Aim. To describe the population genetic dynamics of the steppe zone from Black Sea to Volga regions during the Neolithic-Eneolithic period.

Methodology. Comparison of published data from the literature sources obtained by different bioinformatics methods has been made.

Results. The steppe zone of Eastern Europe avoided the population transformation during the Neolithic Revolution, unlike the neighboring regions of Europe and Western Asia. In the Neolithic, the pre-agricultural population of the North Caucasus and, to a lesser extent, the agricultural Trypillian population migrated to the steppe. In the Eneolithic, population movements in the steppe zone were activated by cultural influences from the Balkans and Central Europe and, to a lesser extent, the Caucasus, but without active population influences from these regions. All migrations occurred from the east and mainly from the territories of the Volga-Don interfluve and the Volga region. The inhabitants of this zone formed the population of the Khvalynsk, Serednii Stih, Yamnaya cultures, and together with the Trypillians participated in the genesis of the Usatovo culture.

Research implications. The model of genesis of the population of the European steppes is described in the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras of the Yamnaya era.

Aim. To consider the problem of the formation of an agricultural and cattle-breeding economy in the territory of Abkhazia in the Neolithic era.

Methodology. Some theoretical judgments are given about the probable scenarios, mechanisms, as well as the chronology of these processes in relation to similar Neolithic processes that took place in the neighboring areas. An analysis of the role of these processes in the light of the ancient ethnogenetic history of Abkhazia and the Eastern Black Sea region is made.

Results. The main argument of this work is that in the territory of the Eastern Black Sea region there was a process of addition of the Neolithic economy almost synchronously with the early Middle Eastern centers of the Neolithic. The creators of the Neolithic cultures of the Eastern Black Sea region were numerous ancient communities, speakers of West Caucasian languages.

Research implications. For the first time, a preliminary synthesis of various sources was carried out for the reconstruction of ancient ethnogenetic processes that took place on the territory of the Caucasian Black Sea region, and in particular in Abkhazia of the time before written historical records. The data of paleogeography, archeology and historical ethnology were used to compare the material culture of the population with the data of linguistics, in particular cultural vocabulary, and to determine the natural environment in which the development of society took place. According to the author, it is the synthesis of the above sources that makes it possible to outline the main geographical (areal) boundaries and the chronology of the ancient stages of the ethnogenetic history of the population of the Eastern Black Sea region.

Aim. To study the processes of formation and migration of the Sayan archaeological complex in the III millennium BC based on Okunev archaeological culture. To identify the influence of Sayan migration to South Asia as a factor in the formation of cultural and ideological processes in the Harappan civilization.

Methodology. A stylistic and typological analysis of images of both statuary and petroglyphs has been carried out as a special type of communication within society, capable of conveying the foundations of an ancient worldview. Comparative typological, comparative cultural and comparative historical methods are used in the work, the method of analysis and synthesis is applied.

Results. It has been established that Okunev migration to the south is a fact that indicates the transfer of their worldview foundations to the environment of the late Harappan population. The innovative processes that are fixed in the glyptics and art of the late Harappa are directly related to the arrival of the Okunev population. The influence of Okunev’s worldview can be identified in the structural correspondences between Okunev’s realities and their reflection in the hymns of the Rigveda, in glyptics and the art of Harappa.

Research implications. The work proves that Sayan migration belongs to the elite type of migration and does not show signs of invasion. In the process of adaptation, the aliens transfer their cultural potential, including language, worldview, rituals and social structure to the local population.

Aim. To review archaeological finds of IV–III millennium BC from the territory of South European Russia and the Near East which have surface coatings of various metals.

Methodology. A selection of ancient bronze objects with metal coatings is compiled, classification of products depending on their function and chronology is given, characteristics of the method of coating application and material are listed.

Results. A series of bronze artifacts of IV–III millennia BC was collected from academic publications, their common feature was revealed – the presence of coatings made of silver, gold, arsenic and tin. It was discovered that the coatings were applied in various ways: they were fixed mechanically in the form of foil inlay; plaits; obtained during complex technological processes of liquation, tinning.

Research implications. It was established that metal products with coatings (inlays) constitute a characteristic feature of metal production within the Circumpontic metallurgical province of the Early and Middle periods of the Bronze Age. In the society of the IV–III millennium BC gold and silver items were markers of the high social status of their owners and reflected formation of the elite layer.

Aim. To introduce into scientific circulation materials from the excavations of the burial mound 1 of the Eneolithic period near the village of Chumay, investigated during the archaeological conservation work at the end of 2015. This monument characterizes a series of steppe cultures in the Northwestern Black Sea region.

Methodology. The article reviews a specific archaeological monument in the Budjak steppe, erected in the Eneolithic era. The methods of observation, generalization and interpretation of the results of the field research were applied during the study.

Results. During the rescue work carried out in the mound, 12 burials of various cultural and historical epochs were examined. The most ancient was burial 7, in which there was an elongated skeleton of a child with a fragment of a vessel. It dates back to the late Eneolithic period (the end of the IV millennium BC). Most of the burial mounds represent the Yamnaya culture and constitute the second chronological horizon (III millennium BC). The third chronological horizon is associated with the burial of the 12th Sarmatian culture, which contained the burial inventory of the I–II centuries AD. The latest, the fourth horizon of the mound, is represented by 4 hearths and 21 pits of the Late Middle Ages (XVIII century). These complexes are most likely connected with the seasonal parking of the Nogai Tatars.

Research implications. The results of the excavations to a certain extent expand the range of sources on the cultures of the Budjak steppe from the Late Eneolithic to the Middle Ages. Among the finds the most interesting and rare are the main burial 7 of the Copper-stone age and a ceramic vessel of the ascos type from the pit burial 11. 

Aim. To reconstruct the inventory of the looted burial mounds near the village of Dzuarikau in North Ossetia and to identify the early stage of the Middle Bronze Age in the region.

Methodology. The work uses comparative typological and stratigraphic analyses of mound monuments of the Bronze Age of the North Caucasus.

Results. The end of the Maikop era in North Ossetia is marked by the beginning of the Kuban-Terek culture (KTC), synchronous with the Novosvobodnenskaya culture and related in origin, the same as the Novosvobodnaya dolmen culture with the range of Corded Ceramics cultures in Europe.

Research implications. The connection between the Kuban-Terek culture and the Kura-Araxes culture of Transcaucasia and direct contacts between their carriers has been established. The archaeological data are confirmed linguistically by Indo-European isoglosses in the Kartvelian languages.

Aim. To test the applicability of statistical methods to constructing a classification of hammer-headed pins of the Bronze Age.

Methodology. A sample of bone hammer-headed pins from the State Historical Museum was studied. A list of features that may be important in constructing a classification was compiled. The method of principal component analysis was tested and a description of its application was given.

Results. Metric and qualitative features characterizing hammer-headed pins have been developed. A database with information about the studied sample has been created. The applicability of statistical methods to constructing classifications of hammer-headed pins has been demonstrated.

Research implications. Some conclusions of the authors of the previous classifications have been statistically confirmed. Preliminary types of pins suitable for constructing a new classification in the course of further analysis have been identified.

Aim. To highlight the chronological horizons of the monuments of the Mountainous Crimea of the epochs of the end of the Late Bronze Age – the beginning of the Early Iron Age.

Methodology. A comparative typological method is used to develop the chronology. The monuments of the Mountainous Crimea are synchronized with the cultures of the Northern Black Sea region of the Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age.

Results. During the analysis of the materials, it turned out that the monuments of the Mountainous Crimea make up two chronological horizons: 11th–10th centuries BC (Belozersky period) and 8th–7th centuries BC (horizon of the early Kizil-Koba culture). It is suggested that there is a chronological gap between them.

Research implications. The results obtained are important for the development of the problem of the genesis of the Kizil-Koba culture of the Mountainous Crimea.

Aim. To analyze the images on bronze trapezoidal buckles of the Koban culture of the Central Caucasus.

Methodology. An analysis of bronze trapezoidal buckles of the Koban culture of the Central Caucasus and the images on them was carried out using historical-typological, stylistic, semiotic methods. The connection between the size and shape of the buckles and the features of the zoomorphic images on them is revealed, the main stages of their transformation and dating are determined.

Results. Images are associated with the type and size of the buckle. There are 7 types of bronze trapezoidal buckles from the 12th to 4th centuries BC.

Research implications. Belt buckles are one of the characteristic objects of Koban culture throughout its existence. Belt buckles of the Central Caucasus were published, but were not comprehensively considered. The typology and chronology of these subjects has also been studied. Analysis of buckles will make them a category of finds dating the burials or the cultural layer.

Aim. To conduct a textual study of the passages of the ancient Greek tactical writings.

Methodology. Comparative textual analysis is used.

Results. An assumption is made about the passage on the formation of the Sicilian cavalry, dating back to the “Tactics” of King Pyrrhus, who himself fought in Sicily.

Research Implications. A supposed passage from an ancient tactical work (the lost “Tactics” of King Pyrrhus of Epirus) has been introduced into academic circulation.

Aim. To examine the daggers of pre-Scythian and Scythian times found in 2008 during excavations of a burial ground in the village Kamennomostskoye, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in the context of materials from a two-layer monument of different periods, which is referred in the literature to a cultural phenomenon of the Koban culture.

Methodology. Using the methods of stratigraphic analysis, it was established that the daggers belong to burials of pre-Scythian and early Scythian times, different in funeral rites, made on a cape plateau at the confluence of two rivers – the Malka and the Kichmalka. Burials in stone boxes took place at this site in pre-Scythian times and contained limestone structures buried in the continental layer, in which men (warriors), woman and children who were residents of the mountain valleys of the North Caucasus in the 9th–8th centuries BC were crouched and buried. At the end of the 7th–6th centuries BC new ritual actions took place on the site of the existing burial ground. Elongated corpses appear at the level of the ancient horizon, slightly buried in the ground, laid down with stone layouts from boulders rounded with water. Among the stones there are traces of funeral feasts in the form of broken vessels and weapons, the material appearance of which corresponds to the Scythian archaic epoch.

Results. Based on a typological analysis, the bimetallic dagger from the burial in the box is assigned to the circle of blades of the Kabardino-Pyatigorsk type, and the iron dagger found among the stone linings of the upper layer of the burial ground is classified as a type of blade with an antenna-shaped pommel, characteristic of Scythian weapons of the archaic period.

Research implications. Stratigraphic and typological observations make it possible to speak confidently not about a single “Koban” culture of the Kamennomostskoye burial ground, but about two historically different periods of the monument's existence in pre-Scythian and Early Scythian times, differing both in the rite of burial and in the material culture of the corresponding epochs.

Aim. To publish a bimetallic punch of the Scythian archaic era from the area of Maykop (Krasnodar Territory, Republic of Adygea) and determine of the location of the find among this category of weapons of the 7th–6th centuries BC, identified in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, clarify the nature of the cultural and historical connections of the population of these regions with each other in the era of the Scythian archaic.

Methodology. An analysis of the views of researchers on the question of the origin of bimetallic punchs (battle-picks) from the territory of these regions is provided, the source base for further study of the topic is clarified, and approaches to the study of this category of objects are defined.

Results. The areas from which these items were distributed were clarified, and mistakes made by certain scientists in the process of establishing the genesis of coinage were revealed.

Research implications. Material on the research topic has been published and summarized, and new sources for its study have been introduced into scientific circulation.

Aim. To conduct a comprehensive study of the axe-klevets found in the village of Gostagaevskaya.

Methodology. A cultural and typological analysis of the find was carried out, and an X-ray fluorescence analysis of the metal was performed.

Results. The place of axe-klevets in the system of antiquities of the Caucasus of the Early Scythian period has been determined. The composition of the metal from which the product was cast is established, the technological features of its manufacture are revealed.

Research implications. The study of the find was carried out on a new source basis, involving a wide range of the latest archaeological finds. For the first time, an X-ray fluorescence analysis of an allbronze weapon of the Early Scythian era was carried out.

Aim. To introduce data on a new monument of the period of Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea coast, the settlement “Beregovoye”.

Methodology. The article presents the results of archaeological research in the Shirokaya Balka tract (Krasnodar Krai, Russia). Field reconnaissance works, archaeological excavations and desk work were carried out with the mass material and individual finds found during the works.

Results. The investigations recorded stone walls of a building overlain by a landslide layer. Among the finds there are fragments of amphorae of the end of 6th–5th centuries BC.

Research implications. The data presented in the article can be used for further studies of antiquities of the epoch of Greek colonization of the Black Sea region.

Aim. To analyse the pathological features of skeletal disease from the Lori Berd cemetery excavations and to deduce the cause of death.

Methodology. The differential diagnosis of the disease is given with reference to macroscopic and X-ray findings. Traumatic injuries have pronounced features of a lifetime intervention.

Results. The nine signs concordant with ankylosing spondylitis detected in skeleton from burial 115 turn on the following: sacroiliac fusion (possibly bilateral), fusion of vertebrae (apart from 4 cervical vertebrae), ossification of spinal ligaments and intervertebral cartilages, fusion of virtually of all costovertebral joints, the square shape of vertebral bodies, characteristic “bamboo spine” emergence of the vertebrae, the development of kyphosis and lordosis, advanced osteopenia, hip and femur bones involvement. A disabled woman sustained fatal injuries to her shoulder blade and first lumbar vertebrae from blows of a sharp object. A woman might have been killed in an enemy attack or war. The woman’s body was buried with all due respect and in accordance with the rules of funeral rites.

Research implications. The integrated study is the basis for the possibility of interdisciplinary study of material from excavations dating VII–VI centuries BC. The research results contribute to the theory of anthropological expertise.

Aim. To show the reasons and characterize the most extensive archaeological research of mounds in Transnistria in the pre-revolutionary period.

Methodology. The analysis of published materials and archival documents devoted to the creation of the Kherson Museum of Antiquities and excavations on the left bank of the Dniester is carried out. Comparative historical and problem-chronological methods were used in the study.

Results. Based on the analysis of the documents, the leading role of V. I. Goshkevich in the organization and the possibility of continuing archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Tiraspol is shown. Along with the positive results of the excavations, the disadvantages of the applied field methodology are also indicated.

Research implications. The biographies of V. I. Goshkevich and I. Ya. Stempkovsky are presented with the involvement of a new historiography. For the first time, the question of their relationship was raised during the archaeological work. It is shown that their productive cooperation played an important role in the study and preservation of the cultural heritage of the region and the formation of the first collections of the Kherson Museum. The materials presented in the article can be used in courses on the history of Russian archaeology, as well as in the study of the archaeology of Transnistria.

Aim. To consider and analyze the initial period of formation of Kuban archeology after the October Revolution and the role in this process of the Literary, Historical and Ethnological Society established at the Kuban Pedagogical Institute, the contribution of its members to the archaeological study of Kuban.

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. Comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods were used in the study.

Results. The article contains materials and documents on the activities of the first scientific association of archaeologists of Kuban after the revolution. During this period, systematic studies of the monuments of Prikuban began with the formulation of new tasks for that time in line with the new methodology. The most significant works of the pioneers of Kuban archeology (N.A. Zakharov, M.V. Pokrovsky) in the 1920s, who discovered and for the first time explored many now well-known monuments of Kuban archeology, are highlighted. Previously unpublished archival documents are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as a few little-known published materials.

Research implications. The results of the study contribute to the history of the archaeology of the North Caucasus. This work is of undoubted interest to researchers of ancient cultures of the region, since for the first time the materials of post-revolutionary 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 review the history of archaeological research of catacomb burial complexes in the 70s – early 90s of the 20th century in the territorial limits of the Middle Seversky Donets basin.

Methodology. A brief overview of the history of archaeological research of kurgan monuments with an emphasis on catacomb burial complexes has been prepared based on the analysis of publications and archival reports.

Results. Three separate directions for the development of research on the kurgan monuments of the region have been identified. The first of them occurred in the 1970s and is associated with the activities of exclusively academic expeditions of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR; the second direction is marked by the research of the university archaeological expeditions of DonSU and KSU mainly in the 1980s; the third is characterized by the sporadic research of local expeditions throughout the period under review.

Research implications. The results of the conducted research are important for the development of the regional history of archaeological research of various cultural and chronological epochs.

Aim. To analyze the deconstructivist approach to the Indo-European problem.

Methodology. Using J.-P. Demoule’s book, an attempt is made to understand if this approach is fruitful, specifically if the analysis of the political context of Indo-European studies at various stages of their development in various countries can contribute to the resolution of the Indo-European problem.

Results. Attempts at blurring the boundary between a scholarly discipline and the social-political context in which it develops entail the risk of the discipline’s dissolution in its history and of its eventual disappearance, as evidenced by Demoule’s conclusion that Indo-Europeans are a myth.

Research implications. This case study demonstrates that the deconstructivist approach can be useful only with regard to the history of a discipline, not to the discipline itself.