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Sarmatians

For other uses, see Sarmatia (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Samaritans.

Sarmatians
Geographical rangeSouthern Ural, Northern Caucasus, Black Sea
PeriodIron Age
Dates5th century BC – 4th century AD
Preceded bySauromatians
Followed byHunnic Empire
Sarmatian cataphracts depicted on 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 5th century BC to the 4th century AD.[2]

The earliest known reference to the Sarmatians occurs in the Avesta, where they appear as Sairima-, which in later Iranian sources becomes *Sarm and Salm.[3] Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe, the Sarmatians formed part of the wider Scythian cultures.[4] 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 and 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, the Germanic Goths broke the Sarmatian dominance of the Pontic Steppe. With the Hunnic invasions of the fourth century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes (Vandals) in settling in 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,[5] the Lower Volga–Don steppes are sometimes called the "Sarmatian Motherland".[6]

The Sarmatians in the Bosporan Kingdom assimilated into Greek civilization,[7] while others were absorbed by the proto-Circassian Maeotian people,[8] by the Alans, and by the Goths.[9] Other Sarmatians were assimilated and absorbed by the Early Slavs.[10][11] The Alans survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages, ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group.[12]

The early-modern Polish nobility (Polish: szlachta) claimed to stem from the Sarmatians.

Genomic studies suggest that the Sarmatians may have been genetically similar to the eastern Yamnaya Bronze Age group.[13]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Radley, Dario, (14 February 2025). "Ancient Sarmatian jewelry and artifacts unearthed in Kazakhstan", in: Archaeology News, "The Sarmatians, an ancient Iranian equestrian nomadic group that dominated the Eurasian steppes from the 5th century BCE to the 4th century CE, were known for their warrior culture and elaborate metalwork."
  3. ^ Abaev, V. I.; Bailey, H. W. (26 August 2020), "ALANS", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, Brill, retrieved 16 November 2023
  4. ^ 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...
  5. ^ "Sarmatian". Encyclopedia Britannica. 13 February 2025. By the 5th century BC the Sarmatians held control of the land between the Urals and the Don River.
  6. ^ Mordvintseva 2017, pp. 239-240: "Most scholars consider the steppes of the Lower Volga region the 'motherland' of the Sarmatians, while the archaeological material recovered there is being used as a standard against which the finds from other regions are compared".
  7. ^ 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"
  8. ^ 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."
  9. ^ 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 {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "Large variation génétique sur la steppe pontique-caspienne". fr.scienceaq.com. Retrieved 1 September 2023.

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