Editing Sarmatians (section)

==Culture==
===Language===
{{Main|Scytho-Sarmatian languages}}
[[File:Assimilation of Baltic and Aryan Peoples by Uralic Speakers in the Middle and Upper Volga Basin (Shaded Relief BG).png|thumb|Iranic peoples of Central Asia during the Iron Age, including Sarmatians]]
[[File:Sarmatians warriors (reconstruction).jpg|thumb|Sarmatians warriors (reconstruction)]]
The Sarmatians spoke an [[Iranian language]] that was derived from 'Old Iranian' and was heterogenous. By the first century CE, the Iranian tribes in what is today South Russia spoke different languages or dialects, clearly distinguishable.{{sfn|Harmatta|1970|loc=3.4}} According to a group of Iranologists writing in 1968, the numerous Iranian personal names in Greek inscriptions from the [[Black Sea]] coast indicate that the Sarmatians spoke a [[North-Eastern Iranian]] dialect ancestral to Alanian-[[Ossetian language|Ossetian]].<ref>Handbuch der Orientalistik, Iranistik. By I. Gershevitch, O. Hansen, B. Spuler, M.J. Dresden, Prof M Boyce, M. Boyce Summary. E.J. Brill. 1968.</ref> However, Harmatta (1970) argued that "the language of the Sarmatians or that of the Alans as a whole cannot be simply regarded as being Old Ossetian."{{sfn|Harmatta|1970|loc=3.4}}

===Equipment===
The Roxolani, who were one of the earlier Sarmatian tribes to have migrated into Europe and therefore were among the more geographically western Sarmatians, used helmets and corselets made of raw ox hide, and wicker shields, as well as spears, bows, and swords. The Roxolani adopted these forms of armour and weaponry from the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[Bastarnae]] near whom they lived.{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}} The more eastern Sarmatian tribes used scale armour and used a long lance called the [[Kontos (weapon)|{{Transliteration|la|contus}}]] and bows in battle.{{sfn|Batty|2007|p=225-236}}

=== Metalwork ===
The early Sarmatians already possessed the technique of decorating with gold inclusions, observed in Achaemenid metalwork. It was spread by nomads in the Eurasian steppes during the 7th-5th century BCE, from the Altai Mountains ([[Arzhan-2]] kurgan) westward to central Kazakhstan and the southern Urals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shemakhanskaya |first1=Marina |last2=Treister |first2=Mikhail |last3=Yablonsky |first3=Leonid |date=31 December 2009 |title=The technique of gold inlaid decoration in the 5th-4th centuries BC: silver and iron finds from the early Sarmatian barrows of Filippovka, Southern Urals |journal=ArcheoSciences. Revue d'archéométrie |volume=33 |language=fr |issue=33 |pages=211–220 |doi=10.4000/archeosciences.2223 |issn=1960-1360|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Peter the Great]] particularly cherished his Demidov Gift, a Sarmatian gold collection,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haskins |first=John F. |date=1959 |title=Sarmatian Gold Collected by Peter the Great: - VII; The Demidov Gift and Conclusions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3249145 |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=22 |issue=1/2 |pages=64–78 |doi=10.2307/3249145 |jstor=3249145 |issn=0004-3648}}</ref> now exhibited in the Gold Chamber at the [[Hermitage Museum]] in [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]]. The Novocherkassk Treasure with the famous Sarmatian Diadem<ref>{{Cite web |title=Realms Of Gold The Novel: Treasures of the Sarmatians: Diadem |url=http://realmsofgoldthenovel.blogspot.com/2013/04/treasures-of-samaritans-diadem.html |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=Realms Of Gold The Novel}}</ref> adorned with the [[Tree of life|Tree of Life]] can also be seen in the Hermitage Gold Room.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hermitage Gold Room - uVisitRussia |url=https://www.uvisitrussia.com/hermitage-gold-room/ |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=www.uvisitrussia.com}}</ref> It is a Sarmatian hoard of gold, silver and bronze articles and jewellery discovered in the Khokhlach barrow in Novocherkassk in 1864. Chronologically it belongs to the first and second centuries CE.<ref>{{Cite web |title=State Hermitage Museum: East/Central Europe (including early nomads) |url=https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/shm/shmeeur.html |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=depts.washington.edu}}</ref>

Numerous weapons, armour, helmets were already found in the excavations of the Early Sarmatian [[Filippovka kurgan]] (c. 450-300 BCE):<ref name="LTY2013">{{cite journal |last1=Yablonsky |first1=L.T. |title=РАННЕСАРМАТСКИЙ РЫЦАРЬ (Sarmatian warrior) |journal=Поволжская археология (The Volga River Region Archaeology) |date=2013 |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=104–135 |url=http://archtat.ru/content/uploads/2017/12/PA_2013_24.pdf}}</ref>

Many Chinese mirrors can be found in graves of the Middle-Sarmatian to Late-Sarmatian periods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Treister |first1=Mikhail |last2=Ravich |first2=Irina |title=Chinese mirrors from the burials of the nomads of Eastern Europe of the second half of the 1st millennium BC-first centuries AD: Typology, chronology, distribution and technology of manufacture |journal=Advances in Archaeomaterials |date=June 2021 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=24–48 |doi=10.1016/j.aia.2021.07.001 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Filippovka 1 Iron armour from burial 2 mound 4.jpg|Filippovka 1 Iron armour from burial 2 mound 4
File:Filippovka 1, Horn armour from mound 29.jpg|Filippovka 1, Horn armour from mound 29
File:Filippovka 1, bronze arrowheads from burial 2, mound 4.jpg|Filippovka 1, bronze arrowheads from burial 2, mound 4
File:Filippovka 1, iron helmets from mound 11.jpg|Filippovka 1, iron helmets from mound 11
File:Filippovka 1, iron sowrds and daggers.jpg|Filippovka 1, iron swords and daggers
File:Золото сарматских вождей. Gold of the Sarmatian - Dagger, Kurgan 4, Burial 2, Filippovka.jpg|Filippovka 1, bronze and inlaid gold dagger 
</gallery>