Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)
Alexandr V. Simonenko: On the tribal structure of some migration waves of Sarmatians to the Carpathian Basin
On the tribal structure of some migration waves of Sarmatians to the Carpathian Basin Alexandr V. Simonenko The starting point for the migrations of Sarmatians to the Carpathian Basin is well known: the steppe of the North Pontic region. Researchers are not so confident, however, when it comes to defining the tribal structure of the various waves of Sarmatian immigrants to the Hungarian territory. On the basis of the written and archaeological sources, only the first wave - the Jazygi - can be reliably classified. At various times, ancient authors also located the Roxolani and Alani in the Hungarian steppe, but their archaeological relics do not always permit positive archaeological identification. Recently, V. Kulcsár has quite correctly marked the two groups of Sarmatian relics in the Alföld, which she connects with the eastern migration waves. One of them is the group of cemeteries with ditches. The researcher assumes that this innovation was brought from Budzhak in the 2 nd c. A.D. (KULCSÁR 1997). The second wave is represented by the graves of rich warriors (fig. 1) located on the borders of the Sarmatian territory and furnished with goods of eastern shape (KULCSÁR 1998) (for eastern origin see fig. 2-3). However, Kulcsár has not determined their tribal attribution. The Budzhak cemeteries with the ditches (fig. 4-5), which in fact were the models for similar Hungarian ones (fig. 6), date from the end of the 2 nd - middle of the 3 rd c. A.D. Researchers studying them could not determine unequivocally the ethnic attribution of these sites, although - in my opinion - certain factors make such a determination possible. First of all, there are the literary sources (Tacitus, Josephus Flavius, the authors of the História Augusta) mentioning Roxolani among the Sarmatians between the Danube and Dniester in the period of the 1 st - beginning of the 3 rd c. A.D. Their participation in the Eastern coalitions of the enemies of the Empire during the Marcomannic Wars is indisputable. That is to say, there is no doubt that Roxolani lived in this region starting from the 1 st c. A.D. As for the archaeological data, to a certain extent they do not contradict the information of the Antique authors. Several years ago I suggested that Roxolani could be identified with the north-oriented secondary graves of the 2 nd - 1 st c. B.C. (SIMONENKO 1991). It seems to me that this hypothesis has remained unchallenged. This feature of the burial rite clearly separates Early Sarmatian Pontic graves from the eastern ones where south orientation of the graves was dominant. The graves dated to the 1 st - beginning of the 2 nd c. west of the Dnieper - where Antique authors refer to Roxolani at this time - were also oriented mainly to the north or close to it. (Let us recall that in the east, in the lands of Aorsi and Alani, south orientation of the dead was dominant at this time.) It is interesting to observe what stable features of the earlier sites were preserved in the burials of the second half of the 2 nd - first half of the 3 rd c: narrow, almost rectangular grave-pits; northern (or close to it) orientation; and the absence of the custom of grave-food characteristic of the territory between the
