“Almost all of them are tall and handsome, with moderately blond hair; they are frightening with the restrained, menacing look of their eyes, very mobile due to the lightness of armament … They enjoy the danger of war. They consider the one happy who gives up the spirit in battle."
About whom is Ammianus Marcellinus so enthusiastically restrained? A contemporary of the Emperor Julian, he served in the army, took part in campaigns under the command of the emperor and knew who and what to write about. And this he said about the Alans, with whom the Romans fought and whom they reasonably feared. Not only Marcellinus wrote about the Alans, but also many other historians, including more ancient ones. They could not ignore the appearance on the historical arena of formidable nomads with a "restrained and menacing look."
For the first time, the Chinese and ancient Greek historians report about the Alans. They are initially placed somewhere beyond the Caspian Sea, and they probably stayed there for a long time. The same A. Marcellinus writes that beyond the Caspian "Massagets live, now called Alans." Massagetov was known even by the father of history Herodotus in the 5th-4th centuries. BC. Modern historians and archaeologists consider the Massagets to be a union of the Iranian nomadic tribes of Central Asia. By language they are related to the Scythians. Together with the related tribes of the Saks, the Massagets waged wars with the great commanders of antiquity - the Persian kings Darius I and Cyrus, the famous Alexander the Great.
Over time, some part of the nomads emerged from the Massagetae and gradually went west, to the Lower Volga, Lower Don, to the Northern Black Sea region. Part of the Alans moved from the Kuban steppe and Taman to the Crimea. From the first centuries BC. in the steppe areas of the Volga, Don, Northern Black Sea region, the tribes of the Sarmatians roamed. Sarmatians are the common name for the Iranian-speaking tribes used by Roman historians. The word probably comes from the Iranian "saurim" - belted with a sword. At different times, the Sarmatian union was headed by some Sarmatian tribes, then others. But from the middle of the 1st century. AD and until the very end of Sarmatian history, until the end of the 4th century. AD, the Alans took the leading position in the union. "They gradually exhausted the neighboring peoples and extended the name of their nationality to them, like the Persians," wrote A. Marcellinus.
Alans took part in all the wars waged by the surrounding peoples. In 72, they ravaged Armenia. In the years 134-136, they marched through the Caucasus and Asia Minor with fire and sword. Only the joint efforts of Rome and other states helped stop their rampant invasion.
What relation do Alans have to other Sarmatian tribes? A special tribe? A related tribe? Today's research shows that the Alans are part of the Sarmatian union. These are the Iranian-speaking tribes united in an alliance under the general name "Alans". Attempts to make an ethnically "pure" tribe out of the Alans have no reliable confirmation either in written documents or in archeological data. As well as attempts by any means to connect them with the Slavs. The supporters of this idea actually have nothing, except for A. Marcellinus's instructions on the light hair color of the Alans, which, of course, is not enough to establish kinship.
Until now, there is no acceptable deciphering of the origin of the name of the people "Alans". There are many versions, but the mystery of the name remains. Alans, like the Sarmatians, led a similar nomadic lifestyle. Long loose pants, leather jackets, soft leather boots and pointed felt hats (bashlyki) served as clothing. Greek geographer of the late 1st century BC. - the beginning of the 1st century A. D. Strabo wrote about the life of these nomads: "Their wagons are made of felt and are attached to the carts on which they live, around the wagons graze cattle, whose meat, cheese and milk they feed on".
In equestrian and foot combat, they used shields and pikes, put on armor, which was often made from horses' hooves, thick leather. They used various tactical techniques during the battle - false retreat, capture into the ring.
Promotional video:
Archaeologists never came to a conclusion about which burials should be considered Alanian. After all, it was a union of tribes, and, consequently, in this union there were different Iranian-speaking tribes, and therefore, different types of graves, the orientation of the buried, similar things, etc. They made the same dishes themselves, from Rome and its provinces the same jewelry, dishes, clothes were supplied … Where are the Alans among them?
In the 370s, the Asian cauldron poured out a new wave of nomads towards the west. This time they were not Iranians: neither Cimmerians, nor Scythians, nor Sarmatians, but the first Turkic-speaking people - the Huns. They received this name in Europe, the Chinese called them "Huns", the Mongols - "Huns". "Hun" - a person, "Huns" - people (from Mongolian). Having fought with China (against the Huns and other nomads, the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall of China), the Huns moved west. All residents to the east of the Urals are in dire danger. The main force that could resist the Huns was the Alans.
But what could the Alans do against savagery and bloodthirstiness, which could not be compared with the previous ideas ?! And so A. Marcellin writes lines, reading which, the peoples of Europe fell into despondency and fear: “The tribe of the Huns surpasses every measure in its savagery. Their bodies are muscular and strong, their necks are thick, monstrous and terrible in appearance, so that they can be mistaken for two-legged animals. They eat the roots of wild grasses and the half-baked meat of all cattle, which they put on the backs of horses under their thighs and give it a little grind. They spend day and night on horseback. Like animals devoid of intelligence, they are completely ignorant, what is honest, what is not honest, are not bound by respect for any religion or superstition, they are aflame with a wild passion for gold. Light and mobile, they suddenly scatter on purpose and, without building a battle line, attack here and there,producing terrible murders."
The Alans suffered a crushing defeat, and a general plunder of cities and villages began. The cities of the Northern Black Sea coast turned into ruins, which the Alans did not destroy. What for? After all, they supplied them with jewelry, expensive dishes, clothes. The Huns, however, did not need anything except the gold obtained by robbery.
Part of the Alans entered into an alliance with the invaders, passed with them through the whole of Europe. The nomads reached the Rhine, the British Isles, invaded Gaul (modern Germany and France), and crossed the sea to Africa, where the plunder of the Roman colonies began. Part of the Alans went to the Caucasus, creating a state there with local tribes called Alania. It lasted until the XII century. Ossetians are descendants of some part of these Alans.
Another part of the Alans, not agreeing to obey the Huns, went north, to the Don region, away from the Huns. There were only hints from written sources about this step. And now there is archaeological evidence. They appeared relatively recently, and especially last year, when the archaeological expedition of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University "Return to the Origins" began to explore the burial mounds in the Vorobyevsky District.
In 1989, the exploration detachment of the archaeological expedition of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University discovered a large group of mounds near the village of Berezovka in the Vorobyevsky district. But only last year it was possible to verify what the burials were hidden in these mounds. The excavations surpassed all expectations: in the two investigated mounds, the burials of Alans were found, and the beginning of the Hunnic invasion - the end of the 4th century. AD This is a real sensation! It was the Alans, judging by the later Alanian burials of the Middle Ages of the 7th-10th centuries, who had the tradition of pouring liquid clay into their burial structures - the catacombs, which made our excavations a difficult and long search. They also had a tradition of putting horse harness next to the catacomb grave. In two investigated burials, objects were found characteristic of this era - the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th century. AD: bronze pin clasp (brooch),ornaments and part of the bridle, falars - horse breast ornaments, forehead.
In one of the burials there were two swords, a stone whetstone - a whetstone for sharpening weapons, five clay vessels.
The information related to pottery turned out to be unexpected and historically interesting. Several pots were characteristic of the late Sarmatians, including the Alans, but three vessels are clearly not their "work". The impression is that this is a completely foreign "creation", not Sarmatian and not Alanian: the clay is coarse, the pots are not neatly molded, in the clay dough there is an abundant admixture of crushed ceramics, which the Sarmatians do not have. Where are they from? The most acceptable assumption is that the vessels were "borrowed" by the Alans from the local population. But what is this “local population”?
On the Khoper River and its tributaries in the II-III centuries. AD Inhabited by early Slavic tribes, which were recently discovered here by the Balashov archaeologist A. A. Khrekov near the village of Inyasevo. This is also a real sensation! Slavs on Khopr in the II-III centuries AD! The doubts that were at first were replaced by the search for an explanation: why are they here? The pots from the Alanian burials, although they are not the same with the Inyasev ones, are similar! But the early Slavs lived here before the Hunnic invasion, as far as the results of excavations of their burials and settlements showed - in the II-III centuries. AD And we are dealing with the Hunnic invasion, with the end of the IV century. AD
Early Slavic monuments to the Hunnic invasion seem to be disappearing … So maybe they are not disappearing? And we just don't know them yet, we haven't found their settlements and burials of the 4th century. AD? How else did their pots get to the Alans? Much will become clear this summer in the course of further excavations.
We are facing a difficult but interesting search that will open a new page in the history of the Voronezh region of the era of the Hunnic invasion. And through the haze of a bygone era, barely visible horsemen with high heads in red tunics, girded with swords will appear on the horizon … And looking at them from afar, let's say with restrained enthusiasm: Alans!
A bowl of late Sarmatian time.
Items of horse harness from an Alanian burial. Bronze, silver.