Crimea has long been inhabited by people belonging to a variety of ethnic groups and nationalities: Cimmerians and Taurians, Scythians and Sarmatians, Greeks and Romans, Khazars and Proto-Bulgarians, Pechenegs and Cumans, Byzantines and Italians, Tatars and Turks, Karaites and Crimeans, Slavs and Armenians . Each national group that settled in Crimea contributed to the development of its economy and culture.
Man appeared on the territory of Crimea during the Early Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), i.e. 250 thousand years ago. The oldest population of Crimea is known to us already from written sources. This Cimmerians, who lived in Crimea in the 15th – 7th centuries. BC e.
The coastal and mountainous parts of Crimea were inhabited by pastoral-agricultural tribes brands. Some scientists consider them to be descendants of the Cimmerians. By the name of the Tauri, in antiquity and in the Middle Ages (until the 13th century), our peninsula was called Taurica. Written sources speak of the presence of the Tauri in Crimea until the 4th century. BC e.
In the 7th century BC e. the Cimmerians were driven out of Crimea by Iranian-speaking tribes who came here from Asia Scythians. The main occupation of the Scythians during this period was agriculture, and cattle breeding continued to occupy a prominent place. The Scythians also knew how to make a variety of products from iron, bronze, gold and silver. The Scythian kingdom existed until the 3rd century. n. e. and fell under the blows of the Goths.
The Iranian-speaking Sarmatian tribes played a significant role in the life of ancient Crimea.
Sarmatians appeared in Crimea in the 2nd century. n. e. Penetrating into the cities of the Bosporan state, they gradually gave them a Greco-barbarian character.
In the VI – V centuries. BC e. unfolds Greek colonization of the northern Black Sea coast. The first Greek colonies were founded in most cases by immigrants from the Greek city of Miletus. At the beginning of the 5th century. BC e. they unite into the Bosporan state (the capital is Panticapaeum. The Bosporan kingdom becomes the most important exporter of grain to Greece and Asia Minor. First silver and then gold coins are minted in Bosporus. In the 4th century AD, the Bosporan kingdom was finally defeated by the Huns.
In the 5th century BC e. In the area of modern Sevastopol, immigrants from Garaclea Pontic (the southern coast of the Black Sea) founded the large Greek colony of Chersonesos. In terms of its political structure, it was a slave-owning republic. The main occupation of the inhabitants of Chersonesus was viticulture, winemaking, fishing, various crafts and intermediary trade in bread, which was brought here from the steppe regions of Crimea. In Chersonesus there were 9 longitudinal and 27 transverse streets, an acropolis, an agora (place of public meetings), a market, a theater, a port and a citadel. During its heyday, it numbered up to 20 thousand inhabitants. In the 1st century BC e. Chersonesos became dependent on the Roman Empire.
Romans appeared in Crimea in the 1st century. BC e. in connection with the wars of the empire with the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator, which ended in the victory of Rome. The main base of the Roman army in Crimea in
I century n. e. becomes Chersonesos. Other settlements located on the Crimean coast also fell under the rule of the Roman Empire. After the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern Crimean possessions of the Romans, they came under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as Byzantium.
The Greeks and Romans played a major progressive role in the development of the economy and culture of Crimea: during their stay in Crimea, they were at the very top of world civilization. It should be remembered that ancient culture was the basis and, in a certain sense, an unsurpassed model for the further development of mankind.
For many centuries, Byzantium had its outposts in Crimea. She ruled in the Crimea and Kherson (as Chersonesus was called in the Middle Ages), Bosporus (now Kerch), and outside the Crimea - the Taman Peninsula. Byzantium was attracted to Crimea not only by the wealth of the peninsula, its military-strategic significance, but also by its role in transit trade.
Christianity penetrated into Crimea as early as the 3rd century. But it begins to play a particularly important role in the Crimea in the 8th – 9th centuries. due to the significant influx of icon worshipers here. At this time, a struggle broke out between different movements of the Christian Church in Byzantium: icon-worshipers and iconoclasts. Fleeing from the persecution of iconoclast emperors, many supporters of icon worshipers fled to Taurica and created a number of so-called cave monasteries here. This migration increased the proportion of the Greek population in Crimea. The Slavs appeared in Crimea, apparently, during the early Middle Ages. In 944, a peace treaty was concluded between Byzantium and the Kyiv prince Igor, according to which Igor pledged not to usurp power over the “Korsun country” (the so-called Byzantine possessions in Rus'). Apparently, in the second half of the 10th century. The Russians were firmly established in the eastern part of Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. The Russian Principality of Tmutarakan was formed here.
In the 13th century. Eastern Crimea became a province of the Golden Horde, after the collapse of which the Crimean Khanate arose (1443-1783), which from 1575 was a vassal of Turkey. The oldest monuments of art in Crimea date back to 3-2 thousand BC. uh (paintings on the rocks of the Tash-Air tract, reliefs on stone steles, etc.). From the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. the art of Crimea is connected with the art of Greek colonial cities; it is characterized by mutual influence of Greek and local traditions (paintings of the crypts of Scythian Naples and Panticapaeum, painted steles and mosaics of Chersonese; tomb reliefs, cult and portrait statues, terracotta figurines, works of decorative and applied art). From the first millennium BC. e. stone fortifications of the Tauri remained (on the mountains Uch-Bash, Koshka, etc.). The remains of defensive, religious and public buildings, funerary monuments of the ancient colonies of Chersonesus, Panticapaeum, etc. have been preserved. Unique gold and silver items made by Bosporan artisans have been preserved (vase from the Kul-Oba mound, bowl from the Gaimanova Mogila, comb from the Solokha mound, amphora from the Chertomlyk mound, pectoral from the Tolstoy Mogila, etc.).
From V – VI centuries. in the mountains of Crimea, so-called cave cities and fortresses were built (Chufut-Kale, Eski-Kermen, etc. near Bakhchisarai, Inkerman and Mangup near Sevastopol).
During the Middle Ages, monuments related to the culture of Byzantium were created in Crimea - Christian basilicas (in Chersonesos, 7th-8th centuries) and cross-domed churches (St. John the Baptist Church in Kerch). In Crimea there are numerous monuments of Armenian, Genoese, Turkish-Tatar architecture.
In the first millennium BC. e. in the vastness of the Great Steppe lived nomadic tribes of Sarmatians and Scythians, who were descendants of the Proto-Scythian or Cimmerian Srubnaya archaeological culture of the Bronze Age (XVIII-XII centuries BC). Territory of distribution of the Srubnaya archaeological culture - steppe and forest-steppe strip between the Dnieper and the Urals. Ethnicity: Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan...
The culture of the nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians and Scythians belongs to the Andronovo cultural and historical community of tribes (2300 BC - 1000 BC), originating from the Yamnaya archaeological culture. The skeletons in the mounds from the Andronovo culture represent a European type of people, with fair hair, fair skin, and blue or green eyes. Of the 10 men in the mounds of the Andronovo culture, 9 men were representatives Y-DNA R1a1a. Researchers E. A. Khelimsky and V. V. Napolskikh consider representatives of the Andronovo culture to be carriers of the disappeared fourth branch of the Indo-Iranian languages.
The only monuments to the thousand-year stay of the Scythians and Sarmatians are numerous mounds, the height of which is 5-7 meters.
In the steppes of the Southern Urals quite a few burial mounds of Sarmatian tribes dating back to the 6th - 5th centuries BC. In the graves, archaeologists find skeletons in a supine position; men were buried with weapons - short iron sword-akinak of the Scythian type, iron spears, bronze arrowheads, jewelry made of bronze, gold and silver.
Dating back to the 6th - 5th centuries BC, there are Sarmatian altar mounds with a ring sacrificial platform around or round bowls of stone altars - these are Sarmatian fire sanctuaries. One of the largest altar mounds of the 5th - 3rd centuries. BC. with a diameter of over 70 m and a height of up to 2.5 m, it is located near the village of Shkunovka in the Akbulak region.
Prokhorovka (or Early Sarmatian) archaeological culture of the Eurasian steppes of the IV-II centuries. BC., named after the mounds near the village. Prokhorovka, Orenburg region, represents the culture of the Urals union of Sarmatian tribes.
The Andronovo people owned copper and tin mines in the Altai Mountains, as well as in Kazakhstan, they were tribes of metallurgists. Sarmatian tribes set up mines and mined ore in the same places as their ancestors - the Andronovo and Srubnik people. Finds of numerous things made of copper, bronze, and iron indicate that the Sarmatians knew how to mine and process metals, and forge iron swords and daggers.
Master foundries cast cauldrons, mirrors, metal parts of horse harnesses, and jewelry items from bronze and copper. Jewelers made items from precious metals. The burial mounds of the Great Steppe contain many Scythian and Sarmatian relics.
Sarmatians in segmental (scale) armor and helmets are depicted on Trajan's Column. Segmental helmets soon began to be made on the Danube, then This manufacturing technique spread among the Romans and Germans.
The basis of the economy of the Sarmatian tribes was nomadic cattle breeding- breeding sheep, horses, cattle, and camels. Herds of domestic animals provided wool, skins, felt, meat, milk, that is, they fed and clothed people.
Bracelet. Kurgan Khokhlach.
Sarmatian tribes roamed the wide steppe from early spring to late autumn in felt-covered wagons drawn by oxen or camels, driving herds from one pasture to another. Moreover, each Sarmatian tribe and clan had its own traditional nomadic areas. In winter, nomadic Sarmatian tribes settled in camps, built dwellings, dugouts and shelters from winds and frosts. 
The term “Sauromatians” and the later “Sarmatians” denoted a large group of tribes of early nomads related to the Scythians.
Since the 2nd century BC. e. Sarmatians increasingly appear in the works of ancient Greek and Roman authors. Strabo calls them Iazyges, Roxolans, Aorses, Sirvki, Alans. Tacitus mentions the devastating raid of the Roxolana tribe on Danube province of the Roman Empire Mvzia in 68 AD. e., where they "cut down two cohorts" of Roman soldiers. Poet Ovid, exiled to the city of Tom in 8 AD. e., describes the Sarmatians with melancholy and fear in his “Sad Songs”: “an enemy, strong with a horse and a far-flying arrow, ravages... the neighboring land.” Josephus and Arria n left in their writings messages about the Alans - “with fierce and eternally warlike Alans"in the 1st and 2nd centuries. n. e. fought in Armenia and Cappadocia.
Sarmatian tribes invaded the borders of Scythia in the Northern Black Sea region, defeating the Scythians, passed through the whole of Europe with fire and sword to the northern borders of the Roman Empire, thereby marking the beginning of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples.
The Sarmatian culture reached its peak at the turn of our era and, especially, in the 1st century. AD, when tribes of Alans and other nomadic peoples appeared on the Lower Don.
The history of the Sarmatians ended with the invasion of the southern Russian steppes by warlike tribes of Turkic and Mongolian origin. According to ancient written sources, in 370s Sarmatians were defeated by Hunnic tribes Some of the Sarmatians joined the Huns and assimilated among them.
Some Sarmatian tribes, for example, the Alans, left with the Huns to the West. It is known that under the blows of the Huns at the end of the 4th century, the thousand-year dominance of tribes belonging to the Indo-Iranian peoples in the Northern Black Sea region ceased. 
Sarmatians are a group of Iranian-speaking tribes who roamed the steppes of modern Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan in ancient times. This people appeared in the 6th century BC. e., and in the 4th century AD. e. practically disappeared from the historical scene after the invasion of the Huns. It was divided into several groups: Iazyges, Alans and Roxolans.
Evidence about the Sarmatians
The most written information about the Sarmatians is preserved in the fourth book of “History,” written by the ancient Greek Herodotus. In it, he described the country of Scythia, located north of the Black Sea, where the Hellenes had their most distant colonies, including Olbia. Herodotus, explaining who the Sarmatians were, used the term “Sauromatians”. The “History” says that they lived beyond Tanais (that is, beyond the Don) on the shores of the Sea of Azov.
Later researchers also tried to answer the question of who the Sarmatians were and where these nomads came from. Today, experts believe that the ancestral home of the steppe people was the Southern Urals. Their expansion began in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Its cause turned out to be the emergence of a new type of warrior - horse archers. After mastering shooting, the nomads became a terrible disaster for their neighbors.
Restless people
The steppe people regularly fought with each other. The cause of clashes, as a rule, was hunger or the struggle for new pastures. The theory of incessant war explains who the Sarmatians are. The people, who originated in the Ural steppes, gradually moved west under the pressure of aggressive Asian neighbors. In the new place, the nomads found an abundant land relatively free from competitors.
Masses of settlers repeated a similar Eurasian path for several millennia. Who are the Sarmatians? In short, this is another wave of similar migration. Their fate was the same as that of their predecessors and successors. Over time, the nomads dissolved among the neighboring settled peoples and lost their own identity. That is why today the Sarmatians are another ancient historical phenomenon, from which only fragmentary information and artifacts that require searching have been preserved to this day.
Ethnic characteristics
The image of the ancient steppe inhabitants is known to us in many features thanks to ethnographic information. Who are the Sarmatians and who are their ancestors? They originated from a once united Indo-European people. Gradually, an Iranian-speaking group emerged from this community, and within it a northern Scythian branch was formed. The Sarmatians belonged to it. Based on the above, it is possible to explain what place the Sarmatians occupied on the ethnic map of Eurasia. Their closest relatives were the Scythians. Other Indo-European neighbors of the nomads were the Cimmerians.
The Sarmatians never formed a single nation. They were divided into several tribes. Their names are known thanks to ancient sources, when the names of the steppe inhabitants instilled awe and horror in their peaceful sedentary neighbors. The Sarmatians did not have a written language and therefore historians do not have exact evidence, but they are sure that each tribe had its own dialect.
Linguistic research helped at one time to determine the fate of the steppe people. Thanks to the analysis of different languages, it was possible to find out who the Sarmatians were and who their descendants were. We are talking about modern Ossetians. This people descended from a group of Sarmatians who managed to preserve their identity by moving to the Caucasus. Their culture survived and evolved while other related tribes who remained in the familiar steppes were either conquered or disappeared among their neighbors. The final blow to this bulk of the Sarmatians was dealt in the 4th century by the Huns. New eastern hordes arrived in Europe and not only wiped out the former steppe inhabitants from the face of the earth, but also dealt a serious blow to the Roman Empire, which eventually collapsed.
Yazygi
The westernmost Sarmatian tribes were the Iazyges. They lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, where they had to move from the eastern Black Sea region after the Roxolans appeared there. Other neighbors of the Iazyges were various tribes of the Getae, including the Dniester Tiragetae. They also bordered on the La Tène Bastarne culture. Some of the Iazyges, during their migration, reached the Danube delta. There the Sarmatians entered into an alliance with Pontus, which was then ruled by the legendary Mithridates Eupater, and began to fight against Rome. In response to this, the legions in 78-76. BC e. organized a series of punitive campaigns in the lands north of the Danube, where the nomads lived.
In the first half of the 1st century BC. e. The Dacian kingdom, located in modern Romania, reached its peak. It was it, together with the Romans, that restrained the further expansion of the Iazyges. Having so many neighbors turned against them, the Sarmatians finally stopped their movement in a westerly direction.
Roksolany
As noted above, the Roxolani stepped on the heels of the Iazygs, thereby forcing them to move to the west. This was another Sarmatian tribe that lived north of Tanais (Don). Having entered into an alliance with the Crimean Scythians, it subjugated the entire Northern Black Sea region. The ruler of the Roxolani was one of the few truly known Sarmatian kings, Gatal. He became famous for having begun the conquest of the Crimean Scythians, with whom the Sarmatians had previously maintained allied relations. Choosing new enemies, Gatal supported the Greek inhabitants of Kherson. This port suffered greatly from the Scythians and sought protection from the Sarmatians. The name Gatala is mentioned in a Greek document from 179 BC. e., in which he agreed to be the guarantor of the agreement between Pontus and Cherson.
Modern science knows the name of another king of the Roxolans. The leader Taziy (Tasiy) reigned around 110 BC. e., when the Sarmatians changed their policy, concluding an alliance with the Scythians against the Bosporan kingdom. The army under the command of the commander Difant defeated the nomads. The famous historian Strabo reported on this war in his works.
In the middle of the 1st century BC. e. The resettlement of the Roxolans began, facilitated by the decline of the Bastarns. They migrated to the steppes west of the Dnieper, once again displacing the related Iazyges from their lands. In turn, the Roxolons had to retreat under the onslaught of the Aorsi and Alans. As a result, these Sarmatians settled in the steppes between the Danube delta and the Dnieper. Some detachments even reached the Carpathian Mountains. Some of the Roxolans turned south, stopping in Wallachia. Here, the borders of the Roman Empire became an insurmountable barrier for nomads. Under the pressure of this group of Sarmatians, the Dacians withdrew from their usual places. The Roman chronicles mention a case when in 62, an army of thousands of northern neighbors invaded the imperial province of Moesia. These Dacians, driven out by the Roxolani, were eventually allowed to settle within Roman territory. The Sarmatians, not being able to capture the Roman provinces, nevertheless constantly disturbed them with their destructive raids.
Economy and lifestyle
It is convenient to judge who the Sarmatians are by looking at their economy. These people lived in the steppes, which means they lived. The basis of the Sarmatian economy was livestock breeding. Agriculture was also present, but on a much smaller scale and mainly in the vicinity of major rivers.
Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians - all these peoples were similar to each other in their way of life. Instead of houses they had tents and carts. The diet consisted of meat and milk, which was provided by large herds. Horse meat was a popular dish. Seasonal migration routes are another touch that clearly shows who the Sarmatians are. The history of the steppes of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan is connected with these people by many archaeological sites. In the summer, the Sarmatians lived on the plains, and in the winter they moved to the coast of the Azov Sea. Their typical clothing was soft leather boots, long trousers and felt hats.
Military traditions
Like any other nomads, the Sarmatians could not imagine life without horses. These animals not only helped on the farm, but were also needed in war. Men taught boys to ride horses from a very early age. All of them were trained to be skilled and resilient warriors. This fact is confirmed by the fact that archaeologists found weapons in many children’s graves. The military customs of the steppe people have not changed for centuries.
Who are the Sarmatians as soldiers? Their arsenal consisted of a recurved short bow, a quiver full of arrows, and an iron sword known as an akinak. Less commonly used were pikes, spears, and also there is evidence from ancient historians about the popularity of slings and lasso among nomads. The armor included armor and helmets made of bull and wicker shields.
The Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and other ancient steppe peoples used approximately the same tactics in battle. The attack was an attack by a large group of horsemen, who fired at the enemy with arrows at full gallop. The Roxolani were especially skilled warriors. Sarmatian swords were gigantic in size. They could only be held in two hands.
Society
Ancient historians and geographers, trying to explain who the Sarmatians were, noted that this people did not have the institution of slavery. All their people had personal freedom. The most famous warriors were elected as leaders among the steppe people. Due to the fragmentary nature of the sources, modern science knows the names of only a few such kings.
The social ladder of the Sarmatian people, at the top of which were the rulers, was not always the same. This is evidenced by the mounds discovered by archaeologists. Graves - the best information about who the Sarmatians were and where they lived. The early Sarmatian burial mounds were poor and homogeneous. However, already at the end of the 5th century BC. e. rich graves appeared in which gold and other luxury were buried along with the person. Such finds by specialists indicate the gradual social stratification of the Sarmatians. The burial grounds of the tribal aristocracy are noticeably different from ordinary ones, which means that even the harsh nomads eventually developed their own elites.
Women and religion
Particularly interesting is the information that Greek writers left about Sarmatian women. Thus, Herodotus compared them to the Amazons. Nomadic women hunted on horseback and even took part in wars along with men. In addition, it is known that a layer of priestesses played an important role in Sarmatian society. The steppe people were pagans; they worshiped fire and the sun. At the beginning of our era, a new Zoroastrian cult spread among them.
The Sarmatians believed in an afterlife, and therefore they had many disparate funeral rites. Some were influenced by animism and animal worship. All this knowledge of modern scientists about the steppe people continues to be supplemented and improved as new archaeological finds appear. The question of who the Sarmatians were and what they did is far from closed. Experts today continue to find out interesting details about the ancient inhabitants of the steppes of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.
Alans
The peak of the power of the Sarmatian people of the Alans dates back to the so-called late Sarmatian period in the I-IV centuries. At the beginning of our era, they arrived from the eastern steppes to the Azov region and Ciscaucasia. In 73-74. The Alans unsuccessfully attempted to conquer Parthia and invaded it, traveling a long distance along the eastern Caspian Sea. In 123, nomads attacked Roman possessions. Their invasion affected the northeast Asian provinces of the empire. This time the Sarmatians were defeated by the military leader Flavius Arrian. In 133 the raid was repeated. The Alans invaded the territory of modern Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The appearance of new Sarmatians in the Eastern European steppes was caused by another wave of resettlement of many ethnic groups. The Iranian peoples retreated from the Asian steppes, finding themselves in the path of the formidable Huns. In the 4th century, because of them, the Great Migration of Nations occurred, which affected not only the Alans, but also numerous other tribes, including the Germanic group.
After the offensive of the Huns, most of the Alans disappeared among them and other Turks (Khazars, Volga Bulgarians, Utigurs). Some groups of these last Sarmatians moved to the Caucasus. Their modern descendants are the Ossetians, whose language remains the last language in any way connected with the previously widespread Sarmatian group.
Some Alans settled in remote areas of the Central Caucasus, where representatives of the Koban Iron Age had previously settled. In the 6th century they survived the invasion of the Altai Turks and Avars. From about 650, the Alans were in the region. A vast region between Dagestan and Kuban was named after them. Alan princes entered into marriages with the reigning dynasty of Georgia. Sarmatian states existed in the Caucasus for several more centuries. The history of the Alans ended after the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Since then, their name has not appeared in medieval chronicles.
In connection with the Scythian-Chersonese wars, judging by written sources, the Sarmatians first appear in Crimea (pictured).
Sarmatians are nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes, related to the Scythians in language and way of life, but differing from them in origin and material culture. The ethnonym “Sarmatians” or its equivalent “Sirmatians” appears in sources of the 4th century. BC. and denotes the tribes that lived on the right bank of the Tanais. Many researchers believe that the Sarmatians descended from the Sauromatians, a people who lived east of Tanais in Herodotus' time.
Thanks to written sources, we know about the participation of the Sarmatians in the political events that took place in Crimea. Their dominance in the northern Black Sea steppes in the 2nd century. BC. - mid-3rd century AD no doubt. However, paradoxically, in Crimea Sarmatian culture manifests itself mainly indirectly, in the form of its various elements recorded in the study of Bosporan and Late Scythian antiquities. Actually, Sarmatian monuments on the peninsula are literally rare.
“Sarmatians”, like “Scythians”, is a macro-ethnonym. Among them, at different times, ancient authors identified large tribal associations: Aorsi, Siracs, Roxolans, Iazygs, Alans, etc. There are different opinions about the time of penetration of the Sarmatians into the Northern Black Sea region. Researchers usually quote Diodorus Siculus: “...many years later (the Sauromatians) became stronger, devastated a significant part of Scythia and, completely exterminating the vanquished, turned most of the country into a desert.” However, the absence of any chronological guidelines in Diodorus forces us to turn to information from other written sources (which are only indirectly related to the event of interest to us) and to archaeological data. As a result, the range of opinions is very large. The Sarmatian expansion into the Northern Black Sea region dates back to the 4th century. BC, and by the middle of the 2nd century. BC, most often assigning it to the 3rd century. BC.
Polyenus wrote down the legend about the Sarmatian queen Amaga. The Chersonesos, offended by the king of the neighboring Scythians, turned to her with a request for help. Amaga ordered the Scythian king to stop raiding Chersonese, and when the Scythian did not listen, at the head of a small detachment she captured the royal headquarters, killed its inhabitants and transferred power to the son of the murdered basileus, ordering him not to touch the neighboring Hellenes and barbarians.
M.I. Rostovtsev, who undertook a comprehensive historical and source study analysis of the legend, came to the conclusion that it was written by one of the Chersonesos writers and reflected the realities of the second half of the 3rd and early 2nd centuries. BC. In this case, this is the first evidence of the appearance of the Sarmatians in Crimea. True, at this time the Sarmatians did not live permanently on the peninsula, but launched their raid from beyond its borders. In 179 BC. Pontic king Pharnaces I concluded an agreement with the kings of Bithynia, Pergamon and Capdadocia. One of the guarantors of this agreement is, along with others, Chersonese and the king of the European Sarmatians, Gatal. Thus, Chersonesus and the Sarmatians again, as in the case of Amaga, turn out to be allies. The latter circumstance is possible only if they are at least relatively close territorially.
Strabo reports the participation of the Sarmatian tribe Roxolani in military operations in the Crimea at the end of the 2nd century. BC. 50 thousand Roxolani, led by Tasius, as allies of Palak, fought with the army of the Pontic commander Diophantus and were defeated. The same events are discussed in the decree in honor of Diophantus, but the Sarmatians are called here “the people of the Rexinals.” Thanks to Strabo’s “Geography”, it is known that the Roxolani constantly lived in the steppes north of the Crimea. They were probably attracted
Palak for the duration of the hostilities, and having been defeated by Diophantus, they left the peninsula. In any case, they are not mentioned further in connection with the events of the Scythian-Chersonese war.
Thus, from written sources it follows that in the III - II centuries. BC. There was no permanent Sarmatian population in the Crimean steppes. The Sarmatians entered Crimea sporadically, in connection with extraordinary events. This conclusion agrees well with archaeological data.
Probably, the Sarmatian campaigns should explain the cessation of life in many settlements in the North-Western and Bulganak in the central Crimea.
One gets the impression that the Sarmatians in the 1st - 2nd centuries AD. periodically penetrated into the steppe Crimea. But overall the region remained an area with an unstable population. The Sarmatians were much more attracted to the Late Scythian settlements of the foothills of Crimea and the Bosporan cities on the Kerch Peninsula. Sometimes they formed compact population groups in these regions, but, for the most part, they joined the ranks of the inhabitants of Greek and Scythian settlements, giving their culture a peculiar “Sarmatized” appearance. Probably in the 1st century. n. e. some Sarmatian tribe moves to the Crimean steppes. In the first centuries A.D. e. quite a lot of Sarmatians moved to the Bosporus. At the same time, the Sarmatians settled on the land in the Crimean foothills, on the territory of the Late Scythian state. At the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century. n. e. some Sarmatian tribes expelled the Scythians from the northwestern part of the peninsula and threatened the fortresses of the central part of Scythia and gradually populated the fertile valleys of the Crimean rivers.
In the III - IV centuries. Alans related to them settled together with the Sarmatians. They buried their dead on the territory of Sarmatian burial grounds, although in buildings of an original design.
At the end of the 4th century. Huns tribes appear in Crimea. At this time, the population of the Crimean foothills left their inhabited places. Probably, some of these people fled to inaccessible areas of the mountainous Crimea out of fear of the Huns, while others joined the nomads and went with them to the west.
In connection with the Scythian-Chersonese wars, judging by written sources, the Sarmatians first appeared in Crimea. Sarmatians are nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes, related to the Scythians in language and way of life, but differing from them in origin and material culture. The ethnonym “Sarmatians” or its equivalent “Sirmatians” appears in sources of the 4th century. BC. and denotes the tribes that lived on the right bank of the Tanais. Many researchers believe that the Sarmatians descended from the Sauromatians, a people who lived east of Tanais in Herodotus' time.
Thanks to written sources, we know about the participation of the Sarmatians in the political events that took place in Crimea. Their dominance in the northern Black Sea steppes in the 2nd century. BC. - mid-3rd century AD no doubt. However, paradoxically, in Crimea Sarmatian culture manifests itself mainly indirectly, in the form of its various elements recorded in the study of Bosporan and Late Scythian antiquities. Actually, Sarmatian monuments on the peninsula are literally rare.
“Sarmatians”, like “Scythians”, is a macro-ethnonym. Among them, at different times, ancient authors identified large tribal associations: Aorsi, Siracs, Roxolans, Iazygs, Alans, etc. There are different opinions about the time of penetration of the Sarmatians into the Northern Black Sea region. Researchers usually quote Diodorus Siculus: “...many years later (the Sauromatians) became stronger, devastated a significant part of Scythia and, completely exterminating the vanquished, turned most of the country into a desert.” However, the absence of any chronological guidelines in Diodorus forces us to turn to information from other written sources (which are only indirectly related to the event of interest to us) and to archaeological data. As a result, the range of opinions is very large. The Sarmatian expansion into the Northern Black Sea region dates back to the 4th century. BC, and by the middle of the 2nd century. BC, most often assigning it to the 3rd century. BC.
Polyenus wrote down the legend about the Sarmatian queen Amaga. The Chersonesos, offended by the king of the neighboring Scythians, turned to her with a request for help. Amaga ordered the Scythian king to stop raiding Chersonese, and when the Scythian did not listen, at the head of a small detachment she captured the royal headquarters, killed its inhabitants and transferred power to the son of the murdered basileus, ordering him not to touch the neighboring Hellenes and barbarians.
M.I. Rostovtsev, who undertook a comprehensive historical and source study analysis of the legend, came to the conclusion that it was written by one of the Chersonesos writers and reflected the realities of the second half of the 3rd and early 2nd centuries. BC. In this case, this is the first evidence of the appearance of the Sarmatians in Crimea. True, at this time the Sarmatians did not live permanently on the peninsula, but launched their raid from beyond its borders. In 179 BC. Pontic king Pharnaces I concluded an agreement with the kings of Bithynia, Pergamon and Capdadocia. One of the guarantors of this agreement is, along with others, Chersonese and the king of the European Sarmatians, Gatal. Thus, Chersonesus and the Sarmatians again, as in the case of Amaga, turn out to be allies. The latter circumstance is possible only if they are at least relatively close territorially.
Strabo reports the participation of the Sarmatian tribe Roxolani in military operations in the Crimea at the end of the 2nd century. BC. 50 thousand Roxolani, led by Tasius, as allies of Palak, fought with the army of the Pontic commander Diophantus and were defeated. The same events are discussed in the decree in honor of Diophantus, but the Sarmatians are called here “the people of the Rexinals.” Thanks to Strabo’s “Geography”, it is known that the Roxolani constantly lived in the steppes north of the Crimea. They were probably attracted by Palak for the duration of the hostilities, and having been defeated by Diophantus, they left the peninsula. In any case, they are not mentioned further in connection with the events of the Scythian-Chersonese war.
Thus, from written sources it follows that in the III - II centuries. BC. There was no permanent Sarmatian population in the Crimean steppes. The Sarmatians entered Crimea sporadically, in connection with extraordinary events. This conclusion agrees well with archaeological data.
Probably, the Sarmatian campaigns should explain the cessation of life in many settlements in the North-Western and Bulganak in the central Crimea.
One gets the impression that the Sarmatians in the 1st - 2nd centuries AD. periodically penetrated into the steppe Crimea. But overall the region remained an area with an unstable population. The Sarmatians were much more attracted to the Late Scythian settlements of the foothills of Crimea and the Bosporan cities on the Kerch Peninsula. Sometimes they formed compact population groups in these regions, but, for the most part, they joined the ranks of the inhabitants of Greek and Scythian settlements, giving their culture a peculiar “Sarmatized” appearance.
Probably in the 1st century. n. e. some Sarmatian tribe moves to the Crimean steppes. In the first centuries A.D. e. quite a lot of Sarmatians moved to the Bosporus. At the same time, the Sarmatians settled on the land in the Crimean foothills, on the territory of the Late Scythian state. At the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century. n. e. some Sarmatian tribes expelled the Scythians from the northwestern part of the peninsula and threatened the fortresses of the central part of Scythia and gradually populated the fertile valleys of the Crimean rivers.
In the III - IV centuries. Alans related to them settled together with the Sarmatians. They buried their dead on the territory of Sarmatian burial grounds, although in buildings of an original design.
At the end of the 4th century. Huns tribes appear in Crimea. At this time, the population of the Crimean foothills left their inhabited places. Probably, some of these people fled to inaccessible areas of the mountainous Crimea out of fear of the Huns, while others joined the nomads and went with them to the west.