No 1 (2025)

The paper considers the interpretation of radiocarbon dates of the Sungir site by verifying the sample passport according to archival data and field reports, by planigraphic and stratigraphic analysis of the sampling sites for dating followed by a search for the nearest surviving stratigraphic section for projecting the sample onto the lithological layer. This method was used to study 40 radiocarbon dates of the site. It was found that only 12 of them meet all the reliability criteria. It was also revealed that the main array of dates has a spread of 4000 years and is consistent with the stratigraphy of the site. This may indicate a gradual accumulation of archaeological material at the Sungir site and, possibly, repeated visits to it. However, it is necessary to obtain a new series of dates directly from the bones from the 1954–1985 excavations with a reliable link to the lithological layers. Moreover, sampling requires extra activities to identify “ideal” specimens, including work with the bone, antler and tusk collection, conducting a planigraphic and, in particular, stratigraphic analysis of the location of each sample.

The article presents new data on the burial ritual of the Eneolithic population of the Eastern Europe’s forest belt obtained during the analysis of materials from a single pit grave at Derevyannoe XI. Accompanying grave goods during the inhumation of the deceased (his bone remains did not survive) included an original set of amber jewellery similar to the items found in Sarnate-type dwellings at the Sarnate site dated by the radiocarbon method (southeastern part of the Baltic Sea coast, Latvia). This evidence along with considering other analogies gives grounds to attribute the burial in question to the late 4th millennium BC. For the first time in the burial rite of the Eneolithic population in the region, it was possible to identify the use of very small chips from tools, including used ones, and their blanks made of imported flint and local metatuff. The discovery of a high concentration of arsenic in the grave made it possible to determine a microregion in the Onega Lake basin, where the deceased lived for a long time.

The article presents a review of the history of studying the Kulaika culture since the discovery of bronze items on Mount Kulaika in Tomsk Region. Issues of unique bronze casting remain one of the main areas in the study of the Kulaika society. Potential sources of copper and alloying components closest to the compositions of the Kulaika bronzes were identified: they include the Southern Urals, Northwestern and Central Kazakhstan, the northern spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau, and the Salair Ridge. The use of animal bones as an effective flux and reducing agent in metal smelting and their addition to clay to produce refractory ceramics was substantiated. The study also proves the use of bone measuring spatula spoons for adding crushed bones to the melt. It is concluded that the Kulaika people achieved a high degree of organization of the metal product manufacturing. In the absence of their own ore base, they built optimal logistics for delivering metal to their areas of residence and managed to improve the quality of smelting from secondary raw materials.

Stress markers are defined as skeletal signs that reflect the degree of environmental influence and adaptation to this influence. One of the most notable examples is the porotic change of the upper wall of the orbit, which is commonly referred to as cribra orbitalia. In this study comparative analysis of the prevalence of cribra orbitalia in individuals from medieval populations of the North Caucasus middle mountains and of the plain region of the Central Russian Upland (predominantly in the groups of Alanian and Saltovo-Mayaki archaeological cultures) was conducted. Cribra orbitalia was, on average, three times more frequent in the remains of flatland regions’ populations than in the populations of middle mountains. This suggests that the former was subject to a more significant negative environmental impact, which could have included combined stresses related to climatogeographical and biotic environmental parameters, including the recent migration of the Alanian population from the foothills to the plains. Analysis of ancient DNA was conducted on selected individuals from both groups. Two cases of Plasmodium vivax infection were identified in teeth samples of two individuals buried in the Mayatskoye burial ground.

The article develops a series of publications considering the materials collected in 2012–2014 in Darvaz, Tajikistan. This paper features one of the architectural objects excavated in the late medieval layers of Kala-i Kukhna (Karron). The author presents a description of the room conventionally called the “Red Hall”, describes analogies to its layout in the ethnography of the Pamirs, and analyzes the decor and function of the room. The article provides arguments in favor of dating the room within the chronological boundaries of the last period of habitation of the site, i.e. the 14th – early 17th century AD, as well as arguments refuting the interpretation of the room as an “astrological hall” proposed earlier by Tajik researchers. In addition, the paper considers the existence of forms of dishes similar to the shape of the clay bowl found in the “Red Hall”.

The article publishes core-formed glass vessels formed on a sand-clay core from the 1911 excavations under V.V. Skorpil, which are stored in the State Historical Museum. Of the nine finds, eight belong to the Archaic period, to the Mediterranean group I. The earliest of them are dated to the late 6th – early 5th century BC, the latest belong to the horizon of the middle/second half of the 5th century BC. One vessel belongs to the Hellenistic period, presumably to the mid-3rd – mid-2nd century BC. The paper also publishes data on the burials, where the glass vessels come from, as well as on the ceramic vessels from these burials stored in the State Historical Museum collection. The dating of the vessels based on their typological features (after M. McClellan), both from the Tuzla necropolis and their parallels from other dated complexes of the Northern Pontic, are in good agreement with the dates of the burials containing them obtained on the basis of other categories of goods, primarily black-glazed vessels. The predominance in the necropolis collection of type II.C.VII amphoriskoi (according to M. McClellan), which were most widespread in the second-third quarters of the 5th century BC, reflects the general trend in the dynamics of the spread of core-formed vessels both in the Pontic region and beyond, as well as the extreme popularity of this type of vessels.

The article examines one of the events in the transition from the Atlantic period of the Holocene to the Subboreal one, when, during the climate cooling in the interval 4800–4500 years ago, one of the waves of early farmers resettled from the continental regions of Western Primorye and Dongbei to the littoral of the Posyet Bay. The sites left by them were later united in the Posyet group within the Zaisanovka cultural tradition. On the sea coast, at the single-layer site of Zaisanovka-7, this population formed a mixed type of subsistence system, which included millet farming and the exploitation of a variety of marine and land resources. The site traces the earliest remains of beds in the Far East, similar to those used in the bed farming system in East Asia. The article analyzes archaeological evidence of the farming system and, accordingly, the lifestyle of early farmers in the studied region, as well as the social organization of the community and its socio-demographic parameters.

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Until the present, the period of the ten-year imprisonment of archaeologist and scythologist Grigory Borovka in Ukhta-Pechora/Ukhtizhem Camp (Ukhtpechlag) of the OGPU/GULAG in 1931–1941, to which he was sentenced during the investigative process of the “Academic case”, has remained unexplored in Russian historiography. Previously unpublished materials from the Archive of the Department of Special Funds of the Information Centre at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Komi Republic in Syktyvkar and the funds of the Ukhta Museum Complex in Ukhta made it possible to restore the details of the researcher’s life and tragic death in custody in 1932–1942. Having done the most difficult winter journey under guard from Leningrad to the settlement of Chibyu, upon arrival at the camp G.I. Borovka was enrolled in the camp’s geological service. Under the guidance of the leading geologist of Ukhtpechlag N.N. Tikhonovich, Borovka was able to master a new profession to become a distinguished expert in the field of macrofauna of the Ukhta Devonian. Collecting surface material along the terraces of the Ukhta River, G.I. Borovka found several Mesolithic sites, which are currently included in the archaeological heritage of the Komi Republic. The experience of restoring the scientific biography of researchers in humanities – prisoners of GULAG camps is important for expanding the source base, scientific and methodological basis for further research and the formation of commemorative practices.

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