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From: "Steve Williamson" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Sarmatians - Asians in Europe
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 12:10:50 -0500
References: <3EB3F536.9343230F@comcast.net>


Bonnie,
I posted about this just a few days ago. One of the Saramatian leaders in
Britain was named "L. Artorius Castus." It has been proposed that he was the
"historical King Arthur." The modern-day Ossetians of the Caucasus are
descendants of the Alans, who were sort of eastern cousins of the Sarmatians
(Iazyges & Roxolani). The Ossetians have a whole cycle of legends that bear
striking resemblances to the Arthurian tales. Also, the Scythians &
Sarmatians worshipped a war god in the image of a sword stuck upright in the
ground or on a pile of wood (think "sword in the stone").

See "From Scythia to Camelot" by Littleton & Malcor (1994).

However, the Sarmatians were Indo-European, not Asian. They were deployed to
Britain well before the first large-scale incursions of Asiatic nomads (the
Huns).

Steve W.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bonnie Schrack" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 11:58 AM
Subject: [DNA] Sarmatians - Asians in Europe


> 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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