Sarmatians

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Sarmatians were the Iranian nomads who ended the supremacy of the Scythians in the western steppe. Their challenge ran through the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The end came probably early in the fourth century or in the third to second century. The dating is argued.^[1] They are in all likelihood to be connected with the Sauromatians. Herodotus already knew the Sauromatians as a nomadic people who held the steppe beyond the Don, east of the Scythians. In his account, they spoke Scythian incorrectly.^[1]

Like many nomadic confederations, the Sarmatians contained a variety of ethnic elements. Those elements changed with time and with each migration.^[1] The Greek sources name two eastern kin who joined them. The name of the Roxolani is understood as Iranian rauxšna, “light”, beside the Alans. The name of the Aorsi is explained as auruša, “white”. By the first century AD, the Aorsi and then the Alans came to dominate the Iranian nomads of western Eurasia.^[2]

Causes of the migration

Pressure in the steppe to their east drove their movement westward. This is where the Sarmatians matter to a history of the Turkic peoples.^[1] In the fourth century BC the pressure came from the Massagetae or from others. In the second century BC the same thing happened again. This time the chain can be followed to its far end. The turbulence was set off by the Xiongnu, a tribal confederation in Mongolia.^[1]

That pattern recurs again and again in the history of the steppe. A change of power in Mongolia displaces its neighbours. They displace theirs in turn, and the last shove lands on the Danube, two thousand miles and several generations away. The Sarmatians are the first case in which the sources allow both ends of the chain to be seen at the same time.

Society

Early Sarmatian society seems to have been matrilineal. This is unusual enough in the record to have drawn comment since antiquity. On the whole, women in the steppe world were much freer than in settled society. No uniform standard applied, however, and their position varied. Central Asian Saka society appears to have given them an important place.^[2] The Han Shu reports that the population west of Ferghana as far as Iran holds women in honour. According to the text, the men act upon what the women say.^[2] Greek sources call the Sarmatians γυναικοκρατούμενοι, “governed by women”. Their women took part in military expeditions, ruled tribes and performed priestly functions.^[2]

Their economy was that of western Eurasian pastoral nomads. It rested on seasonal migration and a limited agriculture. Some of them, probably the poorer, settled or mixed with the sedentary peoples they had subjected. This was always a last resort. Strabo notes the contempt in which such pursuits were held.^[2]