Sarmatian Horse Warrior Cultures

One can see silver loops on the silver phiale (second half of the 5th century BC) with a dedication in Greek, found in a Sarmatian burial of mound 1 (second half of the 1st century BC) at Zubovskij Farm in Kuban river region. For a long period, these loops have not attracted scholars’ attention. Supposedly, the loops were intended to hang the phiale on a temple’s wall. The author proposes to consider them as later adaptations introduced in the original design for using the phiale in Sarmatian horse harness as a breastgirth decoration. This kind of reconstruction seems admissible due to analogies: Late Hellenistic bowls converted by Sarmatians in the 1st century AD. This alternative point of view is supported by several factors: damage, defects, and deformations of the fiale, its topography in the grave and other subunits of the horse harness from the rich grave at the Zubovskij Farm.

The variants of Sarmatian geometric ornaments on those categories of
artifacts that rarely attract the attention of colleagues are analyzed. Of particular interest are the small rugs known both from the images (fig. 1) and their remains in burials, as well as two banners in the "Dachi" barrow (fig. 2, 4). It is important also the design of the rock crypt 9 (the turn of the 2nd – 3rd cc. CE) in the former Scythian Neapolis, connected with the
Bosporan "Alans" and, probably, imitated the small wooden temple (fig. 3). The specific tradition of the 1st – 3rd cc. CE is the compositions with rows and figures of identical and different tamga-signs (fig. 6). The decoration of bone and shell wares is usually reduced to a few simple techniques (fig. 7 – 8). The ornamental engravings on stone are known for the
easternmost groups of Sarmatians (fig. 9). The ornamentation of shields of the 2nd century CE is interesting (fig. 11).
Key words: Sarmatians, geometric ornaments, rugs, banners, shields, bone and shell carvings, products with a series of tamga-signs, stone engravings.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Fig. 1. The probable images of Sarmatian rugs of the late 1st – early 3rd cc. CE: 1-2 - Scythian Neapolis, Eastern Necropolis, crypt 9, the eastern and western walls; 3 – the torque from barrow 10 in Kobyakovo (detail).
Fig. 2. Two former banner clothes and rug from the cache in barrow 1 in Dachi.
Fig. 3. The design of crypt 9 of the Eastern Necropolis in Scythian Neapolis, the late 2nd – early 3rd cc. CE (copy of 1946 y.) 
Fig. 4. The golden applications: 1 – Peregruznoe I, barrow 45; 2 – Sokolova Mogila, the sleeve of long sleeved coat; 3 – the changing of applications form for Sarmatian of Kuban’ Basin, after I.I. Marchenko; 4 – Novoaleksandrovka I, barrow 20.
Fig. 5. The gold plaiting: 1 – Zubovskii khutor; 2 – Kazakliya, barrow 10; 3 – Lipetsk barrow; 4 – Vyazovo, barrow 37; 5 – Karstovyi, barrow 1.
Fig. 6. The wares with the series of Sarmatian tamga-signs: 1 – Roshava Dragana; 2 – Kirovskii I, barrow 1; 3 – Tiflisskaya, barrow 10; 4 – Kazanskaya, barrow 6; 5 – Neizats, pit 2 with a pottery; 6 – Poyana; 7 – Teleubulak.
Fig. 7. The bone artifacts: 1 – Neizats, grave 194; 2 – Vysochino V, barrow 18; 3 – Neizats, barrows 4 and 281; 4 – Baislantash Cave; 5 – Petrunino-II, barrow 4; 6 – Brut, barrow 18.
Fig. 8. The wares made of shells and soft stone: 1 – Ust’-Labinskaya, barrow 18; 2 – Krasnyi Yar, barrow 20; 3 – Krinichnoe; 4 - Baislantash Cave.
Fig. 9. The ornamental engravings on stone in Ustyurt Plateau and the neighbouring territories: 1-3 – Bayte III temple; 4 – the upper Emba / Jem River.
Fig. 10. The golden applications of wooden vessels, the applications and gold foil wares: 1 – Plastunovskaya, barrow 2; 2 – Porogi, grave 1; 3 – Nekrasovskaya, barrow 5; 4 – Ust’-Labinskaya, barrow 47.
Fig. 11. The Sarmatian shields in Roman trophies: 1 - Traianus Column; 2 – Marcus Aurelius coin, 176 CE; 3 – the ornamental elements (a-e – the tamga-signs analogies).

Данная монография является сборником научных статей А.С. Скрипкина по истории, археологии, периодизации и хронологии сарматов. Некоторые статьи посвящены аланской проблематике, истории Великого шелкового пути, связям с Китаем и другими районами Центральной Азии.

Рахно К.Ю. Булгары в осетинском нартовском эпосе // Кочевые народы Юга России: исторический опыт и современность. Материалы российской  научной  конференции  с  международным  участием, 16-19  марта 2016  г. – Элиста: ЗАОр «НПП «Джангар», 2016. – С. 375-379.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2017. Skify, sarmaty, meoty, skandinavy i slavyane (The Scythians, Sarmatians, Meotians, Scandinavians and Slavs; in Russian).
Hermonassa, 3, pp. 3-12.

Keywords: Scythia, Scythian, Sarmatian, Meotian, Slavonic, Slavs, Scandinavian, Old Rus, the Old Russian, Tmutarakan’, Ukrainian, Russian, Скифия, скифский, скифы, сарматский, меотский, славянский, скандинавский, Древняя Русь, древнерусский, Тмутаракань, украинский, русский

The article is devoted to the burial of a warrior of Late Sarmatian time from the Southern Urals. The complex from mound no. 4 of the burial mound Taksai I is distinguished by large size of barrow and grave. The reconstructed height of the mound was less than 2 meters. The depth of the burial pit was more than 3 meters. For Late Sarmatian culture such dimensions of sepulchral structures are unique. Under the mound the ritual platform from mainland soil was discovered. The found inventory of a warrior-rider included: horse bridle, a
set of bladed weapons consisting of a long sword, dagger and knife, as well as a small bronze cauldron. Analysis of inventory allows us to date this burial to the second half of the 3rd century A.D. This burial belongs to an elite funerary complexes of Late Sarmatian culture and is a burial of professional warriors. This social stratum was formed in Late Sarmatian society at the end of the 2nd - first half of the 3rd century A.D. Most of these graves are dating back to the first half of the 3rd century A.D and were found in the Low Don and in the Volga region. The situation in these regions changed in that period due to the invasion of the tribes of the North-Caucasian origin. Their occurrence is associated with the destruction of the Tanais in the Lower Don region and the spread of graves in the T-shaped catacombs in the steppe monuments. The tradition of burying warriors-horsemen of high social status almost disappears in the Volga-Don steppes after the middle of 3rd century A.D. In the Southern Urals where these processes had an indirect influence, the existence of traditional hierarchies of Late Sarmatian society could continue until the end of the 3rd century A.D.
Among the parts of a horse bridle the researchers discovered bronze B-shape buckle. These buckles are widely distributed in the 4th-5th centuries A.D. in the basin of the Kama river and the Danube river. The found buckle is the earliest currently known sample of this type.

The article discusses Roman glass vessels of the mid-1st to mid-3rd centuries AD from the Sarmatian burials of the Volga-Don interfl uve, the Lower Volga region and the Southern Urals. In general, it is possible to note the prevalence of the vessels of drinking forms (beakers,
phialai, and a drinking horn). Much less often occur jugs or there were found vessels of closed shapes, represented by fragments, which could refer to an amphora or a jug, as well as to an amphoriskos or a bottle. The free blown vessels, including richly decorated specimens, painted
with enamel paints or with the decoration of overlaid threads, are predominant.
It is obvious that the vessels had different origin, they are products of the workshops of the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt, as well as of the Western provinces. The latter items are especially characteristic for the Late Sarmatian burials. Most of the vessels date from the late 2nd
to the 3rd centuries AD. Earlier vessels (dated up to the middle of the 2nd century AD) are rare, and in two cases they were already antique objects at the time of the burial, as they were found in the burials of the 3rd century AD.
With the exception of one find in the Volga Don interfl uvial area, the glass vessels found in the Volga area, are concentrated in the territory of the forest-steppe zone of the Volga right bank in Saratov region. It is noteworthy that, in comparison with the Volga region, much more glass
vessels were found in the Southern Urals, where they are concentrated in the basin of the Ural and Ilek rivers, while one of the finds, the farthest east, originates from the Southern Trans-Urals. Thus, the density of imports was not determined by proximity to the Black Sea centers.

Up to the early 1990-e the most of specialists on nomadic Sarmatians believed in the ‘bright relics of matriarchy’ for them: in the total women military activity, their very active role in the family and in some important rituals. The founder of this version was the main specialist on Sarmatians, the professor of Moscow Univeristy Boris N. Grakov (the famous article on ‘driven women Sauromates’ in ‘Vesnik drevnei istorii’, 1947, No 3). The main attention of Greek-Roman authors pay to Sauromatians as the “descendants of Amazons” (Her. Hist. 4.110-117). The real information on this tribe union was mixed with the myths on Amazons (Pseudo Hippocr. 24; Isigonus of Nicea, 29 etc.). But B.N. Grakov, the qualified specialist on the ancient Greek texts, believed in of the Greek authors’ information reliability. One of Marxism founders, F. Engels wrote on the gradual fading of matriarchy’ elements in the ‘primitive’ societies. That’s why B.N. Grakov tried to demonstrate this idea on the materials of the Sarmatian cultures (Early, Middle and Late, with their 5 main stages) from the 5th c. BC up to the 4th c. AD. According to N.Ya. Marr outochthonist theory, the official for Stalin’ Soviet Union, the role of migrations and borrowings in the ethnic and cultural process declared as in significant. Now it is easy that three Sarmatian cultures have different ethnic base and different anthropology and different models of society, family types etc.     
Really we know a series of Sarmatian women-warriors graves in all three cultures since, 12-16 up to 50 years old, sometimes with 1-2 small children, first of all in the Lower Don Basin. The most interesting is Novyi necropolis of Middle Sarmatian Culture in this region (the late 1st c. BC – the early 2nd c. AD) with its 15 graves of ‘Amazons’. In some barrows of the 1st-3rd cc. AD the noble women have only one element of weapons (the axe, 3 symbolic arrows etc.). The specific localization of women-warriors graves in some necropolises is also discussed.
The women warriors had the different status in various necropolises after their native family influence, their personal merits, after the circumstances of their death and after political and military problems of their communities.

The “hoard” of items of horse equipment which had been discovered near Brăviceni village in 1956 and kept in the National Museum of History of Moldova is published and analyzed in the paper. The assemblage includes the bronze hook-shaped frontlet, silver beads and bridle rings, iron bits. Close parallels to Brăviceni items and the finds of this category make it possible to consider the assemblage the ritual deposit of the 2nd – 1st century BC and associate it with the Sarmatians.

The article is devoted to the design analysis of two ceremonial horse-harnesses originating from Later Sarmatian culture graves at the burial mounds of Pokrovka 2 (Southern Urals) and Valovyj 1 (Lower Don). Based on comparison between decorative elements of the harnesses, the author concludes that the conception of their design is uniform. The conclusion becomes possible thanks to the phalerae with tamghas and fish figurines plated with gold. The manner of design of the ceremonial horse-harness using fish depictions may be traced upon the cultures of Eurasian nomads. Samples of the Later Sarmatian horse equipment may also be attributed to the same tradition. There exists an opinion of scholars about the connection of fish depictions to the symbolism of death represented in horse equipment.

The appearance of the monuments of the late Sarmatian culture has been recorded since the middle of the 2 nd century AD on a vast territory from the Southern Urals to the Lower Don. The new culture is characterized by its own characteristics that distinguish it from the previous culture. This is the northern orientation of the buried, narrow pits and graves, artificial deformation of skulls, square censers, long stalks, mirrors with a central loop, stone tops and staples of swords. In different regions the formation of culture is characterized by specific features. In the Southern Urals, the late Sarmatian culture is represented in the purest form. In the Lower Volga region, a complex is formed, in which the signs of both late Sarmatian and Middle Sarmatian cultures are combined. This is due to the large number of the previous population which remained here. In the Lower Don region, there is a rapid change of cultures. The given article attempts to determine the area of distribution of elements of the late Sarmatian culture and the degree of their influence in different regions. The analysis shows that as for second half of the 2 nd –first half of the 3 rd century AD, we can talk about a unified late Sarmatian culture from the Trans-Ural to the Lower Don. Some features of the late Sarmatian culture are revealed in the Northern Black Sea region, but they are disjointed and not dominant. This does not allow to include the Northern Black Sea Coast in the area of distribution of the late Sarmatian culture. Finds of eastern origin in the late Sarmatian monuments indicate the absence of stable trade and economic ties with the territories of Middle and Central Asia. The occurrence of such things was of an accidental nature, and they were distributed together with their owners. At present, there is no reason to talk about the possible functioning of the northern branch of the Silk Road through the steppes of the Ural-Don region in the late Sarmatian period.

Появление памятников позднесарматской культуры фиксируется начиная с середины II в. н.э. на огромной территории от Южного Приуралья до Нижнего Дона. Новая культура характеризуется собственными признаками, отличающими ее от предшествующей культуры. Это северная ориентировка погребенных, узкие ямы и подбойные могилы, искусственная деформация черепов, квадратные курильницы, длинные оселки, зеркала с центральной петелькой, каменные навершия и скобы мечей. В разных регионах проявляется собственная специфика в формировании культуры. В Южном Приуралье позднесарматская культура представлена в наиболее чистом виде. В Нижнем Поволжье складывается комплекс, в котором сочетаются признаки как позднесарматской, так и среднесарматской культур. Это связано с большим количеством предшествующего населения, оставшегося здесь. В Нижнем Подонье происходит быстрая смена культур. В предлагаемой работе сделана попытка определить ареал распространения элементов позднесарматской культуры и степень их влияния в различных регионах. Анализ показывает, что для второй половины II – первой половины III в. н.э. можно говорить о единой позднесарматской культуре от Зауралья до Нижнего Дона. В Северном Причерноморье отмечаются отдельные черты позднесарматской культуры, однако они разрознены и не являются доминирующими. Это не позволяет включать Северное Причерноморье в ареал распространения позднесарматской культуры. Находки восточного происхождения в позднесарматских памятниках указывает на отсутствие устойчивых торгово-экономических связей с территориями Средней и Центральной Азии. Попадание таких вещей к сарматам носило случайный характер, и они распространялись вместе с их владельцами. На данный момент нет оснований говорить о возможном функционировании северного ответвления Шелкового пути через степи Урало-Донского региона в позднесарматский период.

В статье в научный оборот вводятся данные могильника раннего железного века с территории Западного Казахстана - Сапибулак. Памятник относится к древностям верхнего Илека. Публикуемые в данном издании материалы, безусловно, представляют собой большой интерес. В ходе изучения памятника получены принципиально новые данные по вопросам погребального обряда, материальной культуре, антропологии населения раннего железного века региона. Каменные погребальные сооружения, выявленные в ходе раскопок на могильнике Сапибулак, выделяют данный памятник в круге синхронных древностей не только Казахстана, но и сопредельных территорий. Полученные материалы показывают большое значение памятников бассейна реки Илек и ставят новыевопросы.

The article studies a range of items typical of the Northern Black Sea Coast and belonging to the polychromic style (also inaccurately called “cornelian”) (Pls. 2-4 + Catalogue). It was first time characterized by A.K. Ambroz as the “Late Sarmtian Pre-Hunnic” and dated since the 2nd half of the 3rd c. CE (Ambroz 1989). But it is still not analyzed.
This style is usually characterized by insertion of a large flat polished cornelian and genuine list of stamped geometric decoration elements on the external plate. The authors do not attempt finding the place of origin of these items in other regions (all are findings on the territory from Iran to the Balkan Peninsula cited in literature are very remote “prototypes” and analogies: Pl. 6, 2-4). The detected centers of their production were Panticapaeum (Kertch) and Chersoneses Taurica (Sevastopol), with local peculiarities in each of the two. The item of this style were produced, according to the dates proved by V.Yu. Malashev (Malashev 2000), by four chronological groups / periods. The chronological group 1 (period II b – 2nd half of the 3rd c. CE) produced mainly  articles of female costumes for the Barbarians of the Western Crimea, while the group 2 (period III a – the late 3rd – first third of the 4th cc. CE), group 3 (period III b – the second third of the 4th c. CE – 372/375 CE – before the Hunns’ invasion) and group 4 (not early than mid. 4th – the early 5th cc. CE) mainly produced military equipment (harness, swords and daggers, belt buckles). Similar articles were worn by the local Barbarized and Barbarian population of the cities (especially in Panticapaeum), though the major part of these articles was meant to be gifted to the Barbarian nomadic elite of the Steppes, and exclusively for the Iranian-speaking groups: Alans and “Tauro-Scythians” (the neighbouring Germans and Caucasus mountaineers did not use them at all). The noble graves containing these articles and found in Panticapaeum also have Sarmato-Alanian features (the bridle has tamga-sign of Sarmatian-Alanian clans, bridle and swords were found in the graves of noble women etc.). The style reaches its peak in the group 3, when articles of various destinations were produced, they increased in number and their decoration became most various.
The spread of the articles at different stages (Pl. 1) partly reflects military and political rivalry of Panticapaeum and Chersoneses Tauricus. At first the Bosporus supplies were meant for the Alans of the Central Caucasus foot mountains (articles of the group 2). Later, the Bosporan Kingdom, after being defeated in three wars, sought allies among the nomads of the Lower Don area (group 3) (the earlier period there yielded items produced in Chersonesses Taurica). It was the time, probably, when these nomads became less dependent on the Alans of the Central Caucasus foot mountains. Some findings of the group 2 and 3 are documented in the mouth of Danube, on the lands of the “European Alans” dependent on the Goths. After the Hunns’ intrusion items manufactured in this style reached the north (up to the Volga River - Brody) and even Central Asia (Tugozvonovo in the Northern Altai Mountains) where they were used and probably processed.                             

ILLUSTRATIONS LIST:
Pl. 1. Finds of the items of the North Pontic polychromic style of the mid. 2nd – 4th cc. CE:
1 – Panticapaeum / Kertch; 2 – Chersoneses Taurica / Sevastopol; 3 – Chernaia Rechka, graves 3 and 35; 4 – Druzhnoe, graves 24 and unknown No.; 5 – Kishpek, barrow 13; 6 – Kuptsyn Tolga, barrow 30; 7 – Veselaya Roshcha III, barrow 8; 8 – Timashevskaya; 9 – Aerodrom I, barrow 2; 10 – Komarov II, barrow 8; 11 – Novyi, barrow 108; 12- Abaganerovo II, barrow 33; 13 - Marxstadt; 14 – Brody, barrow 25; 15 – Chaush, barrow 5; 16 – Gradeshka, barrow 9; 17 – Suvorovo, crypt 38/3.
Pl 2 (pp. 232-234). Decorative schemes of the warriors’ attributes.
Pl. 3. Decorative schemes of the costume accessories (numbers – after Catalogue) (p. 235).
Pl 4. The main ornamental elements: 1 – borders; 2 – forms of a stone inserts; 3 – décor of the main ornamental face; 4 – décor around a stone inserts; 5 – décor of the ends of the main ornamental face.
Pl. 5. Matrix for the horse harness detail and the probable prototypes of Crimean jewelry items: 1 – matrix (bronze), Chersonesses Taurica, district XXV (after I.O. Gavritukhin, Cat. No. 15); 2 – buckle from the grave II in Zakshuv, Poland (after Madyda-Legutko 1986); 3 – horse harness detail from Emessa, Syria (after Seyrig 1953); 4 – officer’s helmet from Belgrad (after Ambroz 1989).
Pl. 6. Items of the group 4: 1-7 – Tugozvonovo, grave of 1959 year (Altai Region, Russia); 8 – Tsentralnyi IV, barrow 14 (Rostov Region, Russia).         

CATALOGUE:
I. WARRIOR EQUIPMENT:
I.a. HORSE HARNESS:
1. Lower Volga Basin (Saratov Region), Marxstadt, grave of the 1928, silver.
2. Lower Don Basin (Rostov Region), Aerodrom, barrow 2, bronze with gilded silver cover, cornelian, blue glass.
3.  Lower Don Basin (Rostov Region), Komarov II, barrow 8, silver with golden cover, cornelian, almadine, blue glass.
4. The Central part of the Northern Caucasus (Kabarda-Balkaria Republic), Kishpek, barrow 13, bronze and silver with golden cover, cornelian, blue glass.
5. Dnestr and Prut Rivers interfluves (Odessa Region), Chaush, barrow 5, silver with gilded cover, cornelian, green glass.
6. Dnestr and Prut Rivers interfluves (Odessa Region), Gradeshka, barrow 9, bronze and gilded silver, cornelian (preliminary information: Dzigovkii, Subbotin 1990).
7. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, barrow of 1837 year near Glinishche, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
8. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the second grave of 1841 year near Adjimushkai stone quarry, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
9. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the second grave of 1841 year after V.V. Shkorpil, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
10. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the collection A.L. Bertie-Delagarde, British Museum, silver, cornelian?.
11. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the collection Ermolay Zaporozhsky, acquired in 1891, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
12. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the barrow in Massaksudi residence, 1918. ??? 
13. “Caucasus” (British Museum), the burial imitation of the tip of the belt, gold; Chersoneses Taurica / Sevastopol, ???. 
14. The random find (State Historical Museum, Moscow, No 95570), silver with golden cover, blue glass.
15. Chersoneses Taurica / Sevastopol, quarter XXV, the matrix for the tips of the belts production, bronze.
16. “The South of Russia” (Warsaw, National Museum), ???.
I, b. THE HITS OF SWORDS AND DAGGERS:
17. Ukraine, Odessa Region, Gradeshka, barrow 9, sword, gold, rock crystal, tourmaline, azurite.
18. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the barrow in Massaksudi residence, 1918, sword, wood, with copper and golden cover, garnet.
19. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the second grave of 1841 year near Adjimushkai stone quarry, dagger, gold, cornelian.
II. COSTUME ACCESSORIES:
II.1. (c) BUCKLES:
(1) WITH A RECTANGULAR FRAME:
20. Russia, Kalmyk Republic, Kuptsyn Tolga, barrow 30, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
21. Russian, Krasnodar Region, Timashevkaya stanitsa, 1884, bronze with golden cover, cornelian.
22. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the barrow in Massaksudi residence, 1918, silver with copper golden cover, cornelian, garnet.
23. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, Köln, bronze, silver, cornelian.
24. “Caucasus” (British Museum), the burial imitation, gold.
25. Chersoneses Taurica / Sevastopol (State Historical Museum, Moscow, No 95570), silver with golden cover, cornelian.
26. Crimea, Chersoneses Taurica / Sevastopol, (State Historical Museum, Moscow, No 95570), silver with golden cover, the stones were lost.
27. “Crimea” (Chersoneses Taurica?), ???.
28. “North Black Sea Region”, two buckles of one type, bronze, silver, cornelian. 
(2 ) WITH AN OVAL FRAME:
29. Russia, Kama Basin, Brody, barrow 25, grave 1, bronze with golden cover, “stones”.
30. Lower Don Basin, Novyi, barrow 108, silver, cornelian.
31. Lower Don Basin, Aboganerovo II, barrow 33, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
32. NW Caucasus, Veselaya Roshcha III, barrow 28, silver with golden cover, sardonyx.
II.2. (d) BRACELETS:
33. SW Crimea, Druzhnoe, grave 24, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
34. SW Crimea, Druzhnoe, grave ?, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
35. SW Crimea, Chernaya Rechka, grave 35, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
II.3. (e) DIADEMS:
36. European Bosporus (Eastern Crimea), Panticapaem/Kertch, the second grave of 1841 year after V.V. Shkorpil, gold, cornelian, cameos from chalcedony.
II.4. (f) EARRINGS AND PENDANTS AT THE TEMPLES:
37. SW Crimea, Druzhnoe, grave 2, 1984, earrings, bronze, cornelian.
38. SW Crimea, Chernaya Rechka, grave 3, earrings, silver with golden cover, cornelian.
39. SW Crimea, Chernaya Rechka, grave 35, earrings, silver with golden cover, cornelian; Unknown point (“Ukraine or South of Russia”).
40. Private collection, Kiev, pendants at the temples, gold, cornelian.
II.5. (g) “MEDALLIONS”:
41. SW Crimea, Chernaya Rechka, grave 3, silver, cornelian.
42. SW Crimea, Suvorovo, crypt 38, dead 3, silver with golden cover, colour (?) glass.

Grado en Historia - Universidad de Málaga.
Trabajo de Fin de Grado (2015) - Tutor: D. Fernando Wulff Alonso

El presente trabajo busca reconstruir la historia de la cultura sármata y sus interacciones con el mundo grecorromano a lo largo de la Edad Antigua, mediante el estudio de las fuentes clásicas, los hallazgos arqueológicos y las opiniones de autores contemporáneos. Para ello, se empleará un estudio segmentado por momentos históricos o cambios de relevancia dentro de la cultura sármata.
Además, basándose en lo anterior, se intentará detallar aspectos de la organización social y política de la cultura sármata, el papel otorgado a la mujer en los primeros momentos de esta cultura, contrastado con los relatos de las fuentes antiguas y la arqueología, además de aspectos de la cultura guerrera sármata y las innovaciones que introdujo en su tiempo. También se detallarán algunos aspectos funerarios y religiosos y, por último, se comentará el papel de la cultura sármata en el mundo actual.

The distribution of prestigious imports studied for 6 ntcropolises: four were barrow Sarmatian (Novyi - fig. 1; Tsarskii - fig. 2; Vysochino - fig. 3; Peregruznoe I - fig. 4) and two grounf Maeotean (Kobyakovo: fig. 5 - excav. trencg of 1999-2000 yy,  fig. 6 - excav. trench of 1961 y.; Krepostnoe - fig. 7). The most interesting information we have for big ground necropolises. There were some specific local situations and traditions, which clarify the burial rutials of the Middle Sarmatian and Lower Don Maeotean Cultures in general.

In the burials of the nomads of the Late Sarmatian time, there are often unusual iron knives, which are distinguished by the handle of unusual design. There are two types of these knives. The first type has a solid bronze lining with two rectangular cutouts and a flat area on the top. Handles of the second type are decorated with two separate bronze overlays on each side, the space between which is filled with wooden or bone inserts. A handle of this type also ends with a round head. Most of these bimetallic knives were found in Late Sarmatian burials of the end of the 2nd —3rd centuries AD. The knives of these types are often found in burials with bladed weapons: swords and daggers. There are a few known cases when the scabbard of a knife was fixed on the scabbard of a dagger. It can be assumed that such knives could be used by the Sarmatians in military affairs as an auxiliary weapon.

В погребальных комплексах позднесарматского времени достаточно часто встречаются железные ножи, отличающиеся оригинальным оформлением рукояти. По деталям оформления рукоятей выделено два их типа. Для рукоятей первого типа характерно наличие двух сплошных бронзовых накладок с двумя прямоугольными вырезами, завершающихся шляпкой. Рукояти второго типа ножей оформлены с каждой стороны двумя отдельными бронзовыми накладками, пространство между которыми заполнено деревянными или костяными вставками. Рукоять этого типа также заканчивается шляпкой. Большинство ножей такой биметаллической конструкции обнаружено в позднесарматских погребениях конца II — III вв. н. э. В подавляющем своем большинстве ножи этих типов в погребениях встречаются с клинковым оружием: мечами и кинжалами. В нескольких случаях отмечено, что ножны ножей закреплены на ножнах кинжала. Можно предположить, что такие ножи могли использоваться сарматами в военном деле как вспомогательное оружие.

In: Vestnik RGGU (RSUH Herald), History, Philology, Cultural Studies and Oriental Studies Series (Seriia: “Istoriia. Filologiia. Kul’turologiia. Vostokovedenie”). 2017, No 10/2. Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities Publ., p. 269-279.

SUMMARY:
The nomadic stone round temple (19 m in diameter) in Baite III sanctuary was built for the cult of ancestors on the border of desert Ustyurt Plateau with Mangystau Desert (Western Kazakhstan) (fig. 4). It was excavated by Valerii Olkhovsky in 1998 but still really non-published. After the first big earthquake in the 3rd-2nd cc. BCE the temple was partly ruined (such as neighbouring similar sanctuaries). Later, since the turn of the era along this point one of the additional route of the northern Silk Road was organized; it was active up to the 14th c. (up to the second big earthquake). In the 1st c. BCE – the 3rd-4th cc. CE the small courtyard of abandoned temple still used by traders and local nomads as a sanctuary. There is the biggest (and published only in the late 2017) collection in the ancient nomads’ world of more than 358 tamga-signs of 273 types on one small object (fig. 5). Ca. 40 % of them belonged to the visitors from Sarmatia (first of all – the peoples of the Middle and early Late Sarmatian Cultures), sometimes – to Kwarezmians, Kangju and Kushan Bactrian peoples (see, for example fig. 6: the Khwarezmian kings’ signs of the 1st c. BCE – 4th c. CE in the temple). Really that time the temple was a monument of the international trade and other communications.
In the paper the small but very unusual complex of images (men, animals, vehicles, ornaments etc.) was analyzed. Probably they were made by Sarmatians / Alans at the turn of the era on the outer wall south segment near the entrance of the temple (graffiti zone 5) (in the courtyard we see only tamgas). All personages are “move” to the right (to the temple entrance). There we see the animals connected with water and Underground World (fishes and snake) as more realistic. The horses usually seems more detailed that their owners (it was recently usual for the mentality of Steppe nomadic warriors’ and their epic songs). The images of fishes (the universal markers of the Underground World in many cultures) had only two modifications (1. the fish accompanying the huff in the sea (?) (fig. 2: 1, 3); 2. The fish – killer or devourer) (fig. 2: 4-6). The series of fishes’ images are not something strange in this desert (up to 1950 this point was at a distance of only 25 km from Kaidak Bay of Caspian Sea). In Alano-Ossetian tradition the winter holiday of water gods (“Donyskafan”) was organized immediately prior to the commemoration of dead’ holyday (“Mardty badan”).
The compositions engraved by the later visitors may be successfully explained after the archaic paganist Alano-Ossetian tradition and the ancient Ossetian “Nart” epic poems (fig. 1). There are: initiation of horse to a dead (the famous “bakhfaldesun” ritual) (fig. 2: 1); the burial banner (“sau tyrysa”) shown twice (figs. 1: 1; 2: 1); two nomadic vehicles for road to Other World  (there were typical for some Sarmatian-Greek burial models and tombstones of 2nd-3rd cc. CE in Bosporus Kingdom) and two dead near them (fig. 1: 3-4); serpent, probably, with the magic, dead’ animated “bead of happiness” (“tsykuraiy fardyg”) (fig. 1: 3); horseman entering the labyrinth (fig. 1: 1) (the labyrinth motifs were typical for Ossetian architecture and some epic episodes, for example – as the Syrdon anti-hero shelter); probable scene of the archer’ “magic hunting” for huff, popular in epic poems; as a result the famous hero (Soslan or Ahsartag) come to Underground or Underwater World (fig. 1: 2). 

KEY WORDS: art of the early Iranian-speaking nomads, funeral temple of ancestors, Bayte III, ritual graffiti, subjects, Sarmatians, religion of Alans-Oseetians, the turn of the ere, Ustyrt Plateau, Western Kazakhstan.

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Fig. 1. Scenes with anthropomorphic personages: 1- the horseman with banner, the pedestrian man and tamga-sign No 11 near labyrinth entrance; 2 – the hunting of horseman for wild goat and tamga-sign No 267; 3 – the vehicle (with tamga-sign No 31), snake (with four tamga-signs: Ns. 114, 142, 222 and fragmented sign) and dead body; 4 – the vehicle (with tamga-signs No 74) and two dead bodies (with tamga-signs Ns. 32, 149). 
Fig. 2. Scenes with zoomorphic personages: 1 – horse, fish and burial banner; 2 – funeral banner in the early group of graffiti of accumulation 1in the temple courtyard; 3 – deer and fish; 4 – pike pursues perch (?); 5 – big fish with an open mouth; 6 – fragment of big fish figure. 
Fig. 3. Ornaments (1-3) and several tamga-signs (4-6) on some stone slabs.
Fig. 4. The map of Bayte III and other ancient sanctuaries built in the 5th-3rd cc. BCE (Ns. 1-5), the necropolises of the 4th – 2nd-1st cc. BCE (Ns. 3, 6) and Sarmatian petroglyphs (7) with tamga-signs of the 5th c. BCE – 4th cc. CE. (after Yatsenko, 2018)
Fig. 5. The main zones with tamga-signs in the courtyard (zones 1-4 and the stone slabs from the ruined walls) and in the outer wall near the entrance (zone 5) (after Yatsenko 2018).
Fig. 6. Kwarezmian kings’ signs in the main graffiti zones of Bayte III temple (after Yatsenko, 2018).

The married women’ diadems of Sarmatian nomadic tribes have two chronological groups. First group conncected with the Middle Sarmatian Culture and used in the late 1st- early 2nd cc. AD. The most of them made of gold or with golden applications, had the animal and anthropomorphic images, a row of pendants etc. They were also the attributes of social rank. For the women of the Lower Don Basin – Kuban’ River region we know a several diadems with the ‘World Tree’ images and its satellites - the sacred animals (deers, wild goats and birds). They were the symbols of Alanian-Oseetian Goddess of Fertility – Acyrux (with the same sttributes). There the fist rank means the massive golden diadem with anthropomorphic and animal images and semi-precious stones – the ‘queen’ from Khokhlach; the second rank means the leather deadem with the golden applications – the ‘princess’ in Kobiakovo; the third rank means the textile diadem with bronze base and the golden applications on them – the wife of the guards group leader in the ‘Golden Cemetery’ – Ust’-Labinskaia (Yatsenko 2006, 336). The second group connected with the first stage of Late Sarmatian Culture (the mid. 2nd – the mid. 3rd cc. AD). Such textile diadems had a simple and cheep décor with a series of beeds or small golden plaques in three lines. The male diadems used only by local big tribes’ ‘kings’ (for Siraces - Zinob. Epitom. 5.25; the the king Pharsoios of Great Aorsia, 49 - ca.70 AD – his coin images minted in Olbia). Some Middle Sarmatian time male diadems of the second rank were made of texile with golden embroidery (they are not generalized still).
The text of article was prepared in 1983. That time the diadem from Sokolova Mogila (fig. 4) was not published and it was unattainable (see: Kovpanenko 1986, fig. 29). The diadem from Khokhlach (fig. 5) was published in details only in 2011 (Zasetskaia 2011, 20-47). The diadem from Kobyakovo (fig. 6) was founded by V.K. Guguev later, in 1987 (Guguev, 1991). Today we know the 11 female diadems of Sarmatians. Only one of them (Cat. 4, with a series of Cupids, complete ornamentation and pendants, founded in 1864 in Batal’shchikiv near Migulinskaia) was stolen that time by local Kossaks.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Fig. 1. Reconstructions of Sarmatian diadems: 1- Sokolova Mogila, grave 3 (Nikolaev Region, near Olbia); 2 – Tanais, barrow 22, grave 3; 3 – Krinichnoe (Odessa Region), grave 6; 4 – Zavetnoe, grave 65; 5 – Khokhlach barrow (Rostov Region); 6 – Ust’-Labinskaia, barrow 46 (Krasnodar Region). 1, 4, 5, 6 – the late 1st c. AD (the Middle Sarmatian time); 2,3 – the late 2nd-early 3rd cc. AD (the Late Sarmatian time).
Fig. 2. Diadem décor’ types friom the barrow F-16 in Usatovo (Saratov Region), the late 2nd-early 3rd cc. AD.
Fig. 3. The finds of Sarmatian diadems (before 1983): 1 – Sokolova Mogila; 2 – Khokhlach; 3 – Ust’Labinskaia; 4 – Batal’shchikiv (Migulinskaia); 5-6 – Zavetnoe; 7 – former Batyr Lake; 8 – Krinichnoe; 9 – Tanais; 10 – Usatovo.
Fig. 4. Cat. No 1. Sokolova Mogila, grave 3 (after G.T. Kovpanenko 1986).
Fig. 5. Cat. No 2. Khochlach (after I.P. Zasetskaia, 2011).
Fig. 6. Cat. No 11 (additional), Kobiakovo, barrow 10 (Rostov region), the late 1st c. AD (after T.A. Prokhorova).
Fig. 7. Cat. No 3. Ust’-Labinskaia, barrow 46 (after I.P. Zasetskaia, 2011).
Fig. 8. Cat. No 7. The former Batyr Lake (Mangystau Region) (after I.P. Zasetskaia, 2011).

The additional Bibliography (after 1983):

1. Guguev, Vladimir K. The Headdress from the Barrow 10 of Kobiakovo Necropolis (Головной убор из кургана 10 Кобяковского могильника). In: Historical and Archeaological Studies in Azov and in the Lover Don Basin (Историко-археологические исследования в г. Азове и на Нижнем Дону), 1991, Vol. 10, pp. 56-62.
2. Kovpanenko, Galina T. Sarmatian Grave of the 1st c. AD on the South Bug River (Сарматское погребение I в. н.э. на Южном Буге). Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1986, 152 pp.
3. Yatsenko, Sergey A. Costume of the Ancient Eurasia (the Iranian-Speaking Peoples) (Костюм древней Евразии (иранозяычные народы)). Moscow: Vostochnaia literatura, 2006,  664 pp. 
4. Zasetskaia, Irina P. Treasures from Khokhlach Barrow (Сокровища кургана Хохлач. Новочеркасский клад). St-Petersburg: State Hermitage Publ., 2011, 328 pp.

08.02.2016.

The kantharoi with biconical body, with the upper part decorated with friezes of cyma and cyma reversa and the lower strigil-shaped part, with wish-bone handles ending with balls in their upper part and with leaves as lower attachments are attributed to the type Vysochino after the find of a set of 4 such vessels in the cache of the second half of the 1st century AD Sarmatian burial in a Burial-mound no. 28 of the group Vysochino-VII in the Lower Don region. These kantharoi have a rather compact area of distribution, with the concentration in the Eastern Crimea and the Lower Don area, though their finds originate also from the Mountain Crimea and the Kuban area. Recent finds of such kantharoi in the destruction layer of the fortified site of Artezian in the Bosporan Kingdom with a Greek dotted donative inscription on the bottom of one of them allow to settle the terminus ante quem for their manufacture – 46/47 AD and to suggest the possibility of their production in the workshop of the Bosporan Kingdom. Therefore I cannot accept the viewpoint of S. Künzl that the goblets of Vysochino type were manufactured in one of the workshops in the provinces Bithynia, Cappadocia or Pontus. It is noteworthy that the kanhraroi discussed show more compact area of distribution than the related group of silver karchesia with a similar decoration of the body and execution of the handles, the finds of which originate from Western Ukraine, in Olbia, South-Western Crimea and the Kuban basin.