Archaeology, Institute of

(full name, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), in Moscow. It is the successor to a number of institutions. On Apr. 18, 1919, the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture (RAIMK) was created on the base of the Archaeological Commission, which had been founded in 1859. In 1926, RAIMK was renamed the State Academy of the History of Material Culture (GAIMK). Consisting of the ethnology department, the archaeology department, and the art and history department, GAIMK also included the Moscow Section, the Institute of Historical Technology, and five auxiliary institutions. GAIMK carried out significant archaeological investigations. Its activities were reflected in the publications Izvestiia RAIMK (vols. 1–4, Petrograd-Leningrad, 1921–25), Izvestiia GAIMK (vol. 5, Leningrad, 1927; vol. 6 [issues 1–10] through vol. 13 [issues 1–10], Leningrad, 1930–32; vol. 14 [issues 1–4], Leningrad, 1932; issues 60–154, Moscow-Leningrad, 1932–36) and Soobshcheniia GAIMK (vols. 1–2, 1926–29; nos. 1–11/12, 1931–32) and in the journals Problemy istorii material’noi kul’tury (Problems of the History of Material Culture; 1933, issues 1–10) and Problemy istorii dokapitalisticheskikh obshchestv (Problems of the History of Precapitalist Societies; 1934, nos. 1–11/12; 1935, nos. 1–10). In 1937, GAIMK became part of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR under the name Institute of the History of Material Culture (IIMK). In 1959, IIMK was renamed the Institute of Archaeology. In 1969 the Institute of Archaeology had the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age section, the Scythian and Sarma-tian archaeology section, the classical archaeology section, the section of the archaeology of Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Slavic and Russian archaeology section, the division of field research, a laboratory of archaeological techniques, a laboratory for analyzing and processing objects, and the manuscript and photo archives section. The laboratories perfect and use the newest methods of analyzing archaeological materials, including dating with radioactive carbon (¹⁴C), dendrochronology, spectral and structural analysis, and pollen analysis. The Institute of Archaeology has a graduate school.

The Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archaeology (LOIA) has archives and the largest archaeological library in the USSR. Since 1946 archival materials have been concentrated in Moscow. The division of field research plans and controls archaeological excavations and issues permits authorizing excavations within the RSFSR. The institute carries out excavations outside Russia—in Bulgaria, the People’s Republic of Mongolia, the United Arab Republic, Iran, Albania, and Afghanistan. Its printed organs are Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR (Materials and Research on Archaeology in the USSR; since 1940), Kratkie soobshcheniia o dokladakh u polevykh is-sledovaniiakh (Brief Reports on Speeches and Field Research; since 1939), Sovetskaia arkheologiia (1936–59), Epigrafika Vostoka (Eastern Epigraphy; since 1947), Numizmatika i epigrafika (Numismatics and Epigraphy; since 1960), and the journal Sovetskaia arkheologiia (since 1957). In 1969 the Institute of Archaeology was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.