Aim. The article is a brief review of the main historiographic tendencies and is devoted to the period of globalization in the Eurasian steppes – the period of formation and domination of the elite clans of the Еneolithic and Early Bronze Age.

Methodology. Based on the data of population genetics, radiocarbon dating and graphic sources, the author substantiates the model of population interaction in the Kazakh Steppe and Turkestan.

Results. On the basis of the well-known innovations of horse equipment, carts, and other means of transport and success in domestication of horses and horse-riding, the main vectors of communications of the population and general trends in the development of the ethnocultural situation in this period are considered.

Research implications. The noted factors and features of a complex model of communication and interaction of ancient societies in the steppe Eurasia, which at different stages of the historical process constantly demonstrate the inevitable hegemony or expansion of small, but progressive clans, that obtain advanced innovations and are subordinate to ethnic identity. 

Aim. To refine the ideas on Bronze Age ethno-cultural processes in the steppe-foothills borderland, based on newly introduced landmarks.

Methodology. A description of previously unknown Bronze Age mounds in the steppe regions of North Ossetia is provided. Using the stratigraphic method, the relative chronology of burials in wooden boxes relative to the Middle Bronze Age catacombs of the Pre-Caucasus is established as well as the synchrony of the studied Steppe sites with the periods of the foothill Kuban-terek culture of the North Caucasus. Based on a comparative typological analysis of bronze ornaments from wooden boxes, a conclusion is made that they had been imported from the foothills of North Ossetia.

Results. Based on the study findings, the chronological position and linguo-cultural attribution of the newly introduced Middle Bronze Age sites in the Kuban-Terek watershed is defined.

Research implications. The model of ethno-cultural processes in Bronze Age North Caucasus was supplemented with new details, and the previously proposed hypothesis about their European origin, multiculturalism and heterogeneity of the Middle Bronze Age population of the North Caucasus was confirmed.

Aim. The following article considers a new theory for resolving the longstanding problem of identifying the geographic and temporal origin of Indo-Europeans. All existing theories provided thus far for the origin of Indo-Europeans suffer from one common error: the approaches presuppose an economic deterministic model for understanding historical transformation. However, Indo-Europeans were a community circumscribed by common language, therefore culture seems a more proper domain for analysis of origins than does an economistic approach.

Methodology. The Indo-European population as a bounded community, however, is circumscribed by its common cultural formation, that of language. In this paper, we present an alternative theory for the emergence of Indo-Europeans and situate this origin in time and place. We rely on the Weberian hypothesis of a spiritual axial shift spurring an early prehistoric cultural transformation. By synthesizing historical linguistic and archaeological evidence, the approach offered below aims to the solve problems corresponding to a vulgar materialism’s economic determinist approach to IndoEuropean origin.

Results. This paper proposes that the proper basis for analysis of cultural origins of Indo-Europeans resides at the level of spiritual production. A shortcoming of traditional archaeological formulations is its reliance on materialist models for spiritual and cultural concerns.

Research implications. By shifting the methodological and theoretical framing of the problem, this paper seeks to bypass the perpetual circling of the problem by proponents of the materialist model.

Aim. To determine the Etruscan homeland by the analysis of available genetic data.

Methodology. Comparison of published data from literature sources obtained by different bioinformatics methods is the main approach.

Results. The author disputed the conclusions about the uniquely autochthonous origin of the Etruscans in Italy. Although the author agrees that the Etruscan gene pool was formed by the common population process for all inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula, that is the trace of a special migration from the Aegean basin is absent at the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages, there are migration of the Etruscan ancestors could occur in earlier eras.

Research implications. Three possible ways of migration from the Aegean region and Asia Minor have been described that could occur 1) in the early Neolithic, 2) in the late Neolithic, 3) in the late Bronze Age. The importance of a more detailed study of two migrations is indicated: of the Aegean population movement to Sicily in the 2nd millennium BC and the population of Kumtepe to the Apennine Peninsula at the end of the Neolithic period.

Aim. To describe the history of discovery and introduction to scientific discourse a new site of the Dolmen culture.

Methodology. The article analyzes the data obtained from the excavation site and draws an analogy with the previously studied dolmens and their classification. Practical research methods such as observation, comparison, measurement, and description were also used in the study.

Results. A unique dolmen has been studied and described.

Research implications. The description of the megalithic structure and finds will allow it to continue its theoretical study and develop a project of museumfication of the “Brzid” dolmen.

Aim. To develop the concept of the genesis of the Kizil-Koba culture. This concept is based on modern chronological data and the collected materials of the Kizil-Koba culture sites.

Methodology. The analysis of materials of early Kizil-Koba culture is carried out. Based on the obtained chronological data, the earliest sites of the Kizil-Koba culture are identified. The chronology and periodization of these sites is clarified. A comparative analysis of the early Kizil-Koba culture with the cultures of the Northern Black Sea region of the Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age (9^th–7^th centuries BC) is carried out.

Results. The article proposes a hypothesis according to which the Kizil-Koba culture was formed on the basis of the Late Belozerskaya culture of the Foothill Crimea in the 11^th–9^th centuries BC, under the influence of the Hallstatt cultures of the Northwestern Black Sea region.

Research implications. The work uses new chronological data, archival materials that have not been published before, or have been partially published. This contributes to solving the problem of the genesis of the Kizil-Koba culture.

Aim. To analyze the bird-shaped bronze plaques of the “Isti-Su type” of the eastern variant of the Koban culture dated to the 6^th–5^th centuries BC.

Methodology. The article summarizes the practical experience of Russian archaeologists’ research into this issue. With the help of historical-typological, stylistic, semiotic methods, the stylistic features of plaques, their origin, typology, and semantics are studied.

Results. There are 2 groups of plaques that differ in proportions, style, ornamentation, and the number of holes for attaching to the belt. The early plaques are marked by the influence of Middle Eastern art, and the later ones by Late Koban and Scythian art. The semantics of their images is associated with the cult of fertility and has prototypes in Middle Eastern art and mythology. Early samples were made to order by Far Eastern masters, and later there were imitations made by local North Caucasian masters.

Research implications. The results of the study summarize the experience of almost 80 years of studying these subjects and contribute to the study of migration processes from the Late Bronze Age to the Scythian period, as well as the mutual influence of the Far Eastern civilizations’ applied art and the archaeological cultures of the North Caucasus.

Aim. To examine the skeletal remains of 8 individuals (2 men, 5 women, 1 child) discovered in August 2020 during excavations in the Nor Armavir burial ground.

Methodology. The research methodology involved visual examination of skeletons, their measurements, and descriptions. The applied methodology revealed traces of pathological processes, whose etiology was further reconstructed.

Results. Trepanation, unintentional parietal deformation and injuries of varying severity on the bones of the skull and postcranial skeleton were revealed. The article analyzes several methods of treating buried remains of the Late Iron Age, such as: body dissection and cremation. A moderate development of the musculature of the girdle of the upper and lower extremities was observed. Inflammatory processes on the bones were found in adults and a child. The overall health assessment of individuals should be considered unsatisfactory.

Research implications. The research results contribute to the theory of anthropological expertise.

Aim. To characterize the results of the study of the Raevskoye hillfort (Krasnodar Krai) at different stages of the existence of this site.

Methodology. The article summarizes the results of the complex research of the territory of the Raevskoye hillfort and its immediate periphery, conducted from 1998 to the present, using both classical (excavations) and non-destructive methods.

Results. Summing up the results of the archaeological research in the Raevskoye hillfort, we note several stages of human development of this territory, starting from the Early Bronze Age and up to the developed Middle Ages and Modern times. At the same time the main constructions of the fortress belong to the Antiquity from the 4^th century BC to the 1^st century AD and are connected with the strengthening of the eastern borders of the Bosporan Kingdom.

Research implications. The article summarizes the materials of field and laboratory archaeological research in 1998–2022, provides new data on the fortification and dating of objects of the Raevskoye hillfort.

Aim. To determine the authorship and sequence of the first excavations of Scythian mounds in the vicinity of Stavropol. To introduce into scientific circulation and attribute the complexes excavated by P. Fedotov and R. Erkert in 1881.

Methodology. The main content of the study is the analysis of documents related to the first archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Stavropol in 1881, as well as the analysis of the material revealed during the excavation. As the main method, the comparative typological one is used. The comparative analysis of the shapes of ceramics, spindle, bronze mirror with the similar objects from the monuments of Koban culture and the Northern Black Sea region made it possible to clarify the chronology of the sites, as well as to outline the possible directions of product receipts to the region.

Results. Analysis of the documents showed that the complex of the IV century BC, published by R. Erkert, from the mound of 1881, stored in the Hermitage, was excavated by P. Fedotov, and the mound of early Scythian time was investigated by R. Erkert.

 Research implications. New material on the topic under study is summarized, information about the excavations of P. Fedotov and the materials from the excavations of R. Erkert are introduced to scientific circulation.

Aim. To clarify the features of the funeral rite of the ancient population in the Central Caucasus in the era of the end of the Middle Bronze Age – the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.

Methodology. In the course of the study, a methodology typical for archaeological research was used, which includes comprehensive and comparative historical methods.

Results. The study revealed a new element in the burial rite of the Central Caucasian sites of the early layer of the Koban culture (Koban period 1 a-b) of the Adaydon Necropolis and the Upper Rutha necropolis.

Research implications. The article presents new, previously unknown features of the funeral rites of the tribes of the Koban archaeological culture of the Caucasus.

Aim. To consider various aspects of the archaeological activity of the Kuban local historian, school teacher Konstantin Efremovich Gorb.

Methodology. The analysis of archival materials and documents of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnodar’s Felitsun State Historical and Archaeological Reserve Museum and Central Archive of MOD of the Russian Federation was carried out. Comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods of studying the processes of formation of regional archeology were used in the study.

Results. The article for the first time attempts to collect the few facts about the life and work of a history teacher, the head of the local history club of School no. 5 of the village of Sovetskaya — K. E. Gorb. In the 1950s, together with schoolchildren, he explored the valley of the Urup River from Armavir to the village Ilyich on the territory of five districts: Armavir, Uspensky, Sovetsky, Otradnensky and Udobnensky. He discovered and mapped dozens of archaeological sites. K.E. Gorb conducted an active correspondence with N. V. Anfimov, an employee of the Krasnodar Museum of Local Lore. Conclusions are drawn about the significance of the analyzed aspects of his scientific activity in the study of sites of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age of the North Caucasus.

Research implications. The results of the study contribute to the history of the archeology of the North Caucasus. This work is of undoubted interest to researchers of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age of the North Caucasus, since for the first time the materials of post-war studies of archaeological sites of the Middle Kuban are published. The materials presented in the article can be used in courses on the history of Russian archaeology and the archaeology of the Caucasus, as well as in the study of certain aspects of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.

The creation and cultural affiliation of the so-called Trajan’s walls in the south of the PrutDniester interfluve has not yet been finally resolved. There are many hypotheses and various proofs of this. One of them belongs to a military engineer, General S. Panaitescu (1867–1938), who personally inspected these structures and came to the conclusion that they had no military significance.