03-21-2013, 09:27 PM
This is my 1,000 post! I thought I'd list some reference material that might aid the increased interest in Sarmatian history. Some of this stuff begins in the bronze age, while other references cover the iron age and finally the period when the Sarmatians and Romans meet head-on. There are also a few references to the Xiong-nu and Huns. They include primary and secondary sources, and the references run historically from Sintashta to the Altai to Tien Shan to the Ural steppe, to the Crimea to the Danube, from the Massagetae/Saka to the evolved Wusun/Sarmatians/Alans. I'll try to list them in chronological order, from bronze age to iron age, both historical and archaeological:
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language; David W. Anthony, 2007, Princeton: Copper Age to Bronze Age, includes lance heads, sagarii, etc.
The Horse in Human History; Pita Kelekna, 2009, Cambridge: overview of steppe tribes in early chapters, up to the Wusun/Alans.
Art of the Steppes; Karl Jettmar, 1967, Graystone: Tuva and the Altai, iron age
The Histories; Herodotus, 1910, 1997, Knopf: Book I, Massagetae, Queen Tomyris against Cyrus
In Search of the Indo-Europeans; J.P. Mallory, 1989, Thames and Hudson: language, Indo-Iranian overview.
The Sarmatians; Tadeusz Sulimirski, 1970, Praeger: a ground-breaking and extensive overview of Sarmatians.
The Golden Deer of Eurasia; Aruz, Farkas, Alekseev, Korolkova, 2000, Yale: not just art, but important articles on Asiatic admixture and hauma.
Records of the Grand Historian, Han Dynasty II; Sima Qian, trans by Burton Watson, 1993, Columbia: the Wusun and Xiong-nu, intermarriages, the heavenly horse.
Geography, Books 10-12; Strabo, 1928, 2000, Loeb: book 11.8.6-7, the Sacae (Saka), Massagetae, etc.
The War; Josephus, 1988, 2000, Whiston trans, Hendrickson: Book 7.7.4, the Alans devestate Media and Armenia.
History; Ammianus Marcellinus, 1939, trans Rolfe, Loeb: Book 31, customs of the Huns and Halani/Alans.
The Sarmatians, 600BC - AD450; Brzezinski and Mielczarek, 2002, Osprey: a beginner's overview, accurate in some places but incorrect in others, illustrated.
There are isolated references in Pliny, Tacitus, and Dio. In the History, Tacitus mentions a legion wiped out by the Roxolani, then it's payback time as the Romans defeat the Roxolani on a frozen Danube (Ister). In Germania, he calls the Sarmatians "debased" because they lived in wagons and upon horses, a stance that shows a Roman lack of understanding of pastoral cultures.
Several important archaeological PDFs are online: Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Iron Age, ed by Davis-Kimball; Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements, the Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age, ed by Davis-Kimball. We are reviewing Truesdale and Simonenko on RAT Sarmatian threads, so check these out. This is just a partial list, but it presents an historic and archaeological picture of the eastern tribes that became known as the Roxolani and Alans to the Romans. :-)
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language; David W. Anthony, 2007, Princeton: Copper Age to Bronze Age, includes lance heads, sagarii, etc.
The Horse in Human History; Pita Kelekna, 2009, Cambridge: overview of steppe tribes in early chapters, up to the Wusun/Alans.
Art of the Steppes; Karl Jettmar, 1967, Graystone: Tuva and the Altai, iron age
The Histories; Herodotus, 1910, 1997, Knopf: Book I, Massagetae, Queen Tomyris against Cyrus
In Search of the Indo-Europeans; J.P. Mallory, 1989, Thames and Hudson: language, Indo-Iranian overview.
The Sarmatians; Tadeusz Sulimirski, 1970, Praeger: a ground-breaking and extensive overview of Sarmatians.
The Golden Deer of Eurasia; Aruz, Farkas, Alekseev, Korolkova, 2000, Yale: not just art, but important articles on Asiatic admixture and hauma.
Records of the Grand Historian, Han Dynasty II; Sima Qian, trans by Burton Watson, 1993, Columbia: the Wusun and Xiong-nu, intermarriages, the heavenly horse.
Geography, Books 10-12; Strabo, 1928, 2000, Loeb: book 11.8.6-7, the Sacae (Saka), Massagetae, etc.
The War; Josephus, 1988, 2000, Whiston trans, Hendrickson: Book 7.7.4, the Alans devestate Media and Armenia.
History; Ammianus Marcellinus, 1939, trans Rolfe, Loeb: Book 31, customs of the Huns and Halani/Alans.
The Sarmatians, 600BC - AD450; Brzezinski and Mielczarek, 2002, Osprey: a beginner's overview, accurate in some places but incorrect in others, illustrated.
There are isolated references in Pliny, Tacitus, and Dio. In the History, Tacitus mentions a legion wiped out by the Roxolani, then it's payback time as the Romans defeat the Roxolani on a frozen Danube (Ister). In Germania, he calls the Sarmatians "debased" because they lived in wagons and upon horses, a stance that shows a Roman lack of understanding of pastoral cultures.
Several important archaeological PDFs are online: Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Iron Age, ed by Davis-Kimball; Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements, the Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age, ed by Davis-Kimball. We are reviewing Truesdale and Simonenko on RAT Sarmatian threads, so check these out. This is just a partial list, but it presents an historic and archaeological picture of the eastern tribes that became known as the Roxolani and Alans to the Romans. :-)
Alan J. Campbell
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
