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100-452: The term can also refer to the historical Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe which gradually Slavicized large areas previously inhabited by other ethnic peoples. In northern Russia, there was also mass Slavization of Finnic and Baltic population in the 9th-10th centuries. After historic ethnogenesis and distinct nationalisation, ten main subsets of the process apply in modern times: This article about cultural assimilation

200-661: A Sarmatian attack on Thracia and Macedonia , while further attacks around 10 BC and 2 BC were defeated by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus . Meanwhile, other Sarmatian tribes, possibly the Aorsi, sent ambassadors to the Roman emperor Augustus , who tried to establish a diplomatic accommodation with them. During the 1st century AD, the Siraces and Aorsi, who were mutually hostile, participated in the Roman–Bosporan War on opposite sides:

300-918: A bridge to Northwestern Romania). The distribution of clay "breadcakes", related to house ovens, found in the Upper Tisza and Lower Danube regions of Romania and to the north of the Carpathians (basins of Teteriv , Bug and Upper Vistula river) also show "probable indication of the territory of origin and the directions of the Early Slavs' migrations". First wave of Slavic settlers in Bulgaria were around forts and related to Antae of Penkovka culture (probably as Byzantine foederati), while second wave by Sclaveni with different ceramics with analogies in Muntenia and Slovakia settled away of such locations. In

400-582: A complex of mounds in the Prokhorovski District , Orenburg region , excavated by S. I. Rudenko in 1916. Reportedly, during 2001 and 2006 a great Late Sarmatian pottery centre was unearthed near Budapest , Hungary in the Üllő5 archaeological site. Typical grey, granular Üllő5 ceramics form a distinct group of Sarmatian pottery is found ubiquitously in the north-central part of the Great Hungarian Plain region, indicating

500-677: A council of nobles ruled the tribal community. This allowed Slav tribes to stay together regardless of environmental factors, but according to Johannes Koder , "impeded coordinated military resistance against the enemy", which put them in a situation of being under foreign political leadership. When the Slavs and later the Avars entered the southeast of Europe they lacked advanced siege-warfare tactics, but around 587 they acquired this knowledge from contact with Byzantine culture, and because of this no urban settlement or fort could oppose them any more. With

600-695: A large confederation of ancient Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD. The earliest reference to the Sarmatians is in the Avesta , Sairima- , which is in the later Iranian sources recorded as *Sarm and Salm . Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe , the Sarmatians were part of the wider Scythian cultures . They started migrating westward around

700-586: A large army of the Antae, "who dwell close to the Sclaveni", crossed the Danube River into Roman territory. Raids continued with ever-faster and stronger incursions during the time of Justinian I ( r.  527–565 ), with Procopius recording that the whole of Illyricum and Thrace was pillaged almost every year by Huns, Sclaveni, and Antae, who did enormous damage to the native Roman population, making

800-567: A lively trading activity. A 1998 paper on the study of glass beads found in Sarmatian graves suggests wide cultural and trade links. A 2023 paper on a grave discovered in Cambridgeshire , England found via archaeogenetics that the person had Sarmatian-related ancestry, and was not related to the local population. Stable isotope analysis of his teeth determined that he had probably migrated long distances twice in his life. One tooth

900-819: A population exchange, mixing and language shift to and from Slavic . The settlement was facilitated by the substantial decrease of the Southeastern European population during the Plague of Justinian . Another reason was the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 CE and the series of wars between the Sasanian Empire and the Avar Khaganate against the Eastern Roman Empire . The backbone of

1000-778: A shared "Slavonic-time ancestry". According to a recent admixture analysis, the South Slavs show a genetic uniformity, with a modeled ancestral genetic component in the study peaking in Baltic speakers, being high in East Slavs (80-95%) as well as Western and North-Western Europeans (Germans, Orcadians, Swedes), and between 55-70% among South Slavs. According to 2017 admixture study of Peloponnesian Greek population, "the Slavic ancestry of Peloponnesean subpopulations ranges from 0.2 to 14.4%". The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that

1100-479: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This European history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe Early Slavs began mass migrating to Southeastern Europe in the mid-6th century and first decades of the 7th century in the Early Middle Ages . The rapid demographic spread of the Slavs was followed by

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1200-739: Is also evidence for a later eastwards expansion of Sarmatian-like ancestry, evident in a Saka-associated sample from southeastern Kazakhstan (Konyr Tobe 300CE), displaying around 85% Sarmatian and 15% additional BMAC-like ancestry. Sarmatian-like contributions have also been detected among some Xiongnu remains. Afanasiev et al. (2014) analyzed ten Alanic burials on the Don River. Four of them carried Y-DNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them possessed mtDNA haplogroup I. In 2015, again Afanasiev et al. analyzed skeletons of various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. The two Alan samples from

1300-634: The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex . A genetic study published in Current Biology in 2022 regarding the genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians. 265 ancient genomes were analized, it revealed that the Hungarian conquerors admixed with Sarmatians and Huns . Sarmatian ancestry was also detected among several Hun samples which implies a significant Sarmatian influence on European Huns . There

1400-707: The Bosporan Chersonesus , while the Iazyges became his allies. That the tribes formerly referred to by Herodotus as Scythians were now called Sarmatians by Hellenistic and Roman authors implies that the Sarmatian conquest did not involve a displacement of the Scythians from the Pontic Steppe, but rather that the Scythian tribes were absorbed by the Sarmatians. After their conquest of Scythia,

1500-895: The Bosporan Civil War in 309 BC and came under pressure from the Thracian Getae and the Celtic Bastarnae . At the same time, in Central Asia, following the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire , the new Seleucid Empire started attacking the Sakā and Dahā nomads who lived to the north of its borders, who in turn put westward pressure on the Sarmatians. Pressured by the Sakā and Dahā in

1600-654: The Danube , and the Roxolani moved into the area between the Dnipro and the Danube and from there further west. These two peoples attacked the regions around Tomis and Moesia , respectively. During this period, the Iazyges and Roxolani also attacked the Roman province of Thracia , whose governor Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus had to defend the Roman border of the Danube. During the 1st century BC, various Sarmatians reached

1700-571: The Danube . The Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language that was derived from 'Old Iranian' and was heterogenous. By the first century AD, the Iranian tribes in what is today South Russia spoke different languages or dialects, clearly distinguishable. According to a group of Iranologists writing in 1968, the numerous Iranian personal names in Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea coast indicate that

1800-767: The Don River , were controlled in the fifth century BC by the Sarmatians, the Volga–Don and Ural steppes sometimes are called "Sarmatian Motherland." The Sarmatians in the Bosporan Kingdom assimilated into the Greek civilization, while others were absorbed by the proto- Circassian Maeotian people, the Alans and the Goths . Other Sarmatians were assimilated and absorbed by the Early Slavs . A people related to

1900-701: The Germanic Bastarnae near whom they lived. The more eastern Sarmatian tribes used scale armour and used a long lance called the contus and bows in battle. The early Sarmatians already possessed the technique of decorating with gold inclusions, observed in Achaemenid metalwork. It was spread by nomads in the Eurasian steppes during the 7th-5th century BC, from the Altai Mountains ( Arzhan-2 kurgan) westward to central Kazakhstan and

2000-670: The Greek cities on its shores, with the city of Pontic Olbia being forced to pay repeated tribute to the Royal Sarmatians and their king Saitapharnes , who is mentioned in the Protogenes inscription along with the tribes of the Thisamatae , Scythians, and Saudaratae . Another Sarmatian king, Gatalos, was named in a peace treaty concluded by the king Pharnaces I of Pontus with his enemies. Two other Sarmatian tribes,

2100-751: The Iazyges , also called the Iaxamatai or Iazamatai, who initially settled between the Don and Dnieper rivers. The Roxolani , who might have been a mixed Scytho-Sarmatian tribe, followed the Iazyges and occupied the Black Sea steppes up to the Dnipro and raided the Crimean region during that century, at the end of which they were involved in a conflict with the generals of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator in

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2200-628: The Ljubljana Gap could be considered as another crossroad of different tribal movements, of at least two migrations, first after 500 AD and second before 700 AD. The region north of Sava river was in the 6th century settled from the Middle Danube area, and then in the 7th century another group of Slavs with pottery made on a tournette settled the Sava river region (including Dalmatia and other parts of Western Balkans). The distribution of

2300-626: The Pannonian Basin , with the Iazyges passing through the territories corresponding to modern-day Moldavia and Wallachia before settling in the Tisza valley, by the middle of the century. Although the Sarmatian movements stopped temporarily during the 1st century BC due to the rise of the Dacian kingdom of Burebista , they resumed after the collapse of his kingdom following his assassination and in 16 BC. Lucius Tarius Rufus had to repel

2400-841: The Roman Empire in alliance with Germanic tribes . In the third century AD, their dominance of the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Germanic Goths . With the Hunnic invasions of the fourth century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes ( Vandals ) in the settlement of the Western Roman Empire . Since large parts of today's Russia, specifically the land between the Ural Mountains and

2500-667: The Saka populations of Central Asia , particularly from the Altai region ( Pazyryk ), and were very different from the western Scythians , or the Sarmatians of the Volga River area. The Roman author Ovid recorded that one of the Sarmatian tribes, the Coralli, had blond hair, which is a characteristic that Ammianus Marcellinus also ascribed to the Alans. He wrote that nearly all of

2600-477: The Sintashta , Srubnaya and Andronovo cultures , but also carried a small amount of admixed from an East Asian-derived population represented by Khövsgöl LBA groups, which may have been indirectly mediated via contact with the related Saka from the Altai region , which are regarded as the oldest Scythoid cultural group. The Sarmatians also received geneflow from an ancient Iranian population associated with

2700-660: The Siraces , who had previously originated in the Transcaspian Plains immediately to the northeast of Hyrcania before migrating to the west, and the Aorsi, moved to the west across the Volga and into the Caucasus mountains' foothills between the 2nd to 1st centuries BC. From there, the pressure from their growing power forcing the more western Sarmatian tribes to migrate further west, and the Aorsi and Siraces destroyed

2800-449: The Ural Mountains ) between the fifth century BC and the second century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture . The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to the haplogroups U3 , M , U1a'c , T , F1b , N1a1a1a1a , T2 , U2e2 , H2a1f , T1a , and U5a1d2b . The Sarmatians examined were found to be closely related to peoples of

2900-418: The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. The Sarmatians in the Bosporan Kingdom assimilated into the Greek civilization. Others assimilated with the proto- Circassian Meot people, and may have influenced the Circassian language . Some Sarmatians were absorbed by the Alans and Goths . During the Early Middle Ages, the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe assimilated and absorbed Sarmatians during

3000-436: The 1st century AD, the Alans expanded across the Volga to the west, absorbing part of the Aorsi and displacing the rest, and pressure from the Alans forced the Iazyges and Roxolani to continue attacking the Roman Empire from across the Danube. During the 1st century AD, two Sarmatian rulers from the steppe named Pharzoios and Inismeōs were minting coins in Pontic Olbia. The Roxolani continued their westward migration following

3100-420: The 2013 autosomal IBD survey "of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale", the speakers of Serbo-Croatian language share a very high number of common ancestors dated to the migration period approximately 1,500 years ago with Poland and Romania - Bulgaria cluster among others in Eastern Europe . It is concluded to be caused by the Hunnic and Slavic expansion, which

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3200-410: The 2nd century BC, the Alans were pushed west by the Kangju people (known to Graeco-Roman authors as the Ιαξαρται Iaxartai in Greek, and the Iaxartae in Latin) who were living in the Syr Darya basin, from where they expanded their rule from Fergana to the Aral Sea region. The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the Pontic Steppe continued during the 1st century BC, when they were allied with

3300-431: The 5th century CE (evidence being recorded words " medos, kamos, strava " in a Hunnic camp ). The Slavs who settled in Southeast Europe comprised two groups: the Antae and the Sclaveni . The first certain Slavic raids date to the early 6th century during the time of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I ( r.  518–527 ), coinciding with the end of the Vitalian revolt of 511–518. Procopius recorded that in 518

3400-557: The 5th-4th century BCE. During the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the centre of Sarmatian power remained north of the Caucasus and in the 3rd century BC the most important centres were around the lower Don, Kalmykia , the Kuban area, and the Central Caucasus. During the end of the 4th century BC, the Scythians , the then dominant power in the Black Sea Steppe, were militarily defeated by the Macedonian kings Philip II of Macedon and Lysimachus in 339 and 313 BC respectively. They experienced another military setback after participating in

3500-410: The Alans, the Antae , migrated north into the territory of what is presently Poland . The hegemony of the Sarmatians in the steppes began to decline over the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when the Huns conquered Sarmatian territory in the Caspian Steppe and the Ural region. The supremacy of the Sarmatians was finally destroyed when the Germanic Goths migrating from the Baltic Sea region conquered

3600-479: The Albanian-speaking majority assimilated the local Slavic settlers. After the settlement of the Slavs, Church administration – which was controlled by a thick network of Roman bishoprics – collapsed, and most of Southeast Europe turned to paganism and entered the Dark Ages , alongside most of post-Roman Europe. Many Slavs soon began to accept the cultural customs of the highly civilized Roman provinces, and in order to expand their cultural and state influence on

3700-443: The Arraei, who had had close contacts with the Romans, eventually settled to the south of the Danube river, in Thrace, and another Sarmatian tribe, the Koralloi, were also living in the same area alongside a section of the Scythian Sindi . During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Iazyges often bothered the Roman authorities in Pannonia ; they participated in the destruction of the Quadian kingdom of Vannius , and often migrated to

3800-413: The Avar Khaganate consisted of Early Slavic tribes. After the failed siege of Constantinople in the summer of 626, they remained in the wider Southeast Europe area after they had settled the Byzantine provinces south of the Sava and Danube rivers, from the Adriatic towards the Aegean up to the Black Sea . Exhausted by several factors and reduced to the coastal parts of the Balkans , Byzantium

3900-414: The Avar expansion in the western part of the Carpathian Basin. Hans Losert also related the finding with a cremation cemetery at Enns near Linz in Upper Austria . According to archaeological data and historical sources, the Slavs mostly travelled along the river valleys, but in the Southern Balkans, they travelled where they encountered greater resistance by the native Byzantine Greek forces, along

4000-406: The Avars at one time ruled over all Slavs in the Danube region. After the death of Justinian I, the new Roman Emperor Justin II ( r.  565–574 ) halted the payment of subsidies to the Avars, thus sparking an almost century-long war (568-626). With the Byzantines preoccupied with the 572–591 and 602–628 wars with the Sasanian Empire , Avars and Slavs made devastating intrusions along

4100-437: The Byzantine Empire. In most parts of the former dioceses of Dacia and Thracia the Sklavinias fell under the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire , while in the diocese of Macedonia they lacked political organization, because of which the Byzantine Empire regained control there, and after 200 years the Slavs in the southern Balkans became assimilated by the Greek-speaking majority. In the territory of present-day Albania ,

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4200-450: The Byzantine borders from Northern Italy to Southern Greece, and by the mid-7th century, the Slavs had settled in all the Balkans and Peloponnese . Based on the archaeological research of forts Avar-Slav devastation of Dalmatia happened in late 560s and early 570s, with a limited inhabitation until the end of the 6th century. The Byzantine Emperor Maurice ( r.  582–602 ) in his Balkan campaigns (582–602) did not manage to stop

4300-468: The Carpathian Basin is usually considered to have been settled by a movement from Lower Danube in east-west direction, but is also possible a north-south direction along Tisza Plain. Meanwhile, the area of Transylvanian Basin was settled from both west-east direction of intra-Carpathian Basin (Upper Tisza) and east-west direction of Eastern Carpathians (Upper Olt and mountain passes). Based on findings of different types of fibulae and pottery identified with

4400-412: The Greek tales about the Amazons." The Sarmatians were part of the Iranian steppe peoples, among whom were also Scythians and Saka . These also are grouped together as "East Iranians." Archaeology has established the connection 'between the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sarmatians, and Saka and the earlier Timber-grave and Andronovo cultures '. Based on building construction, these three peoples were

4500-467: The Khokhlach barrow in Novocherkassk in 1864. Chronologically it belongs to the first and second centuries AD. Numerous weapons, armour, helmets were already found in the excavations of the Early Sarmatian Filippovka kurgan (c. 450-300 BCE): Many Chinese mirrors can be found in graves of the Middle-Sarmatian to Late-Sarmatian periods. Sarmatians emerged primarily from the Bronze and Iron Age Western Steppe Herders (Steppe_MLBA), associated with

4600-409: The Late Antique Little Ice Age and population pressure , pushed the migration of the Early Slavs , who were also led by the Pannonian Avars . Early Slavs could have been sporadically present in the Carpathian Basin during the time of Sarmatian Iazyges (and related to Limigantes ). They possibly also participated in the campaigns of the Huns and of various Germanic tribes from the end of

4700-400: The Pontic Steppe around 200 AD. In 375 AD, the Huns conquered most of the Alans living to the east of the Don river, massacred a significant number of them, and absorbed them into their tribal polity, while the Alans to the west of the Don remained free from Hunnish domination. As part of the Hunnic state, the Alans participated in the Huns' defeat and conquest of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths on

4800-433: The Pontic Steppe. Some free Alans fled into the mountains of the Caucasus, where they participated in the ethnogenesis of populations including the Ossetians and the Kabardians , and other Alan groupings survived in Crimea. Others migrated into Central and then Western Europe, from where some of them went to Britannia and Hispania , and some joined the Germanic Vandals into crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and creating

4900-407: The Prokhorovka culture, which moved from the southern Urals to the Lower Volga and then to the northern Pontic steppe , in the fourth–third centuries BC. During the migration, the Sarmatian population seems to have grown and they divided themselves into several groups, such as the Alans , Aorsi , Roxolani , and Iazyges . By 200 BC, the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians as the dominant people of

5000-424: The Sarmatians became the dominant political power in the northern Pontic Steppe, where Sarmatian graves first started appearing in the 2nd century BC. Meanwhile, the populations which still identified as Scythians proper became reduced to Crimea and the Dobruja region, and at one point the Crimean Scythians were the vassals of the Sarmatian queen Amage . Sarmatian power in the Pontic Steppes was also directed against

5100-565: The Sarmatians spoke a North-Eastern Iranian dialect ancestral to Alanian- Ossetian . However, Harmatta (1970) argued that "the language of the Sarmatians or that of the Alans as a whole cannot be simply regarded as being Old Ossetian." The Roxolani, who were one of the earlier Sarmatian tribes to have migrated into Europe and therefore were among the more geographically western Sarmatians, used helmets and corselets made of raw ox hide, and wicker shields, as well as spears, bows, and swords. The Roxolani adopted these forms of armour and weaponry from

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5200-522: The Sarmatians, known as the Alans, survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages , ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group. The Polish nobility claimed to stem from the Sarmatians. Genomic studies suggest that this group may have been genetically similar to the eastern Yamnaya Bronze Age group. The Greek name Sarmatai ( Σαρμαται ) is derived from the Old Iranic Sarmatian endonym *Sarmata or *Sarumata , of which another variant, *Saᵘrumata , gave rise to

5300-444: The Scythians against Diophantus , a general of Mithradates VI Eupator, before allying with Mithradates against the Romans and fighting for him in both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the Sarmatians' complete involvement in the affairs of the Pontic and Danubian regions. During the early part of the century, the Alans had migrated to the area to the northeast of the Lake Maeotis . Meanwhile, the Iazyges moved westwards until they reached

5400-424: The Siraces and their king Zorsines allied with Mithridates III against his half-brother Cotys I , who was allied with Rome and the Aorsi. With the defeat of Mithridates, the Siraces were also routed and lost rulership over most of their lands. Between 50 and 60 CE, the Alans had appeared in the foothills of the Caucasus, from where they attacked the Caucasus and Transcaucasus areas and the Parthian Empire . During

5500-407: The Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis that places the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middle Dnieper ". According to genetic studies until 2020, the distribution, variance and frequency of the Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and I2 and their subclades R-M558, R-M458 and I-CTS10228 among South Slavs are in correlation with

5600-590: The Slavic expansion". The Slavic influence is "dated to 500-900 CE or a bit later with over 40-50% among Bulgarians , Romanians , and Hungarians ". The 2015 IBD analysis found that the South Slavs have lower proximity to Greeks than with East Slavs and West Slavs and that there's an "even patterns of IBD sharing among East-West Slavs–'inter-Slavic' populations (Hungarians, Romanians and Gagauz )–and South Slavs, i.e. across an area of assumed historic movements of people including Slavs". The slight peak of shared IBD segments between South and East-West Slavs suggests

5700-410: The Slavs and Avars were fighting "which prevented them from waging a common war", and the Pannonian Slavs managed to liberate themselves from the Avar rule (which itself coincides with the account in De Administrando Imperio about the war between the Croats and Avars in Roman province of Dalmatia). According to Procopius, Slavic social and political organization was a kind of demokratia in which

5800-660: The Slavs on banks of Danube around Iron Gates , and their analogies, some archaeologists hypothesize movement of a part of Slavs from an area of today's Serbian Danube in southeast direction through Southern Bulgaria -Constantinople- Asia Minor , and south direction along Great Morava and Vardar river to Thessaly and Peloponnese . Based on historical circumstances, another route of Slavic-Avar invasion went from Sirmium along Drina river (through Zvornik ) to Bosnia and Salona in Dalmatia. Based on archaeological and linguistical evidence (as Slovene language has many dialects and both South Slavic and West Slavic influences),

5900-414: The Slavs were already attacking Eastern Adriatic coast. Pope Agatho in a letter to Byzantine emperor Constantine IV regarding the Third Council of Constantinople (680–681) mentioned that many Roman Church bishops are active "in the middle of the barbarians - the Lombards and Slavs, as well as the Franks, Goths and Britons". A mid-8th century episcopal notitia mentions Slavs among many others as part of

6000-620: The Slavs, but considering the amount of Slavic cultural remains in the Transylvanian Basin, that dyke didn't manage to serve its purpose. The grave artifacts of the Slavic community and its tribal leaders of Nușfalău - Someșeni group in northwestern Romania showed close relations with the Avars. That community was identified by scholars with the West Slavs, White Croats and most probably East Slavs in general. A mid-6th century graves with prestigious artefacts found at Regensburg -Grossprüfening in Bavaria indicate resettlement of an elite Pannonian-Middle Danubian Slavic military group running away from

6100-469: The South Slavs, the Roman Church and Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople began the process of Christianization of the Slavs . Martin of Braga already in 558 listed Slavs among baptized barbarians, most probably a reference to the Pannonian Slavs. Pope Gregory I in May 591 advised bishops of Illyricum to accept their colleagues who taken refuge from invasions, in March 592 wrote to prefect of Illyricum about barbarian devastations, and by July 600

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6200-534: The Y-DNA haplogroups I2a-L621 and R1a-Z282 are absent in the antiquity and appear only since the Early Middle Ages "always associated with Eastern European related ancestry in the autosomal genome, which supports that these lineages were introduced in the Balkans by Eastern European migrants during the Early Medieval period". Sarmatian The Sarmatians ( / s ɑːr ˈ m eɪ ʃ i ə n z / ; Ancient Greek : Σαρμάται , romanized :  Sarmatai ; Latin : Sarmatae [ˈsarmatae̯] ) were

6300-482: The ancient Greek name Sauromatai ( Σαυρομαται ). The form *Sarmata or *Sarumata was the main form of the name, and initially coexisted with the form *Saᵘrumata until the late 4th to early 3rd centuries BC, when *Sarmata / *Sarumata became the only variant of the name in use. This name meant "armed with throwing darts and arrows," and is cognate with the Indic Sanskrit term śárumant ( शरुमन्त् ), which makes it semantically similar to

6400-488: The border with Slovenia and Croatia, specifically in Northeastern Slovenia, are radiocarbon dated to the first-third of the 6th century (and probably settled in the southwestern part of the Carpathian Basin before the arrival of Lombards ). In Bulgaria and countries of former Yugoslavia since late 6th and early 7th century, while Greece surely only since the 7th century (although military invasions could be argued since mid-6th century). The southeastern(-Romanian) part of

6500-402: The conflict on the Bosporan Chersonesus, and by 69 AD they were close enough to the lower Danube that they were able to attack across the river when it was frozen in winter, and soon later they and the Alans were living on the coast of the Black Sea, and they later moved further west and were living in the areas corresponding to modern-day Moldavia and western Ukraine . The Sarmatian tribe of

6600-416: The cremation burials and archaic Prague-pottery associated with the early Slavs shows higher density at the periphery, especially western, of the Avar Khaganate in the Middle Danube region. In the central-eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, the early Slavic and Avar settlements were separated by the Devil's Dykes ( limes sarmaticus ). Avars also constructed a new dyke system in eastern Transylvania against

6700-450: The destruction of Roman fortifications came a loss of Byzantine military and administrative power in Roman provinces. The native population was often decimated, and smaller or larger groups of Slavs settled in the devastated lands. Settlement among the natives, often replacing them, happened in the autumn, when winter supplies were secured for the people and animals. After mixing with the natives who survived in smaller communities, depending on

6800-462: The destructive campaigns of Attila the Hun and the Goths , who were previously foederati , which resulted in the fall of the Western Roman Empire , Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I began the reconstruction of fortresses, cities, and Christianity. However, the Plague of Justinian (from 541–549 until the mid-8th century ) decimated the native population, resulting in the weakening of the Pannonian and Danubian Limes . Various factors, including

6900-524: The earlier Yamnaya culture and to the Poltavka culture . A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1 , I2b , R (two samples), and R1 . The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to C4a1a , U4a2 (two samples), C4b1 , I1 , A , U2e1h (two samples), U4b1a4 , H28 , and U5a1 . A genetic study published in Science Advances in October 2018 examined

7000-458: The east across the Transylvanian Plateau and the Carpathian Mountains during seasonal movements or for trade. By the 2nd century AD, the Alans had conquered the steppes of the north Caucasus and of the north Black Sea area and created a powerful confederation of tribes under their rule. Under the hegemony of the Alans a trade route connected the Pontic Steppe, the southern Urals, and the region presently known as Western Turkestan . One group of

7100-403: The east and taking advantage of the decline of Scythian power, the Sarmatians began crossing the Don river and invaded Scythia and also migrated south into the North Caucasus . The first wave of westward Sarmatian migration happened during the 2nd century BC, and involved the Royal Sarmatians, or Saioi (from Scytho-Sarmatian *xšaya , meaning "kings"), who moved into the Pontic Steppe, and

7200-451: The endonym of the Scythians, *Skuδatā , meaning "archers." The later, Middle Iranic , form of *Saᵘrumata was *Sōrmata or *Sōrumata , of which the later form, *Sūrmata or *Sūrumata , was recorded in ancient Greek as Syrmatai ( Συρμαται ; Latin : Syrmatae ). The territory inhabited by the Sarmatians, which was known as Sarmatia ( / s ɑːr ˈ m eɪ ʃ i ə / ) to Greco-Roman ethnographers, covered

7300-628: The fourth and third centuries BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by 200 BC. At their greatest reported extent, around 100 BC, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga , bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south. In the first century AD, the Sarmatians began encroaching upon

7400-703: The fourth to sixth century AD belonged to Y-DNA haplogroups G2a-P15 and R1a-Z94, while two of the three Sarmatian samples from the second to third century AD found to belong to Y-DNA haplogroup J1-M267, and one belonged to R1a. Three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from the eighth to ninth century AD turned out to have Y-DNA corresponding to haplogroups G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94. A genetic study published in Nature Communications in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of

7500-615: The likely descendants of those earlier archaeological cultures. The Sarmatians and Saka used the same stone construction methods as the earlier Andronovo culture. The Timber grave ( Srubnaya culture ) and Andronovo house building traditions were further developed by these three peoples. Andronovo pottery was continued by the Saka and Sarmatians. Archaeologists describe the Andronovo culture people as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid features. The first Sarmatians are mostly identified with

7600-1084: The majority of the Slavic population in Southeast Europe was descending from Antae, while Michel Kazanski and Andrej Pleterski gave more emphasis on the Sclaveni as immigration started in Western Ukraine (river Dniester) and South(-eastern) Poland (around river Vistula). A settlement pattern movement can be observed from lands north and northeast of the Carpathians, with Upper Tisza in the Carpathian Basin as transitory territory. Pottery in Northwestern Romania can be grouped into (1) Prague-Korchak (2) Penkovka and Kolochin (3) and Lazuri-Pişcolt horizon from mid-6th century with analogies in Northwestern Ukraine, Southern Belarus, Southeastern Poland, and Slovakia (with Upper Vistula and San river Polish sites argued as

7700-477: The most Anatolian Neolithic component of ancestry, whereas present-day Slavs outside the Southeast Europe have the least, "with present-day people from Southeastern Europe intermediate between the two extremes". Among present-day populations "Greeks and Albanians have more Anatolian Neolithic ancestry than their South Slavic neighbors". A 2023 archaeogenetic study published in Cell , based on 146 samples, confirmed that

7800-760: The mountain ranges. Soon after their arrival the Slavic archaeological culture changed under the influence of native and Byzantine cultures. They mostly were engaged in agriculture , cultivating proso millet , which they introduced, wheat , but also flax . They grew various fruits and vegetables, and learned viticulture . They were actively engaged in animal husbandry , using horses for military and agricultural purposes, and raising oxen and goats . Those living in hilly terrain mostly lived as shepherds . Those living near lakes, rivers, and seas also used various hooks and nets for fishing. They were known to be especially skilled in woodworking and shipbuilding, but also knew about metalworking and pottery. According to

7900-484: The mtDNA haplogroups C5, H, 2x H1, H5, H7, H40, H59, HV0 I1, J1, 2x K1a, T1a, 2x T2b, U2. The Early Sarmatians from the Filippovka kurgans (4th century BC) combined Western ( Timber Grave and Andronovo ) and Eastern characteristics. Compared with classical Sauromatians , Early Sarmatians, such as those of Filippovka, generally display an increased incidence of eastern Asiatic features. They most closely resembled

8000-552: The nine samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup W , W3a , T1a1 , U5a2 , U5b2a1a2 , T1a1d , C1e , U5b2a1a1 , U5b2c , and U5b2c . A archaeogenetic study published in Cell in 2022, analyzed 17 Late Sarmatian samples from 4-5th century AD from the Pannonian Basin in Hungary. The nine extraced Y-DNA belonged to a diverse set of haplogroups, 2x I2a1b1a2b1-CTS4348, 2x I1a2a1a1a-Z141, I1a-DF29, G2a1-FGC725, E1b1b-L142.1, R1a1a1b2a2a1-Z2123 and R1b1a1b1a1a2b-PF6570, while

8100-646: The northern regions of the Carpathian Basin (from Tisza River to Western Slovakia) the presence of Slavs is archaeologically confirmed in the first half of the 6th century. For now archaeologically the earliest Slavic sites and artifacts in Moldova are dated to the 5th century, in Romania since 6th century (or not later than mid-6th century ), from there to Transylvania in mid-6th century (with Gepids assimilation and additional Slavic waves since mid-7th century). In Southwestern Hungary (southwest of Lake Balaton ) near

8200-603: The political upheavals of that era. However, a people related to the Sarmatians, known as the Alans , survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages , ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group. In 1947, Soviet archaeologist Boris Grakov defined a culture flourishing from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, apparent in late kurgan graves (buried within earthwork mounds), sometimes reusing part of much older kurgans. It

8300-655: The power of the Royal Sarmatians and the Iazyges, with the Aorsi being able to extend their rule over a large region stretching from the Caucasus across the Terek–Kuma Lowland and Kalmykia in the west up to the Aral Sea region in the east. Yet another new Sarmatian group, the Alans , originated in Central Asia out of the merger of some old tribal groups with the Massagetae . Related to the Asii who invaded Bactria in

8400-635: The region a "Scythian desert". As the Danubian Limes lacked garrisons, in 545 Justinian I made an alliance with the Antae to stop barbarian intrusions from Antae territory in the Lower Danube area. This caused more Sclaveni intrusions from the region of Podunavlje , with the intruders spending in 551 their time in Dalmatia "as if in their own land", but also occasioned peaceful permanent settlement on Byzantine territory, which began around

8500-457: The region, the Slavic tribes mostly had names of toponymic origin. Slavs established dense settlements in Southeast Europe, more precisely in the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum : Eventually the Slavs settled in the former Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia reached a substantial amount of autonomy or independence, establishing Sklavinias influenced both by Francia and by

8600-635: The remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples), while the five samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup H2a1 , T1a1 , U5b2b (two samples), and D4q . A genetic study published in Current Biology in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians from the southern Ural Mountains between 7th–2nd century BC. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332 , R1a1e-CTS1123 , R1a-Z645 (two samples), and E1b1b-PF6746 , while

8700-565: The same time. Things changed with the arrival of the Pannonian Avars (after fall of Gepids (567) and departure of Lombards in 568), who fought against the Antae and subjugated masses of both Antae (562, but maintained independence as Byzantine allies until 602) and Sclaveni (Pannonian-Middle Danubian Slavs lost independence to Avars between 571-578, while Lower Danube/Wallachian Slavs were active on their own although as Avar allies since 585). Andrej Pleterski considers as unlikely that

8800-478: The similarity between the names Sarmatian and Sauromatian, modern authors distinguish between the two, since Sarmatian culture did not directly develop from the Sauromatian culture and the core of the Sarmatian culture was composed of these newly arrived migrants. A typical transitional site between these two periods is found in the Filippovka kurgans , which are Late Sauromatian -Early Sarmatian, and dated to

8900-635: The southern Ural Mountains . These nomads conquered the Sauromatians, resulting in an increased incidence of eastern Asiatic features in the Early Sarmatians, similar to those of the Sakas . The name "Sarmatians" eventually came to be applied to the whole of the new people formed out of these migrations, whose constituent tribes were the Aorsi , Roxolani , Alans , and the Iazyges . Despite

9000-765: The southern Urals. Peter the Great particularly cherished his Demidov Gift, a Sarmatian gold collection, now exhibited in the Gold Chamber at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg . The Novocherkassk Treasure with the famous Sarmatian Diadem adorned with the Tree of Life can also be seen in the Hermitage Gold Room. It is a Sarmatian hoard of gold, silver and bronze articles and jewellery discovered in

9100-463: The spread of Slavic language and identity was because of large movements of people of both males and females with specific Eastern European ancestry and that "more than half of the ancestry of most peoples in the Balkans today comes from the Slavic migrations, with around a third Slavic ancestry even in countries like Greece where no Slavic languages are spoken today". The big data set also showed that

9200-634: The spreading of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine and Southeastern Poland . A 2022 archaeogenetic study published in Science compared ancient, medieval and modern population samples and found that the medieval Slavic migrations "profoundly affected the region", resulting in the reduction of Anatolian Neolithic ancestry in Southeastern Europe. Pre-Slavic Southeast European populations have

9300-558: The steppes. The Sarmatians and Scythians had fought on the Pontic steppe to the north of the Black Sea . The Sarmatians, described as a large confederation, were to dominate these territories over the next five centuries. According to Brzezinski and Mielczarek, the Sarmatians were formed between the Don River and the Ural Mountains . Pliny the Elder wrote that they ranged from the Vistula River (in present-day Poland ) to

9400-428: The successful siege of Sirmium (580 to 582), though his generals triumphed at Viminacium (599). Subsequently the siege of Thessalonica (617; causing complete collapse of minting coins there ), and the destruction of various cities including Justiniana Prima and Salona , culminated with the unsuccessful Siege of Constantinople (626) . After the siege, somewhere between 628–629, George of Pisidia reported that

9500-597: The territorial jurisdiction of the Roman Church. According to the archaeological and historical data the main movement of the Slavs was from the Eastern Carpathians to the Middle and Lower Danube valley. The Ipotesti–Candesti culture was composed of a mixture of Sclaveni Prague-Korchak and Antae Penkovka culture with some elements of the so-called Martinovka culture. V. V. Sedov considered that

9600-470: The western part of greater Scythia , and corresponded to today's Central Ukraine , South-Eastern Ukraine, Southern Russia , Russian Volga , and South-Ural regions , and to a smaller extent the northeastern Balkans and around Moldova . The ethnogenesis of the Sarmatians occurred during the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, when nomads from Central Asia migrated into the territory of the Sauromatians in

9700-480: Was radiocarbon dated to cal 126-228 CE. Archaeological evidence suggests that Scythian-Sarmatian cultures may have given rise to the Greek legends of Amazons . Graves of armed women have been found in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony noted that approximately 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian "warrior graves" on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women dressed for battle as warriors and he asserts that encountering that cultural phenomenon "probably inspired

9800-517: Was a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the Black Sea eastward to beyond the Volga that is especially evident at two of the major sites at Kardaielova and Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe. The four phases – distinguished by grave construction, burial customs , grave goods , and geographical spread – are: While "Sarmatian" and "Sauromatian" are synonymous as ethnonyms, by convention they are given different meanings as archaeological technical terms. The term "Prokhorovka culture" derives from

9900-612: Was a "relatively small population that expanded over a large geographic area", particularly "the expansion of the Slavic populations into regions of low population density beginning in the sixth century" and that it is "highly coincident with the modern distribution of Slavic languages". According to Kushniarevich et al. 2015, the Hellenthal et al. 2014 IBD analysis, also found "multi-directional admixture events among East Europeans (both Slavic and non-Slavic), dated to around 1,000–1,600 YBP" which coincides with "the proposed time-frame for

10000-589: Was not able to wage war on two fronts and regain its lost territories, so it reconciled with the establishment of Sklavinias influence and created an alliance with them against the Avar and Bulgar Khaganates . Before the great migration period , the population of the Southeast Europe was composed of Ancient Greeks, Illyrians and Thracians who had been Romanized and Hellenized , as well as of Roman Imperial subjects. There may have also been small communities of Heruli , Bastarnae , Langobards and Sciri . After

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