Introduction: Nomadic Peoples in the Migration Period

This blog is about nomadic peoples during the Migration Period 300-800 AD. Various nomadic peoples played a central role during the Migration Period. In this blog, you will read about who these peoples were and where they came from.

The Pontic-Caspian steppe is an extensive area of more than 5,000 kilometers, stretching from the Carpathian Basin in Hungary and Ukraine to China. It consists largely of flat grasslands and is characterized by an extreme climate. Summers can reach temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, while winters are bitterly cold with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees.

Since the early stone Age, this harsh landscape has been home to various peoples. From the end of the Neolithic, these groups played a crucial role in both European and Asian history, extending their influence far from this region.

After the introduction of the horse around the 5th to 4th millennium BC, steppe peoples were able to keep larger herds. The harsh life on the steppe forced them to constantly move between grazing areas to feed their herds. Their possessions were limited to what could be transported on legs and wheels, making them susceptible to theft. This made steppe cultures more militaristic than peasant societies.

To survive, they formed large confederations, referred to by classical writers as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, or Mongols. These alliances consisted of a mix of nomadic tribes, sometimes with a shared ethnic background, but often also from different peoples. For instance, the Sarmatians and Alans were initially expelled by the Huns, but eventually incorporated into the Hunnic confederation.

Just as 'barbarian' peoples influenced the Late Roman Empire, steppe peoples constantly mingled with each other and adopted each other's cultural expressions, making their societies flexible and dynamic.

In the Neolithic period, the Proto-Indo-European culture emerged in this area, based on a dharmic religion and oath-bound alliances. Around 3500 BC, these nomadic peoples moved into Europe, where they mingled with Neolithic farmers, leading to mixed cultures such as the Corded Ware Culture and Yamnaya Culture.

Some returned to their homeland and formed new cultures such as the Sintashta and Andronovo cultures. From these emerged the Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryanss, who moved further into Iran and India. These peoples shared a common origin in language, religion, and culture, which also influenced Europe. From this cultural mix, later steppe confederations such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans emerged. 

The Huns were a nomadic confederation that developed between the 4th and 6th centuries AD in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. According to European traditions, they were first observed east of the Volga River, in an area then known as Scythia. Around 370 AD, the Huns reached the Volga where they displaced the Goths and Alans. This led to a massive westward migration of both peoples. By 430, the Huns had established a large but short-lived empire on the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire in Europe. Parts of the Alans and Sarmatian tribes that did not flee were integrated into the Hunnic confederation, as were parts of the Goths. Thus, the Huns combined with the Germanic Goths to form a mixed culture of Asian and European nomadic peoples. 

The Huns suddenly appeared in Europe around 370 AD, presumably originating from Central Asia. They are often associated with the Xiongnu, a people from Northern China (3rd century BC–1st century AD), but this remains controversial. Genetic research indicates some similarities with populations from Ancient Mongolia.

The Migration Period (300-800 AD) can be divided into two major migration waves. The Huns played a crucial role in triggering the first migration wave (300-500 AD). Their rise in the 4th century caused a chain reaction of population movements. From the Eurasian steppe, the Huns invaded Western Europe, driving the Goths, Sarmatians, and Alans before them. This caused massive shifts and conflicts in and around the Roman Empire.

The Tervingi, a Gothic tribe, fled across the Danube into Roman territory in 376 AD to escape the Huns. This migration led to tensions with the Romans, culminating in the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD, in which the Romans suffered a heavy defeat. From the Tervingi, the Visigoths later emerged, who sacked Rome in 410 AD and eventually settled in Gaul and Spain. Here they founded the Visigothic Kingdom around 460 AD.

Under the leadership of their king Attila, the Huns conducted frequent and devastating raids on the Eastern Roman Empire. In 451, they invaded the Western Roman province of Gaul, where they were confronted by a combined army of Romans and Visigoths in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. In 452, they invaded Italy. However, after Attila's death in 453, the Huns lost their power and their empire was largely destroyed after the Battle of Nedao around 454. Descendants of the Huns, or successors with similar names, were mentioned by neighboring peoples up until the 8th century in parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

In 452, Attila invaded Italy, ravaging cities such as Aquileia and Verona, and appeared to be preparing for an attack on Rome. Emperor Valentinian III sent a delegation, including Pope Leo I, to negotiate with him. At the river Mincio, they met Attila, who, to everyone's surprise, agreed to withdraw. The reason for this decision is unclear. Possibly illness played a role, or there were logistical problems. Some believe that Pope Leo’ss presence carried symbolic weight.

After Attila withdrew from Italy, he turned his attention to Constantinople. Emperor Marcian had refused to pay further tributes to the Huns, and Attila was preparing a new campaign. These plans were abruptly halted when he unexpectedly died in 453, presumably from a hemorrhage during his wedding night.

With Attila’s's death, chaos erupted within the Hunnic Empire. His sons, including Ellak and Dengizich, failed to consolidate power. In 454, a confrontation occurred at the Battle of Nedao, where a coalition of Germanic tribes led by the Gepid king Ardaric defeated the Huns. Ellak was killed, and Hunnic dominance in Europe began to disintegrate.

At the same time, the Huns were threatened from the east by new Turkic-speaking peoples, such as the Saragurs and Onogurs. In 463, the Saragurs defeated the Akatziri Huns and took control in the Pontic Steppe, causing the empire to further disintegrate.

Dengizich, another son of Attila, made a desperate attempt to restore the empire. However, his campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire were doomed to fail. In 467, his troops were surrounded and defeated. Two years later, in 469, Dengizich was killed, marking the definitive end of Hunnic power in Europe.

Despite the collapse of the empire, the influence of the Huns remained palpable. Some groups, possibly led by Attila’s's son Ernak, continued as the Kutrigurs and Utigurs, precursors to the Bulgarians. Other remnants may have become the North Caucasian Huns.

Attila’s's name remained a powerful myth. Steppe rulers in the centuries after him claimed descent from the Huns to bolster their own authority. Both Western and Byzantine sources continued to use the term "Huns" for various steppe peoples, testifying to the enduring impact of their legendary past.

The Sarmatians were a large confederation of nomadic horse-riding peoples who were part of the broader Scythian culture. The Sarmatians spoke an Indo-European language (Iranian) and had an Indo-European culture and religion. The earliest reference to the Sarmatians is found in the Avesta, where they are referred to as Sairima. As early as the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, they began to move westward and gained dominance over the closely related Scythians. At their peak, around 100 BC, their influence extended from the Vistula (Weichsel) in the west to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, with territories along the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus.

In the 1st century AD, the Sarmatians increasingly came into contact with the Roman Empire, often as allies of Germanic tribes. However, in the 3rd century, they lost their dominance over the Pontic steppe due to the rise of the Germanic Goths. With the invasions of the Huns in the 4th century, many Sarmatians joined the Goths and other Germanic tribes , such as the Vandals, and eventually settled in the Western Roman Empire.

Many Sarmatians were recruited by the Romans around the 3rd - 4th century AD as Foederati and auxilia troops. They were favored cavalrymen who were used, among other things, as scouts for the Roman armies. In the 3rd century, Sarmatian cavalrymen were even deployed at Hadrian's Wall in Britain. 

In the area between the Volga and the Don, the Sarmatians had a strong presence. When the culture was in its decline phase, some Sarmatians assimilated into the Greek society, within the Bosporan Kingdom, while others merged with the proto-Circassian Maeotian population, the nomadic Alans, and the Germanic Goths. Later, some Sarmatians were absorbed by early Slavic peoples.

Genetic research suggests that the Sarmatians were likely related to the eastern Yamnaya culture from the Bronze Age. They have a clear genetic connection with early Iranian and Eurasian steppe peoples.

The Alans were a nomadic people that emerged from the Sarmatians. They migrated to the region now known as the North Caucasus. Some moved further into Europe and later all the way to North Africa. They were part of the Sarmatians and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have linked the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai, mentioned in Chinese sources, and with the Aorsi, mentioned in Roman sources.

After migrating westward and gaining a dominant role among the Sarmatians on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, the Alans are mentioned in Roman writings in the 1st century AD. At that time, they had settled in the area north of the Black Sea and regularly raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire.

Between 215 and 250 AD, the Goths broke their power on the Pontic Steppe, causing a significant portion of the Alans to be assimilated by them.

After the defeat of the Goths by the Huns on the Pontic Steppe around 375 AD, many Alans migrated westward, along with several Germanic tribes. In 406 AD, they crossed the Rhine together with the Vandals and the Suebi and settled in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 AD, they again joined the Vandals and Suebi to cross the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, where they settled in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis.

The Alans on the Iberian Peninsula were heavily defeated by the Visigoths in 418 AD and subsequently transferred their power to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428 AD, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to North Africa, where they established a kingdom. This kingdom lasted until it was conquered in 534 by troops of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.

In the 9th century, the Alans who remained under Hunnic rule founded the powerful kingdom of Alania. This kingdom lasted until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Various scholars consider these Alans to be the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.

The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language that descended from Scythian-Sarmatian and eventually evolved into the modern Ossetian language. The name "Alans" is an Eastern Iranian dialect form of the Old Iranian term "Aryan" and is thus related to the name of the country Iran (derived from the genitive plural *aryānām).

Genetic studies support the idea that the Ossetians directly descend from the Alans, as their main haplogroup G2 matches. The Alans showed genetic similarities, indicating close kinship within the tribe. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that there are genetic connections between the Alans and the Chechens of the Shoanoy Teip, suggesting a possible link between these groups. Additionally, the Alans exhibit a genetic connection with other Indo-European peoples. 

The sudden decline of the Hunnic empire created a power vacuum on the steppe. Various other tribal confederations stepped in, each playing their role in the second migration wave during the migration period. 

The origin of the Magyars (Hungarians) is often a subject of debate. Since the Hungarian language belongs to the Ugric language family, the Hungarians are usually considered a Ugric people with roots in the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia, or the Middle Volga region. Around 3000 BC, the Uralic-speaking peoples split, who originally lived in the central and southern parts of the Ural Mountains. Some moved westward and came into contact with Indo-European peoples such as the Andronovo culture and Asian cultures from the Baikal-Altai region. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, they lived west of the Ural Mountains, in the region between the southern Urals and the Volga, also known as Bashkortostan. From there, they moved towards the Don River in the 8th century. There they became subordinates of the Khazar Empire and engaged in agriculture alongside livestock farming. According to tradition, the Hungarians were organized in a confederation of seven tribes: Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer, Nyék, and Tarján.

Around 830 AD, a revolt in the Khazar Empire led to three tribes, the Kabars, joining the Hungarians and settling in the Etelköz, an area between the Carpathians and the Dnieper. From 862, the Hungarians, along with their allies, began raiding expeditions into the Carpathian Basin and surrounding areas. These raids primarily targeted the East Frankish Empire and Great Moravia.

In the period 862–895, the Hungarians conquered the Carpathian Basin, led by Árpád and his father Álmos. This conquest proceeded according to a careful plan. Archaeological evidence shows that entire families, including women and children, settled with the warriors. This indicates a strong, well-organized community with military prowess. The fall of Great Moravia around 902 and the largely uninhabited nature of the region made settlement easier. The Slavs who lived in the area were assimilated or enslaved.

The Pannonian Avars were an alliance of various nomadic peoples from Eurasia with diverse backgrounds. Their empire, the Avar Khaganate, spanned the Pannonian Basin and large parts of Central and Eastern Europe between the late 6th and early 9th centuries AD.

The term "Pannonian Avars" is used to distinguish them from the Avars in the Caucasus, another people with whom they may not have had a direct connection. The name "Avars" first appeared in the 5th century, but the Pannonian Avars only came to prominence in the 6th century. They were likely driven by the desire to escape the rule of the Göktürks. They are best known for their invasions during the Avar-Byzantine wars (568–626) and their role in the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe.

Recent genetic studies suggest that the Pannonian Avars were primarily of Northeast Asian descent. Their genetic profile closely resembles that of modern populations in Mongolia and the Amur region (Manchuria). This suggests they migrated quickly from the eastern steppes of Eurasia. They may have descended from the remnants of the Rouran Khaganate, supplemented by other steppe groups.

Historical sources mention various names and influences associated with the Avars. For instance, Priscus the Rhetor in the 5th century described how they were part of complex power dynamics in the steppes, involving peoples such as the Šaragurs, Onogurs, and Sabirs. A century later, Menander Protector noted that the Göktürks considered them former subjects and called them "escaped slaves."

Byzantine authors like Theophylact Simocatta added that the Pannonian Avars had wrongfully appropriated this name. According to him, they were actually other steppe peoples, such as the Var and Chunni, who had adopted a new identity to gain prestige.

The Pannonian Avars were masters at uniting different cultural influences. Their elite used Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages, while Proto-Slavic possibly served as a lingua franca. Their religion was originally shamanistic, but Christianity gained a foothold after 796.

Archaeological finds such as weapons, jewelry, and artifacts, for example at a burial site in Gyenesdiás, Hungary, show a rich and diverse culture. Additionally, they often imitated Byzantine coins and artworks, such as golden bowls and jewelry.

The exact origin of the Pannonian Avars remains a mystery. Historians suggest that they consisted of a mix of Turkic, Mongolic, Iranian, and other steppe groups. In Europe, they likely assimilated Germanic and Slavic populations. Despite this diversity, their identity was strongly linked to their political institutions and leadership. Their name and status as "Avars" quickly disappeared after the fall of their empire in the early 9th century, when it was conquered by the Franks and Bulgarians.

The Bulgarians, also known as Bulghars, Bolgars, or Bolgari, were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that thrived on the Pontic-Caspian steppe and in the Volga region between the 5th and 7th centuries. They were nomadic horsemen from the Volga-Ural region, although some researchers trace their ethnic roots to Central Asia. Their culture reflected the lifestyle of the Eurasian steppes, including paganism, shamanism, and the belief in the sky god Tangra.

The Bulgarians were a collection of tribes such as the Onoğurs, Utigurs, and Kutrigurs. Through wars and alliances, they formed a more unified people. By the 8th century, the Bulgarians had grown into a powerful political and military force, with a lasting influence on Eurasian history.

The origin of the Bulgarians remains a subject of debate. Some place their origin in Kazakhstan and the North Caucasus, while others consider the Pontic-Caspian steppe more likely. There is evidence that they had ties with the Huns, or possibly were even a branch of them. It is known that the Onogur-Bulgarians incorporated elements of the Huns after the death of Dengizich, the last Hunnic leader.

The Bulgarians were first explicitly mentioned in 480, when they fought as allies of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno against the Ostrogoths. Other early references come from geographical works, such as those by Anania Shirakatsi, who described various Bulgarian tribes in the North Caucasus and the Kuban steppe.

In 463, the Bulgars were associated with Oghuric Turkic tribes migrating from Central Asia to the Pontic-Caspian steppe. During the 6th and 7th centuries, they mingled with Avars and other steppe peoples.

The Bulgars spoke a Turkic language from the Oghuric branch, the Bulgar language. During their westward migration across the Eurasian steppe, they assimilated other tribal groups, such as Iranian, Finno-Ugric, and Hunnic tribes. Their society retained military titles and customs of the steppes, distinguishing them from the agrarian peoples around them.

In the 7th century, the Bulgars settled in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and established the realm of Old Great Bulgaria. This realm, which existed from approximately 630 to 668, marked their emergence as a significant political power. However, the realm was destroyed by the Khazar Empire, forcing the Bulgars to seek new territories.

After the defeat against the Khazars, a part of the Bulgars, led by Khan Asparukh, migrated westward. In 681, they conquered Moesia (present-day Bulgaria) and established the First Bulgarian Empire, also known as Danubian Bulgaria. The Bulgars became a political and military elite but eventually mingled with Slavic and Byzantine populations. This process led to the Slavicization of the Bulgars, making them one of the ancestors of modern Bulgarians.

Not all Bulgars migrated westward. Another group moved to the Volga River and established Volga Bulgaria there. This society maintained its identity until the 13th century. Modern Volga Tatars, Bashkirs, and Chuvash consider themselves descendants of these Volga Bulgars.