Department of Stone and Early Metal Archaeology
24 May 2022
The Department of Archaeology of the Stone Age as an independent division was created by the decision of the Academic Council of the Institute dated December 23, 2021 (Protocol No. 9), and it began functioning in 2022. Prior to that, the department's employees were part of a group for the study of the Stone Age as part of the "Department of Archaeology of the Stone and Paleometal Epoch". Under the guidance of a Leading Researcher, Candidate of Historical Sciences O. Artyukhova, the group studied the Paleolithic and Neolithic monuments of Kazakhstan. The main directions of the group's work were the study of the stratified sites of Toktoul, Ulken Zhezdy in Central Kazakhstan. A separate area of the group's work was the introduction of collections of Paleolithic tools obtained in the 1960s by A. Medoev and his colleagues from sites with surface occurrence of artifacts - Shakpakata, Kumakape in Western Kazakhstan, Khantau in Southern Kazakhstan, Semizbugu in the Balkhash region, etc.
The Stone Age is the longest, farthest from modernity and the most important historical period, covering about 2.5-3 million years. It was during this period that the separation of the first hominids from the natural world took place and the formation of a modern human (Homo Sapiens Sapiens), the settlement of the entire globe, the appearance of the first innovative technologies that allowed at the end of this period to switch in some regions of the planet to productive forms of economy. Therefore, the study of these processes is one of the priorities of the Margulan Institute of Archaeology.
The territory of Kazakhstan, which occupies a significant part of the Eurasian space, plays a special role in global migrations from the first representatives of the genus Homo to the present. Thanks to the work of archaeologists and geologists, hundreds of Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic monuments have been discovered in Kazakhstan since the middle of the last century.
Department employees:
1. Mamirov Talgat - Head of the department
2. Akkoshkarova Zhanna
3. Artyukhova Olga
4. Rakhimzhanova Saule
5. Voloshin Valery
6. Kuandyk Samrat
7. Pirogova Yulia
8. Aminova Rimma
9. Volovenko Vadim
The purpose of the Department is to carry out scientific research in the field of the Stone Age of Kazakhstan.
The tasks of the Department are:
- development and implementation of plans for the main directions of research in the field of the Stone Age of Kazakhstan;
- fundamental and applied research within the framework of the implementation of program-targeted, grant and other (international, regional) projects;
- study of the patterns of the historical process on the territory of Kazakhstan on the basis of a comprehensive study of archaeological cultures and monuments from the Paleolithic Era to the Bronze Age;
- theoretical development at the modern scientific level of the problems of anthropogenesis, cultural genesis in the Stone Age;
- study of Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic economic systems, including the whole complex of material remains associated with human production activities: tools, raw materials, ancient technologies, production organization, human habitats, economic and cultural types, etc.;
- study of the worldview, ancient art of the ancient population of Kazakhstan;
- study of the problems of constructing chronological systems and periodizations of the Stone Age;
- publication of scientific, popular scientific works on the problems of the Stone Age;
- organization and holding of scientific conferences, seminars;
- training of young specialists in the field of stone Age research in Kazakhstan.
Projects within the framework of program-targeted financing, in which the department's employees have participated over the past 5 years:
PTF 2018-2020 "Culture of the population of Kazakhstan from the Stone Age to ethnographic modernity according to archaeological sources", managed by A. Manapova;
PTF 2018-2020 "History and culture of the Great Steppe", managed by M. Abuseitova;
PTF 2021-2022 "The Great Steppe in the context of ethnocultural research", managed by B. Baitanayev;
PTF 2022-2023 "Cultural genesis in the Kazakh steppes: new paradigms of problems of studying the continuity of material and spiritual heritage according to archaeological sources", managed by A. Onggar;
PTF 2023-2024 "Northern Kazakhstan in the context of cultural and historical processes: from the Stone Age to ethnographic modernity", managed by Z. Samashev.
Projects within the framework of grant financing for the last 5 years:
GF 2018-2020 "The Paleolithic of Mangystau (introduction to the scientific circulation of A. Medoev's collections and their modern interpretation)", managed by O. Artyukhova;
GF 2018-2020 "Stone Age of the North-Eastern Caspian Region", managed by T. Mamirov;
GF 2020-2022 "Dune sites of the Stone Age of the Ryn Desert in Western Kazakhstan", managed by T. Mamirov;
GF 2022-2024 AP14872494 "Search and study of stratified Stone Age monuments in the foothill areas of the Zailiyskiy Alatau", managed by T. Mamirov.