REVIEW OF THE COLLECTIVE MONOGRAPH “ARCHEOLOGY OF THE KIZIL VALLEY (SOUTHERN URALS): IN SEARCH OF THE ORIGINS OF THE ARKAIM- SINTASHTA CULTURE”. CHELYABINSK: ARKAIM MUSEUM-R ESERVE, 2024. 280 P

This review examines a collective monograph devoted to the publication of burials of the Yamnaya culture. These burials were studied as part of three cemeteries located close to each other in the Ural River valley near the village of Kizilskoye in the Chelyabinsk Region. The reviewed monograph also publishes data on the study of a number of accompanying materials obtained in the course of the studies. They are: inlet burials of the Sintashta culture and the Petrovka culture of the Bronze Age, inlet burials of nomads of the Early Iron Age, a burial complex of the Alakul culture and fragments of the cultural layer of a Neolithic site and a settlement of the Alakul culture, which were found in the embankment of one of the excavated kurgans. This review examines the structure of the book under review and the main research methods presented in it. The review also analyzes the signifi cance of the Yamnaya culture in the modern study of cultural genesis in the Eurasian steppe of the Bronze Age. The review notes that the Yamnaya culture is considered by most modern researchers as a culture of early speakers of the Proto- Indo- European language. It also notes the major role of the Yamnaya population in the migrations of the Bronze Age, which is confi rmed by modern paleogenetic studies. It concludes that the publication considering one of the extremely few complexes of the Yamnaya culture discovered to date in the Chelyabinsk region is of great scientifi c signifi cance. At the same time, the review makes a number of critical comments regarding the title of the work under review, its terminology, conclusions about the relationship between the Yamnaya culture and the Sintashta culture, as well as some gaps in the use of natural science research methods.