Kingdoms of Europe - Sarmatians (Indo-Iranians)

Sarmatians (Indo-Iranians)
Incorporating the Prokhorovka Culture (300-100 BC), the Arraei, Koralloi, & Vangiones

During the first millennium BC (and likely for much of the largely-unrecorded second millennium BC too) various Indo-Iranian tribes of the East Indo-European division dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe. These sweeping plains to the north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea had largely been abandoned by West Indo-Europeans during the Yamnaya horizon which fell, roughly, between 3500-2500 BC.

Indo-Iranians had migrated westwards to fill that void, and had doubtless found leftover West Indo-Europeans groups there to dominate (most likely the Tauri) or absorb (probably to produce the Agathyrsi, and perhaps others).

One such Indo-Iranian group, the Sarmatians (Sarmatai or Sarmatae), gained an imposed Scythian ruling warrior elite before they migrated from Central Asia towards the Ural Mountains at a point between the sixth and fourth centuries BC. This was just in time for them - with the closely-associated Alani elements in tow (such as the Geloni) - to be mentioned by Herodotus when he described the tribes to the north of the Black Sea (such as the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Budini, Gerrians, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, Scythians, and Tauri).

Until the fifth century BC however, the Sarmatians remained in their early 'Sauromatian' phase which describes them without their Scythian influences and prior to their domination of the steppe.

In time the Sarmatians settled much southern European Russia and the eastern Balkans. Like the Scythians to whom they were closely related, the Sarmatians were highly developed horse-riding warriors and, as part of the limited Prokhorovka culture (circa 300-100 BC), mound-builders too. Their administrative capability and political astuteness contributed to their gaining widespread influence.

By the fifth century BC they controlled territory between the Urals and the River Don. In the fourth century BC they crossed the Don to defeat the fading Scythians and replace them as the main authority across almost all of southern Russia by the second century BC.

The Roman province of Lower Moesia (today's Bulgaria) was penetrated during the reign of Emperor Nero. Sarmatians allied themselves with Germanic tribes to pose a formidable threat to the Romans in the west as late as the first century AD. Towards the end of their dominance their confederation invaded Dacia (today's Romania) and the lower Danube region. Only after that were they overwhelmed by the mighty Goths, during the third century AD. Many Sarmatians ended up joining the Goths when they crossed into the Roman empire.

Sarmatia as a region and a concept was destroyed by the Hunnic invasion of the steppe after AD 370. Many were assimilated into this new steppe empire, along with a great many other groups, some of which had been swept along with the Huns from the other side of the Urals. Others fled west to be assimilated into pro-Roman or anti-Hunnic tribes and unions. The Sarmatians had disappeared from the historical record by the sixth century AD.

While Sarmatians and Scythian were very similar groups, both possessing the usual Indo-Iranian steppe qualities of fine horsemanship and expert fighting abilities, Scythian gods were nature gods. Sarmatians venerated a god of fire to whom they offered horses in sacrifice, horses long being a valuable commodity for Indo-Iranians (although see below for hints of other gods).

Unmarried Sarmatian females also fought alongside the men, especially in the early years before other influences permeated Sarmatian society. They may have been the inspiration for Greek tales of Amazons. Sarmatian society itself started out as matriarchal in form (seemingly the origin of the Sarmatian name itself), before transitioning to a system which preferred male chieftains and then a male monarchy.

This could have been in response to the increased level of warfare which the Sarmatians faced in their new territory. The Sarmatians apparently referred to themselves (entirely normally for Indo-Iranians) as Aryans.

Breaking down the Sarmatian name is a curious experience. When the suffixes are removed the core word is 'sarma'. This is a colour, sometimes extended to an animal's colour. In Baltic tongues it is 'grey' (Lithuanian 'šir̃vas', meaning 'grey, greyish-blue', while Latvian has 'sirms'). The use of 'grey' was extended to ermines and weasels of that colour. In Indic the meaning is 'dark' (Old Indic 'śyā-má-', meaning 'black, dark'). Old Indic is closer to Scythian than is the Baltic, so the Sarmatians are likely 'dark people', probably in terms of hair colour.

During their expansion towards Central Europe, either a degree of fragmentation occurred amongst the Sarmatian collective, or individual units were simply better recorded than they could be on the steppe. In the first century BC the Sarmatian Iazyges migrated into the Dacian steppe in today's southern Hungary to settle there. Other recorded related tribes (although they were not necessarily strictly Sarmatians) included the Aorsi, Arraei, Koralloi, Roxolani, Serboi, and Siraces, while the Taifali appear to have been partially Germanised Sarmatians.

There was a Germanic tribe known as the Vangiones, noted by the poet, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, as the 'Wagniones'. That name was similar to the name of an earlier Sarmatian tribe of Vangiones which was translated as the 'wagon-dwellers'.

The first comes from the proto-Germanic *wagnaz (which also appears in Old English as 'wægn', Modern English as 'wain', Old Saxon and Old High German as 'wagan', Old Norse as 'vagn', Old Frisian as 'wein', and German as 'wagen'). The proto-Germanic stems from an early proto-Indo-European word, *woghnos, from *wegh- meaning 'to carry' and 'to move'. The tribe were probably 'the wagons', with 'wagoners' being implied. Fascinatingly, what little is known of the earliest Indo-Europeans is that their expansion was enabled by their nomadic use of four-wheeled wagons.

In extending westwards at their height the Sarmatians appear to have taken over territory from the Germanic Bastarnae tribe. Considerable cultural mixing was to be expected which may have worked its way right back to the Germanic homeland (see feature link). Since the specific deity name of Æsir is used both by Hindus in today's India and today's Iranians (in the form of Asura and Ahura respectively), then it is not a stretch to suppose that the Sarmatians also honoured the same group of deities.

Heavy contact between them and Germanics is reported by Roman writers who, quite frankly, seemed to have difficulty distinguishing between the two. Since the Sarmatians were horsemen, it is not unreasonable to expect that they ranged north into contact with Germanics even prior to the second century AD move south by the Goths which saw them enter Sarmatian lands. This, combined with their subject Bastarnae population, indicates that a great deal of mixing may have occurred between the two groups.

Could it even have been this contact and mixing which made it clear to the Goths that they would find a new home on the northern coast of the Black Sea? The Bastarnae dominated the Venedi. The Sarmatians dominated the Bastarnae. And finally the Goths dominated them all by the early third century AD, although it was Sarmatians who taught the Goths to fight as cavalry!

Later, in post-Roman centuries and after the disappearance of Sarmatians as an identifiable group in their own right, various subsequent groups were lumped in with the West Polans migrants who came to dominate what is now Poland. Included in this collective were the Venedi, the Vandali, the Lechs, and the Sarmats (Sarmatians who, as Indo-Iranians, shared the same group origins as the Balts and Slavs themselves). Their chronicled mentions by Roman, English, or Frankish sources are sometimes deliberately misinterpreted as references to early Slavs.

In fact, during antiquity, much of the territory to the north of the Black Sea was generally labelled as being Sarmatian or Scythian, leading some students of Slavic history to assume that the Sarmatians were in fact the early Slavs.

This is largely seen as being incorrect as the Sarmatians had an Indo-Iranian origin (as mentioned). The early Slavs were eastern satem-speakers, but they were not Indo-Iranians (see feature link). Instead, the Sarmatians occupied territory which included some of the early Slavs, and a degree of integration between the two groups was inevitable over time. Following the Hunnic arrival some Sarmatians on the steppe were eventually absorbed by Slav groups.

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