4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



cities of the Black Sea region — Olbia,^ Chersonesus, Phanagoria, and 

 Kharabs [Charax?], Excavations were also begun at other sites. 



A more profound comprehension of the Scythian problem, as 

 Academician Grekov pointed out, prepared the ground for a revision 

 of views concerning the origin of the Slavs, particularly of the eastern 

 branch. New investigations have confirmed the ethnogenetic chart 

 outlined by Academician Nikolai Marr confirming the local origin 

 of the eastern Slavs whose roots go back to the tribes of the Tripolje 

 culture, to the Bronze Age civilization in the steppe regions, to the 

 Scythians, and finally to the epoch of field burials. Agricultural tribes 

 of Scythians along the middle course of the Dnieper as well as tribes 

 from the upper reaches of the Dnieper, whose culture has been studied 

 only in the past few years, are now accepted as component factors 

 of the Slavonic ethnogeny. 



One of the most important subjects of archeological research has 

 been that of the Antae and their culture. Investigations of this prob- 

 lem can confirm the existence of definite connections between Antean 

 culture and that of the preceding burial-field stage of culture and can 

 also show the more original nature of Antean culture and its higher 

 stage of development. Evidence pointing to this is found in their 

 field agriculture, livestock breeding, skilled arts and crafts, and large 

 settlements of an urban type. Beyond question the center of Antean 

 culture lay in the middle reaches of the Dnieper, in the regions later 

 inhabited by the Polians. Grekov considers it to be an established fact 

 that the culture of Kiev Russ is a successor of Antean culture. 



In this connection Academician Grekov dwelt on the researches 

 of Soviet archeologists concerning Russian culture and in particular 

 ancient Russian cities. The first stage in these researches was devoted 

 to revealing the prehistory of these cities, going far back into the pre- 

 feudal period. The most important of these ancient cities were those 

 which preceded modern Kiev, the settlements of the eighth and ninth 

 centuries on the ancient site of Riurik near Novgorod, the cultural 

 strata of the fifth and sixth centuries underlying the Pskov Kremlin, 

 and the ancient strata of Staraia Ladoga dating back to the seventh 

 and eighth centuries. 



Taken in conjunction with the collections obtained by pre-Revolu- 

 tionary expeditions, the many handicraft objects found in recent 

 excavations enable archeologists to have a detailed picture of the 

 evolution of urban crafts, their connection with and influence upon 

 rural crafts, the progress and differentiation of technical methods, 



2 See Minns, Ellis H., Thirty years of work at Olbia, Journ. Hellenic Studies, 

 vol. 45, pp. I09-II2, 1945. 



