The article is devoted to the analysis of experience in implementing the international project of L.N. Gumilyov ENU (Republic of Kazakhstan) and NSU (Russia) in 2019. The international scientific and educational project “Antiquities of the Great Steppe in the Millennium Stream: Innovations in the Methodology of Archaeological and Ethnological Research” was held in the format of a summer field school. Stationary archeological camp of ENU in the East Kazakhstan region Kyrykungir site was the venue of project. In scientific terms, the project aims to develop and improve innovation methods in archeology and ethnography field research. In the educational aspect, the project pursued the expansion of professional experience and advanced training of students, Masters and PhD students, and young professionals. Next task the development of communication in the youth community took place. The school program covered a wide range of types of training: lectures, workshops, participation in archeological excavations of different archeology epochs objects, field archeological and ethnographic thematic excursions, own scientific presentation. Equally significant was the range of thematic areas relevant to modern archeology and ethnology. The organization and conduct of joint scientific projects contribute to the improvement of the qualifications of young specialists and are consistent with the goals of integrating academic science and higher education. The method of summer field schools forms as a «center of quality» corresponding to the intellectual environment and infrastructure in the field of humanitarian education in the modern world.

Results of an interdisciplinary (archaeological and pedological) study of the ancient soils in the Bozok district (8th to 15th centuries) are presented. Part of the district is a complex irrigation system dating to the 11th to 12th centuries. To detect the traces of ancient irrigation, surface and buried soils were studied. Results of the morphogenetic analysis, as well as the assessment of physical and chemical properties of soils and their microbiomorph composition, suggest that soils relating to various functional parts of the irrigation system within the same catena indicate agricultural use. The multivariate analysis revealed significant differences between irrigated and non-irrigated soils, and a high correlation between the former and the presence of diatom algae, sponge spicules, and phytoliths of Phragmites spp. in the microbiomorph fraction. The observed differences in the microbiomorph concentrations between soils in subordinate catena positions confirm the impact of irrigation on the transformation of the microbiomorph profiles of the ancient irrigated soils in terms of relief. The taxonomy of the buried and anthropogenically transformed surface soils at the type level suggest that over the last 900 years the pedogenic conditions changed from automorphic humus-accumulative to more semihydromorphic solonetzic ones.

The Asian Central Steppe, consisting of current-day Kazakhstan and Russia, has acted as a highway for major migrations throughout history. Therefore, describing the genetic composition of past populations in Central Asia holds value to understanding human mobility in this pivotal region. In this study, we analyse paleogenomic data generated from five humans from Kuygenzhar, Kazakhstan. These individuals date to the early to mid-18th century, shortly after the Kazakh Khanate was founded, a union of nomadic tribes of Mongol Golden Horde and Turkic origins. Genomic analysis identifies that these individuals are admixed with varying proportions of East Asian ancestry, indicating a recent admixture event from East Asia. The high amounts of DNA from the anaerobic Gram-negative bacteria Tannerella forsythia, a periodontal pathogen, recovered from their teeth suggest they may have suffered from periodontitis disease. Genomic analysis of this bacterium identified recently evolved virulence and glycosylation genes including the presence of antibiotic resistance genes predating the antibiotic era. This study provides an integrated analysis of individuals with a diet mostly based on meat (mainly horse and lamb), milk, and dairy products and their oral microbiome.

The tumuli of the Koy-Gunzhar burial ground (2400-2000 cal years BP) in the North Kazakhstan are monumental earthen mounds, built in honour of the Scythian elite. The tumuli, besides representing the diversity of the building techniques for such earth burial mounds, also provide a unique opportunity to study the direction and character of the paleosol diagenesis for nearly 2400 years. This soil-archaeological study aimed to reveal mound building techniques, the characteristics of materials used for construction, and diagenetic changes of the buried paleosols. The comparative analysis of tumulus embankments and buried soils (their genesis and diagenetic transformations) provided the opportunity to establish the source of the building material and to reconstruct some details of the building technologies. For instance, the Calcic Someric Kastanozem (Arenic, Protosodic), buried by loam-sandy and sandy substrate of the tumulus 3, corresponds to dry steppe conditions and has no considerable signs of diagenetic transformations, whereas the paleosol under the tumulus 1 was affected by strong diagenetic transformation supposedly due to acid drainage from the embankment which originally contained sulfidic material being subjected to oxidation and acidification after the tumulus construction. Diagenesis was manifested in the redistribution of pedogenic carbonates and enrichment in iron, magnesium, manganese, and aluminum compounds in the upper 32 cm of the buried soil. These elements were partially accumulated at the carbonate geochemical barrier (over Bk horizon of the buried soil). This soil was transformed by diagenesis from Kasrtanozem to Mollic Cambic Umbrisol (Epiloamic, Katoarenic). The builders of the tumulus 1 used a loamier substrate to construct the mound, different from the parent material for adjacent soils (loamy sands and sands). The loamier substrate ensured the firmness of the mound construction. The builders employed an uncommon technique to produce a mound with defined properties and used foreign building materials brought from the distance.

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