“The Alans as a Case Study of Eurasian Entanglements”

As one of the minor groups of the so-called “migration period” of the 4th and 5th century, the Alans are often overshadowed by the ‘big players’ of that time. This applies in particular to their perception in modern-day research. Using the Alans as a case study, my project at MUM aims to develop a nuanced understanding of the political and social dynamics resulting from spatial mobility between the Eurasian steppe zone north of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean from the 1st to the 12th century and the integration of nomadic groups into sedentary Empires.

Compared to other migrating groups of late antiquity and the middle ages, the Alans are still largely understudied. Bernard S. Bachrach’s book “A History of the Alans in the West”, published in 1973, still is the only substantial account on the topic. Due to Bachrach’s focus on the late Roman West, the Eurasian context of the Alans is more or less sidelined in his study.

Literary sources from antiquity and the middle ages refer to the Alans as mobile warrior bands or as a cipher to illustrate the otherness of nomads in the outer rim of the barbaricum. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Alans appear in the slipstream of the Huns and the Vandals; Alanic groups were integrated into the military apparatus of the Roman Empire; they served as mercenaries and settlers in Byzantium, the Caucasian region and Central Asia until the 12th and 13th centuries. The varying forms of integration into different political and social settings, presumably also depending on specific local circumstances, turn the Alans into an instructive example of the dynamics of migration and integration of nomadic groups into sedentary imperial settings.

Drawing on literary texts and archaeological material, I aim to follow four strands:

1) Analyzing the impact of spatial mobility on cultural developments in the Eurasian steppe from a longue-durée perspective, stretching from the 1st to the 12th centuries

2) The broad variety of literary sources from different cultural contexts allows for comparison of perceptions of the ‘otherness’ of the steppe nomads from different cultural angles, such Western Latin and Greek, Central Asian, Armenian, Georgian, and Iranian, and even Eastern Chinese literary traditions

3) Analyzing modes of integration of mobile groups into imperial settings in late antiquity and the middle ages beyond the narrative of migration and conquest

4) Studying the Eurasian steppe as a space of communication and cultural entanglement connecting Eastern Central Europe to Central and Northern Asia as well as players from nomadic and sedentary contexts