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Alan Dateline
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Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline
Overview of Sarmatian chronology
From the book of Tadeusz Sulimirsky, The Sarmatians. New York: Praeger, 1970

Comments

The book by the outstanding scholar Tadeusz Sulimirsky became a de-facto textbook on Sarmats and their constituents. The Sarmatian Chronology table, assembled by T.Sulimirsky in his '70es book, gives "At a glance" picture of the spatial and chronological history of the Alanian peoples. Even with the later finds and developments, it remains an invaluable contribution to the study of the Alanian history.

The table is clearly incomplete because it does not reflect the extant conditions which the Alans encountered when they were changing their aerial. In the historical development, this missing part of the table constitutes a significant component. The Wu-sun, whom T. Sulimirsky lists as Tocharians, are now identified with Huns, leaving Ases-Tocharians to join the Hunnish and Türkic Kaganates, conquer Bactria, and join the Alans. The Sarmats and Alans were also classified as Iranian-speaking, in line with the popular at the time Indo-European theory. In the T. Sulimirsky concept, in the course of their history the Iranian Sarmatians were surrounded by the Türkic-speaking peoples, instead of the multi-ethnic, including Türkic-speaking Sarmatians, living in the surrounding of the Türkic-speaking peoples.

T. Sulimirsky also did not note that the Chinese Yancai 奄蔡, "Steppe",  is a literal translation of the Türkic Alani, "Field, Open Space", while the Chinese A-lan-iao is a phonetic rendition. Neither was given the transparent Türkic etymology of the Greek renditions for the Sarmatian tribes, Iazygs - As-yg, "As-tribe", Roxolani - Uraxy-Alani, "Farming Alans", Siraces - Sary-Ases, "Yellow Ases", and Sarmats - Sarma-ty, "Carrying Saddlebag". The consistency of the names throughout the centuries and rendition in the languages as differing as the Greek and Chinese indicate the endoethnonymic nature of the names. The emphasis of the secondary dialectal differences was richly exploited for the distorted demographic picture,  when the whole population was presented as vanishing and replaced by a different population, like Sauromatae replaced by the later Sarmats, replacing the advances in the development and changes in the social organization with a notion of perpetual extinction and replacement.

By 415 BC, the Sarmatians are inhabiting the Russian steppes north of the Caspian Sea.
By 192 BC, the Sarmatians are pushing the Scythians westward.
By 145 BC, Sarmatians can be divided into three sub-groups (Jazyges, Roxolani, and Alan), each group's area is delineated east-west by major rivers.
By 79 AD, the Sarmatians are being pushed westward to the point that the Roxolani cause the Jazyges to be displaced to the Hungarian steppes.
By 230, the Jazyges have been further restricted by Vandals moving in from the north, while the Roxolani are actually pushed back toward the Alans by the Goths moving in from the west.
By 305, the Roxolani and Jazyges are no longer on the map. Their areas have been taken over by Asding Vandals and Ostrogoths.
By 362, the Alans are feeling the heat from three sides- the Ostrogothic Empire to the West, the Finns to the north, and the Huns to the east. They live in a small area between the Black and Caspian seas north of the Caucasus Mountains. They then expand south into the mountains.
Throughout all this, approximately 250,000 people live on the steppes between those two seas at a given time.
By 406, the Huns have taken over the steppes, pushing Germanic tribes west- along with a clan of Alans. The Vandals, Suevi, and the Alan clan invade Gaul at the end of the year.
By 420, the aforementioned barbarian pillagers have moved into the Iberian peninsula. As part of a bargain with Rome, the Visigoths pushed most of them into the northwest corner before returning to Gaul.
In 429, the Asding Vandals leave their corner of the Iberian peninsula, pick up the Siling Vandals and Alans left in the south, and 80,000 men, women, and children cross the Straight of Gibraltar into Africa. Rome has to cede the western provinces (the northernmost parts of modern Morocco and Algeria) to them in 435. In 442, they trade them for modern Tunisia. The Alan king had died in battle before this and the clan was absorbed by the Vandals they traveled with.
By 476, the Alans who stayed behind during the Huns' rule have regained ground in and around the east Caucasus.
By 600, the Khazar Turks have pushed the Alans out of their northern reaches. The Alans are able to push the Huns back slightly to the west.
By 661, the Khazars have expanded and now rule the Alans.
By 1030, the Alans are back on the map in the east Caucasus. (It's a long stretch of time, but stuff happened in between which was not intimated in the book.)
By 1071, the Alans now hold almost all of the steppes between the Black and Caspian seas and north of the Caucasus. The Kingdom of Georgia is to their southwest.
By 1092, the Alans have lost some of their northern lands and gained some in the eastern Caucasus.
From 1221-1222, a group of Mongols originally sent to pursuethe Shah out of his empire to the south fights their way through several groups' lands, including the Alans, and deep into Russia. The Mongol attacks are damaging, but Genghis Khan dies before he can take advantage of them.
In 1236, the Mongols return to the Russian steppes. No one has bolstered their defenses and the Alans fall under Mongol subjugation along with other groups.

 

Back
In Russian
Contents Alans
Sources
Roots
Alphabet
Writing
Language
Religion
Genetics
Geography
Archeology
Coins
Wikipedia
Overview of Sarmatian chronology
Saltovo-Mayak Culture
Codex of Inscriptions-Euro Asiatic-Don
Alanian Etymology Notes
Alans in Pyrenees
Ogur and Oguz
Alans and Ases
Alan Dateline
Avar Dateline
Besenyo Dateline
Bulgar Dateline
Huns Dateline
Karluk Dateline
Khazar Dateline
Kimak Dateline
Kipchak Dateline
Kyrgyz Dateline
Sabir Dateline
Seyanto Dateline
12/26/2008
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