During the 2022 excavation season at the Western Suburban Complex (WSC), work on Room III (Blue Hall) has been continued. Two fragments of pottery discovered there date back to the ancient Chorasmian period. At the -210 and -212 cm levels from the benchmark, a flooring consisting of mud brick pavement was discovered (41–42 × 41–42 cm). The most numerous finds in the 2022 season were fragments of painting, made with glue paint on loess plaster, covered with white loose soil – gypsum in the form of dihydrate. The polarizing microscopy of the composition of paint samples showed that the blue pigment consists of natural ultramarine, the red-brown one is red ocher, and the green paint is made of atacamite (copper hydroxychloride). When Room III had ceased functioning normally, it lost its roof and has been gradually filled with various layers of ground. Judging by the complete absence of animal bones, hearths and/or bonfires, as well as the meager amount of ceramics, secondary habitation of the ruined premises is clearly improbable. The discovered brick pavements are not related to the period of the WSC’s functioning and appeared after the process of destruction of the walls had gone far enough. The last stage of the destruction corresponds to the layer lying on top of the brickwork in the northeast corner of Room III, containing numerous fragments of painted plaster. The lifetime and destruction of the WSC fully corresponds to the ancient Chorasmian period.

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This article gives a general idea of the most significant scientific contacts and discussions between Western and Russian (Soviet) archaeologists about the era of early nomads: the origin of the “animal style”, the balance and interaction between the Scythian cultures of Siberia, Greater Black Sea area, Mongolia and Northern China, the chronology and ways of spreading of these cultures. Whereas Soviet scholars could at least read the works of their English-speaking and German-speaking colleagues, for most Western researchers the language barrier remained an insurmountable obstacle. Most authors of generalizing and popular works on “Scythias” had to use the publications of those few scientists who somehow knew the Russian language. This work is an attempt to fill to some extent this gap in the history of the study of archaeological cultures of Southern Siberia and Altai.

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