The Concepts of «Archaeological Culture» and «Cultural Complex». Issues of Relationship

A certain crisis in understanding of the key term archaeological culture has emerged in modern archaeological science. The reason for this is the accumulated volume of complicated phenomena that are difficult to describe using the traditional definitions of this term. The purpose of the study is to consider the possibilities of applying an expanded conceptual framework using the genesis of the Late Sarmatian archaeological culture as an example, and to introduce additional terms and concepts into scholarly discourse that would allow for more precise analysis of the structural components of archaeological cultures in research. The proposed terms heterogeneous archaeological culture, homogeneous archaeological culture, cultural complex, manifestation of a cultural complex require evaluation and testing on a broad range of material. This article examines the applicability of these proposed terms through the example of the genesis of the Late Sarmatian culture, which was a multicomponent formation. Each of its components represents a distinct cultural complex. An archaeological culture represented by two or more cultural complexes is considered heterogeneous, while one represented by a single complex is homogeneous.