Sarmatians
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The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae were a multi-tribal confederacy of western Scythia, mentioned by classical authors from (512 BC).
Pliny the Elder (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.
The full array of peoples who went under the aegis of "Sarmatians" must[citation needed] have spoken many languages, but 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 ("Oceanus Sarmaticus") to the Carpathian Mountains near the Vistula River, to the mouth of the Danube, then eastward along 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 until the arrival of the Huns in the 4th century AD. That event shattered whatever political unity they still had, and they were eventually absorbed into other groups during the Migration period.
The Sarmatians were closely related to the Scythians. 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). [1] [2]
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[edit] 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[citation needed]
[edit] History
[edit] 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 Maiotian 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. Hippocrates (De Aere, etc., 24) explicitly classes them as Scythian. 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.[3]
Herodotus (4.110-117) reports a tale of the origin of the Sauromatae (Sauromates in the Greek of Herodotus), 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' north-eastern Iranian 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).
As the 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica has observed, this "early matriarchal form of society was later replaced by a system of male chieftains and eventually by a male monarchy. This transition may well have stemmed from the rapid development of horsemanship and a male cavalry corps, attributable to the invention of the metal stirrup and the spur. These innovations contributed greatly to success in military campaigns and even influenced the Roman style of combat." The only Sarmatian warrior queen known by name was Amage.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Tacitus
In Tacitus (Germania) we read of “mutual fear” between the Germans and the Sarmatians (Sarmati) and Dacians (ch.1). Those Sarmatians had to have been much further west than the Don River. 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). It is no surprise to find the Sarmatians in the last chapter in which they are mentioned (ch. 46) called “squalid”, “slovenly”, “ugly”, which shows that the Romans shared the Germanic fear of them. Tacitus also characterizes them as roving nomadically over the mountains and forests of east Europe.
[edit] 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):
| “ | From this point (the mouth of the Danube) all the races in general are Scythian, though various sections have occupied the lands adjacent to the coast, in one place the Getae ... at another the Sarmatae ... Agrippa describes the whole of this area from the Danube to the sea ... as far as the river Vistula in the direction of the Sarmatian desert ... The name of the Scythians has spread in every direction, as far as the Sarmatae and the Germans, but this old designation has not continued for any except the most outlying sections .... | ” |
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[citation needed], 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.
[edit] 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.
| “ | On seeing this a man will say that no less than Greeks are foreigners skilled in the arts: for the Sauromatae have no iron, neither mined by themselves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the foreigners around them. To meet this deficiency they have contrived inventions. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades, and corneal-wood for their bows and arrows, with bone points for the arrows. They throw a lasso round any enemy they meet, and then turning round their horses upset the enemy caught in the lasso.
Their breastplates they make in the following fashion. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided into private allotments, nor does it bear any thing except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but also sacrifice them to the local gods and eat them for food. Their hoofs they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were python scales. Whoever has never seen a python must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he liken the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the Greeks. For they can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat. |
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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).
[edit] 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[citation needed] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] The End
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 Romans and Germanics, 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.
[edit] The Polish idea of "Sarmatians"
"Sarmatism" (Polish: sarmatyzm) was the name of the lifestyle and culture of the szlachta (gentry) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from at least the 16th century to the end of the 18th century. The name and the culture were reflected in contemporary Polish literature, like that of Jan Chryzostom Pasek's Memoirs or poems of Wacław Potocki. Szlachta wore long coats trimmed with fur (żupany) and thigh-high boots, and bore sabers (szable), the "Sarmatian" costume they liked to be painted in, proclaiming their link to their presumed legendary ancestors, the historic Sarmatians, and the cultural ideology that sustained their connections with a nobility on horseback, equals among themselves (the "Golden Freedom") and invincible to foreigners (according to Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory 1995, p. 38). Sarmatia (Polish: Sarmacja) was also the unofficial, semi-legendary and poetic name of the Commonwealth, which became fashionable in the 17th century, designating qualities associated with the literate citizenry of the vast Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In contemporary Poland, "Sarmatian" (sarmacki) is a form for some ironic[citation needed] for other proud self-identification, and is sometimes used as a synonym for the Polish national character.
56% percent of Poles have the R1a1 Y chromosome gene. About 75% of Poles are known to be of Polish feudal peasantry descent and around 2/3 of them are of Ukrainian origin and typically these Poles are black haired. These Poles are commonly called in Poland "Czern".
24% percent of Poles have the I1 Y chromosome gene linked by genetics research with history of Slavic tribe of Sarmatae Venedi. About 25% of Poles are known to be of Polish nobility descent and typically these Poles are flaxen haired. These Poles are commonly called in Poland "Szlachta".
[edit] Recent research
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. Following the excavation in 2003 by Dr. Davis-Kimball, she and Dr. Joachim Burger compared the genetic evidence from the site with the nomadic Kazakhs, and have found a striking genetic link – verified later by the University of Cambridge [1] – and lending credence to the long-held thesis that the ancient Turkic people who expanded into this region neither exterminated nor completely drove out the original Iranian inhabitants, but indeed assimilated a significant number of them.
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 [2].
[edit] Sarmatian tribes
Below is a list of tribes considered by some ancient writers respected as an authority[citation needed] to be among the people called Sarmatian, or to be in territory considered Sarmatian. Note that the political and ethnic affiliations of the Sarmatians as well as their territory varied somewhat over the centuries. Some of the ethnic groups or tribal entities listed by one author may be considered part of some other group by another. Moreover the Sarmatians were not always everywhere distinct from other groups, most notably the Scythian, from whom some think they came.
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. From its location, it must have included some form of Balto-Slavic, but Iranians were part of the range as well. Some of the names are like names in other regions. They are not necessarily speakers of languages in those regions, as they may have assimilated, or the name may refer to a linguistically related people.
- Abii, Achaei, Acibi, Agathyrsi, Agoritae, Alans (Alauni, Halani, Alanorsi), Alontae, Amadoci, Amaxobi, Amazones, Anartophracti, Aorsi (Adorsi, Alanorsi), Arichi, Arsietae, Asaei, Aspurgiani, Atmoni, Avarini
- Basilici, Basternae, Biessi, Bosporani, Bodini, Borusci, Burgiones
- Carbones, Careotae, Cariones, Carpians, Caucasii, Cercetae, Chaenides, Chuni, Cimmerians, Costoboci, Conapseni
- Diduri
- Exobygitae
- Finni
- Hamaksoikoi, Heniochi, Hippophagi
- Galactophagi, Galindae, Gelones, Gerri, Gevini, Greater Venedae, Gythones
- Hippemolgi, Hippopodes, Hyperboreans
- 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
[edit] 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., armoured heavy cavalry) in Britain.
[edit] Name
Sarmatian language is unknown and all information on the language is hypothethical, based on a few names recorded in other languages by non-native speakers.
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). 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 OssetiansTemplate:1 (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 other words, Sarmatian is the satem equivalent of centum Greek. A genetic commonality would require an original 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.
[edit] Legacy
A study by Aymn Almsaodi links the word "sharmuta" to the Medieval European slave girls sold in the Arab slave markets. He states that "The Jews controlled the slave trade in Sarmatia in East Europe. The Arabic word for a Sarmatian woman is 'sarmuta'. The Hebrew letter 'S' is equivalent to the Arabic letter 'SH'. Therefore, the Jews pronounced it 'sharmuta'. The Jews sold most the slaves in the Levantine and Egyptian ports. Today the word 'sharmuta' is primarily used in Levantine and Egyptian dialects. In contrast, the word is used to a lesser degree in the Yemeni and Maghrebi dialects, which shows the word's connection to the East European slave trade that was more common in Egypt and the Levant than other Arab regions."
[edit] See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindes
[edit] References
- ^ The Sarmatians, (CAIS-Online); accessed Jan 16, 2007
- ^ Handbuch der Orientalistik, Iranistik. By I. Gershevitch, O. Hansen, B. Spuler, M.J. Dresden, Prof M Boyce, M. Boyce Summary. E.J. Brill. 1968.
- ^ Basirov O., The Origin of the Pre-Imperial Iranian Peoples, (CAIS-Online); accessed Jan 16, 2007
- 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.)
