Geologicheskii Vestnik

In 2021 we celebrate 35 years since the beginning of the study of the Filippovka-1 barrow burial ground located on the left bank of the Ural river in the Ilek district of the Orenburg oblast’, Russian Federation. This burial ground – discovered in the 1980s – presents an example of an elite (“royal”) necropolis of the South Ural nomads dated to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. This paper discusses the main stages of scientific biography of A. Kh. Pshenichnyuk, who was the author of the first papers related to the study of the Filippovka barrows (in 1986-1990). It also presents the analysis of his research conducted in the forest-steppe area of the South Urals region and his works related to the identification and description of the Kara-Abyz archaeologicalculture. Pshenichnyk’s interest in studying archaeological monuments left by the steppe nomads began in 1968 and has been gradually developing since that time. In this view, his study of the Filippovka barrows appeared as a logical continuation of all previous works in the steppe area of the South Urals region. One part of the present paper tells the story of research carried out by A. Kh. Pshenichnyk at the barrow №1 (a so-called Large Filippovka barrow or Large Mar), known by an extensive number of unique finds – objects of art and decorative elements, many of which were made of gold. In the mid-1990s most valuable of these Filippovka artefacts ended up in pawn in one of the private Moscow banks. The rescue of the treasures became possible because of the active actions of the scholar and with support from the government of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The finds were returned to Ufa and then sent for restoration to the State Hermitage Museum. After restoration, the collection of artefacts from the Filippovka barrows has been repeatedly presented during major exhibitions in different countries around the world. This paper also reviews the key points of the publications describing the results of archaeological excavations conducted at the Filippovka-1barrow burial ground in 1986-1990 and of the summary monograph published by A. Kh. Pshenichnyk in 2012. It is shown that a new stage in the study of the Filippovka barrows has recently begun, characterized by detailed interpretation of already obtained results and carrying out various natural-scientific analyses.

Riphean, Vendian, Southern Urals, Middle Urals, paleoclimate, ne-grained clastic / clayey rocks

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