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From: Bonnie Schrack <>
Subject: [DNA] Sarmatians - Asians in Europe
Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 12:58:30 -0400


Hi list,

After reading Joyce's story about Aberdeenshire,
I thought I'd throw this in, just to mix things up a little more ;-)

It bears more on our questions about Asiatic genes in Europe, rather
than Melungeon research.

Does anyone happen to know whether it's true that more than 5000
Sarmatian warriors from Central Asia (their original homeland was
probably northwest of the Caspian Sea) were recruited into the Roman
legions, and sent as a group to the British borderlands with Scotland to
defend Hadrian's Wall from Scottish and Pictish incursions, in 175 AD?

They were then supposed to have been deployed to Gaul, and subsequently
to Britain again. Some of them retired to a veteran's home (!) in
Lancashire. The author says, "I always wonder how many unsuspecting
modern-day Frenchmen and Britons, as well as Americans of those
extractions, possess the genes of the ancient steppe warriors."

All of this is taken from Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for
History's Hidden Heroines, by Jeannine Davis-Kimball, PhD, who has
appeared on NOVA and the Learning Channel, and is the founder and
director of the American-Eurasian Research Institute and the Center for
the Study of Eurasian Nomads.

Her book argues that the position of women in some of the steppe nomadic
groups, especially the Sauromatians and the Sarmatians, was much better
then many people realize.

I am going to do more research on the possible Sarmatian presence in
Britain and France myself, but first I thought I'd ask whether anyone on
the list had heard about it.

Bonnie Schrack


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