Cultural and chronological horizons and the problem of the early Sarmatian culture formation

On the materials of Eurasian early nomads' archaeology we highlight the South Ural cultural and historical area (UCHA). Geographically it includes steppe regions of West Kazakhstan, Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions, steppe and forest steppe zones of the Republic of Bashkortostan. There were similar cultural processes that led to the Early Sarmatian archaeological culture formation in the Early Iron Age. Under the cultural and chronological horizon we understand the geographic region that is significantly larger than UCHA. Practically it has no geographic boundaries. Specificity of the horizon is that at a certain chronological stage (phase) artifacts and their complexes, signs of spiritual culture are widely distributed that will mark the horizon - the horizon markers such as well known Scythian triad. Global chronological scheme of the Southern Trans-Urals cultural and historical area can be represented as follows: “Sauromatian” cultural and chronological horizon - the second half of the 6th - the end of the 4th (3rd) centuries B.C. - Phase “A” - the second half of the 6th - the middle of the 5th centuries B.C. - Phase “B” - the second half of the 5th - the third quarter of the 4th centuries B.C. - Phase “C” - the third quarter of the 4th - the 3rd century B.C. Typologically the burial grounds like Filippovka I and Perevolochan can be attributed to the Early-Sarmatian archaeological culture, i.e. to the time of the ethnic consciousness formation of suspected archaeological Early Sarmatians. In this period ordinary mounds and graves appear along with the elite ones. It is advisable to consider the sites of the “Sauromatian” and Early-Sarmatian cultures of the South Urals of the end of the 5th-3rd centuries B.C. as a single culture of the early nomads [14].