Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians
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ACTA UNIVERSITATIS DE ATTILA JÓZSEF NOMINATAE ACTA ANTIQUA ET ARCHAEOLOGICA Tomus XIII. KISEBB DOLGOZATOK a klasszika-filológia és a régészet köréből MINORA OPERA ad philologiam classicam et archaeologiam pertinentia ΧΠΙ. J. HARMATTA STUDIES IN THE HISTORY AND LANGUAGE OF THE SARMATIANS Szeged 1970 CONTENTS PREFACE 4 I. THE WESTERN SARMATIANS IN THE NORTH PONTIC REGION 1. From the Cimmerii up to the Sarmatians 7 2. Strabo's Report on the Western Sarmatian Tribal Confederacy 12 3. Late Scythians and Sarmatians. The Amage Story 15 4. The Western Sarmatian Tribal Confederacy and the North Pontic Greek Cities 20 5. Mithridates VI and the Sarmatians 23 6. The Sarmatians on the Lower Danube 26 7. Chronology of the Rise and Falj of the Western Sarmatian Tribal Confederacy 29 8. The Sarmatians and the Yiieh-chih Migration 31 9. The Sarmatian Phalerae and Their Eastern Relations 34 10. Conclusions 39 II. THE SARMATIANS IN HUNGARY 1. The Immigration into Hungary of the Iazyges 41 2. The Iazyges and the Roxolani 45 3. Goths and Roxolani 48 4. The Disappearance of the Roxolani 49 5. The Immigration into Hungary of the Roxolani 51 6. The Evacuation of Dacia and the Roxolani 53 7. The Fall of the Sarmatians in Hungary 55 III. THE LANGUAGE OF THE SARMATIANS 1. A History of the Problem 58 2. Proto-Iranian and Ossetian 69 3. The Sarmatian Dialects of the North Pontic Region 76 4. Conclusions 95 APPENDIX I. ADDITIONAL NOTES 98 APPENDIX II. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Ill INDEX 113 3 PREFACE Since the publication of my "Studies on the History of the Sarmatians" (Buda- pest 1950. Pp. 63) and my "Studies in the Language of the Iranian Tribes in South Russia" (Budapest 1952. Pp. 59) two decades elapsed. At that time both works were printed in a very limited number of copies and they went shortly out of print. My results and hypotheses regarding the history and languages of the Sarmatians aroused keen interest in historical, archaeological and linguistic researches. The follow- ing reviews of the two publications became available to me: 1. on "Studies on the History of the Sarmatians" E. Meyer: Museum Helveticum 8 (1951) 361, V. Pisani: Paideia 6 (1951) 438, A. Aymard: Revue des Etudes Grecques 64 (1951) 501, Ε. Η. Minns: JHS 42 (1952) 142—143, J. Gy. Szilágyi: Acta Arch. Hung. 2 (1952) 357— 359, M. Párducz: Acta Arch. Hung. 2 (1952) 357—359, T. Horváth: A. E. 80 (1953) 72—73, E. Swoboda: Anz. f. A. 8 (1955) 35—37. 2. on "Studies in the Language of the Iranian Tribes in South Russia" V. I. Abaev: Izv. AN SSSR OLY 1953, vol. XII/5 487—490, I. Gershevitch: JHS 45 (1955), 191—192 H. v. Mzik: ZDMG 104 (1954) 208, V. Pisani: Paideia 8 (1953) 405. I express my best thanks to my critics for all their valuable remarks. Besides, both works exerted a considerable influence on historical, archaeological and linguistic researches dealing with the Sarmatians. My results and suggestions were often quoted, adopted, developed, modified, criticized and discussed both at home and abroad. It is easy to understand that during the last decades both publi- cations were often wanted by scholars studying the Iranian tribes of Eastern Europe but no demand could have been satisfied. Therefore, I willingly accepted the proposal by Professor S. Szádeczky-Kardoss to republish both monographs in the Acta An- tiqua et Archaeologica edited by him. Examining the vast literature published during the last two decades on the sub- ject, I would most willingly write a new book, a detailed history of the Sarmatians. The great amount of valuable results achieved mainly by Soviet archaeologists would make now possible to elaborate the problems, discussed in my books, in a more detailed manner as before. Taking into consideration, however, that both works became solid constituents of scholarly research since two decades and considering that most researchers look for the references to them occurring in scientific literature, I abandoned the plan of a radical rewriting and restricting myself to minor corrections I left the text essentially unchanged. In any case I added some additional notes and a 5 selected bibliography with the aim of informing about my present views and the recent results of historical, archaeological and linguistic researches. Surely a detailed analysis of Sarmatian history and language remains an impor- tant desideratum in the future too. On the basis of prolonged researches I propose to do it, if the circumstances permit me to realize my project.For the time being I only refer to my recent papers dealing with this subject (cf. the selected bibliography). I express my best thanks to all scholars who gave me valuable support by sending their books and papers, discussing different problems in personal talks and informing me about recent finds and results during the last decades. Finally, I would warmly thank Professor S. Szádeczky-Kardoss who kindly made the new edition of my two works on the Sarmatians in the Acta Antiqua et Archaeologica possible. 6 I. THE WESTERN SARMATIANS IN THE NORTH PONTIC REGION 1. From the Cimmerii up to the Sarmatians The significance of the nomadic Iranian peoples, the Cimmerii, Scythians and Sarmatians, emerges with ever-increasing clarity from the point of view of the evolu- tion of Slav culture and ethnic characteristics. Thus the more recent Soviet historical science, as compared with the older trend which began the history of Russia only with the Varangians, in dealing with the antecedents of the formation of the first Russian state, goes back, at least as far as the Scythian epoch. Accordingly B. D. Grekov emphasizes the importance of Scytho-Sarmatian culture from the aspect of the Eastern Slavs1 and P. I. Lyashchenko too deals in detail with these two peoples in his economic history of the USSR.2 An even more far-reaching significance is ascribed to the Sarmatians in connection with the Southern Slavs by G. Vernadsky, according to whose theory Slav and Sarmatian tribes had been living together as early as pre- Christian times in Southern Russia. This gave rise to the later Russians with regard to ethnic character and culture. In his opinion even the name "rus" derives from the name of a Sarmatian tribe.3 To some extent also the conception of V. V. Mavrodin tallies with this view.5 Despite the recognition of the historical significance of the Sarmatians, their history nevertheless is obscure on many a point, in fact no unified picture could be formed of it. In the following we wish to throw light on one period of Sarmatian history which has hitherto not been elucidated. The appearance of the Huns has been generally held responsible to have set in motion the large-scale movement of peoples that has been known by history as the Migration of Peoples. The appearance of the Huns in Europe was without doubt of decisive importance in history, yet it would be a mistake to believe that their entry to Eastern and Central Europe had been an entirely new and isolated phenomenon in the history of those parts of Europe. Over a century ago A. Hansen already saw clearly that the Migration of Peoples had begun a thousand years earlier with the appearance of the Scythians,5 and recent investigations have convincingly demonstrated that the migration of the Huns was only one episode in the long series of migrations in the course of which the equestrian nomads of the steppes moved from east to west, and that the movement spread for over more than two thousand years. The process 1 B. D. Grekov, The Culture of Kiev Rus. Moscow, 1947. pp. 18. 2 P. I. Lyashchenko, Istoriya narodnogo khozyaistva SSSR. Vol. I (1947), 38—40. 3 G. Vernadsky, Ancient Russia. New Haven, 1943. pp. 74, passim. See my remarks on the matter RHC. N. S. V (1947), pp. 230. 4 V. V. Mavrodin, Obrazovanie drevnerusskogo gosudarstva. Leningrad, 1945. 390. 5 A. Hansen, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Völkerwanderung. I. Ost-Europa nach Herodot. Dorpat, 1844. 7. set in with the appearance of the Cimmerii at a thousand years B. C. The earliest known seat of the Cimmerii was in the Caucasus and on the adjoining steppes lying north to it; subsequently they penetrated further west and entered South Hungary in the course of the 8th century B. C. The archaeological remains relating to these peoples, contain a great number of horse trappings ; one find of a reflex-bow, iden- tified recently, clearly points to a warrior people with equestrian bowmen. The Cimmerii were, therefore, the first people who introduced to Europe a nomad type of warfare that employed equestrian bowmen in large numbers. The migration of the Cimmerii swept along with them a number of peoples who belonged to other ethnic groups, but there can be no doubt about it that the ruling classes of the Cimmerii must have spoken an Iranian language judging from the names of their rulers. It is, therefore, highly probable that they had originally come from somewhere in the steppes of Kazakstan which was supposedly the cradle of the Iranian peoples.6 A new equestrian nomad people appeared soon in the footsteps of the Cimmerii: the Scythians, who in the course of their westward movement put an end to the the power of the Cimmerii. At the end of the 6th century B. C. the Scythians had already invaded and conquered the South Russian steppes and penetrated further into the western borderlands of the Eurasian steppe belt. Judging from the archaeolo- gical remains the remnants of the Cimmerii settled in two separate lots, namely in Transylvania and along the river Tisa.The number of Cimmerii settled in Hungary at that time must, however, have been so small that they soon became merged into the indigenous Daco-Mysian tribes and into the Celtic peoples who had come to Hungary from the west.