European Peoples

Waldman, Carl.; Mason, Catherine

Sarmatian Matriarchy And Amazon Womens

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:25:37 | European Peoples

By the fifth century b.c.e. the nomadic Sarmatians, known for their riding skills and horse breeding, lived on the Eurasian steppes, between the Volga River and Aral Sea, after they had branched off from other Iranian-speaking peoples. By the second century b.c.e. some among them lived west of the Don River. Some eventually settled in the Balkans; others settled in the caucasus.

LANGUAGE

The Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language, part of the Indo-Iranian family (the eastern branch of Indo-European). One of the Sarmatian dialects, Ossetic of the Alans, survives to this day among the Ossets. The Sarmatians and Scythians of the same language family have been referred to as European Iranians.

HISTORY

From Sythia to Sarmatia

The first mention of a people who were probably Sarmatians is by the ancient Greeks. The historian Herodotus mentions a people, the Sauromatae, living east of the Don River (which, according to the ancients, was the dividing line between Europe and Asia) in the fifth century b.c.e. To the west of the Don were the Scythians. Greek texts of the fourth century b.c.e. mention the Syrmatae west of the Don, competing with the Scythians, earlier nomads from the Eurasian steppes, for territory. Archaeological findings indicate that the Sarmatians controlled much of Scythia (a general term referring to Scythian territory in eastern Europe) by the third century b.c.e. Much of this territory was referred to as Sarmatia. Inhabitants of present-day Ukraine who had been known as Royal Scyths became part of the Sarmatian coalition.

Allies against Rome

West of the Dniester in present-day Moldova and Romania the sarmatians displaced, absorbed, or made alliances with Getae and Dacians. The Bastarnae, considered the easternmost of the Germans, who settled in Sarmatia by the third century b.c.e., probably consisted of sarmatians as well as Germans and Celts.

Early sarmatian names known from the second century b.c.e. are those of King Galatus and Queen Amage, who signed a peace treaty in about 179 b.c.e. with the king of Pontus, a civilization in Asia Minor in present-day Turkey. The next century Sarmatians, recorded as Iazyges, joined King Mithridates VI Eupator (Mithridates the Great) of Pontus in his wars against Rome. The allied forces were forced to retreat to the Crimea in present-day Ukraine by a Roman force under Pompey in 66 b.c.e. Mithridates, facing capture, ordered a slave to kill him. The Sarmatians continued to fight under Mithridates' son, Pharnaces II, but the allies were defeated by

Julius Caesar in 47 b.c.e. at Zela (modern Zile in north-central Turkey). After this victory Caesar sent back to the Roman senate his famous message Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).

Sometime after 20 c.e. the Iazyges crossed the Carpathian Mountains and settled on the Hungarian Plain in present-day Hungry along the Tisza River. Later, in alliance with Dacians, Sarmatians carried out attacks on the Romans, whose legions guarded the Danube limes (border). They were known to have penetrated present-day Bulgaria south of the Danube during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.

Sarmatians and Germans In the second century c.e. Sarmatians also became allies of Germanic peoples against Rome. In 168-175 the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius waged successful warfare against the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians, mostly Iazyges, restoring the Danube frontier. Aurelius, who took the name samarticus, conscripted 8,000 Iazyge cavalry and sent 5,500 of them to

This archer, possibly Sarmatian, dates to about 6500 b.c.e. (Drawing by Patti Erway)

reinforce Roman forces in Britain in frontier units of 500, some of them along Hadrian's Wall (see Britons).

In the third century the Goths expanded their presence in occupied Sarmatian lands. More and more Sarmatians migrated southward. The Alans migrated to the southeast to the northern foothills of the Caucasus and the Roxolani, probably to the Hungarian Plain with the Iazyges.

In 332 when the Iazyges were attacked by the Goths the Roman emperor Constantine I went to their aid. During this period Sarmatian slaves (Sarmati Limigantes), who had been armed by the ruling class (Sarmati Argara-gantes) against the Goths, revolted and drove them from their homes. Constantine helped them by establishing Sarmatian communities in the Balkans, in present-day Italy, and in Germany on the Rhine as buffers against the Germans. Constantine's son, Constantius II, also settled Sarmatians in parts of the Roman Empire as allies.

Some among the Sarmatians became allies of the Visigoths and Quadi, however. The Roman emperor Valentinian I waged successful war against an allied force in 373-375. In 378 Theodosius I defeated the Tizra Sarmatians, who had continued their resistance against Rome.

By the late fourth century the Huns, advancing from the east, were seizing lands held by Sarmatian and Germanic groups; the period is considered the end of Sarmatia. Some Sarmatian peoples maintained independence, while others fell under Hunnic control. Sarmatians were part of the great army assembled by Attila that invaded Gaul in 451. Some Alans, who had earlier invaded Gaul with Vandals and Suebi, fought against them as allies of the Romans and Visigoths. In the sixth century some Iazyges merged with the Lombards and settled northern Italy with them.

CULTURE Economy

The nomadic Sarmatians kept herds of horses and other livestock and were known in ancient times for their horse breeding but did not practice agriculture. They hunted and raided other peoples for food, sometimes enslaving farmers and living off their produce.

Government and Society

Sarmatian society was originally matriarchal, and women took part in the governing process. Male chieftains ruled the migrating tribes. Later in their history after settlement in eastern

Europe the Sarmatians were ruled by kings and classes of society developed.

Military Practices

The Sarmatians typically fought from horseback. Unmarried women sometimes fought alongside men and may have helped inspire the Greek legend of the Amazons, a tribe of warlike women who supposedly inhabited Asia Minor. Weapons included long spears, long and short swords, and daggers. An original long sword design featured a hilt of wood with gold lacing, topped with a knob of agate or onyx.

Transportation

The Sarmatians, known for their horsemanship, rode bareback, directing their horses with knee pressure and shifting of weight.

Personal Habits

Some of the Sarmatians, as did the Scythians and Huns, practiced cranial deformation, elongating the head of newborns through hand pressure and bandaging.

In addition to brightly colored geometric patterns the Sarmatians were known for animal and floral motifs in their decorative art. Horses were a common theme, as well as other animals, such as deer and dolphins. Sarmatian jewelry included bracelets, rings, diadems, brooches, buckles, and buttons.

Literature

No Sarmatian written texts have survived to modern times. The only ancient Sarmatian words to have survived in writing are tribal names, personal names, and place-names.

Religion

The Sarmatians worshipped a god of fire to whom they sacrificed horses. They practiced inhumation. The earliest burials included no artifacts. In later times the men were typically buried with weapons; the women, with jewelry; and the children, often with bells of bronze. -♦-

The history of the Sarmatians, actually a number of different ancient steppe tribes who migrated westward, is related to that of the Scythians and Huns, fellow steppe peoples originally out of Asia, as well as that of the Romans and various Germanic tribes of Europe.

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