"In 175 CE, following their defeat in the Marcomannic Wars, emperor Marcus Aurelius drafted Sarmatian cavalry into Roman legions and deployed 5,500 Sarmatian soldiers to Britain, as recorded by contemporary historian Cassius Dio. Little is known about where the Sarmatian cavalry were stationed, and no individuals connected with this historically attested event have been identified to date, leaving its impact on Britain largely unknown."
In 2017, during excavations preceding the A14 road improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon, archaeologists discovered a complete well-preserved skeleton of a young man, around 18–25 years old at the time of death between 126 and 228 AD. The man has been named Offord Cluny 203645 after the Cambridgeshire village he was found near.
Further analysis of extracted DNA by the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London has shown that the remains, found buried in a ditch on a farmstead site that later developed into a villa complex during the Roman occupation of Britain, belong to a man from a nomadic group known as Sarmatians, an Iranian-speaking people from around the Black Sea at the far end of the Roman Empire, the area today of southern Russia, Armenia, and Ukraine.
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Analysis of his teeth by the archaeology department of Durham University has shown that until the age of six he ate C4 crops such as millets and sorghum grains, which are plentiful in the plains where the Sarmatians lived. As he grew his diet changed, decreasing his consumption of these grains and eating more wheat, found in western Europe. Scientists conclude that Offord Cluny 203645, and not his ancestors, made the journey to Britain indicating that he could have been a cavalry man's son, or possibly his slave.
Dio Cassius's Roman Histories describe how toward the end of the Marcomannic Wars (AD 166-180) 8,000 heavy cavalry from a Sarmatian tribe known as the Iazyges were taken into the Roman army by Marcus Aurelius; 5,500 of which Dio says were sent to Britain.
It is claimed that these Sarmatian auxiliaries were posted in groups of five hundred to the garrisons along Hadrian's Wall. Additionally, when their period of service was over, the veterans were settled at the Roman fort of Bremetennacum Veteranorum (Ribchester, Lanchashire).
The Notitia Dignatum, a record of Roman units of the late Roman Empire, does confirm a Sarmatian presence at Bremetennacum listed as Cuneus Sarmatarum. The Notitia Dignatum is considered to be fairly accurate for early 5th century Roman Britain but is of little value for 2nd century Roman Britain when the 5,500 Sarmatians are said to have arrived. However, Roman altars found at the site do confirm the presence of Sarmatian cavalry, however the size of the fort was not large enough to accommodate all 5,500. The fort, built around 70 AD and active for around 300 years, initially accommodated an Ala (wing) of 500 Asturians from Spain who were replaced by a similar number of Sarmatians. It is likely that the Cuneus Sarmatarum, as recorded in the Notitia Dignatum, was enlisted from later generations of the first Sarmatian cavalry settled in the area.
There is a surprising lack of archaeological evidence to verify their presence along the forts of Hadrian’s Wall; one would expect the arrival of 5,500 Sarmatians (possibly a much larger number if their families came with them) to have left a significant archaeological signature. But as it stands, the vast majority of the 5,500 Iazyges posted to Britain simply disappeared without trace.
Offord Cluny 203645 was found along way from the north of Britain where it is claimed the 5,500 Sarmatians were posted. It is indicative of his status that he was not recovered from one of the small formal Romano-British cemeteries found along the modern A14 road, but in an isolated burial placed within a former trackway ditch toward the fringes of the farmstead. Furthermore there is a complete absence of grave goods indicating Offord Cluny 203645 was not a military man. Being found in a ditch in a rural location suggests he was associated with the farmstead.
During the early-mid Roman isolated burials outside of formal cemeteries in peripheral unfurnished graves were not an uncommon feature of farmsteads and villas. However it is usually unclear who was placed in these isolated burials, but the very act of interment itself distinguishes them from the majority of the rural population from this time who were subjected to funerary rites which left little archaeological trace.
Sources:
DNA sleuths solve mystery of the 2,000-year old corpse - BBC News 20-12-2023
Read the report in full:
An individual with Sarmatian-related ancestry in Roman Britain - Marina Silva, Thomas Booth, Joanna Moore, David Bowsher, Janet Montgomery, Pontus Skoglund, et al.
Current Biology, Cell Press, 19-12-2023 (Open Access)
Science Direct (Open Access)
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