The second half of the XXth century was the time of signifi cant discoveries associated with the problem of the earliest occupation of Western Asia. The evidence of the Lower Paleolithic people presence in the territories near Iran has increased and this fact stresses the importance of key signifi cance of the region as a geographic crossroad between Africa, Asia and Europe. The search for new sites associated with these problems reduced to surface material fi ndings in the Mar-Gverga-Lan in Holilan. This article is devoted to the detailed description of material fi ndings and discussion of their place in the general context of Lower Paleolithic occurrences in Iran and Western Asia. It will give an opportunity to estimate the further research perspective at this territory.

The article is devoted to the research of Don region forest-steppe Mesolithic cultures in the East European context. The historiography of the problem, the critical review of the sources and their capability for reconstruction are considered. The inferences are deduced about the place and the role of forest-steppe Mesolithic sites of Don region in the Eastern European Mesolithic. The past scientifi c perceptions are overviewed in the context of cultural identifi cation, periodization, chronology and a few Mesolithic culture areas in the region under consideration. According to the available data the genesis processes and historical destinies of these cultures are not associated with local Final Paleolithic or Neolithic.

The retreat-stroke-pit ware, comb-pit ware and pit ceramics have been found among the materials dated to the fi rst half of the III millennium BCE at the Novoilinka III site (Northern Kulunda). This pottery has the analogies in the ceramic complexes of so-called comb-pit, pit-comb and retreat-stroke-pit community, which spread from the Eastern European forest area (Baltics) to the Upper Ob region. This ceramics has the most strong resemblance with Bairyk (Baraba) and Kiprinsk (Upper Ob region) types.

The article has the goal to publish a scepter pomme and ornamented axe-hammer of the Eneolithic epoch and the beginning of the Bronze Age. They originate from the Fore-Caucasus foot-hills. Both objects are the rare fi nds and according to the analysis of their shapes it is allowed to consider the problems of culture contacts of Western Caucasian and South-Eastern European population during the required period.

This work presents the research results of the Late Bronze Age burials and artifacts from the Grishkina Zaimka burial ground (Western Siberia). There is their cultural and chronological attribution is given as Eastern variant of Pakhomovo culture. It is determined according to morphological analysis of vessels that bearers of two potters tradition coexisted within one region. As was established matter in the complex in question marks the initial stage of the Pakhomovo population insinuation to the Barabinsk forest-steppe and the beginning of its alligation with the autochthonous cultural groups.

The article presents the analysis of fi nds from the destroyed “Krasnyj stroitel” site by the side of the Ala-Archa River at the northern skirts of Bishkek in the Chuy Valley of Kyrgyzstan. In this place where the city dump is situated the school children stumbled across a few valuable artifacts, including the golden and silver objects. The functional purposes, the existence time and the cultural attribution of these artifacts were determined as a result of their examination. These objects were a part of the adornments and elements of costume, which was worn by the nobles of ancient nomadic tribes. They were the bearers of Kenkolskaya culture and occupied the mountains and valleys of Tien Shan and Semirechye at the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Altai Territory in Russia during the Xiongnu-Xianbei epoch.

The description of the next-to-skin cross is fi rst given in this article. The object was found in consequence of archaeological rescue excavations at the territory of Albazino fort in 2013. The results of archaeological, morphological, paleographic and iconographic studies and the chemical analysis of the metal allow the preliminary dating of the next-to-skin cross from the last third of the XVIIth century.

The Kholyato-1 ritual complex was situated in the Yamal peninsula near the Yuribej River mouth. The complex contained an anthropomorphic sculpture. Behind it the arrowheads and assemblage of reindeer bones and antlers were situated in shape of a semicircle. The burial was immediately under the cultic complex. The site is dated to the turn of XVII – XVIII centuries and is interpreted as a military grave of the body parts or cenotaph of a soldier, maybe a chief. Here the cultic place had been organized and functioned as a part of obit, and afterwards as a ceremonial place of banal military training.

The bronze masks of the Middle Ages in Western Siberia have a special place in repoussage. Their appropriation and chronology of existence are interpreted in the modern archaeological literature ambiguously. The main area of the bronze mask distribution is situated in the northern part of Western Siberia, in the Middle and Upper Ob. The fi nds are very rare outside this territory and are interesting not only in the space context, but also as a part of the long-distant connections between different Western Siberian regions. The bronze mask was stumbled across in the Upper Ob River (Krokhalyovka-57 in the Novosibirsk suburbs) and is of interest as one of the categories of the Middle Ages transcultural material complex because this rank was detected at the southern circumference, back from the territory of main distribution. The unique morphology of this artifact allow to raise a question about its more ancient age in comparison with the already known bronze masks of the Middle Ages in Western Siberia.

The article is devoted to the visit and copying of Tomskaya Pisanitsa under the direction of I.G. Gmelin in October 1734. This work describes a notable episode which was happened with part of academic team of the Second Kamchatka – the Great Northern expedition during the travel. It was suggested that perhaps artist I. Kh. Berkgan had drawn the expeditionary group of I.G. Gmelin on the back of Tomskaya Pisanitsa when they had gone down a river in the boats from Kuznetsk to Tomsk.

The article presents palynological characteristics of four cross-sections from Ufa II hill fort. The structure of 68 obtained samples included pollen and spores of 58 taxa, which had relegated to the forest, the pratal and the ruderal coenotic groups. The palynospectra are characterized by dominance of grass pollen. The stages of vegetation shifts were detected from the time of initial occupation of this territory. The alternative periods of maxima among complexes of broadleaved forests, forest edge and ruderal communities were described. They were associated with intensity fl uctuations of anthropogenic effects on the landscapes.

The article discusses the opportunities of carbon (ratio 13C/12C) and nitrogen (ratio 15N/14N) isotopic signature usage for taxonomic diagnostics of animal bone remains from archaeological sites and other ancient deposits. This work presents the world literature review, reveals the features of isotopic analysis in the context of vertebrate animal ecology and the methodological hardships at work with fossil material. The particular cases also show the successful usage of isotopic analysis for specimen identifi cation of archeozoological remains, especially bones of brown and polar bears, large marine mammals and a few specimens of anseriformes.

Six motives were defi ned which are common for Na-dene native speakers in Northern America and the inhabitants of Southern Siberia. These motives exist in such composition nowhere. In Northern America Na-dene occupation is associated with the migration of Dyuktai culture bearers. Na-Dene folklore analogies are not presented at Yakutia, Kolyma, Chukotka and Kamchatka. It seems logical: Dyuktai population migrated to Alaska and their heritage was destroyed by the waves of new people. Common for Na-dene and native people of Siberia folkloric motives go up to the traditions of southern neighborhoods of Dyuktai people. The demographic density was higher at the territory from Altai to Transbaikal, than the territory northward. For this reason, the “Paleolithic” folklore remains might have been saved inspite of repeated shifts of language.

The article presents the hypothesis about the “Trinity scheme” usage for the plan construction of Russian churches. This scheme amounts to the composition of quadrates forming the core of the building. The scheme has a semantic meaning and refl ects the doctrinal theology and ideology of the Middle Ages. Numerous examples of the West European, Byzantine and Russian temple architecture support the stated supposition.

New data are presented in the article of paleoanthropological and archaeological studies in grave 1 of barrow 1 at the Ak-Alakha-3 burial ground where the known female mummy was found in burial 2. The grave was situated immediately over the curb with mummy and included the remains of a man and an adolescent. The peculiarities of burial rite which are presented in the barrow throw light on social status of so-called Kara-Koba complexes as a part of the Pazyryk culture. The man exhibited pathologies, which allow to talk about his limited physical capacities. It was defi ned that his death had been violent.