The article considers a question of a relation between morphological and decorative features of transversal grooved tools (the “utyuzhki”) and a specific cultural background. Basing on specimens of Kozlov Mys-and-Poludenka culture, as well as on those of Boborykino culture, it is proved that the “utyuzhki” of each thereof obtain an individual set of features which are possible to be regarded as cultural markers.

The article thoroughly considers Koptyaki specimens of the Bronze Age, giving a description of an investigated dwelling and a pottery assemblage. Basing on a palynological analysis of the samples taken from the dwelling’s cultural sediment, subject to reconstruction being landscapes surrounding the ancient settlement. Radiocarbon analysis of the coal allows to specify a position of the considered specimens in a chart of division into periods to development of cultures in the Forest Transurals.

The article is devoted to the study of Eneolithic cultures from the forest steppe Low Tobol basin. Subject to introducing into research circulation being a new archaeological culture, i. e. Lybayevo culture, with its two successive stages: Buzan and Inter-lake. The paper specifies territorial and chronological limits of the Lybayevo relics, as well as details of historical and cultural processes occurring on the outskirts of the northern forest steppe.

The article is devoted to considering Eneolithic complex of Lipikha 5 multilayer settlement located on the territory under Ingalskaya Valley complex of ancient and mediaeval sites. Details of the settlement's pottery assemblage, as well as specifity of the stone industry and house building tradition allow to conclude that the site was left by bearers of Lybayevo culture, and was functioning during its early — Buzan — stage in the late 4th millennium B. C.

The article identifies leading types of tools and weapons from Sintashta industial centre, to be located in the South Urals and, in overwhelming majority, associated with Sintashta models. These include axes with block heads, adzes, rod-like chisels, knives with a narrow attachment, knives with a slightly protruded stalk, knives with a cross and hand-over-hand pieces, stalked arrowheads, and forged spearheads. Appearance of such articles' types among late Abashevo, Pokrov, Potapovo, Seimino-and-Turbino populations should be regarded as an outcome of intensive metallurgic contacts under active migration processes, as well as of moving of certain Sintashta groups westward and eastward. The highest degree of typological similarity is fixed with metal industry of apparently synchronic Abashevo (Balanbashevo) tribes from the South Urals. Closest similarities to the weapon complex being concentrated among late Abashevo, Petrovka, and Potapovo early-chiselled metal articles from Eurasian forest steppe and steppe zones.

The articles cites preliminary results regarding investigations of Ust-Utyak-1 fortress from Ketovo District, Kurgan Oblast. The represented specimens belong to the least studied period, i. e. a transition from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, reflecting a cultural interaction of that time (Barkhatovo, Gamayun, and Itkul cultures).

Basing on analysis of a pottery assemblage from Kamyenny Mys, and Ordynskoye 1 burial grounds, as well as from other sites thorough Novosibirsk Low Ob basin, the article considers questions on migration of the Kulajka population southward, and on interference between bearers of Kulajka and Bolshaja Rechka cultures.

The article presents excavation results with Kolovo 4 settlement which specimens testify to a seasonal use thereof by the Sargatka population. The author gives a statistical analysis of a pottery collection, as well as a description of an inventory and dwelling constructions.

The article considers a question on colonizing Krasnoyarsk circumpolar regions by Russian explorers opening up a northern marine route. The Russian fort was located on the cape of the Bolshaya Kheta river's right bank. The investigators managed to discover three dwelling grounds. From the open side, the settlement was protected by a ditch and a wooden wall. Inside the excavation and on the cape's slope, they obtained various articles (made of iron, copper, glass, and bone) describing many sides of activities undertaken by the Russian population. It was at least twice that the dwelling ground was settled down: the first settlement happened to perish under a fire, while the second one — to be gradually restored — was peacefully left. The existence of Bolshaya Kheta settlement covers a period from the XVIIth to the early XIXth century.

The paper restores a diet of a mediaeval population through the analysis of micro- and macroelements composing the soot upon dishes obtained from Barsutchye and Krasnogorka fortified settlements, correlating those with the data to experimental specimens. A comparison of the food composition from the two settlements located under different nature conditions revealed certain differences in the diets of the communities, which might depend on a different balance of their secondary economic activities. An attraction of ethnographic data allowed to enrich the menu of the medieaval population.

The author undertakes an archaeological and ethnographic modeling with basic blocks of a burial-andfuneral rite (the deceased — a house of the deceased — a settlement of the deceased — the world of the deceased) basing on discoveries from Ust-Balyk cemetery to a group of burials dating to the late VIIIth — XIth and the XIIth — XVIIth centuries.