Characteristics of the Stone Age of Crimea in the Creative Heritage of A.S. Moiseev.

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to characterize the contribution of the Russian scientist Alexander Silovich Moiseev to the archaeological study of the Stone Age of the Mountainous Crimea. To achieve the goal, the following tasks were envisaged: the selection of articles on the primitive archeology of the Crimea from the entire array of scientific publications of the scientist, their subsequent historiographical analysis and generalization. The research methodology was based on the complex application of scientific principles: historicism, objectivity, comparative historical approach, retrospection. The problem field of the research included the following components: establishing continuity in the history of the study of the Stone Age of the Crimean peninsula, formulating priority problems of the primitive archeology of the region in the works of the scientist. The source base for the study was the published articles by A.S. Moiseev on the history of the Stone Age of the Mountainous Crimea. In the course of the conducted research, it was found that during the short-lived but important expeditions of A.S. Moiseev as director of the Natural History Museum in Yalta, the source base was gradually formed in the articles of the scientist and the program of future studies of the ancient history of the peninsula was concretized. A.S. Moiseev put the study of the Stone Age of the Crimea to a qualitatively new level. In particular, he actualized the need to search and excavate primitive monuments with careful fixation of all finds in plan and section, justified the expediency of joint stationary excavations of several well-known archaeological sites with systematic searches in new, not yet explored areas. In addition, the author's innovations are the transition from the simple collection of flints and tools to their systematization and typology, the formation of ordered collections; the creation of a complete archaeological map of primitive sites and locations of the peninsula with their detailed stratigraphy, as well as the strengthening of scientific ties between representatives of regional and academic science in the study of Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic monuments of the Crimea.