The Sarmatians were a large Iranian steppe people who formed a coalition, dominated the related Scythians, and became masters of the Eurasian steppe from about 200 BCE to about 300 CE. Rustam Mudayev, a Russian farmer, recently discovered a burial mound after noticing a bronze cauldron while working on a farm northwest of the Caspian Sea. Mudayev reported the discovery to authorities, and the mound was excavated by an archaeological team from the Astrakhan State Museum, who identified it as a Sarmatian burial.
The Sarmatian burial mound, or kurgan, had been looted in antiquity. But the looters left behind three human skeletons in wooden coffins, a horse skull, a harness, weapons, gold jewelry, and a bronze cauldron.
Investigations of the remains indicate they died about 2,500 years ago. That is a little early for the Sarmatians. Their culture was believed to have coalesced by about 300 CE – two hundred years after this kurgan burial. This might help us better understand who the Sarmatians were before they became dominant and entered western historical records.
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