Archeology of Altai. Studying the archeology of Altai
The scientific archaeological study of Altai dates back to the 60s of the last century, when, through the efforts of V.V. Radlov, fairly large excavations of mounds were first carried out. There were attempts to excavate individual ancient burials in Altai before Radlov, and brief information about them can be found in the works of Ledebur, Bunge, Gmelin, Meunier and others. But all these individual, random excavations, moreover, carried out with very imperfect techniques, are almost devoid of scientific meanings.
V.V. Radlov excavated a large number of graves of the Late Bronze and Iron periods, obtaining abundant, sometimes unique, material, unfortunately, poorly documented and usually underexplored. The area of archaeological excavations of Radlov covered the valley of the river. Ursula in modern Ongudai aimag, Chui steppe of Kosh-Agach aimag, Uimon steppe near Katanda
Landscape of the Altai Mountains.
in the Ust-Koksinsky aimak and the Berel steppe in the upper reaches of the river. Bukhtarmy. In addition, we are indebted to Radlov for the first classification of archaeological monuments in Altai: he divided them into monuments of the Bronze and Iron periods. Despite the too general and formal nature of this classification, its scientific significance is beyond doubt, especially for its time. Radlov should also be credited with the fact that he was the first to make an attempt, albeit a timid one, to link the received material with the testimony of Chinese dynastic chronicles about the culture of the ancient inhabitants of the Altai and Sayan Mountains. Unfortunately, he concludes this attempt with melancholic words that almost deprive it of its meaning: “It will hardly ever be possible to resolve the question of the origin of the ancient inhabitants of Siberia,” he writes, referring to the ancient tribes of the Minusinsk Basin and Altai. The material from Radlov’s excavations in Altai has firmly entered the arsenal of archaeological science, and without taking it into account, as well as without a proper explanation, modern scientific studies on the archeology of Altai are unthinkable. Radlov's great merit is also his energetic work in publishing archaeological material from Siberia.
In addition to Radlov, we can note, perhaps, only two researchers of the pre-revolutionary period, whose works are of scientific significance in the archaeological study of Altai. Of these, we will first name A.V. Adrianov, who carried out work in the summer of 1911 in western Altai, in the system of the Bukhtarma and Narym rivers and in other areas of southwestern Altai. Adrianov explored a number of monuments from the period of the early nomads, excavating 14 mounds, and also described some other monuments - rock carvings, stone sculptures in the form of human figures, etc. The second researcher was the Finnish geographer Grane, who studied the distribution of archaeological sites in the Altai Mountains in 1909.
The listed instructions essentially exhaust the main work on the archaeological study of the Altai Mountains. In this review, I did not include archaeological excavations of old times, carried out both in the near and more distant foothills of Altai. It seems appropriate to conclude this section with reference to the archaeological collections of museums in the cities of Gorno-Altaisk, Biysk, Barnaul, Tomsk, as well as the collections of the State Historical Museum in Moscow, the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the State Museum of Ethnography in Leningrad. In all of these museums, a researcher of Altai archeology will find not only extensive material obtained by Soviet archaeologists, through whose efforts the archaeological study of Altai has been raised to a significant height, but also material from excavations of the pre-revolutionary period. Of these latter, the material collected by V.V. Radlov, currently stored in the State Historical Museum, is of particular importance.
Archeology of Western Siberia and Altai:
experience in interdisciplinary research.
Collection of articles dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Professor Yu.F. Kiryushina.
// Barnaul: Alt Publishing House. un-ta. 2015. 416 p. ISBN 978-5-7904-2025-2
About the hero of the day.
Tishkin A.A. The main stages of the scientific, pedagogical and administrative activities of Yuri Fedorovich Kiryushin. - 9
Grushin S.P., Leontyeva D.S. The role of Yu.F. Kiryushin in the study of the monuments of the Andronovo culture of the forest-steppe Altai. - 14
Dashkovsky P.K. A word about the scientific supervisor. - 19
Kungurov A.L. Katun expedition of Altai State University: beginning. - 21
Rykun M.P. “Life is a springboard!” - 23
Theoretical, methodological, methodological and practical developments of modern archeology.
Beisenov A.Z., Duisenbay D.B., Akhiyarov I.K. Research in Northern Betpakdala. - 28
Kovalevsky S.A. About the initial period of studying Irmen antiquities. - 31
Kovtun I.V. Pre-Andronovo/Andronovo antiquities and the “Andronovo dialect”. - 39
Kuzminykh S.V., Chizhevsky A.A. The final Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in northeastern Europe: cultural genesis, boundaries and contacts of archaeological cultures. - 44
Kungurov A.L. Works of Altai State University on the river. Tytkesken (Altai). - 54
Marsadolov L.S. 1200-, 600- and 300-year periodizations of archaeological eras and stages for ancient, ancient and medieval cultures in the Altai Mountains. - 59
Matsyna A.I., Zhuvak D.V., Nikitin A.Yu. Electronic map as the basis for comprehensive research of the VNK “Aerial reconnaissance of archaeological monuments.” - 66
Mertz V.K. The adaptation system of ancient pastoralists in the mountain-steppe zone of Northern Eurasia and methods for searching for their settlements. - 69
Pleshakov A.A. Creation of an open-air museum based on the reconstruction of economic complexes. - 74
Tataurov F.S. Items from archaeological sites as sources for reconstructing the social appearance of ancient societies. - 78
Tataurova L.V. Natural scientific methods in the archeology of Russians in Siberia and the experience of conducting field youth scientific schools. - 82
Tataurov S.F., Chernaya M.P. The Earth Chronicle of Tara: an archaeological commentary on the history of the city. - 86
Tikhonov S.S. Possibilities of ethnographic and archaeological study of fishing of the population of Siberia. - 91
Shmidt A.V. Age structure of the population in paleodemography: principles of construction. - 94
The use of natural scientific methods in archaeological research.
Gavrilov D.A., Shumilovskikh L.S., Amirov E.Sh., Kamaldinov I.R. Results of microbiomorphic and palynological analyzes of the cultural layer of the Zhankent settlement (Kazakhstan). - 101
Gaiduchenko L.L., Kiryushin K.Yu. Burnt marks from ceramic vessels from the Novoilinka-III settlement in Northern Kulunda. - 106
Golyeva A.A., Kiryushin K.Yu. Characteristics of landscapes during the functioning of the Novoilinka-VI settlement according to natural science data. - 110
Dashkovsky P.K., Novikova O.G. Preliminary results of the study of varnish samples from mound No. 31 of the Chineta-II burial ground (Altai). - 115
Dashkovsky P.K., Tishkin A.A. New data on radiocarbon dating of mound No. 5 of the Khankarinsky Dol burial ground (Altai). - 119
Senotrusova P.O., Mandryka P.V., Tishkin A.A. Composition of alloys of non-ferrous metal products from the Prospikhinskaya Shivera-IV burial ground (summarization of preliminary results). - 125
Solodovnikov K.N., Khokhlov A.A., Rykun M.P. Anthropological connections of the population of the Afanasyevskaya culture of the Kurotinsky, Aragol and Ulitinsky types of burials in the Altai Mountains. - 129
Solomonova M.Yu., Kiryushin K.Yu., Silantyeva M.M., Speranskaya N.Yu. Final results of phytolithic research on the territory of the archaeological site Novoilinka-III. - 134
Tishkin A.A., Kazakov A.A., Matryonin S.S. X-ray fluorescence analysis of a collection of metal objects of the Bystryansk culture from the Kamenka burial ground (based on materials from excavations in 2014). - 138
Tishkin A.A., Frolov Ya.V. X-ray fluorescence analysis of arrowheads from the archaeological collection of the MKUK “District Museum of History and Local Lore named after. V.M. Komarova" (Volchikha village, Altai Territory). - 144
Development of Altai and Western Siberia in the Stone Age and Eneolithic.
Bobrov V.V. Stone tools from destroyed burials from the northern foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau. - 148
Zakharov S.V. The problem of the formation of the stone industry of the Botai culture. - 154
Zakharov S.V. The original area of the wood composition of the molding masses of the Botai culture. - 158
Kiryushin Yu.F., Kiryushin K.Yu. Bolshemyssky complex of the Novoilinka-VI settlement. - 164
Rybin E.P., Khatsenovich A.M., Shelepaev R.A., Popov A.Yu. Varieties of stone raw materials and features of their selection by ancient man in the Paleolithic industries of the monuments Kharaganyn-Gol-5 and Tolbor-21 (Tolbor archaeological microdistrict, Northern Mongolia): preliminary results. - 170
Stepanova N.F. On the characteristics of the grave goods from the Afanasiev burial complexes (Altai Mountains). - 178
Khatsenovich A.M., Kanomata Y., Gunchinsuren B. Median incisors of the Kharganyn-Gol-5 monument: specifics of manufacture and traceological analysis. - 183
Chemyakin Yu.P., Pogodin A.A., Klementyeva T.Yu. Kelteminar arrowheads in the Urals and Trans-Urals. - 188
The process of formation of cultures and communities of Siberia in the Bronze Age.
Bobrova L.Yu., Umerenkova O.V. On the problem of reconstructing headdress decorations of the Bronze Age (based on materials from the New Beloyarsk-I monument). - 195
Gaiduchenko L.L., Loman V.G. Faunal complex of the Dongal settlement in Central Kazakhstan. - 200
Gerasimov Yu.V., Korusenko M.A., Polevodov A.V. Some problems of studying the Bronze Age of the forest-steppe Ob-Irtysh region in the light of the latest finds in Omsk. - 204
Goryachev A.A. On the issue of the construction of ancient temples of the Bronze Age in the mountainous zone of the Trans-Ili Alatau. - 209
Grushin S.P., Leontyeva D.S., Fribus A.V., Valkov A.S. Preliminary results of the study of the Andronovo burial ground Signal-I. - 214
Kovtun I.V., Bashtannik S.V., Fribus A.V. Andronovo burial of the Yurman-I burial ground and snake/dragon fighting motifs in the ornamentation of funerary vessels. - 220
Merts I.V., Voloshin V.S. Accidental discovery of a polished stone hammer ax on the lake. Zhamantuz (Kazakhstan). - 226
Milyaev G.A. Model of livestock farming of the Andronovo society based on materials from the settlements of Eastern Kazakhstan. - 232
Molodin V.I. Berlik culture in the West Siberian forest-steppe. - 237
Papin D.V., Stepanova N.F. Technology of pottery production in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the Altai Ob region. - 245
Petrova L.Yu., Grigoriev S.A. Buildings of the Alakul culture of the Mochishche-I settlement. - 250
Podobed V.A., Usachuk A.N., Tsimidanov V.V. Dead ends in Bronze Age cultures (some aspects of semantics). - 255
Soyonov V.I., Trifanova S.V. On the problem of structuring and chronology of archaeological cultures of Altai during the Early Bronze Age. - 261
Sotnikova S.V. Andronovsky (Fedorovsky) burials with inverted vessels: towards the reconstruction of ideas about the role of women in mythological ritual practice. - 267
Tishkin A.A., Kosintsev P.A., Nekrasov A.E., Grushin S.P. Finds of bird and fish bones at the settlement of Berezovaya Luka. - 272
Tkachev A.A., Tkacheva N.A., Trofimova E.A. Chronological and cultural affiliation of the early complexes of the settlement Roza Vetrov-III. - 276
Fedoruk A.S., Papin D.V., Rednikov A.A., Fedoruk O.A. Construction of the Andronovo period at the settlement of Zharkovo-3. - 284
Nomads of the steppes of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Beisenov A.Z. Studies of the Saka settlement in the east part of Central Kazakhstan. - 289
Beisenov A.Z., Dzhumabekova G.S., Bazarbaeva G.A. Study of monuments of Tasmolin culture in Western Saryarka. - 294
Beisenov A.Z., Duisenbay D.B. Study of a new monument of the Korgantas time at the Bayke-2 burial ground (Central Kazakhstan). - 298
Bobrova A.I. Kataiginsky settlement III - a new monument of the Early Iron Age from Upper Ket (preliminary message). - 301
Golovchenko N.N., Telegin A.N. Applications of headdresses of the population of the Upper Ob basin of the Early Iron Age (classification and semantics). - 305
Ilyushin A.M. Iron daggers in the culture of nomads of the developed Middle Ages of the Kuznetsk Basin. - 308
Kazakov A.A., Grushin S.P., Seibert V.O. Maly Gonbinsky cordon-2/6 is a new monument of the Odintsovo culture of the Barnaul-Biysk Ob region. - 312
Likhacheva O.S. Darts from the territory of the forest-steppe Altai XII-VI centuries. BC. - 315
Lukpanova Y.A. New elite burial from Western Kazakhstan. - 321
Matryonin S.S. A child’s burial from the era of the Great Migration of Peoples with military equipment from Central Altai. - 325
Munkhbayar Ch., Munkhbat Ts., Enkhtur Ch., Gal-Od B. About Turkic sculptures discovered on the territory of Tsetseg Somon (Mongolian Altai). - 330
Pletneva L.M. Bronze plaque from Timiryazevsky settlement IV. - 334
Seryogin N.N. The main trends in the distribution of Chinese imported items in the archaeological sites of the early medieval Turks of Central Asia. - 341
Soyonov V.I., Konstantinov N.A., Trifanova S.V. Cenotaphs of the Stepushka-2 burial ground. - 347
Tishkin A.A., Matryonin S.S. Parts of the “golden diadem” from the mounds of the Yaloman-II monument (Zhuran period, Central Altai). - 351
Khasenova B.M. Earrings of the Saltovsky type from central Eurasia: search for form and content. - 355
Khudyakov Yu.S. Weapons of Scythian warriors from the Edigan River valley in the Altai Mountains. - 359
Shulga P.I. Dating of Pazyryk mounds and Chinese mirrors with T-shaped signs. - 366
The art of the peoples of Central Asia and adjacent territories in antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.
Bobrov L.A. Features of the design and decorative design of Kazakh “eight-shaped” quivers of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries. - 372
Goryachev A.A., Egorova T.A., Egorova K.A. Turkic petroglyphs of the Oy-Dzhailyau tract. - 375
Dzhumabekova G.S., Bazarbaeva G.A., Demidenko S.V. Ritual vessel with zoomorphic decoration from Zhetysu. - 381
Altai region
Officially. Altai Territory is located in the southeast of Western Siberia, 3419 km from Moscow. Territory 168,000 square km.
Informally. The Altai region is very large and diverse. The topography changes as you move through the area. He seems to be a growing bear, at first quiet and calm, then huge and majestic. This is how steppes and plains grow into foothills and mountains.
Officially. The climate is temperate continental, formed as a result of frequent changes in air masses.
Unofficially. The four seasons have many variations, and come back each year to see a different perspective. You can come in the hot summer, or you can come in the cool and rainy weather. Give me variety! - this is the main rule of Altai weather.
Summer and Altai Mountains
Officially: The Altai Mountains are a complex system of the highest ridges in Siberia, which are separated by deep valleys of mountain rivers and vast basins located inside the mountains.
Informally: The nature of Altai is amazing. Tourists from all over the globe rush to these places to enjoy the beautiful views of high mountains, mountain rivers, mysterious caves and deserted spaces. Immerse yourself in the tranquility and beauty of these places.
The settlement of the Altai Territory has begun
in the 18th century
Young Russia needed metal to produce weapons and coins. The Ural factory owner Akinfiy Demidov founded the first metallurgical plant in 1729 - Kolyvano-Voskresensky. The depths of Altai were also rich in silver. In 1744, Demidov began producing silver. The result of Akinfiy Demidov’s activities in the Altai region was the establishment of a feudal mining industry based on the serf labor of assigned peasants and artisans.
Event tourism in the Altai region
The creation and development of bright, interesting events in the business, cultural, and sports life of the Altai Territory has become the basis for the development of event tourism in the region. The region annually hosts more than a dozen festivals, forums, and holidays that can attract thousands of tourists from various regions of Russia and from abroad. These are the International Tourism Forum “VISIT ALTAI”, the festival “Blossoming of the Maralberry”, the drinks festival “Altaifest”, the Day of Russia at the “Turquoise Katun”, the festival “Shukshin Days in Altai”, the International Youth Forum of the Asia-Pacific Region, the SCO Forum, the Siberian International Forum on Health and medical tourism, the Altai Wintering holiday and many others.
beauty and health
Officially. The useful flora of the region has 1184 plant species. The largest group of drugs, including about 100 types widely used in official medicine.
Informally. Decoction, herbal teas, berry fruit drinks - this is what everyone who comes to the Altai Territory should try. Spas, health and wellness centers use products made from Altai herbs.
The territory of the Altai Republic has a unique historical and cultural heritage. First of all, these are world-famous archaeological monuments, including the “royal mounds” of the Scythian era, this is a concentration of rock art monuments, these are fortifications, settlements, irrigation systems and much more.
Gorny Altai occupies a leading place in the country in the number of runic inscriptions on rocks. Caves with traces of ancient man are also unique in that they carry information about ancient communities, being in some way a “data bank.”
Gorny Altai is closely connected with all the most ancient stages of human evolution from paleoanthropes to the modern type.
Age of Stone
Recent archaeological materials allow us to conclude that the ancestors of modern humans lived in the Altai Mountains many hundreds of thousands of years ago. The oldest site of primitive people is the Ulalinskaya Paleolithic site, which is located within the city of Gorno-Altaisk. During excavations at the Ulalinskaya site, primitive stone tools were found made from blanks obtained by fire technology, i.e. heating and sudden cooling of stones. Ulala materials date widely within the Lower Paleolithic - from 150 thousand years to 1.5 million years.
The later periods of the Stone Age include extensive materials from excavations at the cave sites of the Ust-Kanskaya Cave, as well as open-type sites: Kara-Tenesh, Kara-Bom, Ust-Sema, Maima, Ust-Kuyum and many other monuments. Various objects, cores, pointed points, scrapers, plates and others, as well as bones of animals and birds such as bear, yak, goat, hare, hyena, horned antelope, wild horse, woolly rhinoceros, black grouse, partridge, duck.
Palaeometal Age
At the end of the 4th millennium BC. In the history of Gorny Altai, the era of stone ends and a new period begins - the era of paleometal. The first metal was copper, and then bronze appeared in the Altai Mountains. Copper and bronze began to be widely used by our ancestors in the production of weapons, tools, household items and jewelry. Archaeological paleometal sites belong to the Afanasiev and Karakol cultures.
Afanasyevsky monuments are represented by the burial grounds and settlements of Balyktuyul, Elo, Kara-Tenesh, Tenga, Bolshoy Tolgoek, Aragol, Kurota and others. The funerary monuments of this culture represent
ring fences and cromlech fences, in which there were oval or rectangular grave pits with an overlap. Inventory items include ceramic vessels of sharp-bottomed, round-bottomed or flat-bottomed shapes, incense burners-vases, tools and decorations.
The Karakol culture is a unique archaeological culture of the late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. Characteristic features are a rectangular cemetery fence, stone boxes, as well as unique polychrome drawings on the slabs of boxes and rock paintings carved in a certain manner. The Karakol culture includes the burials of the Karakol, Ozernoe, and Besh-Ozek burial grounds in the central regions of Altai. An image of a person belonging to the Karakol culture was found in one of the rock surfaces near the village of Bichiktu - Boom in the Ongudai region.
In the paleometal era, the population of the Altai Mountains moved from appropriating forms of economy - hunting, gathering and fishing - to producing forms: agriculture and cattle breeding. Since then, the ancient Altaians began to build reclamation structures, cultivate arable land and grow crops such as millet, barley, rye and others. Domestic herds of sheep, goats, cows, and horses began to be driven to alpine meadows in the summer, and returned to river valleys by winter.
Iron Age
In the 1st millennium BC. The Bronze Age gives way to the Early Iron Period. The Scythian time of the Altai Mountains is primarily associated with monuments united in the Pazyryk archaeological culture. They are known throughout the Altai Mountains - these are the famous Pazyryk, Bashadar, Tuektinsky, Shibinsky, Ulandryk, Ukok mounds, as well as thousands of others.
In the Altai Mountains, the Pazyryk culture was identified - by the name of the Pazyryk tract in the Ulagan region, where objects and things were discovered that have survived to this day in connection with the formed sub-mound permafrost. These are: the most ancient pile carpets from Western Asia, a wooden chariot, horse harness, musical instruments, products made of wood, leather, felt and much more. Typically, the mounds of the Pazyryk culture are chains stretching from north to south. Under the stone embankments in the pits there are log houses with wooden floors or stone boxes. Objects are relatively well preserved in mounds with permafrost. Embalmed bodies found in the burials of the Pazyryk culture are still sensations on a global scale. This is evidenced by finds made by Novosibirsk archaeologists in recent years on the Ukok plateau. Many objects and cultural values found during the sensational excavations of mounds related to the Pazyryk culture are stored in the Hermitage and other state museums of the country. Currently, well-known objects, including rock paintings reflecting the Pazyryk culture, are included in the Russian Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture).
Monuments of the Hunno-Sarmatian period were almost unknown until recently. But in recent years, dozens of monuments from the 2nd century have been discovered and studied. BC. - V century AD These include the burial grounds of Ust-Edigan, Chendek, Verkh-Uimon, Sary Bel, Bulan-Koby, Bely Bom, Bike, Airydash, Kuraika and others, as well as objects of a different nature - settlements, settlements, sanctuaries, production centers: Yustyd, Ber-tek, Maima, Kucherla, Cheremshanka, etc.
The materials obtained indicate that the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains did not disappear without a trace, but was transformed into a Hunnic-type culture. The fact that the bearers of the Pazyryk culture became the basis of the population of later periods is evidenced by the continuity of the funeral rite and a number of categories of things, as well as such facts as, for example, the discovery of a burial of the Bulan-Koba type (after the name of the burial ground in the Ongudai region) in Srednyaya Katun of a complex of things of the Scythian culture, and in the mound of the Pazyryk culture - bow guards of the Hunnic type.
In turn, the Bulan-Kobin people took a direct part in the formation of the population of the Turkic times of the Altai Mountains.
Turkic time
The Turkic time of the Altai Mountains is represented by various archaeological sites. The most famous of them are the mounds and memorial complexes of Kudyrge, Kuraya, Tuekty, Yakonur and others. Kudyrgin monuments of Turkic times are characterized by burials in ground pits with a southern orientation and accompanying burials of horses. Among the grave goods, there are remains of bows with strongly curved end plates, stirrups with a rectangular loop on the neck, single-ringed bits with two-hole psalia, belts with hanging straps, and much more. The dead were also provided with ritual food, usually lamb.
In the Kurai steppe, for example, in one of the mounds of the Kurai culture, excavated in the 30s, the remains of a noble Turk were found in a log with the accompanying burial of three killed horses and, apparently, a slave. Among the various things placed in the grave, a silver jug and a belt tip with runic inscriptions were discovered. The inscription on the belt tip meant: “Master (Mr.) Ak-kyun... sash...”
Written monuments date back to Turkic times. More than a hundred runic inscriptions have already been discovered on rock surfaces. In terms of the number of such inscriptions, Gorny Altai occupies a leading place in the country. A significant number of petroglyphs made using the technique of embossing and graffiti belong to the Turkic period, production centers, and
also other monuments: ancient settlements, irrigation canals, roads, crossings, stone sculptures, balbals and others. More than two hundred enclosures from Turkic times have been excavated in the Altai Mountains to date. They are square or rectangular structures made of stone slabs placed on edge. Inside the fences there is a pavement made of slabs, boulders and broken stones or a pile of pebbles. According to their design features, Altai fences are conventionally divided into five types: Kudyrginsky, represented by collective adjacent fences; Yakonursky - adjacent fences with statues or steles; Yustyd - single fences, built, as a rule, of four slabs with the remains of a tree trunk in the center; Ulandryk - with a stele or boulder in the center of the fence; Ayutinsky - fences surrounded by a rampart and a ditch.
Another type of monument associated with funeral and memorial rituals is stone sculptures. The category of the most famous monuments of the Altai Mountains includes the Kezer sculpture, discovered in the Kurai steppe. "Kezer" is currently stored in the funds of the Gorno-Altai Republican Museum of Local Lore.
Among the petroglyphs of the Turkic time of the Altai Mountains, in addition to images of animals and horsemen, there are battle scenes, hunting scenes, images of various birds, snakes, etc.
The ancient settlements of the Turkic period are known. The most famous of them is the settlement at the mouth of the river. Big Yaloman.
Chinese chronicles characterize the Turks as skilled metallurgists, supplying iron and blacksmith products to their neighbors. Recently, more than a dozen iron production facilities have been opened in Gorny Altai.
Thus, the studied archaeological materials indicate that the territory of the Altai Republic in all historical times was inhabited by a population that enjoyed the high achievements of its time.
