The Ideology Of The Ninth And Tenth Centuries 31
Middle Asia after Bactria’s defeat. This orientation is traditional for the popula-
tion of the Trans-Urals, Western Siberia and Central Kazakhstan.56 The artificial
skull deformation is a common custom from ancient times, and is associated
with the tribes of the Saka community in Middle Asia (the earliest examples
date from the fifth to the third century BC, in the region of Ferghana, and from
the sixth to the fifth century in Turkmenistan).57 The Late Sarmatian popula-
tion had a higher Mongoloid admixture and anthropologically resembled the
South-Siberian race, as well as the race of Transoxiana (the Pamiro-Ferghana
type).58 The anthropological features of the Late Sarmatian population in the
vicinity of the lower reaches of the Volga were similar to those of the Bulgars
from the following centuries.59 When comparing the Bulgars with the Alans,
one should keep in mind that the two ethnic groups also differed in their
anthropological traits.
Based on the aforementioned analogies, as well as the monuments of mate-
rial culture, scholars presume a migration of a population from Central and
Middle Asia. The necropoles in the Lower Volga area are particularly similar to
those along the lower and higher reaches of the Amu Darya, in Ferghana and
Bukhara and in the Bishkent valley in Tajikistan.60 It is presumed that these
migrations were caused by the Hunnic invasion and by the rise of the Kushan
Empire, which is associated with the aforementioned dates of some of the
necropoles of Northern Bactria (first to second century BC), which were simi-
lar as a type to the Late Sarmatian ones.61
Gradually, the Late Sarmatian culture spread westward and covered the ter-
ritory of the Northern Black Sea region. The relations and interaction between
the newcomers and the local tribes, and above all the Alans, are of special inter-
est. Based on archaeological research it can be asserted that after the second
century AD, the Alans were a mixture of local tribes and newcomers from the
East. It is presumed that the center of their alliance at that time was the Don
Region. In the area along the lower reaches of the Don, the traits of the Middle
Sarmatian culture remained for a relatively long time and thus coexisted with
the traits of the Late Sarmatian culture.
56 Skripkin 2001; Fedorov and Fedorov 1978, 27; Rashev 2007a, 31; Vainberg 1990, 190–191.
57 Tot and Firshtein 1970, 146–147; Iordanov 2008, 127–128; Trofimova 1968, 184–185; Skripkin
1982, 46; Stepanov 1999a, 47.
58 Tot and Firshtein 1970, 69ff.; see also Khodzhaiov 1987; Iablonskii 2000.
59 Stepanov 1999a, 46–47.
60 Skripkin 1982, 46–47; Dimitrov 1987, 61–64; Iordanov 2008, 23.
61 Skripkin 1982, 47; Dimitrov 1987, 64–65.