30 CHAPTER 1
The Alans migrated towards Eastern Europe from Middle Asia. This is evi-
denced both by the material culture and by accounts in the Chinese sources.
Thus, the Hou Han Shu (The Book of the Later Han, 25–220 AD) states that
the Kingdom of Yancai changed its name to Alania and was a dependency of
Kangju, the center of which was located on the middle reaches of the Syr Darya
River. The precise location of Yancai is unknown, but presumably it was along
the lower reaches of the river or generally in the Cis-Aral Steppe. The subjected
to the Kangju Alans captured Yancai, after which the land changed its name
to Alania, and during the first and second centuries AD Kangju’s influence
reached the lower reaches of the Volga and the Cis-Ural Steppe. The Alans’
arrival in Europe is thus placed in direct relation to Kangju’s period of highest
influence.52 According to T. Gabuev, the rise of Kangju was due to the influx of
some of the Yuezhi during the first century BC, and they, like the Wusuns, were
part of the tribal community of the Alans.53
While it can be argued that the Alans were bearers of the Middle Sarmatian
culture, the same thing cannot be said regarding the Late Sarmatian culture.
During the second century AD, the culture of the Sarmatians on the lower
reaches of the Volga underwent significant changes. The burial rites became
more homogenous and were dominated by a number of new and uncharac-
teristic for the previous period features such as the northern orientation of the
burials, the artificial deformation of the skulls, the narrow burial pits and the
pits with a niche, cut into one of the walls.54 Without going into details, I would
like to point out that these features are also found in later Bulgar necropoles.55
The northern orientation of the burials is typical for the burial practices of the
Huns and of part of the Yuezhi. It spread among the nomadic necropoles in
52 Gabuev 2000, 53–54; Skripkin 1996, 165; Iatsenko 2000, 103; Kliashtornyi 1964, 172–173 and
175; Tolstov 1948b, 146–147. According to B. Vainberg, the territory of the Alans and of
Yancai was located neither in the Cis-Aral Region nor along the reaches of the Syr Darya,
but between the Volga and the Ural Rivers. The center of Kangju was located not only on
the middle reaches, but also on the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. (Vainberg 1990, 265,
274, 280–283, and 302–303).
53 Gabuev 2000, 54–60.
54 Skripkin 1982, 43–45; Krivosheev and Skripkin 2006, 124–127; Dimitrov 1987, 60–61; Tot
and Firshtein 1970, 71.
55 See for instance Vladimirov 2005, 42; Dimitrov 1987, 64–65; Fedorov and Fedorov 1978,
29–30; Flerova 2002, 173. See also Iordanov 2008. An interesting detail is that during the
Late Sarmatian period, there was a significant rise in burials with poor inventory and with
mostly no weapons. Although Khazanov 1971, 85 interprets this as a sign of property divi-
sion in the Sarmatian society, it is a characteristic trait of the later Bulgar necropoles.