Since the VI century BC. The lands around Tisza, the Danube and the Aral Sea (parts of modern Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine) began to be populated by nomadic cattle-breeding people, related to Scythians, Medes and Iranians. In ancient records, this people is called Sarmatians or Sauromats (Greek sources also include the Alans, Roksolans, Aors, languages, sais to the Sarmatians). Greek and Roman authors called the Sarmatians a militant and cruel people, in which women held and fought equally with men (Herodotus suggested that the Sarmatian people themselves originated from Amazonian women, known for their militancy). They were completely nomadic people, and did not have permanent cities, moving from place to place and living in temporary dwellings. There is little evidence of the structure of ancient Sarmatian society, most likely, it was a military democracy. The religious views of the Sarmat were similar to the pagan ones - one of the main places occupied the image of a sacred sheep, the cult of ancestors was widespread, the worship of various gods (most often similar to the ancient and Asian deities) took place. Widespread worship of fire and the sun, which allows you to determine the faith of the Sarmatians as a form of Zoroastrianism. As already mentioned, the distinctive feature of the Sarmatian society was the high position of women who participated in the public life of the tribe, could be warriors, priestesses, participate in hunting, and even lead tribes. Later, these signs of matriarchy began to gradually disappear, they were replaced by traditional for the time foundations of patriarchal society. The Sarmatian archaeological culture is represented mainly by funeral burial mounds and burial grounds, the earliest of such finds date back to the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC As a rule, in the graves find weapons, arrowheads, ceramics, bronze mirrors, rarely - jewelry. At the beginning of its history (around the fifth to sixth centuries BC), the Sarmatians peacefully coexisted with Scythia, traded with it and often acted as military allies of the Scythians. By the III century. BC. The situation changed: the alliance was replaced by enmity and aggression from the Sarmatians, which led to the resettlement of the majority of the Sarmatian people to the Northern Black Sea Coast.

The military power of the Sarmat was represented, first of all, by the destructive horse infantry. It is believed that it was the Sarmatians who first appeared heavy cavalry. The soldiers were armed with long peaks and swords, specially adapted for horse battles. It is noteworthy that the strategy and tactics of the Sarmatian fighting detachments were at a high level, many neighboring nations, including even the Romans, adopted it. In Greek sources, the fact that Sarmatians used poisoned arrows and a lasso as a weapon is repeatedly repeated. During the Great Migration of Nations, the Sarmatians waged multiple wars with the Huns and repeatedly attacked the Roman Empire; At that time (beginning from the 3rd century AD) they had the glory of one of the most powerful and powerful nations of the world, having captured almost all the lands of the Caucasus and modern Eastern European countries. Sarmatia led cooperation and trade with Greece, Rome, and the Black Sea region. From the II century BC. In ancient sources, the Sarmatian people were increasingly referring to them, Tacitus, Strabo, Ovidius, Josephus Flavius, Arrianus, Herodotus, and others mentioned them. In the number of so-called. "European Sarmatians" were tribes of Roksolans and languages. The first lived in the steppes between the Dnieper and the Don, the second - between the Dnieper and the Danube. It was they who interacted with the Roman Empire (both military and peacefully) and European peoples. It was not uncommon for Sarmatian soldiers to serve in the Roman or German armies. Part of the European Sarmatians subsequently settled in the territories of modern Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Italy and even France and Britain. Between the Caspian and Azov seas lived "eastern" or "Asian Sarmatians" - Alans, Aorses and Siraks. Siraki occupied the North Caucasus and Azov regions, Aorsy - the lower Volga region, steppes from the Don to the Caspian Sea, and reached even the Southern Urals and the Central Asian steppes. Alans, the most militant of the peoples, lived in the lower reaches of the Danube and in the Ciscaucasia, they formed their own state of Alanya, which existed until the XIII century. They are the direct ancestors of modern Ossetians. Other branches of the Sarmatians are considered to be a partial ancestor ..