Thanks for the in-depth research. I too am a Radio 4 listener and heard the piece you refer to, but it just didn’t register with my new found love for all things Alan.

But thanks again, you have given me a good idea for my first page on The Alans.

Just FYI, in the first 12 hrs since announcing, we have increased our membership by 150%

“But the Ossetians, in their glory days of continental mastery, were not known by that name. They were sometimes Sarmatians, and sometimes Alans.

Every third Ossetian you meet now seems to be called Alan, and the north Ossetian republic, within Russia, is officially “Alania”,”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7701614.stm

Also from another website it is referred to as the Alan Kindom:

Since before recorded history, North Ossetia-Alania has been the crossroads of main Caucasus routes and a bridge between Transcaucasus and Europe. Due to its strategic geographical position, North Ossetia-Alania has always been the subject of dispute for all the great empires. The Great Silk Route, which bound all civilized mankind from China to the Atlantic coast at the begining of our time, passed through the Alan kingdom, from which Ossetia inherited its ethnic and cultural traditions.

Finally you can read about the empire of Alan on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans

LOLs all round I thought.