To the 40th Anniversary of the Beginning of V.I. Matyushchenko's Research of the Okunevsky Archaeological Microdistrict

In 1985 Vladimir Ivanovich Matyushchenko began excavations near the village of Okunevo, Muromtsevsky District, Omsk Region. Initially, his attention was drawn to an early burial ground on the Tatar Ridge (Okunevo V, VII). Subsequent analysis of both previously known and later discovered sites located from the village of Okunevo downstream of the left bank of the Tara River made adjustments to the researcher's plans. Their cluster was designated by V.I. Matyushchenko as the Okunevsky Archaeological Microdistrict. He and his students were engaged in its targeted study until the beginning of the 21st century. He made a methodically correct decision to excavate objects on the Tatar Ridge as a continuous area, including the excavations of V.A. Mogilnikov, B.A. Konikov and A.I. Petrov, including their own excavations of the first years. The obtained result allowed us to be convinced that the studied complex of monuments is a complex structure of burial, sacrificial and, probably, settlement objects. At the present stage, it is necessary to review and systematize the previously accumulated material within the framework of creating a cultural-chronological scale for the Okunevsky archaeological microdistrict. No less important is the study of artifacts using modern natural-scientific methods, including obtaining dates for an array of 299 graves of different times.