A Warrior on the Steppe Edge
Caption
A warrior on the steppe edge: one Sarmatian grave among 36 in a Bronze Age mound on the Arabatska Spit, Ukraine. Dagger, jug and sheep offering, drawn to scale. He may have belonged to the Roxolani. #Sarmatians #Archaeology #Ukraine
Short takes
The grave pit is only 1.8 × 0.6 m. Yet it ties the Pontic steppe to Roman Britain: in AD 175 Rome sent 5,500 Sarmatian horsemen to Britain. Next Tuesday: Iranian Horsemen in Roman Britain.
#Sarmatians #Archaeology
The Roxolani are named by ancient writers as an Iranian-speaking Sarmatian people between the Dnieper and the Don. Whether he belonged to them is a suggestion by the excavators: he may have.
#Sarmatians #Iranian
Image description
Infographic titled A Warrior on the Steppe Edge. Left: a plan view of a rectangular grave drawn to scale with a one-metre scale bar and a north arrow. A man aged 25 to 35 lies on his back, head to the north-west. Four callouts: a red clay jug, 20.5 cm; sheep leg bone and shoulder blade left at his feet as a meat offering; an iron knife; an iron dagger, 45 to 47 cm, with ring pommel and triangular blade. Below: a grid of 36 circles, one highlighted, for 36 burials in one Bronze Age barrow. Top right: three photos (ring-pommel daggers, Sarmatian cavalry on Trajan's Column, the Sivash lagoons from space). Right: a map from the Arabatska Spit in southern Ukraine to Ribchester in England, about 2,800 km, with the Pontic steppe shaded. Text cards: the find, who he may have been (Roxolani), why here, and Sarmatians in Britain. Bottom: five stat tiles.
