270 Conclusion
important for determining the state’s typology. Economy is seen as equivalent
to ethnicity, and the development of agriculture and handicrafts, as well as
the establishment of urban centers are all attributed to the resettlement of a
sedentary population of foreign origins. According to this theory, a nomadic
state rarely emerges without the conquest or subjugation of a sedentary popu-
lation. This omits the possibility for a state with “nomadic” traditions (cultural,
governmental and ideological) to be established by the nomads themselves. It
is quite possible that its territory included significant agricultural (sedentary)
sectors. This sometimes was the result of a centuries-long development that
went unnoticed by its neighbors.
Sources tell of the migration of new tribes that established nomadic unions.
It should however be kept in mind that they did not loose touch with the
places they came from. In their old lands they had engaged in agriculture
and handicrafts. Their settlement in the new lands took time—around a
century—and later sources surprise us with accounts of cities, agriculture and
handicrafts. In Eastern Europe, the migrations that followed one another were
“superimposed” on the same territory and did not always cause the destruc-
tion or disappearance of the agricultural and craft sectors, developed by previ-
ous populations. Along with this, constant (centuries-long) cultural ties can be
traced between Eastern Europe and Middle Asia. The newcomers would often
discover a familiar environment, both in a cultural and an economical sense.
The propinquity was sometimes also ethnic.
According to the existing concepts in science, the Khazar Khaganate is an
early state or a complex form of chiefdom.5 With regard to the steppe empires,
N. Kradin uses the term “super-complex chiefdom”.6 The steppe empire can
also be defined as a “barbaric state”7 or an ancestral state.8 Despite their many
similarities, steppe empires have features that distinguish them from one
another. Quite common among the steppe communities is a transition from
more complex forms of statehood to simpler ones and vice versa. In general,
there are cases of a transition from a complex, stock-breeding and agricultural
economy (with a greater or lesser prevalence of stock-breeding) to an econ-
omy that relied exclusively or almost exclusively on stock-breeding, as well
as transitions from a stock-breeding economy to a nearly complete sedenta-
rization. The use of the one-track evolutionary approach that was typical for
5 One example are the so-called by Carneiro 2000 “compound” chiefdoms (as in compound, a
combination of molecules).
6 Kradin 2001b, 25–27 and 2001a, 240–247; Kradin and Skrynnikova 2006, 50–51.
7 Kradin 2001a, 44; Kradin and Skrynnikova 2006, 53.
8 In accordance with the definition, used by Stepanov 1999a, 63–65 regarding Danube Bulgaria.