THE EUROPEAN STEPPES IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Volume 3
The present volume has united on the pages the materials of the Polovtsy and the Golden Horde periods of the Eastern Europe steppes though originally they were supposed to be organized as separate releases. Alas, we did not manage to collect the number of papers big enough to form sound volumes on each of these periods.
There are 14 papers in the collection: in 7 from both Ukraine and Russia. Chronological frames of them except for one (written by Ye.V.Kruglov) cover the 12th - the 14th cc. The union of the Polovtsy and the Golden Horde time materials in one volume is considered to be useful since there is no sense in proving that the Polovtsian (in a broad sense) population of Steppe has organically brought in the Ulus Juchi state structure. The cultural life has changed a lot but the previous population of Steppe with its spiritual foundations was one of the basic bridges consolidating two chronological periods which are traditionally divided by scholars. In the circumstances of new political relations and the Islam penetration the nomadic traditions were not mechanically erased as it is still believed by many researches but were transformed to the new steppe culture with its two mutually enrich units namely the nomadic Steppe and the Golden Horde towns. Just this basis, which could not always be archeologically proved, underlies in the majority of papers of the collection.
We believe that the collected papers containing the diverse facts of the Polovtsy and the Golden Horde time which are presented together in such a great volume for the first time will form a good base for the future researches. As before we hope that not only archaeologists, but also experts of other disciplines: anthropologists, ethnographers, philologists, religion researches, historians, numismatists, etc. will join to research the mentioned cultural layer.
A.V.Yevglevsky
