomads who lived to the north of its borders, who in turn put westward pressure on the Sarmatians. Pressured by the Sakā and Dahā in the east and taking advantage of the decline of Scythian power, the Sarmatians began crossing the Don river and invaded [[Scythia]] and also migrated south into the [[North Caucasus]].{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}

The first wave of westward Sarmatian migration happened during the 2nd century BCE, and involved the Royal Sarmatians, or Saioi (from Scytho-Sarmatian {{Transliteration|xsc|*xšaya}}, meaning "kings"), who moved into the Pontic Steppe, and the [[Iazyges]], also called the Iaxamatai or Iazamatai, who initially settled between the Don and Dnieper rivers. The [[Roxolani]], who might have been a mixed Scytho-Sarmatian tribe, followed the Iazyges and occupied the Black Sea steppes up to the [[Dnieper|Dnipro]] and raided the [[Crimea]]n region during that century, at the end of which they were involved in a conflict with the generals of the [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontic]] king [[Mithridates VI Eupator]] in the [[Crimea|Bosporan Chersonesus]], while the Iazyges became his allies.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

That the tribes formerly referred to by [[Herodotus]] as Scythians were now called Sarmatians by Hellenistic and Roman authors implies that the Sarmatian conquest did not involve a displacement of the Scythians from the Pontic Steppe, but rather that the Scythian tribes were absorbed by the Sarmatians.{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}} After their conquest of Scythia, the Sarmatians became the dominant political power in the northern Pontic Steppe, where Sarmatian graves first started appearing in the 2nd century BCE. Meanwhile, the populations which still identified as Scythians proper became reduced to Crimea and the [[Dobruja]] region, and at one point the Crimean Scythians were the vassals of the Sarmatian queen [[Amage]]. Sarmatian power in the Pontic Steppes was also directed against the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] cities on its shores, with the city of [[Pontic Olbia]] being forced to pay repeated tribute to the Royal Sarmatians and their king [[Saitapharnes]], who is mentioned in the [[Protogenes inscription]] along with the tribes of the [[Thisamatae]], Scythians, and [[Saudaratae]]. Another Sarmatian king, Gatalos, was named in a peace treaty concluded by the king [[Pharnaces I of Pontus]] with his enemies.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

Two other Sarmatian tribes, the [[Siraces]], who had previously originated in the Transcaspian Plains immediately to the northeast of [[Hyrcania]] before migrating to the west, and the Aorsi, moved to the west across the Volga and into the Caucasus mountains' foothills between the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE. From there, the pressure from their growing power forcing the more western Sarmatian tribes to migrate further west, and the Aorsi and Siraces destroyed the power of the Royal Sarmatians and the Iazyges, with the Aorsi being able to extend their rule over a large region stretching from the Caucasus across the [[Terek–Kuma Lowland]] and [[Kalmykia]] in the west up to the Aral Sea region in the east. Yet another new Sarmatian group, the [[Alans]], originated in Central Asia out of the merger of some old tribal groups with the [[Massagetae]]. Related to the [[Asii]] who invaded [[Bactria]] in the 2nd century BCE, the Alans were pushed west by the [[Kangju]] people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the {{lang|grc|Ιαξαρται}} {{Transliteration|grc|Iaxartai}} in Greek, and the {{lang|la|Iaxartae}} in Latin) who were living in the [[Syr Darya]] basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}

[[File:Sarmatian bottle and lid (1st century CE, reproduction).jpg|thumb|left|Sarmatian bottle and lid (1st century CE, reproduction)]]
The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the Pontic Steppe continued during the 1st century BCE, when they were allied with the Scythians against [[Diophantus (general)|Diophantus]], a general of Mithradates VI Eupator, before allying with Mithradates against the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] and fighting for him in both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the Sarmatians' complete involvement in the affairs of the Pontic and Danubian regions. During the early part of the century, the Alans had migrated to the area to the northeast of the [[Sea of Azov|Lake Maeotis]]. Meanwhile, the Iazyges moved westwards until they reached the [[Danube]], and the Roxolani moved into the area between the Dnipro and the Danube and from there further west. These two peoples attacked the regions around [[Constanța|Tomis]] and [[Moesia]], respectively. During this period, the Iazyges and Roxolani also attacked the Roman province of [[Thracia]], whose governor [[Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus]] had to defend the Roman border of the Danube. During the 1st century BCE, various Sarmatians reached the [[Pannonian Basin]], with the Iazyges passing through the territories corresponding to modern-day [[Moldavia]] and [[Wallachia]] before settling in the [[Tisza]] valley, by the middle of the century.{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

Although the Sarmatian were defeated and their movements stopped temporarily during the 1st century BCE due to the rise of the [[Dacians|Dacian]] kingdom of [[Burebista]], they resumed after the collapse of his kingdom following his assassination and in 16 BCE. [[Lucius Tarius Rufus]] had to repel a Sarmatian attack on Thracia and [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]], while further attacks around 10 BCE and 2 BCE were defeated by [[Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]].{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

[[File:Sarmatian cup with animal handle (1st century CE, reproduction).jpg|thumb|Sarmatian cup with animal handle (1st century CE, reproduction)]]
Meanwhile, other Sarmatian tribes, possibly the Aorsi, sent ambassadors to the Roman emperor [[Augustus]], who tried to establish a diplomatic accommodation with them. During the 1st century CE, the Siraces and Aorsi, who were mutually hostile, participated in the [[Roman–Bosporan War]] on opposite sides: the Siraces and their king [[Zorsines]] allied with [[Tiberius Julius Mithridates|Mithridates III]] against his half-brother [[Tiberius Julius Cotys I|Cotys I]], who was allied with Rome and the Aorsi. With the defeat of Mithridates, the Siraces were also routed and lost rulership over most of their lands. Between 50 and 60 CE, the Alans had appeared in the foothills of the Caucasus, from where they attacked the Caucasus and Transcaucasus areas and the [[Parthian Empire]]. During the 1st century CE, the Alans expanded across the Volga to the west, absorbing part of the Aorsi and displacing the rest, and pressure from the Alans forced the Iazyges and Roxolani to continue attacking the Roman Empire from across the Danube. During the 1st century CE, two Sarmatian rulers from the steppe named Pharzoios and Inismeōs were minting coins in Pontic Olbia.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

[[File:Headgear of the Sarmatians in Trajan's column.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Headgear of the Sarmatians in [[Trajan's column]]]]
The Roxolani continued their westward migration following the conflict on the Bosporan Chersonesus, and by 69 CE they were close enough to the lower Danube that they were able to attack across the river when it was frozen in winter, and soon later they and the Alans were living on the coast of the Black Sea, and they later moved further west and were living in the areas corresponding to modern-day [[Moldavia]] and western [[Ukraine]].{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

The Sarmatian tribe of the Arraei, who had had close contacts with the Romans, eventually settled to the south of the Danube river, in Thrace, and another Sarmatian tribe, the Koralloi, were also living in the same area alongside a section of the Scythian [[Sindi people|Sindi]].{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

During the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, the Iazyges often bothered the Roman authorities in [[Pannonia]]; they participated in the destruction of the [[Quadi]]an kingdom of [[Vannius]], and often migrated to the east across the [[Transylvanian Plateau]] and the [[Carpathian Mountains]] during seasonal movements or for trade.{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

By the 2nd century CE, the Alans had conquered the steppes of the north Caucasus and of the north Black Sea area and created a powerful confederation of tribes under their rule. Under the hegemony of the Alans a trade route connected the Pontic Steppe, the southern Urals, and the region presently known as [[Russian Turkestan|Western Turkestan]]. One group of the Alans, the [[Antes people|Antae]], migrated north into the territory of what is presently [[Poland]].{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}
[[Image:Sarmatian cataphracts in Trajan's column, 2nd century CE.jpg|thumb|Sarmatian [[cataphract]]s during [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacian Wars]] as depicted on [[Trajan's Column]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Matthew |last2=Dawson |first2=Doyne |last3=Field |first3=Ron |last4=Hawthornwaite |first4=Philip |last5=Loades |first5=Mike |title=The History of Warfare: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the History of Warfare from the Ancient World to the American Civil War |date=15 September 2016 |publisher=Book Sales |isbn=978-0-7858-3461-8 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27KTDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |language=en}}</ref>]]

=== Decline ===
{{See also|Alans|Ossetians}}
The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the steppes began to decline over the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, when the [[Huns]] conquered Sarmatian territory in the Caspian Steppe and the Ural region. The supremacy of the Sarmatians was finally destroyed when the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[Goths]] migrating from the [[Baltic Sea]] region conquered the Pontic Steppe around 200 CE. In 375 CE, the Huns conquered most of the Alans living to the east of the Don river, massacred a significant number of them, and absorbed them into their tribal polity, while the Alans to the west of the Don remained free from Hunnish domination. As part of the Hunnic state, the Alans participated in the Huns' defeat and conquest of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths on the Pontic Steppe. Some free Alans fled into the mountains of the Caucasus, where they participated in the ethnogenesis of populations including the [[Ossetians]] and the [[Kabardians]], and other Alan groupings survived in Crimea. Others migrated into Central and then Western Europe, from where some of them went to [[Great Britain|Britannia]] and [[Hispania]], and some joined the Germanic [[Vandals]] into crossing the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and creating the [[Vandal Kingdom]] in North Africa.{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990}}

The Sarmatians in the [[Bosporan Kingdom]] assimilated into the Greek civilization.<ref>{{cite book |quote= (...) "the Iranic Sarmatians, whose ability to assimilate into preceding Greek civilization created a brilliant new synthesis" |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=Europe: A History |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820171-7 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jrVW9W9eiYMC&pg=PA105 |language=en}}</ref> Others assimilated with the proto-[[Circassians|Circassian]] Meot people, and may have influenced the [[Circassian language]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richmond |first1=Walter |title=The Northwest Caucasus: Past, Present, Future |date=11 June 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-00249-8 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E6Z5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |language=en}} ""While the Sarmatians dominated the Meot lands, they were themselves assimilated and the language of the Meots, the predecessor of the modern Circassian dialects, survived."</ref> Some Sarmatians were absorbed by the [[Alans]] and [[Goths]].<ref>{{cite book |quote= "On the shores of the Black Sea the Alans absorbed two Sarmatian peoples, the Siraci and Aorsi ... Also, the Goths undoubtedly absorbed both Sarmatian and Slavic groups during their two centuries of rule over the steppe land"|last1=Eterovich |first1=Francis H. |last2=Spalatin |first2=Christopher |title=Croatia: Land, People, Culture Volume I |date=15 December 1964 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-9676-7 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XO8_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT112 |language=en}}</ref> During the Early Middle Ages, the [[Proto-Slavs|Proto-Slavic]] population of [[Eastern Europe]] assimilated and absorbed Sarmatians during the political upheavals of that era.<ref>{{cite book |quote= "But the Slavic tribes survived the collapse of these empires, and gradually the remnants of the Avars, Sarmatians, and others were absorbed into the Slavic culture." |last1=Chodorow |first1=Stanley |title=The Mainstream of Civilization |date=1989 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=978-0-15-551579-6 |page=368 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NP64BLqDQNIC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=(..) For example, the ancient Scythians, Sarmatians (amongst others), and many other attested but now extinct peoples were assimilated in the course of history by Proto-Slavs.|title= Slovene Studies | publisher= Society for Slovene Studies | volume = 9-11 | date = 1987 |page= 36 }}</ref> However, a people related to the Sarmatians, known as the [[Alans]], survived in the [[North Caucasus]] into the Early [[Middle Ages]], ultimately giving rise to the modern [[Ossetians|Ossetic]] ethnic group.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Minahan |first1=James |chapter=Ossetians |title=One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwvoM-ZFoAgC |series=Praeger security international |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=2000 |page=518 |isbn=9780313309847 |access-date=27 March 2020 |quote=The Ossetians, calling themselves Iristi and their homeland Iryston, are the most northerly of the Iranian peoples.&nbsp;[...] They are descended from a division of Sarmatians, the Alans, who were pushed out of the Terek River lowlands and into the Caucasus foothills by invading Huns in the fourth century A.D.
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