New Experience of Multiconceptual Approach in Sarmatology

Abstract. The article considers the work of the Rostov scientist E.V. Vdovchenkov devoted to the study of a wide range of issues of the social history of the Sarmatian tribes. The author of the monograph has been dealing with this issue for a long time and has devoted a large number of publications to it. This work is largely the result of his research over a long period and at the same time contains new ideas and hypotheses. Once again referring to the social aspects of the Sarmatian history, the author tried to give the most complete coverage of the issues raised, without leaving any of the significant issues without attention, if possible. The analysis of the factual material is preceded by a thorough digression into the field of theory and methodology, which makes it possible to clarify the author’s approaches and techniques at the same time, indicating the currently existing theoretical difficulties. Using all the currently available material from written and archaeological sources, and using comparative ethnographic data where possible, the author examines in separate chapters the economic aspects of the functioning of the Sarmatian society, the social structure, and the system of hierarchical relations and the potestar-political organization of the Iranian-speaking nomads of the Easter Europe of the 4th century BC–2nd century AD.

Keywords: review, Sarmatians, burial complex, nomadism, social structure, politogenesis, tribe, chiefdom, exopolitarian system.