Aim. To conduct a research of pre-antique archaeological materials found at the settlement of Gorgippia.
Methodology. The cultural and typological analysis of the materials of the Eneolithic period and the Bronze Age from the territory of the ancient settlement of Gorgippia was carried out. Comparative-typological, comparative-cultural and comparative-historical methods are used in the work, and the method of analysis and synthesis is applied.
Results. The existence of a pre-Greek settlement on the place of the ancient Gorgippia has been established. Its origin dates back to the Eneolithic period. Judging by some finds, the settlement existed until the late Bronze Age. One of its functions could have been to maintain maritime contacts with the population of Anatolia and Aegeida.
Research implications. The archaeological materials of the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, originating from the ancient Gorgippia settlement, have been introduced into scientific circulation and generalized. The fact of the existence of a pre-Greek settlement there has been established.

Aim. To study intergroup population variability of the ancient population of Southeastern Europe in the context of the origin of the population of the Afanasievo culture of Southern Siberia and Central Asia.
Methodology. A corpus of craniometric data was formed taking into account the identified problematic issues of paleoanthropology of the Eneolithic – Early Bronze steppes and forest-steppes of Eastern Europe, and its multidimensional statistical study was conducted.
Results. The analysis made it possible to identify at the statistical level the differences between the series of two cultural and genetic layers of the ancient population of the south of Eastern Europe belonging to the proto-European anthropological type. The general differences between the populations of the Yamnaya community and the groups of the Eneolithic period preceding in these territories are determined. The greatest similarity of the majority of Afanasievo samples of skulls with Yamnaya craniological series of the territory of the steppes and forest-steppes of the Volga-Ural region, as well as a series from the Altai highlands with Eneolithic Berezhnovsky type, Sredny Stog culture and other groups of the steppe Eneolithic of southern Eastern Europe was revealed.
Research implications. The formed craniological series of the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age of Southeastern Europe are suitable for studying the issues of cultural and ethnogenesis of the ancient population of this territory. The study of paleoanthropological materials of the Eastern European steppes and forest-steppes with the reception of new factual data should be carried out taking into account the key problems of paleoanthropology of this region.

Aim. To consider and analyse the problem of the influence of steppe cattle-breeding tribes of the beginning of the Paleometallic era on the sedentary population of Central and South-Western Europe. To highlight the main scientific views on the migration of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya tribes and their influence on the local population.
Methodology. The scientific analysis based on an integrated approach, was conducted with the input of palaeoanthropological and genetic data.
Results. The western territories were penetrated by pastoralist tribes from the frontier regions in the context of traditional economic development of new spaces. Under their influence, some cultural innovations took place in the environment of the aboriginal population, and to a certain extent, the gene pool changed, but without noticeable phenotypic transformation.
Research implications. The research results allow us to outline the territories from which the pastoral groups spread westwards, to emphasise the mutual diffusion of genotypes in contact areas within Indo-European society at one of the early stages of their development.

Aim. The aim of this paper is to highlight the history of the discovery made by V. A. Gorodtsov in 1903 as a result of archaeological research in Bakhmut district of Ekaterinoslav province in 1901 and 1903.
Procedure and methods. On the basis of comparative and typological methods with the use of mathematical statistics, the paper reveals the path the researcher followed.
Results. Without diminishing the role and denying the importance of the discovery, the author critically approaches to the assessment of methods and results of archaeological excavations conducted by V. A. Gorodtsov in the early XX century.
Research implications. In the process of studying the available materials, it was possible to show that the general level of development of archaeological science of that time limited the researcher and did not allow him to achieve even more important results. Therefore, V. A. Gorodtsov, being close to isolating a special group of funeral monuments in wooden frame structures, eventually combined them with burials in wooden log houses. And only 70 years later, this special group was defined as belonging to Multi-cordoned ware culture, which occupied an intermediate place between the Catacomb and Timber-grave cultures in the “triad” of V. A. Gorodtsov.

Aim. To establish the cultural and chronological characteristics of the burial complexes and their place in the regional periodization of the Don-Donets region on the basis of partially preserved documentation and materials from research on the mound near the town of Kirovsk.
Methodology. A descriptive characterization of the research materials was carried out. When processing the data, comparative typological, stratigraphic and planigraphic methods were used.
Results. By analyzing the entirety of features of the funeral rite and the inventory sets of individual burials, their cultural and chronological position is determined. Based on the stratigraphic data, the construction model of the mound is reconstructed and the relative chronology of the complexes is established.
Research implications. New materials from the Early Metal Age rescue studies of the mound on the Right Bank of the Seversky Donets are introduced into the scientific circulation.

Aim. To introduce the chronology of the last stage of the Middle Bronze Age of the North Caucasus (the Kuban-Terek culture).
Methodology. A description of the burial complexes of the Kuban-Terek culture and their stratigraphic position in the Bronze Age mounds near the village of Khaznidon of North Ossetia is given. For the first time, a complete complex with multi-hammer pins (ceramics + jewelry) was outlined and their ethnocultural attribution was determined.
Results. Evidence of the coexistence between the Kuban-Terek culture and the Catacomb culture in one microregion of Chikola-Khaznidon in North Ossetia was obtained based on the data from both horizontal and vertical stratigraphy in the monuments of these cultures. Contacts between the Kuban-Terek and Catacomb cultures were confirmed in the form of a change in the shape of the grave (from pit to catacomb) while preserving the inventory of the Kuban-Terek/North Caucasian culture at all stages of the Catacomb culture in North Ossetia. For the first time, the ceramic complexes with multi-hammer-shaped pins of the final period of the Kuban-Terek culture are presented, and their ethnocultural attribution is are interpreted as tan Indo-Aryan component in the “Аncient European” Kuban-Terek culture.
Research implications. New data have been obtained for the reconstruction of ethnocultural processes in the North Caucasus in the Middle Bronze Age.

Aim. To clarify the semantics of zoomorphic bronze pendants in the form of a protoma and the head of a dog-like animal, equipped with a bird’s triangular tail, found in the burial complexes of the Koban archaeological culture.
Methodology. The paper examines the “bird-like” bronze pendants of the Koban culture and other Koban artifacts with similar zoomorphic sculptural compositions; it uses a methodology typical of archaeological research, such as comprehensive and comparative historical methods.
Research implications. The article proposes and proves a new original interpretation of the semantics of zoomorphic (“bird-like”) bronze pendants of the Koban archaeological culture. The results of the research can be used in the preparation of scientific papers on the ancient history of the Caucasus, for the scientific work of students and teachers of historical faculties, postgraduate students.

Aim. To develop chronological boundaries of the initial monuments of the Kizil-Kobа culture in the central zone of the Crimean foothills.
Methodology. A comparative typological method is used to solve chronological issues. Synchronization of the initial stage of the Kizil-Koba culture with the neighboring cultures of the Northern Black Sea region is carried out.
Results. Earlier, researchers dated the earliest sites of the Kizil-Koba culture of the 9th–8th centuries BC. This article shows that the earliest sites date back to the 11th–10th centuries BC.
Research implications. Solving the problem of chronology of the primary sites of the Kizil-Koba culture is the main goal in the issue of the genesis of this culture.

Aim. To determine the place of origin of the Karasuk culture population, considering the population history context of the Great Steppe in the Bronze Age.
Methodology. The analysis of the data published in specialized literature sources and obtained by different bioinformatics methods was carried out.
Results. The spreading of the Karasuk culture was accompanied by the distribution of the Mongoloid component carriers, who were the first in the population history of the Eurasian steppe belt to penetrate the territory west of the Altai. The ancestors of the Cimmerians were the westernmost group of the Karasuk population. The migration of the Karasuk people was the first large-scale migration wave in the whole region which occurred from the east, not from the west, as in the case of the migration of the Afanasievо and Andronovo populations.
Research implications. A hypothesis of migration of the Karasuk population from the territory of western Mongolia is proposed.

Aim. To conduct an analysis of bronze figurines of a deer from the sites of the early Iron Age of the Central and North Caucasus.
Methodology. The article analyzes small bronze sculptures of the Central and Northern Caucasus, represented by deer figurines, using historical, typological, stylistic, and semiotic methods. Through the stylistic features of the figurines, their origin and dating are studied.
Results. There are six types of bronze deer figurines, differing in pose, proportions, style of depiction, originating from different cultural traditions that influenced the formation of the applied arts of the North Caucasus. The features of deer depiction from sites in various regions of the North Caucasus are revealed.
Research implications. The article is relevant from theoretical and practical points of view, since deer figurines make up a large percentage of small bronze sculptures of the Early Iron Age of the Central and Northern Caucasus, but they have not been studied comprehensively. During new archaeological rescue excavations, new finds of deer figurines in small bronze sculpture became known; work with Caucasian collections in Russian and foreign museums made it possible to identify the new specimens. Bronze figurines of deer were discovered in sites of various cultures, but they have similarities, which makes it possible to typologize them at the level of all the sites of the Central and Northern Caucasus. The genesis of these objects was also studied, the problem of which has not yet been solved and remains relevant.

Aim. To review the history of the dagger of the Scythian period with a zoomorphic decoration of the handle, found in 1912 near Ilyinskoe village in Orenburg region, and to determine its real archaeological context. This find was published before with an erroneous interpretation of the images.
Methodology. Using the methods of iconographic analysis, it was established that the dagger depicts not the heads of griffins, but the figures of feline predators, their heads touching. Using a comparative method, a series of similar blades from the Scythian era was selected, allowing us to talk about a certain cultural and historical context and date the dagger to the 5th–4th centuries B.C.
Results. Based on the stylistic analysis, the dagger is classified as one of the antiquities characteristic of the Filippovsky burial mound necropolis in Orenburg region.
Research implications. Moving the dagger to different museums gave the author a reason to touch upon the history of the division of cultural property between the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan at the time of the formation of Kazakh statehood in the late 20s of the 20th century. The article demonstrates the fruitfulness of the cooperation between Russian and Kazakh specialists in studying the common cultural heritage of modern neighboring states.

Aim. In recent years there has been a wide discussion about the relict language of Burushaski, the reason for which was the hypothesis of I. Čašule. The author of the hypothesis defines Burushaski as an Indo-European, ancient Balkan language, highly probably Phrygian or related to it, although its contacts with the North Caucasian and Yenisei languages are not denied. Leaving the subject under discussion to the linguists, this paper draws attention must be drawn to the problem of the origin of the repeatedly mentioned anonymous Central Asian donor language and, in addition, cites the data of the genetic study of the Cimmerians, as well as the carriers of the Karasuk and Okunevo cultures.
Methodology. Archaeological materials from Central Asia can give an idea of the most complex historical movements of peoples and their cultural contacts. In particular, attention is paid to a peculiar cultural-historical community that spread from the southern Mongolian steppe belt to the province of Gansu, the Tarim basin and further southwest to the Central Asian interfluves inclusively.
Results. Archaeological and linguistic studies show that Burushaski may bear signs of contact with an anonymous language, possibly the hypothetical Temematic language identified by G. Holzer or, more precisely, one of the representatives of related languages that constituted in ancient times a certain primordial language group and once spread over a vast territory from South Siberia to the Himalayas, from the Yenisei to the Danube.
Research implications. The results of the study are relevant to the consideration of a range of issues related to the processes of ethnogenesis in Central Asia.

Aim. To study the development of expeditionary research activities on the Abrau Peninsula (Krasnodar Krai, Russian Federation).
Methodology. Characteristics of the activities of archaeological expeditions that studied the antiquities of the Abrau Peninsula are given on the basis of analysis of publications and archival materials, including scientific reports of the expeditions.
Results. The article traces the main stages and results of the study of the Abrau Peninsula antiquities by archaeological expeditions of the second half of the 19th – early 21st centuries. The article describes the activities of the Sinda and Novorossiysk archaeological expeditions, the MRPI named after N. K. Krupskaya expedition, and archaeological research by the staff of the Anapa and Novorossiysk museums.
Research implications. The results of the generalised study are relevant for the development of courses on the history of national archaeology, the characterisation of the history of the study of the Abrau Peninsula antiquities and the Krasnodar Territory as a whole.

Aim. To consider and analyze the initial period of the Kuban archaeologist Nikita Vladimirovich Anfimov’s scientific activity in the 1930s at the new buildings in Krasnodar.
Methodology. The analysis of archival materials and documents of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Krasnodar Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve named after E. D. Felitsyn, the State Archive of the Krasnodar Territory was carried out. Comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods of studying the processes of regional archeology formation were used in the study.
Results. The article contains materials and documents on the research of new-construction expeditions of the Krasnodar Museum of Local Lore in the 1930s: Krasnodar burial ground behind the leather factories near the Athos ridge, the mound on the territory of the distillery “Pervenets Kubansky”, “the settlement on the Dubinka” and the site for the construction of Krasnodar Thermal power plant. Previously unpublished archival documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as a few little-known published materials are collected.
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 ancient cultures of the North Caucasus, since for the first time the materials of pre-war field studies of the archaeological sites of Kuban are published. The materials presented in the article can be used in courses on the history of Russian archaeology, as well as in the study of certain aspects of the archaeology of the Early Iron Age of the Caucasus.

Aim. To consider the contribution of Russian researchers Sergei Ivanovich Pokrovsky and Vadim Konstantinovich Lazarkevich to the study of churches in Bulgaria and, in particular, in Mesembria.
Methodology. The merits of S. I. Pokrovsky and V. K. Lazarkevich in the study of Bulgarian antiquities based on their epistolary heritage and other archival materials were assessed.
Results. The analysis of archival documents revealed that S. Pokrovsky and V. Lazarkevich, being representatives of the White emigration, made a great contribution to the study of Bulgarian antiquities. S. Pokrovsky completed all the plans and drawings of the churches of Mesembria; V. Lazarkevich took the photographs of temples for the famous study of ancient Bulgarian architecture, the book of Doctor of Architecture A. Rashenov “Mesembrian Churches”.
Research implications. The data obtained allow us to judge about the role of the representatives of the Russian emigration in Bulgaria in the study of its historical and cultural heritage.

This time we present the article of a famous French archaeologist Georges Seure. It analyzes two reliefs from Odessos (present-day Varna, Bulgaria), dating back to the Roman Empire period, which depict riding characters and their companions, as well as Greek inscriptions accompanying the reliefs. These monuments are examined in the context of the Thracian Horseman cult and religion in general, social life and culture of the Eastern Balkans of the Roman period and the Roman Empire as a whole. Special attention is paid to the meaning of the word ἥρως (hero) and the words preceding it in the studied inscriptions.