Abstract
This article explores the eastern edge of the Sarmatian cultural community during the late 6th—1st centuries BC, using a comparative analysis of funerary rites and grave goods. Findings from the Tobol–Torgay steppes and the Ishim steppe of Northern Kazakhstan are set against archaeological sites from the Southern Urals and Western Kazakhstan. Evidence shows that in the 6th—5th centuries BC, Proto-Sarmatian and Early Sarmatian groups reached no farther east than the Tobol–Torgay steppes. A stronger movement into the Ishim steppe began in the late 5th—4th centuries BC, with the Sarmatians firmly establishing themselves there only by around the 2nd century BC.