Sarmatian Archaeological Culture: From Speculative to Network Model
The assumption that cultures are clearly defined, essentially self-contained entities has been subjected to serious doubt in modern archaeology which needs to be reflected also in Sarmatian studies. Such concepts as ‘Sarmatians', ‘Sarmatian period' and ‘Sarmatian archaeological culture(s)' are widely used in archaeological literature. However, the monuments of the different macro-regions that are usually connected in scholarship with the various Sarmatian communities and political entities mentioned in the written sources have significant cultural distinctions. The nature of these differences has not been reliably clarified yet. This leads to contradictions in the interpretation of the same culture groups by representatives of different schools of archaeology. The basiс cause of the contradictions lies in the flaws of the argumentation procedure, which appears to be speculative, and thus devoid of any heuristic potential. It is necessary to develop common approaches to the interpretation of the archaeological material. A promising approach in this regard might be the network model. Such models will make it possible to define an archaeological culture as a stable set of features, objects and phenomena of the material world, reflecting the network connections formed and operating in a certain area within a particular period.