Aim. A detailed analysis of the well-known burial complex "Mariupol Burial Ground," excavated by M. Makarenko in 1933. The burial ground contains 124 burials.

Methodology. The main content of the study is the analysis of burial complexes in the burial ground based on stratigraphic and typological methods, as well as a critical consideration of previous works by various authors.

Results. Based on the analysis, the structure of the burial ground and its funeral rite are specified. One of the main tasks of the work is the chronological relationship of the burial ground with the stages of development of the Trypillian culture and the monuments of the Early Eneolithic era of neighboring regions.

Research implications. The issues of absolute and relative chronology of a number of monuments of the early Eneolithic era of Southeast Europe are briefly considered. A more logical chronological ratio of monuments of the Early Eneolithic era of Southeast Europe has been proposed for consideration.

Aim. To introduce into scientific circulation the materials of an unusual burial mound complex from the Bronze Age on the left bank of the Middle Don region.

Methodology. The excavation materials were studied using comparative typological, X-ray fluorescent and traceological analysis methods.

Results. Five burials were found under a mound up to 1.5 m high. It was established that the main one is burial 5 with pit-catacomb signs of rituals and metal inventory of the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. Later, burials 3 and 4 of the Middle Don Catacomb culture with vessels were successively made. In the late 3rd – early 2nd millennium BC, burial 2 of the Pokrovsky type was made, and after filling, the mound acquired an oval shape. In this burial, two metal goad tips are noteworthy. The last was the inventory-less burial 1 of the Srubnaya culture, released into the center of burial mound.

Research implications. New data on the Middle – Late Bronze Age of southern Eastern Europe are being introduced into scientific circulation.

Aim. To introduce into scientific circulation a unique burial mound, explored in 1988 in the upper reaches of the Bolshoy Adzhalyk estuary, in the south of the Odessa region of Ukraine. As a result of excavations in the mound, a cult complex was discovered that has no direct analogues in the given territory.

Methodology. The article describes in detail the design of the mound and 17 burials of different historical epochs, discovered in its embankment. A comparative analysis of the mound structure was carried out, and its historical and cultural attribution was given.

Results. The analysis of stratigraphy, as well as construction and burial complexes, showed that there was no main burial in this mound. This indicates that it had a religious purpose. Most likely, it was associated with various ritual activities. It is significant that all the discovered burials from different cultures were incorporated into the final mound, and the earliest of these were from the Yamnaya culture. Therefore, it can be assumed that this construction complex was built during the Chalcolithic era.

Research implications. This mound is unique in the North-Western Black Sea region and has no direct analogues. However, there are several ancient mounds in this region that serve as Chalcolithic sanctuaries. The allocation of this group of sub-kurgan structures allows us to illuminate the religious beliefs of the ancient pastoral population in the Prut-Dniester interfluve.

Aim. The study aims to analyze the burial rites and cultural affiliation of the Rostovo-Lugansk group (RLG) monuments from the Late Catacomb period in the Seversky Donets basin, as well as to clarify their place within the system of Catacomb cultures in the region.

Methodology. The research is based on an expanded source database. A systematic analysis of burial structures and ritual practices was conducted using mapping methods, statistical data processing, comparative typological analysis, and correlation of archaeological features.

Results. It was established that the RLG combines two types of monuments – those with bulbous (turnip-shaped) and flared pottery-demonstrating common features of the funerary rite. Ten ritual groups were identified, reflecting the variability of traditions.

Research implications. The study contributes to the research on the late stage of Catacomb cultural genesis, clarifying the role and place of RLG monuments. Its practical significance lies in the systematization of new archaeological data, which can be used to reconstruct ethnocultural processes in the steppe zone of Eastern Europe. 

Aim. To clarify the dates of the Kizil-Koba monuments of the Tash-Jargan locality and propose a preliminary hypothesis about the genesis of the Kizil-Koba culture.

Methodology. A preliminary analysis of the ceramics of Tash-Jargan settlements has been carried out. The comparative typological method is used to solve the problems of chronology.

Results. The chronology of Tash-Jargan settlements is determined within the framework of the 8^th – 7th centuries BC. Ceramics of settlements and its ornaments belong to the early Kizil-Koba culture. The ceramic complex of the early Kizil-Koba culture is not chronologically and genetically related to the monuments of the Late Bronze Age of the foothill Crimea. Thus, the beginning of the Kizil-Koba culture is synchronous with the pre-Scythian time. A hypothesis is proposed according to which the Kizil-Koba culture is genetically related to the culture of the "Cimmerians".

Research implications. The results of the study clarify the chronology and the problem of the genesis of the early Kizil-Koba culture.

Aim. The goal is to examine the features of fish images in the Koban culture.

Methodology. Images of fish on objects of various functional purposes were analyzed in different chronological periods.

Results. Based on the study of Koban culture items, it has been established that fish figures are found on weapons or as separate pendants. In the early period, fish figures are depicted on the blades, sides, and hafts of axes, while in the later period, fish are placed on the sides. Semantically, the fish is associated with the image of a predator.

Research implications. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the generalization and systematization of the material on the subject under study. The practical significance lies in the possibility of refining the dating of Koban axes, depending on the location of the fish in the compositions on their surface. A new approach to the semantics of fish images has been proposed. 

Aim. The article considers the problems of the emergence and evolution of the architecture of megalithic structures in the Western Caucasus, their semantics as architectural structures, the reasons for the emergence and development of megalithic architecture.

Methodology. The methods of an integrated interdisciplinary approach and empirical research were used. Measurements, observations and comparisons of megalithic monuments and the surrounding sacred landscapes were carried out.

Results. The hypothesis is proposed that the emergence and development of megalithic architecture is associated with human interaction with sacred landscapes. There were identified ancient sacred natural objects that were the harbingers of the emergence of man-made megaliths. "Proto-dolmen" man-made forms have been discovered, which in the process of evolution transformed into dolmens. The symbolic astronomical directions marked by the axes and tops of the revered natural stones coincide with the main directions of the celestial orientation of the dolmen monuments. Many of these stones were later built into dolmen ensembles. Some of them were transformed into semimonolithic (rock) dolmens. The line of development is traced from natural altar stones to developed structures with a three-part structure and interior space.

Research implications. The emergence of megalithic architecture should be considered as a result of human interaction with sacred landscapes and objects. Interacting with these objects, humans created "proto-dolmen" forms, which in the process of evolution were transformed into dolmens.

Aim. To cover the history of the discovery of V. A. Gorodtsov in 1903 as a result of archaeological research carried out by him in 1901 in the Izyumsky district of the Kharkov province and in 1903 in the Bakhmut district of the Yekaterinoslav province.

Methodology. On the basis of comparative and typological methods, as well as the analysis of various written sources, the essence of the periodization of V. A. Gorodtsov and his discoveries are revealed, which made it possible to approach the issue of periodization of archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age in a new way.

Results. The methods and results of archaeological excavations carried out by V. A. Gorodtsov at the beginning of the twentieth century were evaluated.

Research implications. In the process of studying the materials available to the author, 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 identifying a special group of funerary monuments in wooden frame structures, in which the buried lay in a slightly crouched state, with their heads oriented to the West, but not accompanied by intact clay vessels, which he eventually combined into one group with burials in wooden frames, in which the buried lay on their sides, with their hands near their faces, their heads oriented to the East and accompanied by intact clay vessels. And only 70 years later this special group was identified by us as belonging to the multi-сoiled pottery culture, which occupied the “triad” of V. A. Gorodtsov is an intermediate place between the catacomb and timber-frame cultures.

Aim. Publication of a set of metal objects from a burial mound that was destroyed in the southern part of the Taman Peninsula in the mid-1990s. The set includes a bronze knife, adze, and bracelet.

Methodology. Cultural and typological analysis of the constituent items. The work uses comparativetypological and comparative-historical methods, as well as the method of analysis and synthesis.

Results. The circle of analogies to the objects of the complex gives grounds to attribute it to the end of the early and the beginning of the middle Bronze Age. It is not currently possible to associate it with any archaeological culture of this period that left traces of its stay on the Taman Peninsula.

Research implications. An expressive complex of metal objects from the late early and early middle Bronze Ages has been introduced into scientific circulation.

Aim. Review, classification, and mapping of finds from the North Caucasus of bronze trapezoidal adze-axes from the end of the Bronze Age. Methodology. A catalog of North Caucasian bronze trapezoidal adze-axes from the end of the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Early Iron Age has been created, and their morphological characteristics, classification features, mapping are presented.

Results. Data on North Caucasian bronze adze-axes, which date from the end of the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Early Iron Age, are taken from publications, archival data and in museums. The chronological and cultural characteristics, the geography of the distribution of these objects are given in relation to the stages of development of the Kuban center of metal production, the Koban cultural community, as well as in general to the stages of development of the Late Bronze Age cultures of southern Eastern Europe.

Research implications. Bronze trapezoidal adze-axes are a characteristic household item for the North Caucasian cultures of the Late Bronze Age. The selected group of adzes is a marker of the period of the final Bronze Age (XII-X centuries BC): it appears as early as the Late Sabatinovskaya period and ends in the materials of the later pre-Scythian period. The data summarized in the work, the presented classifications and cartographic materials will be useful in the further study of North Caucasian cultural genesis.

Aim. Consider and analyze the practice of placing fake weapons in the graves of the Kobani archaeo logical culture using the example of the later Caucasian (Ossetian) tradition.

Methodology. In the course of the work, a methodology typical of archaeological research, a com prehensive and comparative historical method was used, and ethnographic data were also used.

Results. In the course of the study, parallels were traced in the funeral rituals of the Caucasian tribes of the Early Iron Age and the Ossetian ritual tradition of the late Middle Ages and Modern Times.

Research implications. The article presents new data on the funeral rituals of the tribes of the Koban culture of the Caucasus in the 9th–8th centuries BC and its possible connection, in a transformed form, with the later Caucasian tradition.

Aim. To introduce into scientific circulation a series of unique antiquities of the Scythian era, found accidentally in the area where in ancient times nomadic routes passed in the meridional and latitudinal directions. To examine these finds in the context of geographical, historical and cultural topography.

Methodology. The article describes in detail the locations and conditions of the finds of three Scyth ian blades, one spearhead and two bronze cast cauldrons from the 6th–4th centuries BC. A compara tive, stylistic and technological analysis of the published objects is carried out and their historical and cultural attribution is given.

Results. Against the background of the analysis of the historical topography of the region, the link ing of the finds to the ancient routes of nomad movement allows the authors to argue that the finds in question are not accidental. They are associated with places where ritual actions of a religious and memorial nature were carried out and were left by the Scythians not by chance at the heights in forested areas, which, most likely, were considered by them as cult places where ritual actions were performed during campaigns. As a result of these actions, sacredly significant things were left by the nomads outside traditional archaeological complexes (settlements, burials), which were ac cidentally found by modern residents of the village of Bessonovka and the farmsteads of Ugrim in the Belgorod region.

Research implications. Since such finds of Scythian weapons, horse equipment, ritual objects and vessels are widespread throughout the entire contact zone of the steppes and forests of Eurasia, the authors suggest paying more attention to the so-called “random” finds, which are most likely associated with ritual actions of the Scythians in specially selected sacred places. This allows us to more adequately use archaeological materials to reconstruct the cultural and spiritual life of not only nomads, but also representatives of the sedentary population of Eurasia during the Scythian era.

Aim. The proposed article, based on long-term studies of necropolises in the rural area of Olbia, exam ines issues related to the ethnic composition of the population of the agrarian territory of the Olbian state.

Methodology. The archaeological materials available at present indicate that the titular ethnic group among the inhabitants of the polis, beginning with the colonization of the Lower Bug region and later, was Greek. The methods of analysis of archaeological material were used to study the characteristic features of the ethnic composition of the population.

Results. The study notes the initial heterogeneity of the Ionian population itself, which took part in the colonization process. The presence of the local population of the Northern Black Sea region (Scythians, Thracians) among the inhabitants of the chora was also taken into account. However, against the background of the unconditional perception by the natives of the local Black Sea tribes, who could live in the chora, of Greek ideology, culture and life, as well as the impossibility of identify ing clear, specifically barbaric features of the ritual. No specific features of barbarian traditions can be traced in the burial practices inherent in the rural necropolises of the Olbian polis.

Research implications. The conducted analysis of the problem of the ethnic composition of the population of the chora of the Olbian polis in the specified period allowed us to more specifically present the problem in its multifaceted perspective.

Aim. To analyze a group of archaeological monuments – monumental sculptures found on the Bos porus, using its example to show the peculiarities of the development of the history and culture of the ancient centers of the Northern Black Sea region.

Methodology. The method of formal stylistic, comparative analysis, as well as data from narrative sources is used.

Results. The group of statues belongs to the same chronological period, the con nection with historical figures and the manufacture of statues in workshops in Asia Minor (moreover, two were made by the same master) are proved. Research implications. lies in establishing the chronology and nature of the statues, clarifying the place of manufacture, and theoretically substantiating the evolution of the style and its definition.

Aim. To present the biography and academic works of Georgy A. Stratanovsky.

Methodology. Biographical analysis.

Results. The life of G. A. Stratanovsky is shown and the his main academic works are presented in this article.

Research Implications. Information about the life and academic activity of the classical philologist G. A. Stratanovsky has been introduced into academic circulation.

We present to the Russian reader an article by the Finnish historian and archaeologist Arne Michael Talgren (1885–1945), published in 1937 in the journal «Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua», which had a significant influence on the development of Scytho-Sarmatian archaeology. Having gathered ethnographic and archaeological material from various periods, A. M. Talgren put forward the hypothesis that the stone tables and dishes found in the burials of nomads from the Scythian period were a kind of portable altar. Although the concept of Sauromato-Sarmatian cultural and historical unity has now been discredited, Talgren’s hypothesis Talgren’s hypothesis regarding «portable altars» is being actively developed by a number of researchers who firmly believe that stone tables, in particular, were objects of worship among the nomads of most of the Eurasian steppes.