Department of Scythian-Sarmatian Archeology

On February 7, 1947, at a meeting of the Scythian-Sarmatian Group of the Sector of Primitive Culture at the Institute of History of the Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences, K.F. Smirnov delivered a report, "On Roxolan Burials" (Fig. 1). That same year, B.N. Grakov, a leading specialist in Scythian-Sarmatian archaeology, classical philology, and ancient ceramic epigraphy, published his book, "Scythians." He became head of the Sector of Scythian-Sarmatian Archaeology at the Institute of History of the Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences in January 1948 (Fig. 2).

There is no doubt that "the history of the study of the Scythians is almost the history of archaeology in Russia" (Smirnov, A.P., 1966, p. 11). However, another factor proved decisive in the creation of the new division: increased interest in issues related to the ethnogenesis of the Slavs and the possible involvement of Scythian and Sarmatian tribes. Under the leadership of A.P. Smirnov's d