No 4 (2024)

The article discusses anthropological finds and palaeogenetic data from the Denisova, Chagyrskaya, and Okladnikov caves in Altai obtained during interdisciplinary studies of these sites. The paper presents the results of morphological analysis and genomic studies of teeth and postcranial skeletal fragments of Denisovans, representatives of a previously unknown hominin population, who were first identified based on the sequencing of ancient DNA from bone samples from the Denisova Cave, as well as Neanderthals found in Altai caves. It is shown that gene exchange between ancient populations was much more widespread than previously was thought, and the Altai territory was part of a hybridization zone in relatively stable natural conditions throughout several warm and cold periods of the Pleistocene.

The Sungir station is a site of the early Upper Palaeolithic period of Eastern Europe, with an absolute age of 35–29 kya. In 1969, O. N. Bader found a paired burial of boys with numerous personal adornments on the bodies and 15 intact pieces of weapon at the site. The researcher divided those into daggers, spears and throwing spears – javelins. Our study of the weapons showed that they differ not only in length, but also in the way the ends were made. The weaponry in question includes 1) javelins with double-edged ends (2 items); 2) spears, javelins and daggers with beveled proximal ends and awl-shaped distal ends (13 items). The study confirmed that daggers are an independent category of weapons, they served as tips of stuff weapons. Weight characteristics and determination of the gravity centre in spears and javelins showed that they could equally be used as throwing weapons. The composition of weapons types for each buried person was the same. It included tips and throwing weapons with double-edged ends and an awl-shaped striking part and, apparently, it reflected the hunting peculiarities of the Sungir ancient inhabitants.

During excavations of Chersonesus in 2021, golden burial face plates with impressions of Roman coins of the 3rd century AD were found in two burials, those of a Roman soldier and a teenager. A silver fibula from the first burial allows the authors to assume confidently that the warrior was an officer (possibly a foederatus). His purse with antoniniani and Chersonesus bronze coins represents part of the military salary. This burial complex is a new evidence of a Roman garrison after the mid-3rd century AD. The uniqueness of the gold items (a mouth plate and a pair of eye plates) made in the same style from both graves, together with the details of Roman military equipment, suggests that this section of the Chersonesus southern necropolis was used to bury both Roman garrison soldiers and their family members.

The article presents observations on the relief and cultural layer of Smolensk, made during the works in 2014–2023. It was established that the “Lower Town” of Rus-period Smolensk occupied the first terrace of the river, 11–13 m high, descending in some spots to a high floodplain 8–9 m high. The length of the area inhabited entirely in the 12th century AD (except for narrow gaps at the mouths of streams and ravines) was at least 3.5 km. At the initial stage of urban life in the 11th–12th centuries AD, the impact of river floods and slope erosion on the life of the town was minimal. The development of the Smyadyn floodplain was insignificant, incomparable with the development of the floodplain in Gnezdovo. The floodplain was more actively developed on the Svirsky section, where the natural border along the edge of the floodplain was supplemented by a continuous fence of a palisade type. In the 13th–14th centuries AD, flooding began to cover the surface of the high floodplain; the riverine areas ceased to be inhabited and were subsequently used only as meadows. In the 14th–15th centuries AD, the erosion processes became more active in the high bedrock valley slope, where the centre of economic activity was transferred to. The erosion material transported along the stream beds was accumulated not only in the alluvial fans, but also in large areas along the banks within the first terrace. These natural and natural-anthropogenic phenomena affected the life and size of the “Lower Town” significantly. Its territory shrank but the northern foot of Cathedral Hill was lived continuously.

As part of the preparation of the coin catalogue for the Grand Duchy of Moscow during the reign of Vasily Dmitrievich (1389–1245), the authors collected significant numismatic material (over 12,000 items). It is divided into two periods, the boundary being the monetary reform of the early 1410s. The early period includes over 8,600 coins minted in Moscow (central minting, 22 types of denga coins, over 5,700 items) and in the regional centres of the Moscow Principality (peripheral minting, 36 types of denga coins, over 2,900 items). The most common coins of the central minting are denga (a half-copeck coin) depicting various horsemen and Arabic or Russian inscriptions (over 3,000 items, 10 types), as well as a four-legged animal and an Arabic inscription (over 2,000 items, 3 types). Denga coins with horsemen were minted mainly in the 1390s, those with animals – in the first decade of the 15th century AD. The article publishes the coins of Vasily I of the central minting depicting a horseman galloping to the left with a falcon. 89 such coins have been recorded, divided into eight variants. The study examines the issues of classification, topography of finds and minting chronology of this type of denga (second half of the 1390s).

The article presents three blown glass miniature flasks from the collection of the State Historical Museum: a flask shaped as two Medusa heads facing in different directions and two faceted amphorisks. The archaeological context of the vessels is unknown. The circumstances of finding the closest analogies to the Medusa-shaped flask are also unknown, and the proposed datings are justified by the stylistic proximity to the few finds of similar flasks of other variants originating from dated contexts. The vessel is made of natron glass of the Syro-Palestinian origin. The case of faceted amphorisks is clearer, several such vessels were found in dated complexes, which gives grounds to date them to the second half of the 1st – early 2nd century AD. It is difficult to determine the centre or region of production of small vessels by their area, since the origin of the overwhelming majority of them is unknown. Few flasks, the provenance of which is known more or less accurately, come from the Syrian-Palestinian region, from the eastern coast of the Adriatic, from the Northern Pontic and Transcaucasia. However, in terms of the number of finds, none of the regions stands over the others. It can be assumed that one of the published faceted amphorisks (judging by their quality of manufacture and the chemical composition of glass, based on the halophytic plant ash) was made in some local workshop following examples brought from the main centre of their production.

The article discusses the results of three-year-long work by the team of the authors to create the first nation-wide archaeological map of rock art sites. The database “Rock Art Sites of Russia” with GIS elements integrates the information on and reflects the spatial distribution of rock art locations on the Russian territory. At the moment, it contains information on more than 1,200 sites in different regions from Karelia to the Far East. The sources for the database content filling included scientific reports on archaeological activities stored in the Scientific and Subject-Field Archive of the Institute of Archaeology RAS; filing documents from heritage protection inspections; literary and archival sources, as well as materials from the authors’ own field research and information from personal contacts with fellow archaeologists and local historians. The article considers cases from the implementation of similar international and Russian projects, analyzes methodological problems of filing and systematization of information on rock art sites. The paper substantiates the authors-developed methodological approaches to the creation of a database integrating information on the locations of rock art in Russia, as well as the principles of description and rules for data systematization.

The article publishes materials from the collection of Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin, head of the Russian Ecclesiastic Mission (1865–1894), kept in the Russian monastery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. These include 69 small figurines made by order of W.-M. Shapira in the 1870s. The forgery was soon exposed by Charles Clermont-Ganneau. The selection of figurines in Father Antonin’s collection is probably the most representative of those that have survived. These are mainly small anthropomorphic sculptures molded with great imagination. In some cases, their surface is decorated with “Phoenician” letters and modest decor of small dots. The composition often uses two masks (human faces) or two heads. Mediterranean archaic was chosen as the style. The article provides an outline of modern research into falsifications in the archaeology of Jerusalem. The authors assess the uniqueness of the Russian pilgrimage tradition and its influence on the formation of the Russian collection of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in the Ascension Monastery on the Mount of Olives.