History: the Sarmatians were closely related to the Scythians and are often considered to have been one of their tribes, so therefor I shall first tell a little bit about the Scythians;
The Scythians were a group of nomadic tribes from modern day Iran who are believed to have invaded southern Russia and the Ukraine in the 7th century BC, the Cimmerians who originally lived in that area probably assimilated with them, the Scythians themselves disappeared from history in the 4th century BC and probably assimilated with the Sarmatians or other peoples living in the area.
The Scythians knew bronze and made beautiful jewellry of gold and silver, they also took the scalps of defeated enemies and hung them on their bridle reins, when they had collected enough scalps they made a mantle of them that they wore to show how many enemies they had slain.
The Sarmatians were originally called "Sauromatians" and were a nomadic people of Iranian origin who probably descended from a Scythian tribe of the same name, they initially lived east of the river Don along the Caspian sea and Aral lake and in what is now known as Kazakhstan en Afghanistan, later they crossed the river Don and wandered around in the land between the rivers Don and Tisza (Theiss), which roughly encompasses modern day Rumania and the Ukraine, though the Romans called all lands east of the river Vistula (Weichsel) and the Carpathian mountains "Sarmatia", which may indicate that they also expanded to other areas.
In the 4th century AD the Sarmatians became an increasing threat to the Germanic tribe of the Goths, who eventually attacked them and caused so many Sarmatian defeats that the Sarmatian kings had to ask the Romans for help, in 332AD the Romans defeated a Gothic army which gave the Sarmatians some relief but instead of being grateful the Sarmatians then turned on the Romans and in the 2nd half of the 4th century AD and the period thereafter they undertook many plunder raids in the Roman empire.
The most important Sarmatian tribes were the Aorsians, the Roxolanians, the Alanians (Alans), and the Iazyges, the Alanians later joined the Huns and probably became the ancestors of the modern Ossetians while another part of them migrated to Spain where they were destroyed by Germanic tribes, it is not entirely known what happened to most other Sarmatian tribes but they are believed to have been driven eastwards by the Huns and expanding Germanic and Slavonic tribes, a part of them may have also assimilated with the population of eastern Europe.
Culture: the Sarmatians were a nomadic people with a militaristic nature who lived on their horses and in a type of wagon that was called "kibitkasjust", just like the early Slavs the Sarmatians had a matriarchal society, unlike the Roman society where men were in charge or the Germanic society where both sexes were equal.
There were also many women serving in the Sarmatian army and according to Hippocrates most Sarmatian women were missing their right-breast because the Sarmatians burned it off when they were still young, this was done because they believed that a woman's arm would become much stronger from it and also because it allowed them to draw their bow much better.
Sarmatian women also went hunting and performed the same tasks as men during a war, they also wore men's cloathing and no girl was allowed to marry until she had killed a man in battle, Herodotus even mentioned that the Sarmatians were believed to be the descendants of Scythians and the legendary Amazons.
Although women were considered to be better than men in Sarmatian society there were also class differences, the two main classes were the "argaragantes" (warriors of noble descent) and the "limigantes" (slaves who performed the dirty work).
Language: the Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language that was probably related to Scythian, the Indo-Iranian languages are of Indo-European origin and can be divided into Indic (from which Sanskrit, Hindi, and other languages originate) and Iranian, the Iranian language eventually separated into Avestan (from which Pashto originates), Old Persian (from which Persian/Farsi (the modern language of Iran), Kurdish, Ossetic, Baluchi, and some other languages originate), and Scythian (which is nowadays extinct).
Example of Iranian languages:
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 1)
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Kurdish:
Hemû mirov azad û di weqar û mafan de wekhev tên dinyayê. Ew xwedî his û suûr in û divê li hember hev bi zihniyeteke bratiyê bilivin.
Persian:
(From right to left)
Religion: not much is known about the religion of the Sarmatians but it is believed to have been similar to that of their relatives in Iran before Zoroastrism was introduced there, fire probably played an important part in the Sarmatian religion and they also knew fertility rituals.
Description of the main Sarmatian gods:
There isn't much information about the Sarmatian gods either, though some sources mention that they had gods of nature (sky, earth, and fire) and gods that were specialized in special concepts (society and war).
The Slavs in the Ukraine worshipped at least two gods that are believed to have been of Sarmatian origin:
Khors is the personification of the sun, his name is believed to be of Iranian (Sarmatian?) origin and the Slavs equalled him to Svarazic, the Slavonic god of fire and the sun.
Simargl is probably a wargod that was borrowed from the Sarmatians in the 1st century BC, he was depicted as a griffin (bird-like creature).
Culture: the Sarmatians were a nomadic people with a militaristic nature who lived on their horses and in a type of wagon that was called "kibitkasjust", just like the early Slavs the Sarmatians had a matriarchal society, unlike the Roman society where men were in charge or the Germanic society where both sexes were equal.