The monuments of the Irmen culture of the Lower Tom river area. The historiographical review

The approaches, which deal with origin, development and dating of the Irmen archaeological culture on the territory of the Lower Tom River Area, are firstly analyzed by the author. The article begins with the data about allocation of the Irmen culture and its local variants, determines the relevance of the geographical location of this region and its role in the cultural and historical contacts between forest-steppe and taiga population groups, gives information about relevance of research. The author divides the history of study of the Irmen culture into two periods: from 1920 to 1950 years, because scientists believed that the monuments of the Irmen culture were attributed to Karasuk culture; and from 1950 to present days as N.L. Chlenova proved the existence of the separate Irmen culture as a fact. In 1973 N.L. Chlenova raised the issue of identification of local variants of the Irmen culture and this issue is highly relevant today. In 1952 M.P. Gryaznov claimed about existence of the Tomsk local variant. The author aimed at considering the available literature on the topic and concluded that many scientists after M.P. Gryaznov identified the Tomsk variant, but nobody analyzed its cultural specificity. The issue of identification of local Tomsk variant of the Irmen culture is complicated because the researchers do not have the materials of representative single layer Irmen monument from the territory of the Lower Tom River Area. The author considers that this monument might be the place Chekist. Therefore, the article generalizes views of researchers on genesis and dating of the Tomsk variant of the Irmen culture, who referred to materials of the monuments of Late Bronze Age of the Lower Tom River Area. The problem of introduction of new Irmen materials of the Lower Tom River Area, definition of their cultural features with the assistance of modern interdisciplinary methods and their comparison with other local variants of the Irmen culture is highlighted in the article. The author's attention is focused on two aspects of research of the Tomsk variant of the Irmen culture. At the beginning the concepts of genesis of this local variant are analyzed, then views on the dating of the Irmen culture are given in general. Also the author raises the issue of the dating of Tomsk local variant. The author concludes that it is necessity to study both above-mentioned issues and cultural features of the monuments of the Irmen culture based on new sources in scientific circulation.

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