Tamgas of Sarmatians, Transoxiana’ Hūnā and Xiongnu Cover Image

Тамги сарматов, среднеазиатских хуна и хунну
Tamgas of Sarmatians, Transoxiana’ Hūnā and Xiongnu

Author(s): Sergey A. Yatsenko
Subject(s): Archaeology, Cultural history, Ethnohistory, Ancient World
Published by: Нижневартовский государственный университет
Keywords: tamgas; early analogies of the tamgas of the Hūṇā kings in Transoxiana and Hindustan; European Sarmatia of the 2nd — 3 rd cc. CE; Hūṇā; Xiongnu; Alans;

Summary/Abstract: The article considers the only area in the Eurasian Steppe where a series of earlier exact analogies of the royal tamgas from the coins of the Hūṇā of Transoxiana and North-Western Hindustan of the late 4th — mid 6th cc. CE were found. This is European Sarmatia to the west of the mouth of the Don and such finds, with one exception, date back to mid. 2nd — mid. 3 rd cc. CE. They are concentrated in three zones — in the Central Crimea, in Olbia region and at the mouth of Don (fig. 9). They are absent in the main cities of Bosporus. 7 types of clan emblems are analyzed (figs. 2—8) the identical samples of which are known later for the rulers of all 4 groups of the “Iranian Huns”. The Sarmatian clans that used these tamgas were not part of the highest aristocracy and are not represented in most places where important actions were held (large accumulations of signs remained from them). In connection with the obtained result, three evidences of Chinese and Roman historians about the Alans in Central Asia and Hindustan in the Hunnic period seems interesting.

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