On the Sarmatian conquest of Scythia

The chronotope of Scythia conquest is one of the main issues of archaeology and history of the Scythian and Sarmatian Age. The literature sources present four versions of reasons and events, which led to the desintegration of Scythia in the 3rd century BC: the Celtic (expansion of the Celts from the Balkan region); the climatic (sharp deterioration of the climate with disaster consequences); the economic (decline of the grain trade); and the Sarmatian (the Sarmatian penetration from the East). The present paper studies the so-called Sarmatian hypothesis from the new viewpoint. The few but spectacular archaeological finds in the territory of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania (the special bronze frontlets and plaques for the breastplate, the bits with cruciform harsh mouth-pieces, and large eye-like beads-amulets) and their parallels in the North-Western Caucasus and in the Kuban region allow suggesting that at the beginning of the 3rd century BC the military expansion of the Siraci and Maeotae had ousted the Scythians from the North Pontic steppes to Trans-Dniester region...