Based on archeological data with the involvement of written sources, the history of penetration into the Don forest-steppe of Sarmatian tribes, their contacts with the autochthonous population is considered. For the first time, materials from the burial grounds of the forest-steppe Podonya of the first centuries of our era are published, their inventory and burial rite are analyzed, and a chronology is developed. A number of local groups of monuments of the Sarmatian time are revealed, their ethnocultural interpretation is proposed. The author poses the problem of "Sarmatians and forest-steppe," outlines the ways of studying it.