Large Iranian confederation that existed in classical antiquity
For other uses, see Sarmatia (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Samaritans.
Sarmatians
Geographical range
Southern Ural, Northern Caucasus, Black Sea
Period
Iron Age
Dates
3rd century BC – 4th century AD
Preceded by
Sauromatians
Followed by
Hunnic Empire
Sarmatian cataphracts in Trajan's column, 2nd century CE.[1]
The Sarmatians (/sɑːrˈmeɪʃiənz/; Ancient Greek: Σαρμάται, romanized: Sarmatai; Latin: Sarmatae[ˈsarmatae̯]) were a large confederation of ancient Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD.
The earliest reference to the Sarmatians is in the Avesta, Sairima-, which is in the later Iranian sources recorded as *Sarm and Salm.[2] Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe, the Sarmatians were part of the wider Scythian cultures.[3] They started migrating westward around the fourth and third centuries BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by 200 BC. At their greatest reported extent, around 100 BC, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south.
In the first century AD, the Sarmatians began encroaching upon the Roman Empire in alliance with Germanic tribes. In the third century AD, their dominance of the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Germanic Goths. With the Hunnic invasions of the fourth century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes (Vandals) in the settlement of the Western Roman Empire. Since large parts of today's Russia, specifically the land between the Ural Mountains and the Don River, were controlled in the fifth century BC by the Sarmatians, the Volga–Don and Ural steppes sometimes are called "Sarmatian Motherland."[4][5]
The Sarmatians in the Bosporan Kingdom assimilated into the Greek civilization,[6] while others were absorbed by the proto-Circassian Maeotian people,[7] the Alans and the Goths.[8] Other Sarmatians were assimilated and absorbed by the Early Slavs.[9][10] 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 Ossetic ethnic group.[11] The Polish nobility claims to stem from the Sarmatians. Genomic studies suggest that this group may have been genetically similar to the eastern Yamnaya Bronze Age group.[12]
^Bennett, Matthew; Dawson, Doyne; Field, Ron; Hawthornwaite, Philip; Loades, Mike (15 September 2016). The History of Warfare: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the History of Warfare from the Ancient World to the American Civil War. Book Sales. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-7858-3461-8.
^Abaev, V. I.; Bailey, H. W. (26 August 2020), "ALANS", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, Brill, retrieved 16 November 2023
^Unterländer et al. 2017, p. 2. "During the first millennium BC, nomadic people spread over the Eurasian Steppe from the Altai Mountains over the northern Black Sea area as far as the Carpathian Basin... Greek and Persian historians of the 1st millennium BC chronicle the existence of the Massagetae and Sauromatians, and later, the Sarmatians and Sacae: cultures possessing artefacts similar to those found in classical Scythian monuments, such as weapons, horse harnesses and a distinctive ‘Animal Style' artistic tradition. Accordingly, these groups are often assigned to the Scythian culture...
^"Sarmatian | people". Encyclopedia Britannica. 25 July 2023.
^Kozlovskaya 2017.
^Davies, Norman (1996). Europe: A History. Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-19-820171-7. (...) "the Iranic Sarmatians, whose ability to assimilate into preceding Greek civilization created a brilliant new synthesis"
^Richmond, Walter (11 June 2008). The Northwest Caucasus: Past, Present, Future. Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-134-00249-8. "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."
^Eterovich, Francis H.; Spalatin, Christopher (15 December 1964). Croatia: Land, People, Culture Volume I. University of Toronto Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-4875-9676-7. 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
^Chodorow, Stanley (1989). The Mainstream of Civilization. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 368. ISBN 978-0-15-551579-6. 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.
^Slovene Studies. Vol. 9–11. Society for Slovene Studies. 1987. p. 36. (..) 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.
^Minahan, James (2000). "Ossetians". One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Praeger security international. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 518. ISBN 9780313309847. Retrieved 27 March 2020. The Ossetians, calling themselves Iristi and their homeland Iryston, are the most northerly of the Iranian peoples. [...] 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.
^"Large variation génétique sur la steppe pontique-caspienne". fr.scienceaq.com. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
the Sarmatians. After their conquest of Scythia, the Sarmatians became the dominant political power in the northern Pontic Steppe, where Sarmatian graves...
Polish nobles were descendants of the Sarmatians (Sauromates). Another tradition came to surmise that the Sarmatians themselves were descended from Japheth...
The Sarmatian Craton or Sarmatia is the southern segment/region of the East European Craton or Baltica, also known as Scythian Plateau. The craton contains...
Sarmatians, who are mentioned by Strabo as the dominant tribe which controlled the southern Russian steppe in the 1st millennium AD. These Sarmatians...
The Sarmatian Review (formerly The Houston Sarmatian) was a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal, published from 1981 to 2017 by the nonprofit Polish...
April 2023. Harmatta, J.: Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians, Szeged 1970. Harmatta, János (1992). "Languages and Literature in the...
European border, the river Danube. The struggle against the Germans and Sarmatians occupied the major part of the reign of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius...
the Sarmatians and last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths, and by the early Middle Ages, the Scythians and the Sarmatians had been...
Constantine and the Sarmatians in this year or in 321, rather than 323 (below). 323 Yet again Constantine was able to repel an invasion of Sarmatian Iazyges, as...
Iazyges tribe of the Sarmatians, an Alanic sub-tribe, which in turn split off from the broader Scythians itself. The Sarmatians were the only branch of...
family), and which included the Scythians proper, the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Sindi, the Massagetae and the Saka. The Scythian religion...
gave rise to the Sarmatians. They were initially able to preserve their separate identity, although their name, modified into "Sarmatians" eventually came...
pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected...
Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002). The Sarmatians, 600 BC-AD 450. Osprey Publishing. p. 39. (..) Indeed, it is now accepted that the Sarmatians merged in with pre-Slavic...
during the autumn of 285, he encountered a tribe of Sarmatians who demanded assistance. The Sarmatians requested that Diocletian either help them recover...
traces back to the formation of the Baltic Shield (Fennoscandia) and the Sarmatian craton, both around 2.25 billion years ago, followed by the Volgo–Uralia...
inhabited by Turkic tribes). Yashtians Saka / Sacans (Sakā) / Scytho-Sarmatians - Sarmatians and Scythians, Scythian cultures peoples of the Western (or Ponto-Caspian...
meaning of a "family kinship" and "alliance", while another from an Iranian-Sarmatian language with various meanings. In his work, De Administrando Imperio...
the late 4th century BC, another related nomadic Iranian people, the Sarmatians, moved from the east into the Pontic steppe, where they replaced the Scythians...
("victorious over the Sarmatians") Marcian, 450-457 Germanicus ("victorious over the Germans") Sarmaticus ("victorious over the Sarmatians") Alamannicus ("victorious...
the land was inhabited by Iranian-speaking Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was part of the Scythian kingdom. From the...
population. The Sarmatians arrived in multiple waves from 50 BC, leaving a significant archaeological heritage behind, the examined Sarmatian individuals...
Sarmatae liberi ("free Sarmatians"). It is unclear whether the Limigantes were simply an under-class of ethnic Sarmatians or a non-Sarmatian subject people....
inhabited by the agricultural Zarubintsy culture and the nomadic Sarmatians. Prior to the Sarmatians, the area had been settled by the Bastarnae, who are believed...
actually Sarmatian in origin, suggesting that the horse is a Sarmatian horse and that the statue was created to honour the victory over the Sarmatians by Marcus...
Sarmatia was a region of the Eurasian steppe inhabited by the Sarmatians. Maciej Miechowita (1457–1523) used "Sarmatia" for the Black Sea region and further...
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