The main research area of the laboratory is connected with the issues from the field of archeology, ethnography, history and historical demography in Siberia from Hun to Russian time.
In 2014 the laboratory research project "Fundamental research on the archeology and ethnography of North Asia" received a grant from the Russian Scientific Foundation winning the competition for funding projects of existing research laboratories. Research has been carried out on the basis of archeological, ethnographic, anthropological and written sources analyses, mostly obtained as a result of project participants’ field research. According to the results of work the latest reconstruction of the process of settlement and human exploration in North Asia will be offered.
Scientific achievements of the laboratory:
- For the first time in scientific practice images of Turkic fertility goddess Umai have been found and interpreted;
- The archaeological culture of a separate ethnographic group of medieval Sayan population, so called "silver usintsev", has been discovered. The characteristics of the ethnic composition of the Southern Siberian population in the Middle Ages has been given;
- The ancient burial Markelov Cape 1 and 2 on the Yenisei has been fully studied being the largest excavated grounds in Russia and abroad;
- The material culture of the Russian pioneers of Southern Siberia (XVIII century) has been studied (based on archaeological excavations at the Yenisei Sayan jail - Russian outpost on the borders of Central Asia). For the first time the prison has been fully excavated. The result is a unique opportunity to carry out a complete reconstruction of the XVIII century Russian prison. Such work can greatly assist other researchers in the study of Russian archaeological sites in Siberia;
- The graphic reconstruction of Siberian and Central Asian arms during the Middle Ages has been completed. The full-scale reconstructions of the weapon complexes, such as Xianbi, ancient Turks, Jurchen, Mongolian, Russian pioneers of Siberia, etc have been created;
- The reasons for fluctuations in numbers of indigenous peoples of Siberia in XVII-XX centuries have been revealed through close cooperation and collective work of laboratory staff. The dependency of their demographic development on the policy and management practices of the state has been established;
- In cooperation with NSU Multimedia center the scientific and educational electronic resource WEB-museum "The Ancient Art of Siberia» has been set up and is currently functioning at: http://museum.mmc.nsu.ru/
- The NSU scientific electronic project "Information Center “Military Science of Siberia and Central Asia”” has been independently created.
Head of Laboratory – Doctor in History, Sergey Skobelev, e-mail: sgskobelev@yandex.ru
Laboratory site at NSU SRD
Institute of Humanities
Section of Archaeology and Ethnography
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
