“The theory has been abandoned that this was an autochthonous development, typical of the Indo-Europeans [Nordics] before they differentiated (_cf._ Chvojka, the first discoverer). Although similar to Ægean art this was earlier (see Von Stern, _Prehistoric Greek Culture in the South of Russia_). It came suddenly to an end and had no successor in that region. The people were agriculturalists long before the Scythians, but the next people who lived there were thorough nomads. Niederle (_Slav. Ant._, I) dates them 2000 B. C. The Tripolje people either moved south or were overwhelmed by new comers.” As Peake says, 2, pp. 164–165, here was a very likely point of contact between the Nordic and Alpine stocks, a mixture which, in the opinion of the author, may ultimately throw some light on the origin of the Dinaric and Beaker Maker types. Through this region both Alpines and Nordics must have passed many times in their wanderings. Here perhaps the Alpines became partly Nordicized, especially as to their language. 143 : 21. Sarmatians. There has been considerable confusion over these people, owing to the various ways in which the name has been spelled by early and later writers, and to the fact that they dwelt in the region where both Alpines and Nordics must have existed side by side. The name Sarmatians has been applied at one time to Nordics, at another to Alpines or even Mongolians, depending on the dates when they were discussed and the bias of various writers. We have no generic name for the Alpine peoples who must have been in this region in early times, except that of Sarmatians or Scythians. As the Scythians are apparently strongly Nordic in character, the name Sarmatians seemed more fitting to apply to the Alpine tribes who were certainly there. Not all authorities are agreed as to their affiliations, however, as has been said. Jordanes declares that the Sarmatians and the Sauromatæ were the same people. Stephanus Byzantius states that the Syrmatæ were identical with the Sauromatæ. They are first mentioned by Polybius as being in Europe in 179 B. C. (XXV, II; XXVI, VI, 12). But in Asia we hear of them as early as 325 B. C., according to Minns, p. 38, who says that they gradually shifted westward, until in 50 A. D. they were in the Danube valley. Jordanes later speaks of the Carpathian mountains as the Sarmatian range. Mierow, in the notes to his translation of Jordanes, makes the Sarmatians a great Slavic people dwelling from the Vistula to the Don, in what is now Poland and Russia. (See also Hodgkin, _Italy_, vol. I, part I, p. 71.) According to Jordanes, the Sarmatians were beyond Dacia (the ancient Gothic land) and to the north (XII, 74). It is with these statements in mind that the author has designated them as Alpines.