This article discusses the results of an analytical study of non-ferrous metals from the Shapkul, Lipchinka, and Yamnaya Cultures, using atomic emission spectrometric, spectral X-ray fluorescence (XRF),and metallographic analyses. The overall assemblage is small; comprising 20 specimens in total, which include artefacts published by E.N. Chernykh (8 specimens). Statistical analysis of the obtained data has revealed marked heterogeneity in the elemental composition of the artefacts, both within the cultural groups and at individual sites. Overall, the Eneolithic sites of the Trans-Urals are synchronous to those of the early Garino Culture of the Kama region, and those from the late period are contemporaneous with sites of the early Yamnaya and Afanasievo Cultures. A small number of the Lipchinka Culture metalwork is made of native and oxidised copper, sourced from the Yamnaya cultural and historical community and Garino Culture hearths. Metal production among the Eneolithic tribes was primitive; the population mastered metal smelting methods and techniques at the level of home production, evidenced by small amount of slag and traces of slag on pottery fragments. Some of the studied artifacts were made of low-alloy Sn-bronze. Tin bronzes presumably came from the Afanasievo tribes of northeastern and eastern Kazakhstan (Rudny Altay) through the mediation of the Botai-Tersek tribes. The Yamnaya tribes of the Southern Trans-Urals and Middle Tobol regions made some limited use of pure copper of the Ural copper sandstones group. However, as the elemental composition data shows, they exploited Ural raw material sources (the EU group according to E.N. Chernykh) for tool production, associated with the Yelenovka-Ushkatty and other northern deposition groups found in the Southern and Middle Trans-Urals.

The paper observes the results of an experimental trace evidence study of metalworking tools from the sites of Ustye I (Sintashta, Petrovka Cultures) and Kulevchi III (Petrovka, Alakul Cultures). The study included running experiments on cold and hot forg of copper and bronze castings with stone tools, followed by the study of reference materials and archaeological data. Analysis of the working surfaces of the experimental tools revealed signs of wear and their dependence on the physical properties of the rock, the operation performed, and the kinematics. The analysis of ancient metalworking tools established a unified manufacturing technology, including chipping and abrasive machining. Functional groups of tools were identified, including a blacksmith's tools for cold forging and forging heated metal, and abrasive tools. A comparison of the analysed materials with data from other Bronze Age sites in the studied and adjacent territories revealed that the range of metalworking tools and the sequence of their manufacture were largely standardised. This reflects similar production processes; not only in metalworking, but in the selection of raw stone materials and stone-working techniques. However, differences have been observed in the quantitative ratio of objects, representing various stages of metal production, both among the sites under consideration and in comparison with other assemblages.

This paper characterises the main categories of the metal products of the Alakul Culture of the Southern Trans-Urals including the elemental composition of the metal and the identification of alloy recipes using several analytical methods (spectral and X ray fluorescence). The main metallurgical groups identified are dominated by alloyed bronzes with the leading impurity of Sn, accounting for two-thirds of the sample (61.6 %). Whereas the group of pure copper is insignificant and forms 38.4 %. In the Alakul Сulture, a certain standardisation is observed in the manufacture of nonferrous metal products with their functional purpose corresponding to the alloy recipe. Thus, weapons and tools (spearheads and arrowheads, shaft-butted axes, chisels, a number of punches), as well as jewellery (bracelets, rings), were cast from medium- and high-tin alloys (8–23 %). In contrast, the same objects found in the Petrovka Culture were typically cast from low alloys (up to 10 %). The share of arsenic and lead bronzes in the metal production of the Alakul Сulture is minor. Most of the ore sources identified through trace impurities in the copper were of hydrothermal origin, while the workings associated with ultrabasites were possibly used, but were of subordinate importance. The studies of ancient mines of the Southern Trans-Urals, being conducted in recent decades by researchers of the SUFC MG UB RAS, radiocarbon dating of artifacts from the workings, and findings of pottery made it possible to link the beginning of the development of the Novotemirsky mine, Vorovskaya Yama, and possibly Starodubtseva Yama, Kichigino, with the activities of miners and metallurgists of the Alakul Culture. The predominance of Sn-bronzes in the composition of metal complexes in the 18th/17th — 16th/15th centuries BC characterises the increase in trade and exchange relations between metallurgists of the Alakul Сulture of the Urals with mining and metallurgical centers of Kazakhstan and Altai for the supply of ingots or finished alloyed products.

This is the first publication of the materials recovered during the 1972 excavations at the Barsov Gorodok I/1 hillfort. The site is multi-component, and it includes complexes of the Kulyegan type of the Bronze Age, the Atlym type of the final Bronze Age, and the Beloyarsk Culture of the Early Iron Age. A few stone tools recovered from the excavations probably date to the Neolithic and Eneolithic period. The Kulyegan and Atlymsky complexes are represented by single dwellings damaged during the construction of the fort. The defensive structures of the hillfort overlay two small pottery complexes of the early and middle periods of the Beloyarsk Culture. The hillfort belongs to the late period of the culture, and is distinguished by its small size, with four overground sub rectangular dwellings inside and a utility building with a shallow ditch. The fortification includes a rampart and a trench; the exit from the hillfort is on the plain side. The artefact assemblage is represented by pottery, decorated with combed and figured (snake, diamonds, triangles, crosses) stamps, fragments of boat-shaped crucibles, and a fragment of a bronze single-blade knife. From the standpoint of modern knowledge and accumulated experience in the research into northern settlements on sandy podzols, the analysis of field materials and the collection of finds from 1972 allowed revising the original interpretation of the settlement as a hillfort with a bastion. The latter turned out to be the remains of a Culiegan-type dwelling.

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive study of bone arrowheads from the Bronze to Iron Age Transition Period discovered at the Mergen 6 settlement (8th — 7th centuries BC). The morphology of the objects was studied, and their technological and use-wear analysis was conducted. The results revealed that the sample does not exhibit typological diversity. All arrowheads are tanged, with the most variable dimensions, proportions, and cross-section of the blade, which can be explained by the type of blank used to produce the arrowheads. The main techniques of secondary bone processing have been identified, including chopping, cutting, planing, scraping, and, less commonly, abrasive processing. It has been established that the artisans primarily used metal chopping and cutting tools, but occasional use of stone tools has also been noted. A sequence in the design of the arrowhead's structural components has been identified, expressed in the prioritization of the blade or the parallel design of the blade and the pommel. These observations are consistent with materials from contemporaneous sites of the Bronze to Iron Age transition and Early Iron Age complexes, constituting a unified territorial and chronological tradition. Furthermore, the redesign of one arrowhead and its secondary use, possibly as an ornamental element, has been documented.

The paper examines a few artefacts of Early Iron Age date of the Beloyarsk and Kulayka Cultures from the Kharampur River basin, largely represented mainly by ceramic vessels. The results of the analysis and radiocarbon dating allowed for several preliminary conclusions to be drawn regarding the cultural and genetic processes that occurred in the region during this period. In the Early Iron Age, the population of the eastern part of the north of Western Siberia increased due to the influx of groups from the Surgut Ob region. The migrations were potentially facilitated by end of the 9th — beginning of the 8th century BC (or later) were the tribes of the Beloyarsk Culture; however, their settlements have so far been identified only in the Kharampur River basin. Based on the available data, it can be assumed that they lived in isolation in the new territory, having lost contact with the Surgut Ob region. Later, in the 4th century BC, the region, including basins of rivers Pur, Taz and Nadym, was populated by the Kulayka tribes, who were in constant contact with the inhabitants of the Surgut Ob region. However, the presence of indigenous cultures in the region — such as those represented by the settlements at the Voento site — cannot be ruled out. It is possible that the Kulayka tribes moved into the northern forest tundra from another region — the lower Ob River, which would explain the similarities between pottery from the Nadym River basin sites and the Ust Poluy assemblage.

The article discusses a new concept of the development of cultures at the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Trans-Ural and Tobol regions during the period the 10th to 4th (3rd) centuries BC, proposed by V.A. Borzu nov. The concept implies the division of the Itkul Culture into the Itkul and Iset Cultures and defining of the eastern local variant of the Itkul Culture as the Yurtobor Culture. The reasoning for the division of the first two cultures lies in the two types of pottery (I and II), combined in the 1970s by G.V. Bel'tikova within the framework of the Itkul Culture of the Trans-Urals. The eastern local variant of the 8th–6th centuries BC was identified in the Tobol region based on materials from weakly fortified settlements with a circular layout and Itkul pottery of type II. Its dynamics was expressed in the assimilation of incoming Uralic groups, development of a new pottery type (Vak-Kur), and the emergence of fortified settlements with unfortified sections. The article argues that identifying the Iset Culture is currently impossible, since the key characteristics, except for ceramics, including territory, typology of settlement and dwellings, tool assemblage, and main economic activities — remain undetermined. Separation of the Eastern Variant of the Itkul Culture as a distinct Yurtobor Culture, despite its well-defined range of characteristics, is also premature, as the main culture-defining feature — Itkul pottery of type II — connects it to Uralic materials. Renaming the “Eastern Variant of the Itkul Culture” into the “Eastern Variant of the Iset Culture” will become possible once the “Iset Culture” itself is identified based on certain characteristics. This paper also presents new statistical data on the number of sites of the Eastern Variant of the Itkul Culture identified in the Tobol region.

This publication continues a series of articles introducing into scientific circulation findings of the archaeological research into the cultural layer of the first Russian provincial town of Tobolsk in Siberia. In the area of the Chukman excavation, laid in the southeastern part of Cape Chukman, in addition to fortifications of different periods, a section of the upper trading quarter with housing and economic development was studied. A comprehensive analysis of archaeological, historical and cartographic sources made it possible to identify features of the planning structure of this territory during the 17th–18th centuries. This includes its gradual transformation into a recreational zone in the 19th century, (which still exists). The characteristics of the findings allow us to conclude that the inhabitants of the cape had a fairly high level of material well-being; i.e. some houses even had expensive tiled stoves.

The article concludes the series of publication of materials obtained during the study of the Kipchak kurgans in the Menovnoye VII multi-period necropolis, located on the territory of the Upper Irtysh region. The burial structures form two groups: the first consists of three mounds located closely to each other in the western part of the site; the second comprises two kurgans positioned in a distance from each other in the eastern part of the cemetery. The planigraphy of the site suggests a certain chronological isolation of the analysed structures within the framework of the development of the Kipchak cultural traditions during the end of the 10th–12th centuries. The analysis of the funeral rites and the remains of the accompanying grave goods found during the study of the burial mounds of the second group make it possible to date them to the pre-Mongolian time within the 12th century AD. The composition of the material complex of the analysed kurgans, despite their robbery, demonstrates the high social status of the deceased.

The article examines iron-working production in the 17th–18th centuries in four cities of Western Siberia, each of which held a different legal status. Tobolsk functioned as the main city and administrative centre of Siberia, Tomsk was a regional centre, whereas Tara and Kuznetsk were district towns. Metallographic analysis of 85 blacksmithing products allowed us to conclude, that the blacksmith craft in the cities of Western Siberia acquired technical and technological skills of iron and steel processing inherent in the master craftsmen in the European part of Russia. Urban ironworking was comprised of eleven technological schemes, which can be broken up of two main technological categories. The first group is formed by all-metal products, the second are byproducts of welded construction. Their proportions vary among the studied craft centres. Tobolsk occupies the leading position: within the city, 58 % of the finds belong to the first technological group, and 42 % to the second, more complex, group. These results correspond closely to indicators from several European cities. Tomsk shows a similar pattern, with 59 % of finds belonging to the first group and 41 % to the second category. In contrast, the technological patterns observed in Tara and Kuznetsk differ distinctly from those described above. In these towns, the share of products belonging to the second technological group is substantially smaller — 28 % and 29 % respectively — and that of forgings of the first group is much higher (72 % and 71 %). This assymmetry suggests that the craft environments of Tara and Kuznetsk were dominated by craftspeople with lower levels of technical qualification.

The article presents the results of preliminary study of eight male crania from the Early Muslim burials excavated at the necropolis near Tura Khan Mausoleum (Chishminsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan). The analysed crania are characterised by the predominance of a hypermorphic component of European ancestry. A possible slight admixture of Asian ancestry is indicated by the lowered nasal protrusion angle, large width and rather large height of the facial skeleton, as well as weakened horizontal profiling on some crania. Differences between fifteen samples are compared with Mahalanobis’ generalized distance by fourteen craniometric variables. The studied sample shows the greatest morphological similarity to that from the nearby Syntashtamak kurgan cemetery, the pooled sample of the Middle Volga region nomads, as well as two Chiyalik groups from the east of Tatarstan. The studied crania reveal less phenetic affinities with cranial samples from the Golden Horde Bolgar and its surrounding territory. To almost the same extent, this applies to the pre-modern samples of the southwestern Bashkirs and thus, the studied crania could represent a nomadic group or belong to semi-nomadic people of the Chiyalik culture. Facial reconstructions were performed for two of the crania.

For the first time, we report data from isotopic study concerning lifetime mobility of the Early Iron Age inhabitants of the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia. Using the mass-spectrometry method, we analysed the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in 22 samples of permanent teeth enamel from six burial sites of the Tagar and Tes’ archeological cultures (Tagarski Ostrov, Bainovsky and Podgornovsky stages; Beya 1, Podgornovsky stage; Samokhval, Kyzyl-Kul, Saragashensky stage; Arshanovo 30, early Tes’ Culture tomb; Podsukhanikha, Tes’ Culture ground graves). Analysis of the samples of nomadic or semi-nomadic population allows obtaining an average value reflecting human seasonal mobility around a vast area during the first ten years of individuals’ life. The ethnographic data suggests stable patterns of seasonal routes. All studied sites are located close to each other, with a maximum distance of 100 kilometers. Yet, the analysis demonstrates a variety of isotopic signals. The lowest 87Sr/86Sr values were found in samples from the Tagarsky Ostrov, Samokhval and Podsukhanikha burials (0.708311–0.708873), reflecting cattle and sheep grazing on loess soils widely present in the coastal zone of the Yenisei River. Different values were received for the samples from burial sites of Beya 1 (0.709002–0.709187) and Kyzyl-Kul (0.709117–0.709193), and the highest values were found in materials of the Arshanovo 30 mound (0,709284–0,70946). In the context of pilot study, it cannot be ruled out that people with elevated isotope signals could represent firstgeneration migrants.

The article presents the results of archaeoparasitology analysis of soil samples obtained during cleaning of sacrums of individuals of the Dzhetyasar archaeological culture (2nd–8th centuries AD) from burial grounds of the South-Eastern Aral Sea region. The purpose of the study was to reconstruct the diet, sanitary conditions of the settlements, and to identify possible directions of movements of the Dzhetyasar Culture population. During the study, eggs of intestinal parasites such as whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), oocysts of coccidia (Eimeria cameli) and broad tapeworm (Dibothriocephalus latus) were detected in soil samples. The data indicates the presence of freshwater fish in the diet of the population, moreover it also suggests poor hygiene, and potentially the use of faeces as fertilizer. The discovery of the broad tapeworm eggs possibly indicates migration links with northern regions such as Tuva, Mongolia and Western Siberia. The results align with the archaeological and anthropological data, supporting the multicomponent nature of the Dzhetyasar population and its connections with the nomadic groups of Semirechye, the Kyrgyz Alatau and Central Asia.

The article examines Muslim charitable societies of Tobolsk and Omsk cities, which operated in 1907–1914 and were called the Tobolsk Society of Muslim Progressists and the Society for the Care of Muslim Students in the 1st Omsk maktab. The purpose of the study is to analyse their activities as legal public organisations during the inter-revolutionary period (1907–1917) of the Russian Empire. We concluded that these organisations were a part of a network of Muslim charitable societies operating in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The administration board of the Tobolsk Society included representatives of three groups of the Muslim elite, whose families were historically associated with the region. Officials from nobility, clergy (imams), and bourgeoisie, and the leadership of Omsk Society was dominated by the bourgeoisie. Both the Tobolsk and Omsk societies focused mainly on helping the maktabs for boys. At the same time, three main directions can be seen in the activity of the Tobolsk Society of Muslim Progressists: school education, social activities, and public education. It is the latter function that will become the grounds for the closure of the organisation. Later, the influence of these societies would become evident in the activities of their leaders and activists during the 1917 Russian revolution, and as well as within the institutions of religious and national-cultural autonomy and the broader sociopolitical movement.

The article highlights characteristics of epidemic control in the Ishim District of the Tyumen Governorate in the early 1920s. Based on previously unknown archival documents, the main directions for the prevention of epidemics in the Ishim District have been identified. The main measures to fight epidemics have been outlined, such as; expanding of the number of hospitals and feldsher’s stations in the county, improving their resource provision, conducting audits of medical institutions and pharmacies, examining public organisations for their compliance with sanitary and epidemics control standards, implementing organizational measures to comply with sanitary requirements in public places, and introducing a “food security tax” for the population. Special attention was given to assessing how these measures were put into practice and to identifying the reasons for their limited or absent implementation. What was illustrated by the research is that in spite of the measures taken, epidemic diseases spread rapidly. Interesting facts are presented that shed light on the living conditions of the local population during epidemics and their response to unfolded epidemiological situations.

This article has been prepared based on the data from schedules of the First General Population Census of the Russian Empire in 1897. The publication presents materials on 185 Islamic spiritual leaders who served as imams and muezzins. Analysis of the provided data revealed that the majority of those clergymen were not native to the area (66.8 %), with Bukharans accounting for 25.9 %, and a significant minority being state peasants (7.3 %). The mean age of an imams was 45 years of age, whereas that of muezzins averaged at 49. An overwhelming majority of Islamic leaders were born in the Tobolsk Governorate. The findings demonstrate that some faith leaders practiced polygyny. All imams and nearly all muezzins were educated people, literate in Arabic and Tatar, however only a small percentage of imams were proficient in the Russian language. Religious activities constituted the primary occupation for half of imams and a third of muezzins. Among these, for a quarter of imams and muezzins, this activity was the sole source of income.

This is the third article in a series of publications devoted to the history of the study of religiosity from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th century. Analysing the publications of the 1930s on the theoretical understanding of religion and empirical research, the author compares approaches in the study of religiosity, highlighting trends, changes and factors that led to them. In the 1930s, religiosity was considered as individual and changeable characteristic, and this dichotomy fuelled methodological debates about the possibility and nature of empirical studies of religiosity. The dominance of quantitative methods can be considered as a common feature in the research into religiosity in different countries. Furthermore, there was mainly applied research conducted at the time, largely driven by attempts to identify the reasons behind the crisis of faith in the West after WWI and to demonstrate the disappearance of “religious prejudice” in the USSR, which had an impact on the vocabulary employed by Soviet authors, as well as the classifications of religiosity they developed.

The aim of the work is to analyse the role of wood and modern materials in the culture of the Surgut Khanty. The research addresses a number of issues including the symbolic characteristics of traditional natural materials (wood, birch bark) and modern materials (metal, plastic, glass, rubber, etc.), determination of their place within the signsymbolic model, relationship between the placement of waste from modern materials and the spatial-symbolic scheme of the settlement. The sources of the research include the author’s field materials collected in 2002–2017 among the Khanty of the Surgut region of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra, as well as published materials on the culture of the Eastern Khanty and their neighbors. In the culture of the Surgut Khanty, wood and birch bark hold a deep and symbolic meaning rooted in tradition, in addition to their practical uses. Modern materials, owing to their strong functional properties and availability, are becoming increasingly popular in the region. The replacement of traditional materials with modern ones (practical, but lacking symbolism) has lead to the neutralisation of the traditional meanings attached to wooden objects. This development is indicative of a broader desacralisation of the cultural space of the taiga inhabitants. At the same time, the cult and ritual sphere traditionally remains largely resistant to the mass use of modern materials, and continues to preserve the symbolic characteristics of wood and birch bark.

The paper examines the economic, ethnocultural and linguistic adaptation of the settlers from the Vitebsk Governorate, known as the armoured boyars in Western Siberia in the second half of the 19th century. It has been established that key factor in the long-term preservation of the settler community was the ability of the armoured boyars to establish an independent rural association. This structure not only allowed them to resolve land and other economic issues independently of the old-timers, but also helped to preserve the original social organisation. At the same time, active everyday contacts with the old-timers, including the adoption of farming techniques and certain elements of the culture of subsistence, supported the settlers’ successful economic adaptation. The transformations of the ethnocultural and linguistic identity of different groups of armoured boyars varied significantly. These differences arose from the diversity of ethnocultural characteristics of the places of origin of the migrants, as well as from the nature of their interactions with the Russian old-timers of Western Siberia and other settler groups.

Presented are the results of the study of new Late Neolithic pottery complexes from the settlements of the north-eastern shore of Lake Mergen (Mergen 3, 7, 8) in the Lower Ishim River region (forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia), which allow adjusting the existing cultural-chronological scheme. The analysis of the possibility of their correlation with the late Kozlov, Makhanjar, Belkaragay, Artyn and pit-comb complexes of adjacent territories (forest-steppe Trans-Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, Middle Irtysh, and Baraba regions) has been carried out. Based on the analysis of morphological and ornamental features of ceramic assemblages, their stratigraphic and planigraphic location in settlement layers, as well as dating (including AMS), a number of suggestions regarding their genesis and the sequence of their existence in the territory of the Lower Ishim River have been proposed. The conclusion has been made about the increase of the degree of patchiness in the cultural appearance of the population of the Ishim River valley from the second half of the 5^th millennium BC, reflecting the processes of epo-chal changes at the turn of the Neolithic and Eneolithic.

The study is focused on the manufacturing technologies of Neolithic flat-bottom pottery of the taiga zone of Western Siberia (Mulymyinsky and Kayukovsky types). Archaeological data on the extent of construction skills are incomplete and contradictory, while ethnographic data indicate the possibility of using various methods. We have tested experimentally the hypotheses about the composition of the skills related to construction of vessels of the Kayukovo and Mulyminsky types by making models with patch on a plane from the walls to the bottom and those with patch on the basis of a template from the bottom to the mouth; the characteristic features of these methods have been recorded. The comparison of experimental and archaeological specimens has shown that at the Early Neolithic settlement of Mulymya 3, vessels made by different methods were found in structures No 25 and No 22. To explain this, it is necessary to correlate the moulding method with the moulding compound formulation, morphology, and ornamentation features. Within the framework of the historical-cultural approach, the use of several substrate skills by a single community can be interpreted as the result of population being mixed. We believe that this phenomenon, recorded in Early Neolithic, could also be the consequence of the improvement of pottery manufacture technology. The question of the construction of early flat-bottom pottery requires further analysis of archaeological collections, as well as new experimental evidence.

The history of Ancient Rus is inextricably linked with the history of ancient Vladimir, the capital of North-Eastern Rus in the 12^th–14^th centuries. Historical, anthropological, and archaeological data suggest a complex composition of the population of Ancient Rus cities, however, the genetic structure of this population is currently practically unexplored. We performed whole-genome sequencing with high coverage for an individual from a burial with a stone pillow from the necropolis “Patriarch's Garden” in Vladimir, dated to the second half of the 13^th–14^th centuries. Based on this, the individual was identified as a male. Identified haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA (H1ba) and Y-chromosome (R-L21) of the buried man have not been previously described in burials from the territory of Ancient Rus. The paternal lineage of the individual is likely traced to the territory of Northwest Europe. In combination with data on autosomal markers, these results testify to the genetic connection of the man buried in Vladimir with the Western European populations.

The current paper is devoted to the reconstruction of the processes of formation of the population from the subtaiga and forest-steppe areas of the Irtysh River region in the Early and High Middle Ages based on the dental analysis of communities of the Potchevash (29 individuals) and Ust-Ishim (49 individuals) Cultures. The characteristics of the samples, according to the extended dental non-metric program and subsequent statistical comparison with the Early Iron Age groups and new author's data (275 individuals) — series from the Great Migration Period and Medieval period of Western Siberia, allowed to preliminary assume that the anthropological composition of the forest-steppe population of the Middle Irtysh region in the 6^th — beginning of the 9^th century was formed on the basis of the Sargat groups of the Tobol-Irtysh region, which inhabited these territories in the previous period. Apparently, the spread of the material culture of the Turkic-speaking communities into the Tobol-Irtysh forest-steppe did not affect the anthropological composition of the Potchevash population. The anthropological composition of the subtaiga and forest-steppe groups of the Middle Irtysh region differs. The later Ust-Ishim group of the 9^th–13^th centuries from the subtaiga part shows an increase in frequency of traits of eastern orientation.

The article presents the analysis of the ethnographic information found in the notes of A.C. Benkendorf on his journey from Tobolsk to Obdorsk in summer 1802; the data have been compared with published materials close in chronology and subject. We have revealed the circumstances of the acquiring of ethnographic information and its content, and assessed its reliability and degree of uniqueness. The attribution of a number of drawings related to the North Ob River areas, made by Benkendorf's companion — artist E.M. Korneev — presented a particular task of the study. As a result, the events of the trip, location and ethnicity of people depicted in the drawings have been clarified. The research has shown that the information gathered by Benkendorf certainly contributes to the existing corpus of published sources on the ethnography of the northern communities of Western Siberia. The notes are small in volume, fragmentary, and have inaccuracies, but they contain vivid observations and author's spontaneity; importantly, it was possible to correlate them with specific territories of the Ob region and local ethnic groups. It was found that the ethnographic information collected by the participants of the 1802 trip relates not only to the Ob Khanty and Obdorsk Nenets populations, but also, possibly, to the Berezov Mansi. A significant advantage of the notes is that they were corroborated and supplemented by E.M. Korneev’s drawings.

This article presents the results of comparative analysis of the family compositions of several local groups of Mansi and Selkups. On the one hand, lists of surnames of northern (Lyapinsk-Sosvinsky), southern (Tavdinsky), western (Pelymsk-Lozvinsky), and eastern (Kondinsky) Mansi have been identified; on the other hand, surnames of Selkups of the central (Tymsk-Vasyugansk-Parabelsk-Narymsky Chumylkups) and southern dialectic areas have been included in the analytical review (Ket and Ob (Sondor) syussykums, Ob shoeshkups, Chaya syussykojgula). Primarily, it has been revealed that, in general, the Mansiysk pool of surnames is noticeably more extensive in quantitaty than the Selkup one. Furthermore, both the Mansi and the Selkups have their own specific set of surnames in each local group or dialect area; familial intersections between the groups within the same ethnic group are insignificant. Yet, the comparative study has revealed that there are some intersections in the family composition of these ethnic groups: the Lyapin-Sosva group of Mansi and the “farthest” southern Selkups. In addition, several surnames of the Kondinsky Mansi and of the Selkups who lived along the Ob River between the Keta, Chaya, and Chulym estuaries appear to be phonetically very close.

The article presents a brief overview of the research into strontium isotopic composition of bioarchaeological materials and variations of bioavailable strontium, as well as several large generalizing database resources (Isotòpia, IsoArcH, CIMA), which provide published open access individual data accompanied by context characteristics and geographical coordinates. The datasets allow not only discussion of migration activity, but also observation of the dynamics of trade routes of materials of biological origin. The insufficient and uneven study of strontium isotopic composition in the environment and archaeological sites of the regions of the European part of Russia, nevertheless, allows assessing the existence of major geographical trends. We have described the directional dynamics of the increase in the proportion of radiogenic strontium isotope in its bioavailable forms and bioarchaeological materials from the south to the northwest, which is probably related to the spread of Late Pleistocene moraine and glacial sediments in general. The experience of such a dataset is useful in the study of populations of mixed origin (battlefields, communities of Medieval towns, etc.). The study of individual variability in the isotopic composition of tooth enamel marks human mobility during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The analysis of these dynamics is important for the characterization of migration activity and is based on the assessment of intra-group variability in strontium isotopic composition. As such, those research formats that can be successfully implemented in the context of limited and unevenly studied background dynamics of bioavailable strontium are characterized.

A craniophenetic analysis of the genetic relationships among the Finno-Ugric and Turkic populations of the Volga region has been carried out within the broader context of populations from Northwestern Europe, Southern and Western Siberia. The examined craniological series include those pertaining to the Mordva-Erzya, Mari, Udmurts, Komi, and the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Volga region — the Chuvash and Bashkirs. The comparative materials comprised data from Finns, Karelians, Estonians, Khanty, Mansi, Tuvans, Telengits, Khakas, and Russians from central and northwestern Russia. Phenetic distances between the populations were calculated using Smith's Mean Measure of Divergence. The results of multidimensional scaling of the phenetic distances reveal that the Finno-Ugric populations of the Volga region, together with the neighboring Turkic-speaking peoples, formed a distinct grouping that also included the northwestern Finno-Ugric populations. Thus, the analysis has demonstrated the genetic affinity and connections among Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga-Ural region, their Turkic-speaking neighbors, and northwestern Finno-Ugric populations. These findings are corroborated by genetic data indicating the presence of a common genetic substrate among most Finno-Ugric populations. The phenetic and genetic diversity observed among Finno-Ugric ethnic groups appears to be attributable to the complex history of their gene pool formation, involving both shared origins, and migration processes and genetic contacts with neighboring ethnic groups.

Age estimation of skeletal remains is often biased due to differences between the age structure of the target sample and that of the reference population on which a particular method is based. This study analyzes a documented series of 130 skulls using the Meindl-Lovejoy method to compare of several age estimation algorithms trained on reference samples with varying demographic profiles. The results demonstrate that the estimated mean age of the test series systematically depends on the mean age of individuals in the reference group. A new algorithm is proposed that incorporates multiple regression models, each trained on a reference group with a specific age distribution. The algorithm selects the most appropriate model for each case based on a preliminary age estimate of the skeleton; however, this estimate is not used as an explicit predictor in the final model. The proposed method shows relatively high accuracy compared to both the phase-based Meindl-Lovejoy approach and several modern techniques. Estimates generated by the algorithm from primary data collected by different researchers also show a good level of interobserver agreement.

The chronological framework of this research covers the period from the mid-20th to the early 21st century. The geography of the study includes the areas of traditional residence of Karelians within the modern administrative borders of Russia: the Republic of Karelia, the Leningrad Oblast (Tikhvin District) and the Tver Oblast (Vesyegonsk, Likhoslavl and other districts). The purpose of the presented research is a comprehensive study of linguoculturological data on the image of the wind in the mythological views of Karelians based on the material of folk medicine. The study was conducted using the comparative method, which involves comparing and contrasting linguistic data and information on the traditions, rituals, and beliefs of various groups of Karelians, peoples closely related to Karelians — Veps and Finns, as well as unrelated peoples — Russians. At present, the studies involving the linguistic and ethnographic aspects of minority peoples are topical. The scientific novelty of this research is due to the poorly studied mythological ideas of Karelians about the element in question, as well as the lack of research on the motives for naming diseases, the source of which is wind. The main result was the determination of the significance of wind in folk medicine: negative (source of diseases) and positive (treatment of diseases according to the principle of “like is cured by like”, sending the disease to go to the wind) connotations were identified. To cure an ailment from the wind, the power of a healer was often used. The treatment, as a rule, took place through spells that were pronounced simultaneously with various manipulations aimed at recovery.

Based on the analysis of archival materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Moscow) and the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia (Ulan-Ude), this article examines the status of the Buddhist community of the Buryat ASSR in the context of the religious policy of the Soviet Union. A particular attention is given to the study of the financial, economic and ritual activities of the Ivolginsky Datsan. It has been determined that the main rites during this period were funeral services, for which the Ivolginsky Datsan receives significant financial resources. The analysis of the dynamics of the staff numbers of the datsan has shown that there was a personnel shortage associated with the advanced age of the lamas, which they tried to solve by various methods. Despite the atheistic policy pursued in the USSR, and all the associated challenges, the religious association of Buddhists continued to develop, which was due to a combination of many factors. One of the important aspects that had a positive effect on the development of Buddhism in Buryatia during this period was the foreign policy of the USSR, during which the Buddhist leaders of the Soviet Union acted as a certain instrument for the implementation of diplomacy with the countries of Southeast Asia.

The results of the study of the position and role of German bakers within the structure of urban economy of Saint-Petersburg in the 19th — early 20th century have been summarized. The theoretical basis of the research is the theory of frontier modernization, which allows tracing changes in the economic life of both the capital of the Russian Empire and some of its inhabitants (German bakers). The devastating wars in Central and Eastern Europe provoked labor migration, as a result of which many Germans moved to Russia in the 18th century. One of the economic “niches” that they successfully occupied in the capital was the production of bread. In this domain, migrants-Germans formed the majority at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Later, the natives of Saint-Petersburg prevailed among German bakers. In the 1820s and 1840s, they managed to monopolize the city's grain market, holding the leadership until the 1880s. During the post-reform period, under the conditions of the interethnic division of labor, they were pushed by numerous Jewish burghers who got engaged into breadmaking. In order to maintain their positions, German craftsmen started modernization of their workshops. As a
result of technical transformations, electric motors and various mechanical devices became widespread, which contributed to the transformation of the technological cycle. However, these changes did not lead to a massive intensification in production.

The purchase and consumption of familiar foods and goods from their homeland is a significant part of the daily life of international students in a foreign country. The Chinese student community in Tomsk represents a clear example of self-organization in this matter, especially in the context of lifting of coronavirus restrictions and the increase in the number of foreign students in Russian regions. The purpose of this study was to identify the social interactions and the formation of economic niches within the Chinese student environment in the informal microeconomic processes of purchasing, exchange and advertising of goods that are important for students as a reminder of their home and familiar life. The main source of ethnographic information was the results of participant observation conducted by the author in 2022–2024 in Tomsk and Irkutsk. The study revealed that students do not just contemplatively fit into the host environment, but create alternative and interactive social spaces in it. Everyday practices, as examples of reflective epistemology and demonstrations of practical knowledge, demonstrate the (trans)locality, agency, and initiative of Chinese students.

The article considers the features of the perception of migrants by the Russian population of the Republic of Tatarstan, reflecting the degree of the intergroup social distance. One of the factors that shape it is the generalized image of a migrant prevailing among local Russians, which can be reduced to three conventional types: “foreign”, “different”, and “tolerable”. Each of them, in addition to socio-cultural connotations, is equivalent to the characteristics of the intergroup distance — close, medium, distant. The purpose of the study is the analysis of the social distance between the Russian population of Tatarstan and migrants, represented in generalized figurative nominations: “foreign”, “different” and “tolerable”, as well as the factors contributing to it. The research is based on the materials of the comprehensive study “Russian population of the Republic of Tatarstan”, which was carried out in 2022, as well as on the results of other studies on ethnic issues conducted in 2023–2024. It is worth noting that the problem of migrants has become remarkably topical over the past two years in the local multicultural community, which affects both the perception of migrants and attitudes towards the interaction with them. The image of a migrant as a “different” remains predominant among the Russian population of the republic, with a tendency to transform into the image of a “foreigner”, which indicates an increase in intergroup social distance.

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of materials of the Late Neolithic site in the Northern Caspian region. The typological method established the heterogeneity of the pottery complex. Technical and technological analysis of the initial plastic raw materials and the formula of molding clay demonstrated major differences, which allow distinguishing three groups. The comparison of the stone inventory of the site by different types of raw materials revealed two variants of the flint and quartzite complex. The first one is similar by tool types to the Kairshak materials (trapezoids, scrapers pointed and with a “muzzle”), and the second one — to the Tentexor ones (massiveness of blanks, the nature of retouching). This confirms the continuity of the stone industry from the Middle to Late Neolithic. Traceological analysis has shown that trapezoids with flattening retouching were used as arrowheads. The quartzite assemblages are closer to the Caspian Culture. From the radiocarbon dating results, the age of the Zhe-Kalgan I site is the youngest of the Tentexor-type monuments. As a result, it has been concluded that the site was inhabited several times during the Late Neolithic.

The article presents the results of analytical study of copper and bronze items of the 19^th–18^th c. BC Petrovka Culture based on scanning electron microscopy. The sample includes tools, ingots, weapons, and ornaments originating from the materials of settlements and burial grounds in the Southern Trans-Urals and Middle Tobol region (54 items). During the work, the surface of the products was visualized with a study of topology of distribution of the elemental composition and structure of the metal in secondary (SE) and back-scattered (BSE) electrons to identify the phase composition of the samples. The obtained results suggest that this period saw the beginning of the widespread development of covellite-chalcocite and fahlores with bornite, galena, and possibly rocks from the oxidation zones of pyrite deposits, along with the use of minerals from the upper part of the oxidation zone — malachite, azurite, and tenorite. Such innovative advances in mining technology resulted in significant improvements in casting and metal processing techniques. Copper ores enriched with arsenic minerals — arsenates and arsenides — were used in the charge when smelting metal, together with tin-containing ores. The sources of tin bronzes were deposits in Northern and Central Kazakhstan, where the ores are represented by both pure cassiterite and polymetallic associations with sulfides. The exchange of ingots and finished products made of Cu+Sn and Cu+Sn+As alloys developed rather intensively in the latitudinal, mainly western, direction.

Materials of archaeological excavations of the Bronze Age sites contain many items, the functions of which are quite difficult to determine. The subject of this study is a group of artifacts that, in our opinion, are related to the production of ornaments: ceramic saucers with signs, molds, cross-shaped pendants. A number of molds and ceramic saucers contain prints similar in form to cross-shaped pendants — the only type of molded ornaments in the Bronze Age of the Southern Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan. At the same time, the dimensions of negatives on the molds and saucers do not match in size with known finds of cross-shaped pendants, which does not allow considering them as working specimens used for casting these ornaments. Regarding ceramic saucers, various versions about their functions, from ritual to production (molds), have been proposed. The X-ray fluorescence analysis of the inside of the prints on ceramic saucers recorded past contact with metal — tin and lead, and to a lesser extent with copper. Various types of scientific analyses have found that tin and lead are concentrated in large quantities in bronze alloys, used for making cross-shaped pendants. Based on this, a hypothesis has been proposed regarding their possible application combining the ritual and utilitarian aspects, i.e. their potential use in rituals related to the production of ornaments.

The article is concerned with the problem of determination of local variants of the Early Iron Age Sargatka Culture in Western Siberian forest-steppe. The paper discusses the local differences between the Sargatka Culture sites based on the ceramic complexes. Pottery from the Rafailovo settlement was statistically analyzed taking into account the distribution of the items on building horizons and dated structures. This data was compared with collections of other settlements of the Tobol River basin, including the Pavlinovo hillfort. It has been determined that, in the set of forms, techniques and ornaments, the Sargatka Culture pottery of the Tobol region is consistent with the overall Sargatka standard. Chronological changes were traced only in the technique and motives of decoration. Some local features of the pottery have also been established. In the shapes, it is a small proportion of low and flat-bottomed vessels, and the absence of clay dishes. The carved ornamentation was the primary technique in the Tobol region. The continuous elements of Sargatka ornamentation prevailed: rows of inclined lines, horizontal and vertical herringbone pattern, vertical zigzags, pinches and a variety of festoons. The ware of the eastern area features carved ornamentation; in particular, the ornamentation of the early complexes is characterized by vessels with “pearls”, alien to other areas, probably dating back to the late Irmene tradition, and the later sites demonstrate an increasing proportion of vessels with dimpled and pricked patterns, possibly originating from the Bogochanovo Culture. However, pricked patterns are rare in the ornamentation of pottery of the Tobol region groups, while vertical herringbone, vertical zigzags and borders are common, which can be explained by the independent tendency of decoration in the west of the area at a later time. Significant appears the volume of adoptions by potters of the Tobol region from the western and northern neighbors. For the Tobol population, the houses appear to be more adapted for the settled lifestyle, and the funerary and defensive architecture is more complex, which may indicate a different ethnic environment and different lifeways. Further comparison of the well-studied sites of the Sargatka Culture should be carried out considering the micro-chronology of burial grounds and settlements, which will allow clarifying the nature and dynamics of interaction between the multicultural population of the Early Iron Age, both within single settlement and with various areas of the Sargatka Culture area.

The article presents the Karym type complexes of the late 4^th — 5^th c. AD of the Lower Ob cultural and historical community (CHC), discovered in the Omsk Irtysh region near the Alekseevka village (Muromtsevo district of Omsk region). The Alekseevka-51a kurgan cemetery is located within the territory of the Alekseevka archaeological microregion, in the south-eastern outskirts of the Tara-Tuy Plain, on the right bank of the Tara River. The burial ground belongs within the late medieval settlement of Alekseevka-51 discovered in 2004 by M.A. Korusenko. In 2009 and 2010, under the leadership of M.Yu. Zdor and Yu.V. Gerasimov, mounds 12, 13, and 14 with collective and single burials containing figure-stamped pottery of the Karym type, fragments of belt sets and decorations from the Migration period were studied. This article provides their full publication, together with data from palaeoanthropological analysis. As a result, when describing burials and the interred ones, artifact assemblages and pottery, the authors discovered syncretic forest-steppe and taiga features in the burial ritual, as well as distant Eastern European and Trans-Ural similarities to the grave goods. The acquired data will further allow a more detailed determination of the distribution area of the Karym type sites of the Lower Ob CHC, clarification of the chronology, causes and consequences of the migration of taiga groups to the forest-steppe of Western Siberia.

The purpose of this study is a comprehensive analysis of a new find of a plaque depicting “bears in a sacrificial pose” from the Chumysh-Perekat necropolis. Such artifacts were widespread in the early Middle Ages in the taiga, forest and forest-steppe zone of Eurasia in vast territories from the Urals to the Achinsk-Mariinsk forest-steppe. The Chumysh-Perekat necropolis is located in the Upper Ob region, in the north-east of Altai Krai, on the right bank of the River Chumysh. Seventeen early medieval burials of the Odintsovo Culture have been studied there. The plaque was found in women's grave No. 30. The grave goods included some decorations and fragments of belt sets, which have similarities in complexes of the Kudyrge stage. At the same time, the plaque depicting “bears in a sacrificial pose” only finds analogies in the north, in necropolises of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk Ob regions. To date, more than 100 rectangular plaques with images of “bears in a sacrificial pose” are known. The presented find is one of the southernmost in Western Siberia. This artifact belongs to the vertical class, group 3 (depicting three bear heads), type 2 (the plate is divided into three vertical stripes, the bear heads are positioned on the central, widest part), subtype 3 (with a detailed imaging of bears’ face and paws), according to the typology of Yu.P. Chemyakin. Metal analyses show that the compositions of alloys used for the production of the plaques and belt sets found on site differ significantly. A copper-silver-tin-zinc alloy and lead brass were used for manufacturing belt plates. The plaque with “bears in a sacrificial pose” is made of copper-lead-tin alloy. The complex has been dated to the middle of the 7^th — turn of the 8^th c. AD. The micro-collective, whose representatives were buried in the Chumysh-Perekat, apparently was of a high social status. This is indicated by several facts: the presence of a number of male burials with a horse, the presence of “rich” and extraordinary female graves which include decorations, both of local origin and characteristic of the “Turkic” and “Ugric” world, finds of belt sets not only in male, but also in female and children’s burials, etc.

Here, we present the results of the study of osteological materials from the settlement of the Chiyalik Culture of the Golden Horde period. The site is located in the forest-steppe zone of the Cis-Ural region, in the Dema River basin, and it is dated to the end of the first — second half of the 14^th c. (1330/50–90). The analysis of the taxonomic affiliation of bone remains showed that cattle breeding predominated in the economy of the ancient population of the Yabalakaly-1 village. The species included three taxa — large and small cattle, and horse, with the prevalence of the former. A camel was found, which may indicate the existence of caravan trade. The analysis of the composition of skeletal sections suggests that animal carcasses were most likely butchered directly at the village. Wild mammal species are only represented by single bones. Game and fish constituted a small part of the population's diet. In general, the characteristics of the economy of the Yabalakly-1 community correspond to those of other sites of the Chiyalik Culture. The absence of pig bones is consistent with archaeological data on Muslim burials common in the Chiyalik Culture. The discovery of domestic chicken bones casts doubts on the perception of this population as semi-nomadic, however, more accurate conclusions will be drawn after the analysis of the slaughter season for the animals.

Until now, the topic concerning the variety of ways of fastening individual logs into a palisade wall has remained out of sight of researchers. In fact, only one fastening method has been presented in historiography — “on pins”. However, not all authors associate the historical term “on pins” and the respective method of fastening — “dovetail attachment”. The purpose of the study, the results of which are presented in this article, was to identify and reconstruct all ways of individual log fastening into a palisade wall. The source base is represented by materials of archaeological excavations of wooden fortifications in Siberia, data from written sources that contain a description of fortifications in the Russian state, ethnographic data from Transbaikalia and Kostroma region, and graphical sources. The main research method was analytical comparison of the content of various fragmentary data characterizing different aspects of the same construction techniques. This allowed us to develop a holistic perception of each method of fastening logs in a palisade. During the study, it has been found that the term “on pins” does indicate a “dovetail attachment”. The manufacturing method of pin has been reconstructed, and its length has been determined analytically. The technology of erecting of a palisade wall “on pins” has been reco-vered. A criterion for attributing the palisade to the one on one or the one on two pins has been formulated. For the first time, such method of attachment of logs as “spike-groove” has been revealed: in the lower and/or upper parts of the pickets spikes were made, on which a block with grooves was hooked. Archaeological characteristics of a palisade with such fastening method of logs have been identified. Joining of adjacent logs into a longitudinal groove, and also with ropes, has been attributed to one of the methods of picket fastening. Fastening of logs in a thinned palisade (with a certain distance maintained between neighboring pickets) was achieved in a specific way. Two symmetrical grooves were selected in the upper quarter of the log. Then, a hole was made in the resulting partition, through which a beam was passed. Along with the “dovetail attachment” and with the help of the beam, an essential way of log fastening was their deepening into the ground. As a result of this research, it has also been found that the “pereklady” (crosspiece) structural element is not related to the methods of fastening logs in the palisade wall.

The purpose of the study is to determine the origin and purpose of a series of wooden horse figurines (“koniki”) found during the excavations of Russian towns in the north of Siberia in the layers of the 17^th — 18^th century. The Siberian collection includes 66 items from excavations of Mangazeya, Berezovsky settlement, Staroturukhansky settlement, and Poluisky town. Materials from Siberian cities show the continuity of the tradition of manufacturing stylized horse figurines of Novgorod forms, which continued until the end of the 18^th century. Morphological analysis of the Siberian collection showed the similarity and continuity of forms of the Siberian figurines with those from Novgorod. These are stylized flat figures, many with ears depicted, some with slightly open mouths. At the same time, the Siberian figurines acquired differences and new details. For example, some of them have carved saddles or wings, eyes and protruding tongues, and high arched necks. Unique are the two-headed figurine and three horses with steep ledges in the area of withers. All figurines have most realistically carved heads. In Slavic mythology, it was in the head where the soul of a creature and its vital force were located. When laying the foundation of a house, the head of a sacrificial animal replaced its body, and the soul embodied within would have become the owner-patron of the house. Two-thirds of the assemblage of Siberian horse figurines were found in ruins of residential and service buildings. They were continuously present near the inhabitants and were always available for “communication” with them. These “koniki”, same as the sacrificial ones, demonstrate the mythological perceptions of the Russian Siberians about house spirits in the form of a horse. The magical protection of the house and the estate as a whole was provided not only by mobile horses, but also by stationary images of horses in the exterior and interior of the buildings. “Mobile” horse figurines represented a horse hypostasis of house spirits — the guardians of the house. They were paced as construction sacrifices when laying the foundation of a house (“sacrificial”), and also were placed within the living space (“domestic”).

The study is focused on recent population history of the Sakhalin Ainu people, which remains rebated over the last 70 years. Albeit it is generally accepted that the Sakhalin Ainu are decedents of Ainu migrants from Hokkaido, significant cranial differences has been revealed between these two related populations. Thus, while M. Levin argued in favor of the Nivkh component in the Sakhalin Ainu population, A. Kozintsev, based on the analysis of cranial non-metric characteristics, assumed the admixture of the Ainu with the Ulchi people, and we in our earlier studies assumed that the Sakhalin Ainu included the descendants of the Okhotsk culture people. The influence of interregional contacts between the Sakhalin Ainu and Kuril-Kamchatka populations has not been previously considered. We analyzed individual cranial metric data on the Sakhalin Ainu, the Hokkaido Ainu, and several ancient and historical samples from the Far East region using canonical variate analysis with subsequent clustering of the CVs scores with K-means algorithm. The results revealed high level of morphological diversity of the Sakhalin Ainu sample. The analysis supports that the Sakhalin Ainu are decedents of the Hokkaido Ainu migrants, which admixed with a number of populations of different origin. In addition to the previously assumed Nivkh, Ulch and ancient Okhotsk components in the Sakhalin Ainu, we assume a rather strong influence of the Itelmens, who, according to the results of our study, may be descendants of the population of the Old Bering Sea culture people.

This study analyses dental wear of children and adolescents from the Late Bronze Age kurgans of the Middle Volga and Southern Ural regions (N = 97). The rate of wear in this sample was compared with a Post-Medieval rural sample from Netherlands. A modified Smith’s scale was used, adapted for two sets of teeth. Wear scores were strongly correlated with age, both when analyzing groups of teeth separately and when scores were averaged for each individual. The studied Volga-Ural sample had a significantly higher rate of dental wear compared to the rural sample from the Netherlands, due to higher average scores between 7–14 years of age and lower scores below 7 years of age. The observed intersection of regression lines may be either due to biological or methodological causes. In general, there is some trend towards lower level of wear of deciduous teeth in the Volga-Ural sample compared to a few samples from the literature, which is consistent with the hypothesis of lower attrition rates in pastoralists. It is essential to expand comparative data using the same scoring technique, as well as to address a number of methodological issues related to the simultaneous analysis of two sets of teeth.

In the present work, the study of variation in height in different periods (from the Upper Paleolithic to medieval period) in the territory of Europe was carried out. The aim was to identify patterns of height variability in Europe over time, both in general and in individual regions, especially in the early periods. The materials for this work consisted of data on heights or lengths of long bones, which were taken from various literary sources. The data were selected on bone remains from Europe dated to 38000 BC — 1200 AD. The main focus of the analysis was the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic materials. In cases when measurements of long bones were available, a calculation method developed on materials from Europe was used. When the measurements were absent, the figures for calculated body height were used, and most often the same methodology for reconstruction was used in these publications. It has been shown that in the territory of Europe the body length was smaller in the Neolithic as compared to the Upper Paleolithic (p < 0.05), no significant differences have been recorded in the mean values of height between the Neolithic materials and later populations in general for Europe. For the Neolithic, a statistically significant decrease in body length was detected in Central and South-Eastern Europe. As such, during the Upper Paleolithic, a continuous trans-epochal tendency of height reduction has been observed in Europe, which lost its global character in the Neolithic.

For the study of building technologies, the most valuable material is the oral information of old-timers-carpenters. In the Angara region, quite a lot of such sources have been assembled by ethnographic expeditions since the 1920s. Therefore, for this region it is possible to examine the complete technological range of traditional construction in the late 19^th — first half of the 20^th century. The opinion of the old-timers themselves has been brought about the reason for the change in building technologies, the time of the appearance of new tools and technologies, production standards, as well as about the ways to determine the relative age of buildings based on their design and materials. The oral information on construction techniques systematized in the article suggests that the level of carpentry skill depended more on the abundance of the source base of building materials, and to a lesser extent on the availability of advanced tools. The study also allowed determining a uniform set of construction techniques, the geographical boundaries of which may be wider than the territory under consideration.

In this paper, the information on folk medicine of Russian settlers of the Southern Urals (Ufa Province, now Bashkortostan and Chelyabinsk regions) is presented. The purpose of the study is to identify the common ideas about border loci, and sacred objects and items in folk medicine of Russians and other communities. The research method used is a comparative historical analysis of information collected from Russians and other ethnic groups, which makes it possible to draw time analogies and establish intercultural connections. Based on archival and field materials, and published sources, places of deliverance from illnesses (steam house, hen house, yard) and objects of “transfer” of the disease (chickens, dogs, “stove smoke”, various items) have been identified. Methods associated with “deception” of the disease using a sacral opening (window, horse collar), border loci (stove, door, gate, pillar), the use of alikes (red fabric for “red” diseases ― rubella, erysipelas and measles) have been analysed. Ethnocultural parallels in healing magic using old bast shoes have been identified. Conclusions have been drawn about the preservation of some healing practices, especially in Russian villages remote from the centers of urbanization.

In this article, censing in the folk culture of Russian old believers-bespopovtsy living in the Ust-Tsilemsky District of the Komi Republic has been analyzed. In the post-schism period, the church rite of censing was inherited by lay old believers, adapted to their religious culture, and at present time it is actively practiced by them. The article provides a dialect vocabulary reflecting the process of censing and identifies the circle of lay people who have the right to perform this ritual. In the process of research, it has been established that in the religious life of the Ust-Tsilma old believers, censing frankincense is the most important ritual action, reuniting a person with God, having a purifying and apotropaic meaning, and establishing a connection between the living and the dead. It is also an important element in the routine ritual life of the Ust-Tsilma old believers, having its own local characteristics: it is performed not only during the church services, but also in everyday life. Censing is performed in private homes on holy days, on purchased equipment, and livestock. This ritual is given a particular importance in funeral and memorial rites. Each action is accompanied by censing and is aimed at purifying the deceased in the process of preparing them for their final journey: the moment of death of a person, ablution, transfer of the body into the coffin, clearing the road to the cemetery. Censing constitutes an obligatory part of funeral rites.

For the first time in recent decades, a large-scale study of the Hisobi Mard or time counting by human body, which is a unique solar calendar known only in this region and lacking analogues in other cultures, has been conducted in the vast territory of Pamir and Darvaz. As a result of the research, extensive body of materials has been collected allowing comparison of the knowledge of modern informants with the data collected by Soviet ethnographers 70–90 years ago. It has been found that the knowledge about time counting by human body has not changed in recent decades. Thus, despite the natural changes in society caused by political, social and economic processes, modern informants know the account of Hisobi Mard no less than those who lived in the 1930s–1950s. This was a somewhat unexpected result, since with the availability of an accurate modern calendar and the informatization of society, the traditional folk calendar has long become irrelevant in everyday life, but nevertheless, it is being passed on from generation to generation. Based on modern data, it can be argued that the Hisobi Mard calendar had territorial variability, when the options for implementing the account could differ in neighboring regions yet remaining uniform within same region. A hypothesis about the evolution of the Hisobi Mard calendar has been proposed, according to which it underwent simplification in the process of cultural exchange and migration of the population.

Based on a wide range of published sources and archival materials, including documents of official record management, newspaper reports and chronicles, a historical and anthropological analysis of the generational factor during the period of the phenomenal peasant protest of the “revolutionary turning point” has been presented. Generational methodology made it possible to conduct historical and anthropological research conside-ring the generational structure of Russian and Soviet society in the first third of the 20^th century. The new foreshortening of this research is aimed at identifying conflicts in the legal consciousness of the peasantry in conditions of revolutionary turbulence. Determining the role of children, adolescents and rural youth in various forms of peasant protest made it possible to combine thematic issues of peasant studies, gender studies and historical anthropology. The relationship between the emotional state of the peasantry, generational ties in the village, and the role of the community in organizing the participation of children, adolescents and youth in various forms of protest has been revealed in the context of the tradition of peasant protest in Russia. The article emphasizes that, despite the innovations of revolutionary times, the importance of the community in the “protest” solution of problematic relationships “village — government” remained decisive, and the peasant protest preserved the traditional goals of rural residents — the desire for truth and justice. Specific examples demonstrate the relevance of the proposed historical and anthropological typology of the peasant protests: non-violent protest, local rebellion, and peasant revolution.

Through the context of life stories of several middle-aged and older informants from Magnitogorsk, we explore the transformation of the middle class from industrial to post-industrial from the point of employment, values and social mobility strategies. At the time of our study, several of our informants either had relocated, were relocating, or were contemplating to move from Magnitogorsk to Ufa; their narrations on the re-settlement became the starting point in our research aims to find out how people in the Urals form an idea of a decent life, of what constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable working and living environment, how they make a decision to move, weighing the pros and cons, and how they prepare the grounds for moving and settling in a new place. The results of the study show the presence of a strong regional identity among our informants, which is manifested in their desire to avoid radical disconnection and loss, both in terms of established social ties and in terms of personal historical ties with the place they consider their small homeland. At their relocation, we observe how they search for their identity and reinvent themselves building a new life, using skills and habits that they already carried to some extent before moving.