History Of Material Culture Research Articles

KozhukhovaE.I., MustafinKh.Kh., SemenovV.A., UchanevaE.N. Reconstructing Ethnocultural Processes in the Sausken Valley (Tuva) during the Later Half of the 1st Millennium BC

The article represents findings of the group research devoted to reconstructing ethnocultural processes of the second half of the 1st millennium BC (Sausken Terrain Feature, Tuva). The research comprehensively studies local population groups who left behind their burial monuments in Eerbek River Valley. The study engages geneticist, ancient technologies experts, anthropologists and archaeologists. Kurgans of the middle and late Uyuk-Sagly Culture (5th–2nd century BC) were excavated in 2011–2016 by Tuva archaeological expedition arranged by the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for the History of Material Culture. Nearly all burials in the kurgans had been robbed back in the ancient days. The study analyses above-ground structures and internal layouts of the kurgans, the burial ritual and tools (weapons, mirrors, belt accessories, bone items, embellishments). It allows to conclude that the kurgans have varying cultural attributions. The research also implies instrumental process analysis of glass and stone beads, chromatography of fabrics and proteomic analysis of archaeological leather. The paper reveals radiocarbon dating (14C) and correlations with other burial monuments of the Scythian Tuva. Craniological materials analysed allow to determine populations that could have been related to the aliens who arrived at the Eerbek River Valley in the Uyuk times. The Ozen-Ala-Belig groups differ from their peers from other territories in Tuva. It might be explained through the Uyuyk migrants mixing with the Eerbek Valley people who had been living there since the late Bronze Age. The paleogenetic study of 19 items especially focuses on researching the Y-chromosome DNA. For many researched samples the study determines haplogroups Q1b1a3-L330 and R1a1a1b2-Z93 (or its subgroups). The area of spread for these haplogroups is Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia, West and South Siberia. One samples is assigned to I2a1b1-M223 haplogroups with the area of spread in the Balkans and South-Eastern Europe. The obtained findings may indicate that the Western and Eastern nomads kept in touch during the researched period. The archaeological, anthropological and genetic data lead to a conclusion that the Scythian cultures in the given region is complex and multi-faceted.

НАЧАЛО АКАДЕМИЧЕСКОЙ АРХЕОЛОГИИ В БАШКОРТОСТАНЕ

During the post-war period, archaeological research was rapidly advancing in the Soviet Union. After the All-Union Archaeological Conference in 1945, the Moscow Branch of the Institute for the History of Material Culture (henceforth IHMC) became the main center for archaeological research and organizer of field studies throughout the USSR. At a meeting of the Department of History and Philosophy in 1951, together with a plenum of IHMC and the USSR Academy of Sciences, a decision was made to expand archaeological research across all regions of the country. An archaeological team is forming at the Bashkir Scientific Research Institute of History, Language, and Literature, which was part of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1951. In 1953, a sector of history, archaeology, and ethnography was created, and archaeological expeditions were launched. Initially, field research was conducted as part of the Bashkir Archaeological Expedition under the leadership of IHMC. Since 1957, independent archaeological units have been formed. In 1959, a department of archeology and ethnography became part of the IHLL. The same year, a collection of articles dedicated to archaeological studies in Bashkortostan were published for the first time. In 1978, an independent sector of archaeology appeared, the successor of which is the Department of Archaeological Research currently operating as part of the IHLL. Thus, in 2023–2024 it will be 70 years since the beginning of archaeological research in the IHLL. It is also the anniversary of the beginning of systematic academic research of the territory of the Southern Urals and the design of Ufa as the center of archaeological research in the region. In addition to documentary evidence of the formation of the archaeological structure in the IHLL, the article provides statistics on archaeological expeditions in the territory of Bashkortostan. An analysis of these data shows that, between 1955 and 1963, units organized by academic institutions of the IHMC (Institute of History of Material Culture) and IHLL dominated among them. Due to active fieldwork, by 1970, information had been obtained on 2,059 archaeological sites located within the BASSR and data on these sites had been systematized into the academic catalog “Archaeological Map of Bashkiria.” In general, the mid-1950s to 1960s can be characterized as the period when a systematic archaeological survey was being formed on the territory of Bashkortostan. The main focus of this process was the IHLL

Soviet Historical Studies in the Mirror of Personal Connections: Correspondence between K. E. Grinevich and S. F. Platonov (1927–1929)

Based on the materials of the personal fund of Academician S. F. Platonov kept in the department of manuscripts of the Russian National Library, the author restores Platonov’s communication with K. E. Grinevich (1891–1970), a major researcher, museum worker, archaeologist, and antiquarian. The entire set of extant letters from Grinevich to Platonov is introduced into scholarly circulation which has never been done previously. This helps restore the nuances of the preparation and conduct of several all-Union scientific events that consolidated the historical community of the epoch through the prism of personal and official messages. The author expands the history of the conference of archaeologists of the USSR in Sevastopol which took place in September 1927. The documents studied make it possible to reveal in a new way the activities of Grinevich as an administrator in the field of Soviet museology during his transfer to Moscow as deputy head of the museum department of the Narkompros of the RSFSR. The article also shows the collaboration of scientists in preparing the all-Union archaeological congress. The correspondence demonstrates a conflict of interest between the Main Directorate of Scientific Institutions of the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, which issued Archaeological Excavation Permits for archaeological work, and the State Academy of the History of Material Culture, which provided scientific support for these studies. It is demonstrated that Grinevich did not stop contacts with Chersonese and Crimean academic science in general. This is evidenced by his active participation in the congress on the study of the productive forces of Crimea (1928) and his long visits to Chersonese during the archaeological seasons. Finally, the author demonstrates the career rise of a provincial museum worker and the change in the style of his communication with colleagues in Crimea and in the capitals in this regard.

С.Д. Димитров – герой не нашего времени

Although the fate of S. D. Dimitrov (1904–1938) began to attract the researchers’ attention only recently, it is very demonstrative for the history of our country in the 1920–30s. S. D. Dimitrov was born in Bulgaria into a working-class family; he took part in the revolutionary movement in his early ages, and joined the Communist Party. After taking part in the armed uprising of 1923, he had to leave Bulgaria, and emigrated to the USSR in 1925. He studied at the Communist University and then at the Institute of Red Professors, where he specialized in the history of the revolutionary movement in Bulgaria and the history of the Communist International. After completing his studies, on November 1, 1934, he was admitted to the Institute for the History of Feudal Society at the State Academy for the History of Material Culture (SAHMC). There began his rapid promotion through the ranks. S. D. Dimttrov became a deputy director of the Institute, and the acting director in November 1936. Despite the obvious lack of special knowledge, he was actively involved in the archaeological study of the Crimea, headed the Crimean Commission of the SAHMC and the Eski-Kermen expedition (1936). He was entrusted with the preparation of the Crimean plenum of the SAHMC, which was supposed to unite all the scholarly efforts of the Soviet Union interested in studying the history and culture of the Crimea. This plenum did not take place, and the SAHMC ceased to exist in 1937. S. D. Dimitrov was arrested soon and charged with belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization that existed in Leningrad among Bulgarian political emigrants. He was sentenced to death and shot on September 23, 1938; exonerated on April 4, 1956.

Recherches archéologiques sur les amas coquilliers de la Basse Casamance : le cas de Niomoune dans les îles Bliss, Sénégal

Anthropogenic shellfish mounds exist in all the Bliss Islands (e.g., Niomoune, Hitou, Kandé), in Senegal. They are now threatened by anthropic activities and by the effects of climate change. In the perspective of rescue archaeology, our study focuses on the Niomoune shell mounds which are the most threatened. Of the eight clusters found at Niomoune, two are sacred (Arch 06 and Arch 08). Despite being reworked, these shell mounds are thought to predate the current settlement of Niomoune. Our prospecting and excavation work has enabled us to establish a material culture history including remains of ceramic, iron, and glass. The five charcoal samples dated by radiocarbon place the beginning of the occupation of Niomoune between 21AD and 204AD. This chronological sequence belongs to the early Iron Age in Senegal, which began in 1100 BC at Dialowali, Senegal River valley. This paper aims to determine the periods of the different human settlement dynamics at Niomoune based on the archaeological data, and to characterize the artefacts collected by placing them in the cultural ensembles of the Lower Casamance.

Керамические материалы на выставке археологического наследия Южного Приаралья из фондов Государственного музея искусств Республики Каракалпакстан им. И.В. Савицкого

Analysis of the archaeological exhibition organised by I.V. Savitsky State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, sheds light on the chronological framework of the archaeological heritage of the Southern Aral Sea Region. For the first time, the thematic exposition reveals the degree of available information on Ancient Khorezm monuments in terms of the ceramic production development and its relevance for studying the history of material culture. The exhibition acquires special significance in the context of the popularisation of historical science as a way to preserve the historical and cultural heritage in modern society. The display of the collections is a natural result of the work of several generations of the Khorezm archaeological and ethnographic expedition archaeologists, as well as the actual Karakalpak school of archeology. The exhibition of archaeological collections stirs interest in further research, promotes the popularisation of science, and stimulates the tourism industry development. It is a token of appreciation of sorts to the academic community, discoverers of the history of ancient and medieval culture, the creators of the Karakalpak school of archeology.

‘Everyday Life’ in the Works of Maria Bogucka

The article discusses the use of the category of ‘everyday life’ in historical works by Maria Bogucka as well as her theoretical contributions on the subject. Her pioneering role in adapting the mode of popular writing advanced by the French cycle Histoire de la vie quotidienne to Polish historiography in the 1960s established a high-quality standard on Polish scholars by combining original research into economic and social history with references to the history of material culture and mentalities. A quarter of a century after the publication of her exemplary study entitled Życie codzienne w Gdańsku: wiek XVI–XVII [Everyday Life in Gdańsk: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1967], Bogucka involved herself in contemporary debates within the international community of historians over the German Alltagsgeschichte, perceiving it as a methodological framework for innovative research and an opportunity to expand the theoretical side of cultural history. Though she would not produce another ‘history of everyday life’ – in a refreshed perspective and with more robust theoretical foundations – her studies into old Polish customs betray an inspiration with the German research current of Alltagsgeschichte, which blossomed in the early 1990s.

Полевые отчеты как источники информации об археологических памятниках Республики Калмыкия, исследованных в 1929–1991 гг.

Introduction. A field report summarizing archaeological works — like findings proper — is a key source of information on conducted investigations. In the Soviet Union and present-day Russia, it has been common practice that findings be distributed among public museums or repositories affiliated to institutions in charge of those excavations, while field reports be obligatorily stored at scientific archives. Goals. The study attempts a comprehensive analysis of Kalmykia’s field reports (1929–1991) and shall thereto enumerate field reports and identify repositories they are stored at, assess their availability in scientific discourse and forecast further studies. Results. The work clarifies scientific archives of the Institute of History of Material Culture (RAS) and the Institute of Archaeology (RAS) contain a total of 76 such reports (1929–1991), while Kalmyk Scientific Center (RAS) houses 42 reports compiled in 1975–1991. The latter period witnessed deliveries of 59 reports to the Institute of Archaeology (RAS), i.e. KalmSC never received 17 reports at all. In terms of availability in scientific discourse, the field reports can be divided into two clusters: those of 1929–1976 were published almost completely, and those of 1977–1991 have been published in fragments only. However, a number of experts, such as P. Rykov, I. Sinitsyn, U. Erdniev, P. Koltsov, E. Shnaidshteyn, M. Ochir-Goryaeva, have published virtually all field survey-related documents of theirs from the period between 1929 and 1991. Conclusions. The conducted analysis shows that appropriate use of field reports for scholarly purposes requires that efforts aimed at investigating the latter be duly integrated: further research and publication endeavors can be planned only after one gathers complete data together. To facilitate this, it is urgent to gain copies of reports missing at KalmSC, and this shall be possible only after all the reports be made completely available. This shall prevent cases characterized by that — when it comes to compile a selection within one cultural-chronological group or some category of grave goods — individual parts of material simply make a ‘white spot’ resulting from unavailability of particular reports.

THE FATE OF THE STATE ACADEMY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATERIAL CULTURE AT THE TURNING POINT: AN UNDISPATCHED LETTER OF F.V. KIPARISOV TO S.M. KIROV

In 1934, the Academy for the History of Material Culture (SAHMC), a leading archaeological institution of Russia, faced a challenge. The Chairman of SAHMC, Academician Nikolai Ya. Marr, who had headed it for many years, was dying, and urgent measures had to be taken to ensure successful work of the Academy after his death. Deputy Chairman F.V. Kiparisov decided to address a letter to the party leader of Leningrad Sergey Kirov in order to secure the leading positions of SAHMC in science; he asked for a personal appointment with Kirov to discuss the future of the Academy and proposed a programme for further development of the institution. The drafts of the letter were prepared in November 1934, shortly before the assassination of S.M. Kirov, but the letter itself was probably never sent to the addressee. The papers are kept in the archival collection of SAHMC at Archives of the Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS. Its full publication will provide important new information on the history of SAHMC activities in the context of the general development of Russian academic science during the troubled period of the 1930s.

Nordic Travels

Nordic Travels

Golden Horde Monuments in Stavropol Region in Scientific Work of A.A. Spitsyn

The article describes the events of 1906 related to the publishing of the results of several accidental discoveries from the Golden Horde age in the Stavropol Governorate area by A.A. Spitsyn. In 1887 and 1890, the Imperial Archaeological Commission received several accidental findings from the nearby area of Roguly, Kievsky, Zdvizhensky, Beshpagir villages and the tract of Gashun Usta. A.A. Spitsyn published the most important ones in 1906. The article presents the materials from the archives of the Institute for Material Culture History first published by the researcher. The bronze mirrors from the nearby areas of the Roguly and Beshpagir villages are made public for the first time. Materials from the archive allowed to determine the contents of the findings from the “Koltsov” mound and the mound of the Yun-baba mountain. The authors attempt to localize most of the listed findings. The published materials also add to the already existing knowledge of the culture of the inhabitants of Stavropol Plateau in the age of the Golden Horde reign.

Unguaranteed Remedies

By examining an array of sources from seventeenth century England, This article studies the medicines and medical community in a disease-ridden context. I chose the seventeenth century as the field of this research, particularly because plague eruptions occurred frequently in England throughout this period of time. The article serves as a material-culture history, for it is built around the materiality of medicines: Their distinct characters, their manufacturing, and their retailing. This article contends that seventeenth-century English medicines reflect the general stagnation in the development of medical ideas and serious divisions within the medical community. People’s preoccupation with scents indicate their reliance on ancient doctrines, and the lack of consensus regarding manufacturing methods manifested the rifts within the medical community. The disputes also existed in regards to medicine-selling, as two prominent professions of the medical industry, the physicians and apothecaries, antagonized each other due to profit conflicts in the medical market. The fogyish ideas, endless disputes, lack of consensus, and the poor effects of medicines reflect a stagnated and chaotic era during which medicines were an essential source of controversy.

Co‐temporality and Sovremennost': Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

Co‐temporality and <i>Sovremennost'</i>: Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

“Slavery 1.0”: the Concept of the Ancient Oriental Slave-Owning Societies in the Works by Vassiliy Struve of 1933—1934 and Its Perspective

The article presents a detailed analysis of arguments forwarded by a leading Soviet Orientalist Vassiliy Struwe (1889—1965) for his thesis about the existence of the slave-owning mode of production at the Ancient Orient. This thesis was formulated in his lecture at the State Academy for the History of Material Culture (GAIMK) on 4 June 1933 and in a number of publications of 1934. Backing this thesis with the Ancient Near Eastern evidence and building around it a rather vast scheme positioned as an alternative to the cyclist theory of Eduard Meyer was a realization of tasks put before Struwe at his job at GAIMK, as can be seen from the preserved plan of his work there for the year 1933. According to Struwe’s scheme, the evolution of slavery in the earliest irrigation societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia started with the collective property of rural communities on slaves employed in the build-up of the irrigation systems (canals, dams etc.). There eventually developed the individual property on slaves and the vast slave-owning latifundia, which have already existed in Mesopotamia under Ur-III and in the New Kingdom Egypt. In the 1st Millennium B. C. the development of slavery in Mesopotamia and Egypt was comparable with that in the societies of Classical Antiquity. Struwe pointed out a number of slaves’ uprisings at the Ancient Near East starting from the 2nd Millennium B. C. and explained the downfall of ancient societies at the East with the “slave revolution”, like at the West. Struwe’s scheme revealed an emphasis on a rather high development of slavery at the Ancient Orient and parallels between its social phenomena and those of Ancient Greece and Rome. However, this emphasis vanished from his later texts, probably, due to a demand to show the Ancient Oriental societies as a phase preceding the Classical Antiquity, in compliance with the general trend of the world historiography.

“Turkomstaris, in View of Its Inactivity, Due to Lack of Funds Will Be Destroyed....”: to the History of the Formation of Scientific and Cultural Policy in Soviet Central Asia in the First Half of the 1920s

After the October coup d’êtat of 1917, formation new authorities began, which were supposed to develop and implement the policy of the new power in the field of science and culture. On the territory of the former Russian Turkestan (Turkestan ASSR as part of the RSFSR), this process was complicated by the fact that the new policy had to meet the expectations of the local Muslim population, respectively, the measures taken had to guarantee its loyalty. Not least in the development of policy in the field of science and culture, in particular, in the field of restoration of historical and cultural monuments, is to be pointed out, that the world scientific community followed their fate. The scientific community represented by the Permanent Turkestan Commission of the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture (PTC RAIMK) under the directorship of Academician V. V. Bartold claimed a leading role in determining the directions of scientific and cultural policy in Soviet Central Asia. The struggle for influence on the Turkestan institutions responsible for policy in the field of science and culture, in particular, for the restoration of architectural monuments, primarily Turkkomstaris, which functioned under the People’s Commissariat for education of the TASSR and had its own branches, ended in failure for representatives of the scientific environment. The PTC RAIMK was disbanded, the decisive word always remained said by the central authorities, which, lacking professional competencies, were guided solely by political considerations in the development of scientific and cultural policies in Central Asia. The model of scientific and cultural policy in Central Asia developed by the mid-1920s, was generally characteristic for the periods of large-scale reforms throughout the country: science remained subordinate to state authorities and did not have decisive powers.

The First PhD Theses on Ancient History at the Leningrad State University (1938—1941): on the Formation of Soviet Dissertation Culture

The dissertation files of the postgraduate students in classics of the Leningrad State University and State Academy of the History of Material Culture who had defended their PhD theses in 1938—1941 were taken. These were the files of V. P. Kallistov, E. A. Millior, S. L. Utchenko, G. A. Stratanovsky, K. P. Lampsakov. The author concludes that the patronage of the professor — supervisor, which was based on the assessment of the candidate’s research abilities and knowledge of ancient languages, was the most important for admission to graduate school. Social origin and unseemly facts of biography were not of decisive importance. Scientific supervisors were mainly scientists of the old school — S. A. Zhebelev, S. Ya. Lurie, who independently determined the structure of graduate students’ training, focusing on the historical and philological approach, the use of different types of sources and appropriate critical analysis of the achievements of pre-revolutionary and foreign historiography. The topics of theses shows the desire to include Soviet science in the world, and the high demands — to produce a high-level scientists for teaching ancient history and ancient languages (at the time there was a severe shortage of specialists in these fields of knowledge), as well as to prepare summarizing multi-volume works on history.

Industrial heritage of a lumber company in Santa Catarina state, Brazil: considerations about industrial archaeology and the history of material culture

The current article introduces industrial landscape formation in Brazil’s southern backcountry early in the 20th century, and the implementation of a large log extraction and processing complex – the extracted lumber was well preserved in midwestern Santa Catarina State up to that time. The operation of large lumber processing facilities (including the construction of company-town), which was boosted by substantial changes in destruction of the natural environment was little affected by such ventures, at that time. A population of squatters composed of Portuguese-Brazilians and indigenous peoples lived in this area before enterprise was implemented. Subsistence in this region was based on systems that were little systems that had little impact on the environment. The present study focuses on industrial archaeology of the lumber company; thus, we herein present the basic background of both cultural heritage and archaeology studies that have been slowly developed in this area.

«Ученик реакционного археолога А. А. Спицына»: к биографии Н. И. Репникова в начале 1930-х гг.

This article discusses the little-known pages of the biography of the Russian archaeologist N. I. Repnikov in the early 1930s, when he was arrested and spent two months in prison. It was the time when his colleague from the GAIMK (State Academy for the History of Material Culture) A. A. Miller wrote a sharply negative review about Repnikov’s scholarly activities, accusing him of trading antiquities. The main reason for such a sceptical attitude to Repnikov’s academic works was the competition between the school of palaeoethnologists to which A. A. Miller belonged and A. A. Spitsyn’s students. This way, dramatic ideological and political situation of the early 1930s around the Soviet archaeologists was also greatly influenced by the relationship between various groups of researchers within the scholarly community.

Новые материалы к биографии Б. Н. Засыпкина

This article continues the author’s series of publications on the history of organization and participants of the studies in Eastern culture in the Crimea in the mid-1920s. A page of the expeditionary activities of the team of the Central State Restoration Workshops in the Crimea is revealed. This work was a part of large-scale archaeological and ethnographic expedition for the study of the Crimean Tatar monuments. It was commissioned and funded by the Crimean ASSR and carried out by researchers from the academic centres of the USSR. The article has analysed the participation of Boris Nikolaevich Zasypkin (1891–1955), a well-known restorer and the organizer of the archaeological monument protection in different regions of the USSR, in the study of the Crimean cultural heritage. It has introduced into the scholarship previously not known documents from the collections of the Central State Restoration Workshops now residing in the Moscow Central State Archives. These materials shed light on new aspects of the architect-restorer B. N. Zasypkin’s works in the Crimea in 1926 and 1927. The texts of Zasypkin’s reports on his works on the peninsula in 1926 are supplied. Informative but little-known letters of P. I. Chepurina, the head of Yevpatoria Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, and K. E. Grinevich, the director of the State Museum of Tauric Chersonese, to B. N. Zasypkin uncover tough personal communications of the researchers of the Crimea and Zasypkin’s role in the said process. Zasypkin’s activities for the preservation of the museum in Yevpatoria has been demonstrated. He arranged the intercession of the museum existence and preservation of its storage from the Head of the Museum section of the Glavnauka (Supreme Administration of Scientific, Scientific-Artistic, and Museum Establishments) at the People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR N. I. Sedova, the Head of the Glavnauka F. N. Petrov, and the Chair of the State Academy for the History of Material Culture N. Ia. Marr. The Central State Restoration Workshops’ expedition under the supervision of I. E. Grabar to the peninsula has been reconstructed. It included the head of the Commission for the Preservation and Discovery of Ancient Paintings in Russia and the art historian A. I. Anisimov, the restorer G. O. Chirikov, and the photographer A. V. Liadov. The 1927 expedition was aimed at the inspection of architectural monuments where paintings survived and the development of necessary measures to protect and maintain these architectural sites. Zasypkin’s work for the recording of Chersonese monuments has been shown.

Материалы Саяно-Алтайской археологической экспедиции 1935 г. в Национальном музее Республики Алтай им. А.В. Анохина

The Sayano-Altai archaeological expedition of 1935 of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture and the State Historical Museum under the general direction of S.V. Kiselev, working in two detachments, made a significant contribution to the study of archaeological sites of the Altai Mountains. The second detachment of the expedition was led by the director of the Oirot Museum of Local Lore (now the National Museum of the Altai Republic named after A. V. Anokhin), a professional archaeologist S. M. Sergeev, who conducted research near the villages of Tuekta and Bystryanskoye. The materials of the excavations near the village of Tuekta belong to the ancient Turkic culture; the materials of the excavations near the village of Bystryanskoe belong to the Bystryansk culture of the Northern Altai of the early Iron Age. All the materials and documents obtained during the excavations were transferred to the local museum and made up its “golden fund”. The vast majority of the finds from S.M. Sergeev’s excavations have not been published, which signifi cantly reduces the information potential of the collection. The article provides a brief overview of the materials, both documentary and subject series, obtained as a result of the work of the second detachment of the expedition, stored in the A. V. Anokhin National Museum of the Altai Republic.