In the first part of the article, Great Scythia and the super-ethnos of the Rus, it was noted that the Scythian state had a state-communal system. Moreover, this power was of an imperial type, but not a unitary one, but a “federal” one. It was a complex hierarchical structure that included tribal communities, tribes, and tribal unions ("lands"). But, as you know, the process of decay and degradation is as natural as the birth and growth of a state. The third period of the Scythian domination in Eurasia came to an end by the 4th century BC. NS. By this time, the Scythian state (its western, Black Sea part) was transformed into a class hereditary monarchy with the ruling nobility, which was strongly influenced by Greek culture. This led to the fall of the Scythian ruling elite. In the 2nd century BC. NS. Sarmatians-Savromats moved from the Volga and Don to the west, in the Black Sea region and crushed the kingdom of the Scythians. The Sarmatian period began in the civilization of the North.
Sarmatian kingdom (400 BC - 200 AD)
The Sarmatians advanced from the Urals to the Don behind the Scythians in about the 7th century. BC NS. They were relatives of the Scythians - they spoke a dialect of the Scythian language, they were united by the similarity of material and spiritual culture. For a long time, the Sarmatians and Scythians were peaceful neighbors, they were engaged in trade, the Sarmatian detachments participated in the wars of the Scythians. Together they repulsed the invasions of the Persian hordes of Darius.
The name "Sarmatians" according to one of the versions means "feminine". They bore this name because of the high role of female "Amazons" in society. This was not the case for Mediterranean and other southern countries. In principle, an equal position with men in labor, war, social and political life, was characteristic of all Scythian "tribes". Women, on an equal basis with men, participated in wars, were excellent riders, shooters, and dart throwers. Stable paired marriages prevailed among the Scythians and Sarmatians, where both a man and a woman had the right to divorce. Often women headed clans, tribes and territorial political entities. So, by about 6-5 centuries. BC NS. the period of the reign of the legendary queen of the Sarmatians Zarina belongs. Its capital was the city of Roscanak. Another queen of the Scythians-Sakas (Massagets) Tomiris in the 6th century BC. NS. defeated the troops of Cyrus the Great and "gave him blood to drink."
The Sarmatians made another revolution in military affairs - if the Cimmerians and Scythians had light cavalry as the basis of the army, the Sarmatians created heavy cavalry. Their cataphracts (heavily armed horsemen) were protected by carapaces. The warrior and his horse were protected by scale or plate armor. It was armed with a powerful 4-4.5 m spear, longer than that of the Scythians sword. In battle, the Sarmatians combined the tactics of the Scythian horse archers with a ramming strike of armored cataphracts at the enemy front.
From the 4th century BC NS. the Sarmatian era begins in the history of southern Russia. Although the weakened Scythian kingdom held out for two more centuries in the Black Sea region and even more in the Crimea. "Island of Crimea" for a long time preserved a fragment of the former Scythian kingdom. Moreover, Crimean Scythia quickly entered the common political system with the Sarmatian kingdom. If initially the Crimean Scythians built the Perekop ditch and the rampart, which separated the peninsula from the steppe, then later these fortifications were completely abandoned. But in the south, a new system of fortifications arose, which covered the capital of Crimean Scythia - Naples, from a possible attack from the sea. Another part of the Scythian military-political elite retreated to Dacia, to the territory of the northern Danube. The era of the complete domination of the Sarmatians in the southern Russian steppes corresponds to the Prokhorov archaeological culture (2nd century BC - 2nd century AD). It is impossible to say that the Sarmatians completely exterminated and expelled the Scythians, as in the case of the Scythian-Cimmerian conflict, only the upper ruling structures were replaced. The bulk of the Scythians joined the new state community.
The Sarmatian kingdom united several large territorial associations. The Roksalans and Yazygs occupied the Black Sea region (between the Don and the Dnieper - the Roksolans, to the west of them - between the Dnieper and Danube - the Yazygs lived), the Aorses - the Azov region, the lower reaches of the Don, the Siraks - the eastern Azov region, Kuban, the Alans - the North Caucasus. Around the beginning of the 2nd century. n. NS. power in Sarmatia was seized by the Alans, and from that time on, most of the inhabitants of the region began to bear their name.
It should be noted that the historian Dmitry Ilovaisky (1832-1920) identified Roksolan with Russia, considering them Slavs. Even earlier, such a proposal was made by MV Lomonosov (1711 - 1765), he wrote that "… about the Alans and Vendians from the above, it is known that they are Slavs and Rossans of the same tribe." Prominent historian Georgy Vernadsky (1888-1973) hypothesized that the Roxolans, who remained in Eastern Europe in the IV-VIII centuries. n. e., became the basis of the people of the Ros (Rus), and formed the Russian Kaganate. Thus, even before the arrival of the Varangians-Rus, led by Rurik in 862, the Russian state was created in the south, which inherited the traditions of the Alan-Sarmatians and Scythians.
In addition, it must be said that Sarmatia inherited from Scythia not only the lands of the steppe zone in the South of Russia, although the "control center" was located there. Ancient sources report that the Sarmatians also inhabited the forest zone of the future Russia. Their possessions stretched far to the north, up to the tundra of the Arctic. There are many indications that the Sarmatians inhabited the territory of Belarus, Central Russia. For all ancient authors, starting with Tacitus and Ptolemy, the possessions of the Sarmatians began from the Vistula and extended all the way to the Volga and beyond.
It should be understood that if earlier the names "Scythians" and "Sarmatians" were territorial parts of a single culture, people, then they began to be used as synonyms to denote the entire people of Great Scythia (and then Sarmatia).
In the Sarmatian era, the influence of the civilization of the North again increased. The Sarmatians repulsed the onslaught of the Roman Empire on the western borders and actively intervened in the affairs of the Balkan-Asia Minor region. Relatives of the Scythians - Saki-Parthians in the 3rd century BC. NS. defeated the Seleucid Hellenistic empire and conquered Persia. The northern Black Sea and Azov regions were covered with a network of cities and fortresses. The South Russian steppes became the largest exporter of grain to the Mediterranean city-states. This suggests that the Sarmatians, like the Scythians, were not only "nomads", they were also skilled landowners. Advances in science and metallurgy made it possible to revolutionize military affairs.
The turn of the new era was the time of the maximum power of Sarmatia. In the west, the border of the Sarmatian possessions ran along the Vistula and Danube, in the south, under the control of the Scythian-Sarmatians, there was almost South Asia - from Persia and India to Northern China. The Baltic Sea at that time was called the Scythian, or Sarmatian Sea. Proud Rome was forced to pay tribute to the Roxalans for keeping the peace. Even the most powerful emperors, Trajan and Hadrian, paid it.
Scythians-Sarmatians and Russians
Alans-Sarmatians in the 4th century AD NS. still inhabited the vast expanses of the forest-steppe and steppe zones. In historical sources, there are references to them in the 5-7 centuries. Material culture of the southern Russian steppes of the 1st millennium AD NS. also reveals continuity in relation to previous times. Archaeologists find burial mounds and treasures similar to more ancient times. In the 7th century, archaeological cultures appeared on the territory of the East European Plain, which most researchers attribute to Slavic. Rus and Rus replace Sarmatia-Alania and Sarmatian-Alan.
This alone is enough to understand that there is a direct connection between the Slavic Russians and the Sarmatians (Alans), the succession of generations of the ancient civilization of the “northern barbarians”. But, we are told that most of the Alans were exterminated during the Great Migration of Peoples (as before that the pre-Cimmerian population, Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians were "exterminated"). Part of the Alans fell into the whirlpools of migration, and left their traces in Central and Western Europe, right up to modern Spain and Britain (even Arthur and his knights may have been from the Alan-Sarmatians). Another part was entrenched in the strongholds of the North Caucasus, their descendants are considered modern Ossetians.
Where did the main part of the Alan-Sarmatians go? The people, which, according to the Roman author Ammianus Marcellinus, who in the 4th century AD inhabited the expanses from the Danube to the Ganges. Anthropological studies show that the “steppe”, Scythian-Sarmatian component was of primary importance in the formation of the modern Russian people. According to the academician, historian and anthropologist, director of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1987-1991 VP Alekseev, “there is no doubt that most of the population living in the southern Russian steppes in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. is the physical ancestors of the East Slavic tribes of the Middle Ages”. And the "Scythian" anthropological type, in turn, shows continuity from at least the Bronze Age - III - II millennium BC. NS. These data were obtained on the basis of methods that make it possible to identify the anthropological type of not only two different peoples, but also different groups within one ethnos. The conclusion from the above is one: modern Russians (the super-ethnos of the Rus, which includes the Great Russians, Little Russians and White Rus and other smaller groups) are the direct descendants of the Indo-European Aryans of the Bronze Age, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans.
There is nothing surprising in this. Both ancient authors and historians of the 18th - early 21st centuries spoke about this. This truth is not written in history books and is not recognized due to geopolitical reasons. Winners write history. The ideological heirs of the Mediterranean, southern cultures prevailed over the "northern barbarians" (they won a number of battles, but the war continues, the "Russian question" has not yet been finally resolved).
This explains the similarity between the ancient Scythians-Skolots and modern Russians in appearance and mentality. The surviving images and descriptions of contemporaries say one thing: the Scythians and Russes were distinguished by their rather tall stature and strong build, fair skin, light eyes and hair (that's why “Rus” - “light, fair-haired”). They are warlike, for centuries they have surpassed the surrounding peoples in military terms. They were distinguished by their love for freedom, beauty and freedom of women. Sarmatians, Central Asian Saks and Rus wore the familiar hairstyle "under a pot", or shaved their heads, leaving the mustache and forelocks, while the Black Sea Scythians had long hair and beards. Even in clothes, the “Sarmatian style” was popular among the Slavs for a long time. The clothing of the Scythians did not differ much from that worn by the Russians almost until the 20th century. This is a long shirt, a caftan with a belt, a cape cloak with a fastener on the chest or one shoulder, wide harem pants or tight pants tucked into leather boots. The Scythians loved to take a steam bath.
We know that the Scythians and Sarmatians venerated the two most important religious cults - the sun and fire. The god of warriors was highly respected - they worshiped the sword. Among the Slavic Russians, these cults are almost completely preserved. Remember Svyatoslav and his attitude to weapons, military brotherhood, we see similar views among the Scythians.
The images that have come down to us, the portraits of the Scythians convey not just the Russian anthropological type, but even local subtypes that still exist today. For example, a portrait depicting a supposedly Parthian princess Rodogun (Rodogunda) shows the appearance of a Russian (Great Russian) woman. The portrait of the chubby Queen Dinamy from the Bosporus shows the Little Russian (Ukrainian) type of Slav. In one of the mounds of Southern Siberia, a medallion was found with a portrait of a Caucasian, with some "cheekbones" and "oblique" eyes. These are the features of a part of the Russian-Siberians. And there are not one or two such finds.
There is a clear connection between the material culture of the medieval Chernigov-Seversky principality and the Sarmatian era. Women's jewelry - temporal rings, in Chernigov region was made in the form of a spiral, and spiral jewelry, rings, bracelets were widespread among the Sarmatian "Amazons". The temple rings are generally considered a typical Slavic decoration, but they are found among the Sarmatian treasures, and the most ancient ones date back to the Bronze Age - 2 thousand BC. NS.
The most important ethnographic feature is dwelling. Judging by the archaeological excavations in Crimean Scythia, in Scythian Naples, the late Scythians lived in solid stone houses with a tiled roof. The houses had a gable roof, a vertical arrow was installed on the ridge of the roof, on its sides the heads of two horses carved from wood, facing in different directions with their muzzles. This is very reminiscent of a Russian hut with skates. In another region of Great Scythia - Altai, they built the same houses, but from wood. The classic chopped one was the main dwelling of the Siberian Scythians. The myth of “nomads” is firmly in our heads, but in reality the steppe yurt, a tent invented by the Scythians, was used only in the summer season. The Scythians were warriors, farmers and herders, and not camps of "gypsies". A good reason was needed to move to new lands.
There is also continuity in ceramics. The main type of vessels is an egg-shaped (hemispherical) pot; it has remained almost unchanged since the time of the Dnieper-Donetsk culture of 5 thousand BC. NS. up to the Middle Ages. The persistent continuity of material culture, as well as of the anthropological type, can be traced from the Neolithic and Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. The burial rite under the mounds can be traced from about the turn of 4-3 thousand BC. NS. up to the adoption of Christianity by Russia and even somewhat later (Christianity won its positions for a long time). In addition, burial mounds of different eras, as a rule, were erected one next to another, as a result whole “cities” (“fields”) of the dead arose. On some mounds, "inlet" burials were made for thousands of years! As you know, usually strangers, foreigners feel fear in relation to the burials of other peoples. They can plunder, but they will not bury their dead there. The constancy and continuity of the funeral rite over the centuries and even millennia suggests that new generations of inhabitants of the southern Russian steppes viewed their predecessors as their immediate ancestors. With the change of ethnic groups, and even with a radical cultural break (like the adoption of Christianity or Islam), such constancy is, in principle, impossible. One and the same religious tradition, the funeral rite was preserved for 4 thousand years. Up to the "historical" Slavonic era of the early Middle Ages.
For millennia, people settled in the same places even after major political cataclysms, and the settlements were restored. We see this on the example of the history of Russia of the last millennium - destroyed and burned cities and villages were quickly restored in the same place or nearby.
We see identity in the social and state structure. "Kingdom" (empire) consisted of autonomous territorial-political unions - "lands". There were both mutinies and a change of dynasties. Communities consisted of personally free people, slavery was not typical for the "northern barbarians". Women and men were equal in rights, up to and including girls in military service. We see women in the Rus army even during the wars of Svyatoslav Igorevich. But, after baptism, the morals "softened" and the girls did not have to kill enemies. Although we see how the Slavs defended their cities and villages together with men in later times. The type of economy also has a huge similarity: the Scythians were not “nomads” in the conventional sense, but settled (albeit easy-going) farmers and cattle breeders, in the forest zone great importance was attached to hunting and other trades. They built cities, were excellent metallurgists, made a number of scientific and technological revolutions, including those of a military nature. They successfully resisted neighboring states, inflicted powerful blows on Ancient Egypt, the Hittite kingdom, the countries of Asia Minor, Assyria, Persia, the Hellenistic powers, and the Roman Empire. They had a huge impact on the development of the Indian and Chinese civilizations.
Archaeologist P. N. Schultz began excavations of Scythian Naples in 1945, he was the head of the Tauro-Scythian expedition, is the author of dozens of scientific publications on Scythian-Sarmatian monuments. He believed that in the character of Scythian settlements, dwellings, burial rites, in Scythian paintings, in handicrafts, in particular in dishes, wooden carvings, ornaments, clothing, “we find more and more common features with the culture and life of the ancient Slavs ". The Scythian tribes played a significant role in the formation of the Eastern Slavs and "the ancient Russian culture was not at all created by the Varangians or newcomers from Byzantium, as Western pseudoscientists said about it." Russian culture and Russian superethnos have ancient roots that go back millennia. It was not for nothing that Mikhail Lomonosov wrote that among the "ancient ancestors of the present Russian people … the Scythians are not the last part."
The problem of the Scythian language
Currently, the generally accepted theory is that the Scythians, like the Sarmatians, spoke the languages of the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family. It happens that Sarmatians, Scythians are called "Iranians". This is one of the most important obstacles to the recognition of the Scythians, Sarmatians - the direct ancestors of the Russian people. Back in the 19th century, this hypothesis was firmly entrenched in the scientific world. But there are several facts that say that this is just another myth created to "cut off" the roots of the Russian civilization.
1) It was announced that the "Scythian language" almost completely disappeared (although it was spoken in the vast expanse of Great Scythia), but due to the small number of personal names, geographical names and remaining words that remained in foreign language texts, this language was attributed to the Iranian group … The complete “disappearance” of the language did not prevent it from being attributed to the Iranian group.
2) The priority in the development of the "Iranian-speaking" of the Scythians belongs entirely to German linguists of the 19th - first half of the 20th century. At this time, German researchers were strenuously proving the "primacy" of the Germans in the Indo-European world (they called it Indo-German), only the Germans had to be "true Aryans." This is the heyday of Germanic and, in general, Western "scientific thought", which proved the priority of Western European peoples, primarily of Germanic origin, and the backwardness, "savagery" of the Slavs. History was written under the "blond German beasts". This theory was accepted in Russia, as had the "Norman theory" before. It is interesting that after 1945 the works of German researchers on the topic of "Iranian-speaking" of the Scythians, and in general the priority of the Germans over other groups of the Indo-European family, ceased. Apparently, the political order has disappeared, and the Slavs have proved by deeds that they are not "people of the second or third class."
3) In the USSR in the 1940s-1960s, quite successful attempts were made to refute the theory of the Iranian-speaking of the Scythians. But, during the years of "stagnation", the "Iranian-speaking" took up. It was during that period of history that we see how "Russianness" is leaving the USSR, giving way to cosmopolitanism and Western culture. Apparently, there is an "order" for the "Norman theory", "Iranian-speaking Scythians", "savagery and backwardness" of the Slavs before the baptism of Rus, etc.
4) “Iranian-like” names of the Scythians that have come down to our time cannot mean that they were “Iranians”. Judging by modern Russian names, the vastness of Russia is inhabited mainly by Greeks, Romans and Jews! Slavians - Svyatoslavov, Yaroslavov, Vladimirov, Svetlan, etc., a clear minority. We know that the western part of Scythia has been strongly influenced by the Mediterranean (mainly Greek) culture, has become largely cosmopolitan. The Scythians of Central Asia were strongly influenced by Persia, and after the campaigns of Alexander the Great - by Hellenization. Even later, the Scythian civilization adopted a significant proportion of the Turkic element, although it retained its basic values.
5) In those words that have come down to us, we see more common Indo-European roots than "Iranian" ones. For example, the Scythian word "vira" - "husband, man", there is an analogue in the "Avesta", but there is also in Ancient Rome: men - "vira", duumvirs, triumvirs. The Scythian god of storms and winds Vata also has Indo-European counterparts, Indian Vayu, Celtic Fata Morgana. The Scythian "praise" does not need translation. True, here, too, the supporter of the Iranian-speaking of the Scythians came up with an answer, they say, the Slavs borrowed words from the Scythians (for example, the word "ax").
6) It turned out that the Ossetians are not direct descendants of the Alan-Sarmatians. Their direct ancestors were local residents (autochthons) who lived in the Caucasus almost from the time of the Upper Paleolithic. The Scythians established control over the Caucasus, and it was under their control for millennia. The North Caucasian peoples entered into close contacts with the Scythians and Sarmatians, apparently, small groups of Scythians settled in the Caucasus and were assimilated, but left their more developed language. The Ossetian language was most strongly influenced. But, it is interesting in that it has preserved isoglosses (linguistic correspondences), completely alien to the Iranian group. The linguist V. I. Abaev discovered that the Ossetian language has no connections with the southern Indo-European languages - Greek and Armenian. But, on the other hand, he discovered such connections with the languages of the peoples of Northern Europe and Siberia - Germanic, Latin, Baltic (Lithuanian), Old Siberian Tocharian language. And the most interesting thing is that Abaev discovered the connections of the Ossetian (relics of the Scythian language in the Ossetian language) with the Slavic language, and they were stronger than with the languages of other Indo-European peoples. This topic is disclosed in more detail in the works of Abaev: "Ossetian language and folklore", "Scythian-European isoglossy". Baev made a conclusion about the deep antiquity, autochthonousness of the Scythian language on the territory of Southern Russia and proved that the Scythian language reveals traces of deep connections, first of all, with the Slavic language.
7) A number of researchers - among them ON Trubachev, have revealed that the Scythian language has powerful connections with the "Pro-Indian" language, Sanskrit. This is not surprising, the ancestors of the ancient Indians came to the valley of the Indus River, and then reached the Ganges from the territory of modern Russia, Great Scythia. No wonder one of the tribes of Scythia is the Sindi. And, Sanskrit, in turn, reveals a greater similarity with all Slavic languages than with the languages of other groups of the Indo-European language family. Sanskrit was brought to India by the Aryan tribes in about 2 thousand BC. NS. The language of the Vedas, thanks to a rigid tradition, has been largely preserved to this day. The "Scythian language" has been de facto preserved; it is nothing more than the "proto-Aryan language", the language of the ancient Indian Vedas. There is even an opinion that the modern Russian language is a direct branch of this ancient Aryan language, and Sanskrit is a form of the ancient Russian (Scythian) language.
Outcomes
It is time for modern Russia, for its historical science to stop producing, repeating stereotypes and myths born during the dictatorship of the Western school, which were extolled by "historical peoples" like Jews and Germans, and left the Slavs at best "by the wayside." We need an analogue of the German Ahnenerbe ("The German Society for the Study of Ancient German History and the Heritage of Ancestors"), only without mysticism, occultism, the proclamation of the superiority of one nation over others. In schools and universities, it is necessary to study the History of the Fatherland in unity, from the time of the Aryan cultures of the pre-Cimmerian era. At present, it is possible to establish anthropological and cultural continuity precisely before this era.
Sources and Literature
Abaev V. I. Scytho-European isoglossy. At the crossroads of East and West. M. 1965.
Abrashkin A. Scythian Rus. M., 2008.
Agbunov M. V. Journey to the mysterious Scythia. M., 1989.
Alekseev S. V., Inkov A. A. Scythians. Disappeared rulers of the steppes. M, 2010.
Vasilyeva N. I., Petukhov Yu. D. Russian Scythia. M., 2006.
Vernadsky G. V. Ancient Russia. Tver. 1996.
Galanina L. K. Scythian antiquities of the Dnieper region. M., 1977.
Gedeonov S. Varangians and Russia. Exposing the "Norman myth". M., 2011.
Herodotus. History. M., 1993.
Hilferding A. When Europe Was Ours. History of the Baltic Slavs. M., 2011.
Gobarev V. M. Prehistory of Russia. M,, 2004.
Grinevich G. S. Proto-Slavic writing. Decryption results. T. 1. M., 1993.
Gudz-Markov A. V. Indo-Europeans of Eurasia and the Slavs. M., 2004.
Guseva N. R. The Russian North is the ancestral home of the Indoslavs. M., 2010.
Guseva N. R. Russians through the millennia. Arctic theory. M., 1998.
Danilenko VN Cosmogony of primitive society. Shilov Yu. A. Prehistory of Russia. M., 1999.
Demin V. N. Mysteries of the Russian North. M., 1999.
Demin V. N. Northern ancestral home of Russia. M., 2007.
Demin V. N. Secrets of the Russian land. M. 2000.
Ancient Russia in the light of foreign sources. M., 1999.
Ancient civilizations. Under total. ed. G. M. Bongard-Levin. M., 1989.
Zolin P. Real history of Russia. SPb., 1997.
Ivanchik A. I. Cimmerians. M., 1996.
Ilovaisky L. Investigations about the beginning of Russia. M., 2011.
Kuzmin A. G. Beginning of Russia. Secrets of the birth of the Russian people. M., 2003.
Klassen E. The most ancient history of the Slavs. L., 2011.
Forest S. Russia, where are you from? M., 2011.
Larionov V. Scythian Rus. M., 2011.
Mavro Orbini. Slavic kingdom. M., 2010.
V. E. Maksimenko Sauromats and Sarmatians in the Lower Don. Rostov-on-Don: 1983.
Petukhov Yu. D. By the paths of the gods. M., 1990.
Petukhov Yu. D. Rus of the Ancient East. M., 2007.
Petukhov Y. D. Rusy of Eurasia. M., 2007.
Petukhov Yu. D. Secrets of the Ancient Rus. M. 2007.
In the footsteps of ancient cultures. Collection. Moscow: 1951.
Russian Khazaria. M., 2001.
Russia and the Vikings. M., 1999.
Rybakov B. A. Gerodotova Scythia. M., 2011.
Savelyev E. P. Ancient history of the Cossacks. M, 2010.
Sakharov A. N. We are from a kind of Russian … L., 1986.
The collection of the oldest written information about the Slavs. T. 1-2. M., 1994.
Slavs and Rus. M., 1999.
Tilak B. G. Arctic homeland in the Vedas M., 2001.
P. N. Tretyakov East Slavic tribes. M., 1953.
Trubachev O. N. In search of unity. A philologist's view on the problem of the origins of Russia. M., 2005.
Trubachev O. N. Indoarica in the Northern Black Sea region. M., 1999.
Trubachev O. N. Ethnogenesis and Culture of the Ancient Slavs: Linguistic Research. M., 2003.
Shambarov V. Choice of Faith. Wars of pagan Rus. M, 2011.
Shambarov V. Rus: a road from the depths of millennia. M., 1999.
