ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES OF THE LOWER VOLGA REGION OF THE 2nd—1st CENTURIES BC AND SOME ETHNIC ISSUES OF THE SARMATIANS

Abstract

The paper concerns with chronological analysis of Early Sarmatian military burials with two swords in the Lower Volga region dated to the last centuries BC. There are two combinations of the different bladed weapons in the burials: swords with a ring pommel and daggers with a crescent-shaped pommel; swords without metal pommel with the rhomboid cross-bar and daggers with a crescent-shaped pommel. Swords and daggers with a crescent-shaped pommel are absent in the burials after the turn of AD. Swords and daggers with ring pommel or rhomboid-shaped cross-bar have appeared during the new migration wave in the Lower Volga region not earlier than in the 2nd century BC. This determines the chronological framework of the assemblages. Daggers and swords with a crescent-shaped pommel are the local product, they were used much earlier than the swords of migratory origin. The authors suggest that the emergence of innovations is associated with the migration of the 2nd—1st centuries BC from Central Asia, because in addition to swords with ring pommel and bronze cross-bar without metal pommel, there were found bronze openwork and lattice buckles, jet buckles and cubic incense burners, well known in the East.
 The burials with Northern direction and wooden decks have the analogies in Tuvan antiquities of the Xiungnu-Sarmatian time. At the same time in ancient sources there is a list of tribes among which Aorsi and Top Aorsi on the Don and in the Volga region, Rhoxolani in the Northern Pontic region and Siraci in the Kuban region are mentioned. Although all this area was called Sarmatia, the name Sarmatians is not included in this list. The authors believe that the new tribes replaced the Sarmatians but in Greek literary tradition the territory retained its old familiar name. In addition to swords and daggers with the crescent-shaped pommel, other items known as early as the 4th—3rd centuries BC continue to occur in the burials, and the burial rite continues to preserve the custom of southern direction of the buried and the practice of placing the burial in a circle or in a row under the mound. All this is the evidence of the unique symbiosis of two cultural traditions: the previous local and newcomer Central Asian.