Scientific Activity of S. A. Fedoseeva in the Context of Study
of the Yakutia Ancient History: Practice, Theory, and
Organization

Yu. A. Shipitsyn; N. S. Kiryanov

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2022. Vol 39

Scientific Activity of S. A. Fedoseeva in the Context of Study of the Yakutia Ancient History: Practice, Theory, and Organization

Full text (russian)

Author(s)

Yu. A. Shipitsyn, N. S. Kiryanov

Abstract

The article highlights the biography and professional activities of the outstanding researcher of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – Svetlana Aleksandrovna Fedoseeva (1936–2017), the first archaeologist after A. P. Okladnikov, who together with Yu. A. Mochanov has been engaged in systematic study of the prehistory of Yakutia for more than half a century (1959–2017). The main purpose of the article is to evaluate the role and contribution of S.A. Fedoseeva to the archeology of Yakutia. This is the first attempt to collect and analyze its most important archaeological achievements. Fedoseeva´s first studies were carried out in the Upper Vilyui in Western Yakutia, because of which the consistent succession of archaeological cultures from the early Neolithic to the early Iron Age was proved and the first traces of bronze foundry were discovered. Then she and Yu. A. Mochanov in the 1960–1970 discovered several successive archaeological cultures of Yakutia from the Paleolithic to the early Iron Age, as well as developed their first periodization and chronology. In total, over all the years of work by Fedoseeva and Mochanov in Yakutia, more than 800 new sites were discovered and studied, including such reference sites as Bel´kachi I, Sumnagin I, Ust´-Timpton I, Talanda II, Ust´-Chirkuo I, Diring- Yuryakh, Mungkharyma I–II, and others. Fedoseeva made a special contribution to the study of the Ymyyakhtakh culture of the late Neolithic of Yakutia (III–II millennium BC), having carried out a detailed typology of stone, ceramic, and bone inventory. Today it is the most studied culture. Excavations of the Ymyyakhtakh burial ground Diring-Yuryakh in Central Yakutia allowed her to offer original conclusions about the existence of primitive atheism in the late Neolithic of Yakutia. In her latest writings, Fedoseeva spoke out against the modern division of the Late Neolithic of Yakutia into local variants, believing that there were no sufficient grounds for this so far. The organizational abilities of the researcher are also emphasized – since 1972, the small laboratory of archeology of the Institute of Language, Literature and Art of Yakutia, headed by her, was transformed by 2004 into an independent Center for Arctic Archeology and Human Paleoecology, now the Arctic Research Center of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Fedoseeva did a great deal of work to include the archeological monuments of Yakutia in the republican list of cultural heritage sites, and today all of them are under state protection. For his work, S. A. Fedoseeva was awarded the high title of Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

About the Authors

Shipitsyn Yurii Alexandrovich, Candidate of Sciences (Technical), Director, Arctic Research Center of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia); 30, Lenin St., Yakutsk, 677018, Russian Federation, e-mail: diring@mail.ru

Kiryanov Nikolai Sergeevich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Leading Researcher, Arctic Research Center of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia); 30, Lenin St., Yakutsk, 677018, Russian Federation, e-mail: diring@mail.ru

For citation

Shipitsyn Yu. A., Kiryanov N. S. Scientific Activity of S. A. Fedoseeva in the Context of Study of the Yakutia Ancient History: Practice, Theory, and Organization. Bulletin of the Irkutsk State University. Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series. 2022, Vol. 39, pp. 48–55. https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2022.39.48 (in Russ.)

Keywords

S. A. Fedoseeva, Yu. A. Mochanov, Archaeology, Yakutia, Vilyui, Ymyyakhtakh culture, Neolithic, Arctic Research Center.

UDC

903+929

DOI

https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2022.39.48

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