NEW MATERIALS ON SARMATIAN TAMGA-SIGNS
Abstract
8 artifacts with Sarmatian tamgas, which have not yet attracted attention or require additional analysis, are considered. Most of them were not identified by colleagues as tamgas. The signs are presented in chronological order, from the 2nd‑1st centuries BCE to the 4th‑5th c. CE, throughout the territory of Sarmatia from Western Kazakhstan to Romania. These were (except plot 8) household items; of the imported Greek-Roman artifacts, only vessels were used. The placesof residence of almost all the studied clans were the Lower Don, the Middle Kuban and the foothills of the Crimea; these were the contact zones of nomads with sedentary peoples. The representatives of these clans partially settled in cities (Pantikapaion, Tanais, Scythian Neapolis). The migration of clans-owners to neighboring regions (plots 3, 5) or over long distances (plot 4) is noted. The rare long-lived clans from Don and Crimea, which existed for many centuries, despite the rapidly changing military and political situation, are interesting. These clans, probably, had influential supporters in neighboring countries. The stele of Śargas patiaxēs from the necropolis of the capital of ancient Georgia — Mcheta (Fig. 2.-1) is historically informative. It demonstrates good interaction and marriages of the nobility of Caucasian Iberia with the group of Don Alans in the end of the 1st c. CE. The votive stone slab from the fortifications of Karakabak city of the 3rd century CE on the northeastern coast of the Caspian Sea (Fig. 6) reflects the participation of Sarmatian groups of the Northern Black Sea Region in the early history of the city.
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