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

Eszter Istvánovits - Valéria Kulcsár: Sarmatians through the eyes of strangers. The Sarmatian warrior

We can get an idea of the heavily armoured Sarmatian warrior from several depictions from the Bosporan Kingdom. Many frescos from Panticapaeum show "Sarmatised" Bosporan warriors with their horses and arms, frequently in combat. From these we gain a more or less precise picture of the defensive armour of the North Pontic region in the 1

st - 2

nd c. (fig. 11: 7-10). The typical armour included a conical (in some descriptions: egg-shaped) helmet consisting of a metal frame (Spangenhelm) (fig. 6: 1-2) and a long scale shirt reaching to the knees and sometimes cut on the side. The most frequent offensive weapon of the heavily armoured warrior is the long spear always held with both hands. Depictions from burial chambers found in 1872/1873 and the one discovered by Ashik are similar in their main features, which also appear on the Tanais relief of Triphon (fig. 11: 10) dated to the 1

st or 2

nd c. (ROSTOVTSEV 1913/14, 330-331, tab. LXXXIV: 3). These are not merely local artistic conventions, for this type of helmet is also seen on the heads of Roxolani on Trajan's Column, a contemporary monument (fig. 6: 4-6). Further, the Column shows Syrian archers or probably members of the Bosporan cohors known from literary and epigraphical sources. They also wear scale armour (fig. 7: 4) and the same type of helmet (fig. 6: 7-8) (LEHMANN-HARTLEBEN 1926, CXV), which also appears on the tropaeum depicted between two campaigns of Trajan (fig. 6: 3) (ROSTOVTSEV 1913/14, 332, tab. LXXXTV: 1-2; LEHMANN-HARTLEBEN 1926, LXXVIII). Sarmatian auxiliary troops took this helmet type as far as the British Isles, as seen on the gravestone from Chester (WRIGHT-RICHMOND 1955, 51, cat. 137, pl. XXXIV). The warrior depicted there wears precisely the same type of a helmet (fig. 6: 10) as in the images from Kerch or Rome. Thus, despite its absence from the archaeological material (grave finds) in the Carpathian Basin, this type of helmet was widespread in the 1

st and 2

nd c. The archaeological material of the Carpathian Basin essentially lacks helmets as well as other defensive armour. The only data possibly referring to a helmet in a Sarmatian burial comes from grave II. 10. of Hortobágy-Poroshát (ZOLTAI 1941, 274275, Taf III). Although this grave was robbed, its assemblage preserved the most complete set of arms: a sword, a shield and a spear. Pieces of iron plates have been found lying in a certain system on the bottom of the grave, at a 30x18 cm spot in three horizontal and 2 vertical rows. We might be able to infer pieces of an iron Spangenhelm from this. As we have seen, units known from the time of Trajan's Dacian wars - light cavalry with bows and heavily armoured cataphracts - can be also found among the Sarmatians of the Carpathian Basin during the Marcomannic Wars. Further, the organisation of neighbouring Pannónia also changed significantly because of the Sarmatians - a division distinguishing the Sarmatian and Germanic fronts. The line south of Esztergom extending to Kostolac (in Serbia) became the "Sarmatian" (ALFÖLDI 1942, 172). Movements of units and branches of the military in Pannónia Inferior were definitely related to changes on the Sarmatian front. Another weapon typical of a nomadic people of herders has yet to be found in archaeological material or in iconographical sources, but we read about it in literary sources. This weapon is the lasso mentioned by Pomponius Mela (1, 114), Josephus (BJ, VTI, 7, 4): "These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great