NO. 13 SOVIET ANTHROPOLOGY — FIELD ^J 



only the following could he identified : large deer [ ?], cave bear, and 

 wild pig. 



The underlying strata are devoid of archeological finds and consist 

 largely of gravel deposited by the floods of the Mzymta River, which 

 since that time has managed to deepen its valley by 120 m., as demon- 

 strated by the marks at the bottom of the cave. 



Conference on material culture. — The material culture of the Black 

 Sea coast area in ancient times was the subject of a recent conference '" 

 in Leningrad attended by specialists from archeology, history, and 

 art research institutes as well as universities in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, 

 Kharkov, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Saratov, and Leningrad. 



The conference heard and discussed more than 30 reports treating 

 various aspects of the life, socio-economic structure, religion, art, and 

 ethnography of the Black Sea coast area at various periods and in 

 many localities. Most of them were summaries of researches by Soviet 

 scientists, in particular field investigations carried out just before the 

 war and during the 1945 season. 



Professor Kovalev pointed out that the Black Sea coast area was 

 a flourishing center of culture in antiquity, and exerted its influence 

 on Slavonic tribes. 



V. Gaidukevich observed that recent researches have shown that 

 the Greek cities on the Black Sea coast area in ancient times were not 

 isolated seats of culture and that the local population played an active 

 part in building up the ancient culture Soviet archeologists designate 

 as Greco-Scytho-Sarmatian culture. Although the local tribes were 

 subjected to the influence of Greece, in general they retained their 

 own original culture. 



This thesis was corroborated by results of numerous excavations 

 reported at the conference, for example, those brought back by the 

 expedition led by P. Shults last summer to the site of the ancient 

 Scythian capital, Xeapolis. 



A prominent place on the agenda was given to reports on studies 

 of the relations between the local population of tlie Black Sea coast 

 steppe areas and the Greek colonies. To understand these relations 

 properly it is necessary to know something about the period preceding 

 Greek colonization. This was dealt with in a report l)y A. Jcsscn. 

 who mustered facts indicating intensive development of trade and 

 cultural ties as far back as the third millennium B. C. among the tribes 

 living along the Black Sea coast. Archeological data show that articles 

 from the Near East penetrated through the Caucasus into the Kuban 



*" Summarized from the Moscow Xcws, June 8, 19.46. 



