Gerry in her post to Glen wrote
> You're correct Glen. Samaritans are totally different from
Sarmatians.
> Celts are now thought to have been Scythians. I'm quite sure that
> Samaritans could have been Scythians. Perhaps Samaritans were also
> Sarmatians. But my original question was whether Sarmatians were
later
> (oops, there it is) or latter day Scythians?
Gerry from my understanding of the "Peoples of the Steppes" the
nomadic pastoralists across the steppes originally formed a chain of
cultures something like
Thracians - Dacians - Cimmerians - Scyths - Sarmatians - Sakae -
Yueh-Chih (Tocharians) - Altaics
It seems that there was a constant assimilation at the western end of
this chain leading to increasing adoption of agriculture and a
reduction of momadic pastoralism into transhumance. At the eastern
end, climatic change and periods of aridity would lead to population
pressure on their neighbours causing the chain to move westwards (and
in some cases southwards). Thus Dacii pushed Thracii pushed
Phrygians
into Anatolia after the 1,200BCE collapse. Scythii pushed Cimmerii
into Anatolia in the 8th Century BCE, Sarmatians pushed Scythae west,
and came west themselves as Alans under presure from Altaic huns,
settling eventually with the Germanic Sueves is Galicia in Spain (and
surviving as Ossettes in the Caucasas today). The Yueh Chih were
griven by Altaic Huns out of the Kansu corridor into the Tarim Basin
and then moved into India where under Kushana they established an
Empire that stretched from the Ganges to the Aral Sea. The Sacae
(Saka) allied with the Parthians to form a number of petty dynasties
in Rajasthan in India. With the collapse of the Huing Nu
confederacy,
being driven west by Manchu Juan Juan, two groups of Huns were pushed
west and south. One attacked the north eastern frontier of the
Sassanid Persian empire, but were pushed into India (where they
became
the Rajput princes). The other became the Huns under Atilla. After
Atillas death the huns moved east and split into two groups who took
the name Bulgar. Arriving again in Europe one group gave Bulgaria
its
name. The second group settled an independent Muslim state on the
Volga river until they were assimilated into Ghenghiz Khan's Empire.
Hope this helps
Regards
John