Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Halina Dobrzanska: Contacts between Sarmatians and the Przeworsk Culture community

there. Both communities met near the line of the Csörsz earthwork (Limes Sarmatiae) which was the border between them (GODLOWSKI 1994, 72; ISTVANOVTTS 1997, 722). In the second half of the 4

th c. or at the beginning of the 5

th c. a group of the Przeworsk Culture newcomers (Vandali) was assimilated by the Sarmatian milieu (GODLOWSKI 1994, 80). At the end of the 1

st and the beginning of the 2

nd c, new waves of Sarmatian peoples arrived from the east in the territories located west of the Dnieper, reaching as far as the Danube. Those events are linked with large cemeteries discovered in Moldavia, which yielded richly furnished burials containing numerous Roman artefacts (SHCHUKIN 1989A, 80). In the years 167-175 and 177-180 the Sarmatians from the northern part of the North Pontic region (together with other barbarian peoples) participated in the Marcomanic Wars against the Roman Empire (SHCHUKIN 1994, 491; SIMONENKO 1999A, 28). On the northwestern part of the Black Sea coast, the cultural situation had changed by the mid-3

rd c. This was due to the migration of new peoples, with the "Goths", who played an important role, giving rise to the Cherniakhov Culture (SHCHUKIN 1989A, 77; SIMONENKO 1999A, 29). The vast territory occupied by Sarmatian peoples in Europe and Asia, their nomadic way of life, and their tendency to expand their influence generated great interest among the most eminent Roman and Greek historians and geographers of the time, who described their customs, referred to them in connection with various political events and mapped their homelands (e.g. Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela, Ptolemaeus). According to the information available to the people of Antiquity regarding the territory of the present Poland, Sarmatians were continually present on the Vistula River, which was - probably due to its length - the most frequently mentioned Polish river. Thus Pliny the Elder (24 or 25-79) refers to the opinions of others claiming that the territories reaching as far as the Vistula river which formed their eastern border - were inhabited by Sarmati, Venedi, Sciri and Hirri (PLEZIA 1952, 33). In Chorographia, written in 41-44 by Pomponius Mela, the eastern border of Sarmatia was formed by the Vistula, which separated the Sarmatian and Scythian territories (KOLENDO 1981, 10). A detailed and relatively accurate description of the location of European Sarmatia is found in the Geographia by Ptolomaeus of Alexandria (99-168). In the north, it bordered the Sarmatian Ocean (i.e. the Baltic Sea), and in the west, the Vistula River and the part of Germania between the springs of the Vistula and the Sarmatian Mountains (the Sudetes Mountains). In this account, the Vistula marked the border between Germania and Sarmatia (PLEZIA 1952, 38; KOLENDO 1981, 13-14; SZANIAWSKA 1993, 24). The above-cited examples of descriptions by ancient authors do not necessarily indicate the presence of Sarmatian tribes on Polish territory. Neither is there any indication that, contrary to what Shchukin would suggest, local tribes were forced by the Sarmatians to pay tribute, and, as a result, treated as their subjects. The latter attitude was reflected in the above-mentioned description by Ptolemaeus of Alexandria (SHCHUKIN 1991,204). In both cases we would be dealing with the sphere of Sarmatian influence on the present Polish territory. Nevertheless, the ancient historians and geographers must have regarded as Sarmatian either the tribes inhabiting the territories neighbouring Sarmatian lands, or ones that merely had contacts with Sarmatians, or