This complete image recalls a picture from a novel featuring medieval western European knights; these Sarmatian "prototypes," however, are 2,000 years older".
Compared with classical Sauromatians, Early Sarmatians, such as those of Filippovka, generally display an increased incidence of eastern Asiatic features.
[14] Circa 500 BCE, other groups from the area of Ancient Khorezm settled in the western part of the southern Urals, who also assimilated into the Early Sarmatians.
[14] As a result, a large-scale integrated union of nomads from Central Asia formed in the area in the 5th–4th century BCE, with fairly uniformized cultural practices.
[14] This cultural complex, with notable ‘‘foreign elements’’, corresponds to the ‘‘royal’’ burials of Filippovka, and define the "Prokhorovka period" of the Early Sarmatians.
Warriors with daggers and bows. Dagger blade decoration from Kurgan 4, Burial 2, Filippovka.
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Stags from the Filippovka kurgans, Ufa Ethnology Museum. 26 such golden deers were excavated in Filippovka.
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They were carved from wood and covered with gold or silver foil.
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Gilded iron sword, with gold inlay designs of horses and warriors, from Kurgan 4, Burial 2.
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Gold inlays to decorate iron and bronze objects were used by the nomads of Eurasia from the 7th century BCE, starting with the battle axe and the arrowheads found at
Arzhan-2
in the Altai region.
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Sarmatian ancestry proportions. The Late Sauromatian-Early
Sarmatian
period (Prokhorovka period in Southern Ural) sees a marked influx of Central Asian nomads (
Altaian
-like ancestry), which continues into the Late Sarmatian period.
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The Filippovka kurgans are part of numerous nomadic South Ural barrows dating from 6th-4th century BCE.
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