On the succession of Sarmatian population in the East- European steppes

As V.P. Alekseev wrote, the succession of population has been peculiar for individual territories for centuries. Despite the fact that the Eastern European steppe in ancient times and the Middle Ages was characterized by frequent changes of the population due to its high dependence on the environmental conditions, the Sarmatian culture preservation was observed over a period of ceremonial standards and elements of material culture. In this paper an attempt is made to show the presence of a partial succession of the three chronological periods of Sarmatian population. To do this, the author conducted a comparative characteristic of physical types of nomads of Sarmatian steppes of the Eastern Europe. The results of the study of mass craniological material combined in the cultural and chronological groups, showed that on the whole range of time and space over the steppe habitat Sarmatian cultures fixed partial similarity in physical type. In this connection, it is assumed that the partial continuity of anthropological types of different cultural, historical and local groups is linked to: 1) partial preservation of substrate Early Sarmatian population over the 4th- 3rd centuries BC - first half of 2nd-4th centuries AD; 2) the direction and character of penetration of nomadic groups who migrated from the East into steppe space; 3) design of a single system of seasonal migrations which involves the presence of winter and summer camps, and the presence of burial mounds; 4) the inclusion of a horde of nomadic pastoral population groups moved all over the steppes, from between Volga and Ural to the Lower Don; 5) the fact that male migrants married local women.