On January 23-25, 2006, Altai State University hosted the All-Russian Scientific Conference "Western and Southern Siberia in Ancient Times", dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the famous archaeologist, Professor Yu.F. Kiryushin.

The conference had several sections. The author of the review focused on one of them related to the magazine's profile. The section" Antiquities of Eurasia " discussed reports on the archeology of the foreign East. The presentation of A. A. Kovalev (Research Institute of Integrated Social Research, St. Petersburg) "Chemurchek cultural phenomenon"attracted the greatest attention. Under this name, the author suggests combining a number of monuments of the early Bronze Age of Central Asia. In his opinion, it is possible to trace a certain unity of the population of Dzungaria and the Mongolian Altai due to the component introduced to these territories by migrants from Western Europe no later than the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. A. A. Kovalev sees the prototypes of burial structures of the Chemurchek culture in the" corridor tombs " of France; in the same place (in Languedoc), he identified stone Eneolithic statues that served as the basis for the iconography of Chemurchek sculptures. Moving from west to east, the "migrants" absorbed the achievements of the cultures of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia and, in turn, transmitted them to the inhabitants of the forest-steppe zone of Siberia. The visual techniques of the Chemurchek people influenced the formation of Okunevo and Karasuk art; their connection with the Seimin-Turbino tradition is also traced.

The discussion participants ' objections to the report of A. A. Kovalev were mainly reduced to the fact that the Chemurchek material itself is not yet very significant and does not allow us to draw such unambiguous and large-scale conclusions.

The report of S. L. Komissarov (IET SB RAS, Novosibirsk) criticizes the identification of the so-called Syba culture in Western Gansu in Chinese archaeology. In fact, the published inventory is a collection of bronze objects of various dates and origins, which still needs to be correlated with the funeral rite and the ceramic complex.

A report by P. V. Martynov (Novosibirsk State University) on the Qigong culture in Central Tibet aroused considerable interest. The author, following his Chinese colleagues, attributed it to the Late Neolithic, which at the final stage passes into the Early Metal age. Its study significantly enriches our knowledge about the autochthonous component in the formation of the Tibetan ethnic group, since such ethnically significant elements of material and spiritual culture as the cultivation of naked barley, yak domestication, and the worship of the vulture and monkey have already been identified in the Qiugong settlement.

During the discussion, most experts suggested that the Qiugong culture should be attributed to the Bronze Age.

A number of reports were presented in poster form. A. A. Varenoe (Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk) suggested that Qinglong-type monuments with" Karasuk " knives, concentrated in the provinces of Hebei and Liaoning, should be dated to the late stage of the Shang-Yin Dynasty (actually XII-XI centuries BC). The same author presented another report to the seminar "Theory and practice of archaeological research", held within the framework of the conference. In it, he summarized materials on Shilou-type monuments (in the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi). According to the set of bronze vessels and weapons, they were associated with the Yin complex, and according to the finds of "Karasuk" knives, they were synchronized with the Qinglong group mentioned above.

N. Y. Timolyanova (Novosibirsk State University) studied images of the Chalalufu cave temple in Lhasa. The temple was built in the middle of the VII century, although the sculptures placed there were created later, up to the XV-XVI centuries. The style of images is dominated by the influence of Gandhara, which was carried out, most likely, through Nepal (although we can not exclude the "roundabout way", through Central Asia and East Turkestan).

In the report of A. Y. Shchetenko (IIMK RAS, St. Petersburg), the figure of a charioteer on a bronze model of a bull-drawn chariot from a treasure trove in Daimabad (Maharashtra) is defined as the image of the Vedic god Pushan. Thus, its post-Harappan chronology is convincingly proved; however, the proposed dating in the framework of the XIV-VII centuries BC is so broad that it loses its practical meaning.

The report of V. D. Kubarev (IET SB RAS, Novosibirsk) presents new finds of petroglyphs from Khar-Chuluu (Mongolian Altai).

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Most attention is drawn to the composition of more than 60 embossed figures of people and animals connected by a "life line". Based on the prevalence of images of stylized deer both on Mongolian petroglyphs and on deer stones (the age of which may be several centuries older than the accepted dates), the author suggests that some Early Scythian rock art monuments in Mongolia should also be dated to about the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The only more or less accurate analogy for a multi-figure composition is found in the writings of Koibagar in Kazakhstan.

By the way, a block of reports is devoted to Kazakhstan's finds, although their study is sometimes quite difficult to separate from the problems of Russian archeology. This applies to a number of reports devoted to the formation of the Early Aronian cultural and historical community in the Ural-Kazakhstan steppe. V. N. Logvin (Surgut State University) based on the materials of the Tokanai-1 burial ground (Kostanay region) showed the relativity of the contrast between Petrovsky and Sintashta monuments.

S. S. Kalieva (Surgut State University) proves the predominant role of the" local " component - Eneolithic cultures of geometric ceramics - in the formation of the Sintashta-Petrovsky community. The continuity between the Sintashta and Petrovsky variants can be traced in the report of IV. Chechushkova (South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk) based on the analysis of such an expressive cultural object as psalms. However, this line does not continue in the Alakul culture, where the function of psalms changes, possibly under the influence of log houses, and through them-and Abashev tribes. ped. in-t) proves the appearance of the cremation rite on the early Alakul monuments of Central Kazakhstan and its further development in the course of contacts with other cultures (srubnaya, Fedorovskaya).

The texts of all the listed reports and reports were included in two collections, which were published under the general editorship of A. A. Tishkin.

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