编号 3 (2025)

Active archaeological work of recent years in the foothills of the Northern Tien Shan (Trans-Ili Alatau) have revealed over ten Upper Palaeolithic sites here. The Rakhat site occupies a special place in this series. In 2018–2023, the entire loess layer of the site, 13 m thick, was uncovered by excavation over the area of ~ 60 m². A total of 16 cultural layers were found at Rakhat. Almost all of them contain hearths, fire pits, carbon spots or calcinations. All cultural layers represent relatively short-term, probably seasonal, visits of residents. The total collection numbers 9267 lithic finds. The layers are grouped into three packs: layer 12 – end of the Early Upper Palaeolithic (~28,000–27,000 14C yr BP); layers 11, 10, 9, 8/1, 8/2, 7, 6 – middle Upper Palaeolithic (~25,200–23,300 14C yr BP); layers 5, 4/4, 4/3, 4/2, 4/1, 3, 2, 1 – beginning of the late Upper Palaeolithic (~20,300–19,300 14C yr BP). Between the last two packs, a hiatus was noted, associated with one of the unfavorable stages of the last glacial maximum (LGM). The site provides an opportunity to traces the emergence and transformation of various cultural complexes with characteristic lithic industries. This process took place under the conditions of climatic changes of the LGM period. Based on the site materials, on the one hand, the specific character of the Upper Palaeolithic cultural complexes was revealed, on the other hand, it was determined that the development of the Upper Palaeolithic of the Northern Tien Shan took place within a single cultural vector, characteristic of the western part of Eurasia.

This paper outlines the first results of the pollen analysis conducted within the Chashkinskoye geoarcheological (the upper Kama valley, Russia). The analysis aims to identify human impact indicators in the peat bog and cultural deposits. The authors traced several palynological criteria across different archaeological epochs. The study revealed that only indirect pollen indicators of human activities associated with the weed-ruderals were typical of the Mesolithic and Neolithic/Chalcolithic periods. During the Stone Age, human influence on the upper Kama forests was local and related only to the environment of the ancient population.

The article focuses on the reconstruction of the migration from Central Europe and the Carpathian-Danube region to the steppe in the period of 2200 cal BC. As a result of the movement of these groups to Eastern Europe, where they came into contact with local late Catacomb cultures, the Babino cultural circle was formed, which included the Volga-Don, the Dnieper-Don and the Dnieper-Prut Babino cultures. This migration is evidenced by a number of innovations of European origin in the ritual and artefact complex of post-Catacomb cultural formations in the steppe and forest-steppe zones from the Danube to the Trans-Volga region. Their emergence was explosive in nature and occurred within a short period. The migration in question occurred during a sharp climate aridization, which led to an increase in sedimentation and a decrease in winter temperatures in the mountain and foothill zones of the Alps and Carpathians. This resulted in a shortage of winter pastures in these areas, which caused part of the European population to leave for the Eastern European steppe where the conditions for winter grazing were more favorable.

In 1984 and 2023, at a 40-year interval, area surveys were conducted in Kurganinsk District of Krasnodar Territory, twice covering 79 mound cemeteries of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The measurements of the mound parameters were performed both times with comparable instrumental accuracy; the burial grounds are located in an arable landscape where agricultural use of the land was continuous. These facts made it possible to obtain statistically significant data for calculating the dynamics of the destruction of mound cemeteries by plowing. Frequency analysis of the measurement sample including 424 burial mounds identified two plowing scenarios manifested in the value distribution graphs: uniform plowing not aimed at intentional destruction of embankments, and intended leveling of burial mounds with a plough. According to calculations, the average rate of decrease in the height of burial mounds during uniform «unintentional» plowing is about 1 cm per year. Intended actions to destroy cemeteries with agricultural machinery increase this rate by three to seven times.

The article presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of the Kurilovka 2 settlement (Sudzha District, Kursk Region), which made it possible to identify several stages in the development of the territory in the Upper Psel basin, in the north of the East European forest-steppe zone. During the last 2.5 thousand years, a broad-leaved forest was growing on the remnant of a low terrace above the floodplain, at the site area. In the early 1st millennium AD, it was probably cleared by the early Slavic population in a cycle of slash-and-burn agriculture. In addition to cultivating crops, in particular millet, the population conducted residential and economic construction and possibly practiced grazing in the studied area, however, the influence of the bearers of early Slavic traditions on the environment outside the habitation zone was insignificant. In the late 1st millennium AD, the settlement became uninhabited and the forest was restored. It was cleared again presumably in the 13th century AD. The next period of active development of the Upper Psel region covers the second half of the 17th–20th century, when the forest was totally cleared and the land plowed at a large scale. This led to the transformation of natural landscapes into agricultural ones and to noticeable changes in the ecosystems of the region.

The article presents the study of the tomb of the first royal nun buried in the central part of the apse in the funerary vault of the Smolensk Catholicon of the Moscow Novodevichy Convent. Princess Uliania Dmitrievna was the wife of Yuri Vasilyevich, the younger brother of Ivan the Terrible. After the death of Prince Yuri of Uglich, Princess Uliania, aged 28–29, took monastic vows and retired to the Novodevichy Convent, where she died on May 8, 1574. The article analyzes the burial installations of the princess and its archaeological context. The authors are the first in historiographic studies to reconstruct the biography of Princess Uliania (Alexandra as a nun) and her family life, the family ties of her kin with the Staritsky princely house, noble families, and to examine the reasons that influenced the choice of the Novodevichy Convent for the widow of Yuri Vasilyevich.

The article introduces the hoard of silver kufic coins of the mid-870s found in the environs of the village Khruschevo-Tyrnovo in Ryazan Region. The author analyzes dynastic, geographic and chronological distributions of the coins. The study shows characteristic features of the hoard common to a number of the hoards from the Oka river basin with the similar way of formation as well as its peculiarities. Dirhams of the hoard minted at the Abbasid capital only slightly exceed the coins of Samarqand in quantity while the Middle East specimens, as whole, only slightly prevail over the Central Asian emissions. That is quite uncommon for the synchronous deposits of the Oka region. Another unusual feature is the presence of three rare dirhams in one hoard, which were minted by ‘Alid rebels at al-Muhammadiya in 250 AH. In addition, the coins with graffiti are analyzed, among which one specimen contains a whole set of marks including those that have analogies in the Don and Kuban runic alphabets. This fact is considered as an additional evidence of the arrival of monetary silver in the region in question along the Don trade route. The author comes to the conclusion about the importance of the hoard as a valuable source for studying kufic silver coin circulation in Eastern Europe and the Oka river basin and trade ties with Muslim Orient through the mediation of the Khazar Khanate.

The article discusses counterfeit West European denarii of the 11th century AD found during archaeological excavations in Veliky Novgorod. Among the numismatic finds of the 10th–12th centuries AD, foreign coins play a significant role, in particular West European denarii and their imitations. Many of these coins, upon closer examination, turn out to be made of an alloy of base metals or with a violation of the technology of manufacturing denarii. The author classifies such coins as counterfeits, which account for 25–30% of individual coin finds in Novgorod as recorded by the author. Based on the material from Novgorod excavations, the paper illustrates various technological methods used by forgers to make counterfeits. The article suggests prototypes that forgers used as a reference. Based on the considered numismatic material and its archaeological context, the author assumes that it is important that counterfeit money be taken into account when studying the monetary circulation of medieval Novgorod. The author concludes that the strategy for choosing prototypes for these counterfeits adequately reflects the composition of the monetary circulation in medieval Novgorod, counterfeits being considered as a vivid evidence of such circulation. The author admits that some of the counterfeits were made in Novgorod itself.

The article publishes fragments of silk fabrics with gold embroidery and gold-woven ribbons found in excavation area XI in Staraya Russa, Novgorod Region, in 1971 (works of the expedition under A.F. Medvedev). An analysis of reports, materials from the archive of A.F. Medvedev, and research literature made it possible to determine the archaeological context, completeness, and supposed time of falling of these unique finds into the cultural layer. The author challenges the validity of the interpretation and distribution of the artefacts by compositions during their second restoration in 2013.

The article is an attempt to explain the chronicle record on the work of Novgorod masters in the construction of the roof of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin in 1479. It is assumed that Novgorod masters were among the first to embrace the iron roof construction, which is why they were called to Moscow. This happened immediately after the conquest of Novgorod by the Grand Prince of Moscow in 1478. The author also analyzes chronicle records on iron roofs in Pskov in the 1460s. It is suggested that Pskov was an intermediary: initially, similar roof technology, which had arrived from German lands, was used in Pskov, later they began to construct iron roofs in Novgorod. It is from there that iron roof came to Moscow together with masters. Later, iron roofs became common for the Moscow state of the 16th–17th centuries.

The Zamil-Koba I site in the Southwestern Crimea was found and excavated by D.A. Krainov in 1935–1937. Two layers of the Stone Age were traced. The top layer belongs to the Murzak-Koba culture and dates back to the first half of the Boreal period. It produced three red deer incisors with grooves on the dental neck. The lower layer belongs to the Shan-Koba culture and dates back to the first half of the Allerod. Two pendants made of animal teeth were found in this layer. The first pendant is made of a red deer canine, with a hole drilled at the end of the root. Several geometrized images are engraved on the root of the tooth, traces of red paint are visible. Intensive wear indicates prolonged use of this pendant. The second pendant is made of the upper left fang of a female cave lion. The surface shows signs of processing and signs of wear typical for pendants. The end of the root and the end of the enamel are broken off along the grooves. After the root was broken, it was not disposed of, but was probably used as an amulet. Analogies to this artefact are unknown to the authors, although pendants made of predator fangs were widespread in the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Eastern Europe.