alans

The Alans were an ancient Iranian-speaking pastoralist people of the Sarmatian group who inhabited the Pontic–Caspian steppe from the 1st millennium BCE onward. The ethnonym Alān is of Iranian origin, and the Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language related to other Sarmatian tongues. Their speech is considered a predecessor of the Ossetian language, spoken today in the North Caucasus. As part of the broader Sarmatian cultural sphere, the Alans shared a horse-based, mobile pastoral economy.

In classical and late antique sources, the Alans appear as allies, mercenaries, and adversaries in the frontiers of the Roman and Byzantine worlds. From the 1st through the 4th centuries CE they interacted with Roman authorities in the frontier regions of Dacia, the Pontic steppe, and the Caucasus. Following the collapse of Roman power in the West, groups identifying as Alans participated in large-scale migrations that reshaped late antique Europe; some moved into what is now France and Iberia, while others remained in the Caucasus and surrounding areas. A branch settled in the North Caucasus during the medieval period, giving rise to the kingdom of Alania and, over time, to the Ossetian people.

Legacy and names: The Ossetians are generally regarded as descendants of the Alans. In ancient and medieval sources, the name appears in several forms such as Alān or Alan, and is sometimes confused with the unrelated Germanic Alamanni. The Alan legacy persisted in the Caucasus and in the ethnogenesis of the Ossetian language and people.