The level of sophistication of sarmatian societies in the Don region based on cross-cultural methods

The paper analyzes the level of sophistication of Sarmatian society with theuse of formal cross-cultural methods (based on G. Murdock's database). The 10 mostimportant criteria of cultural sophistication, each of which evaluated using a five-scorescale from 0 to 4, have been used. The development levels of the Don Region nomadsduring the Early Sarmatian, the Middle Sarmatian and the Late Sarmatian periods havebeen compared (Table 1). The Don Region nomads are noted for a higher level of socialsophistication due to a more efficient system of exo-exploitation and, therefore, a higherlevel of political integration. Such methods enable us to compare societies of both the earliest and the Middle Age nomads