Abstract
This paper deals with the problems and discussions of the diversified cultural changes and the multicultural aspects of prehistoric societies. Prejudices about archaeology and "ethnicity" are exemplified by the almost 150 year old discussions on the Khazar khaganate, alternately a distinct delimited archaeological culture from the 8th-9th-centuries - the Saltovo-Majaki culture. The interpretation of Khazarian material culture has often been made in terms of "ethnicity", and yet the cultural identity, the multiplicity of the society, etc. , are not translated to the material culture. The economical, social and religious changes are the most significant phenomena within the "Saltovo-Majaki culture” and/or the Khazar khaganate: the transition from nomadism to sedentism, from tribal aristocracy to feudalism, and the transformation to a monotheistic religion. The common denominator for the Khazaria and the Saltovo-Majaki culture is, in my opinion, the pluralism of the social structures and economy, and the multidimensional character of cultural identity. The formation of complexes of archaeological items common to the whole of the steppe and forest/steppe areas, does not allow for connections between a specific archaeological material and a specific "ethnic" group of the past or of modern times.
Highlights
/or the Khazar khaganate: the transition from nomadism to sedentism, from tribal aristocracy to feudalism, and the transformation to a monotheistic religion
THEORETICAL OUTLINES The intensive research into the interaction between different kinds of ethnic groups and different cultural manifestations has been superseded by a tendency to look for diversified cultural changes, the multicultural and multiethnic aspects of prehistoric and historic societies
It is even less appropriate to classify ethnic group» according to archaeological cultures
Summary
This paper deals with the problems and discussions of the diversified cultural changes and the multicultural aspects of prehistoric societies. Saltovo-Majackaj a kultura (Pletnjeva 1967), that she is of the same opinion as Artamonov (1962) concerning the Khazar khaganate and the Saltovo-Majaki culture: namely, that there existed correlations and connections between these two phenomena She emphasized that her view is opposite that of Rybakov, and that the theories of Tolstov about Khazaria can mostly be regarded as products of the imagination. Can be attributed to the "Khazarian culture" or "Saltovo-Majaki culture"; they are not "ethnospecific", because the great diversity in form and decoration indicates rather the multiplicity of different influences from various territories —both from the Khazar towns, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, Byzantium, Crimea, the steppes in the East, and the region of Kiev. The importance of the dominating religion, Judaism, as a unifying political/social link in the multireligious and multiethnic state, is evident
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