An Archaeology of the Nomadic Groups of the Eurasian Steppes between Europe and Asia. Traditional Viewpoint and New Research Perspectives

The Eurasian nomadic peoples, as is well known, include a large group of peoples of various and different ethnic origins (mostly first Iranian and then Palaeo­Turkish) and of different chronological horizons (here we focus on the period from the Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages). They have often been described in the historical documentation of the greatest sedentary political-states or imperial formations (Rame, Byzantium, Iran, China) as invaders respectively of Europe, the Near East and China. The archaeological evidence and remaining documentation on them, nonetheless, is rather complicateci to interpret and clearly attribute, especially as far as the ethno-cultural characterization of the relateci materia! culture.