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The discipline of archaeology as practiced in
Russia and North America shares common roots in the historical-descriptive
perspectives developed by Oscar Montelius. However, after 1917 this unified
theoretical orientation diverged with the imposition of Communist ideologies
and adoption of a simplistic unilinear evolutionary scheme. Between 1950 and
1990 the enforcement of Stalinist dogma gradually relaxed and Russian
archaeologists were able to return to their historically oriented theoretical
foundations. It was during this period
that Russian archaeologists, such as A. P. Okladnikov, G. I Andreev and Z. V.
Andreeva, conducted the earliest field investigations in the Primorye Region of
the Russian Far East. These scholars,
along with a cadre of their students, created the present day tripartite
organization of Primorye’s archaeological cultures into Stone Age (Late
Paleolithic and Neolithic periods), Bronze Age and Iron Age.
During the closing years of the twentieth
century North American and Russian archaeologists have enjoyed the opportunity
to conduct joint primary research into the prehistory of Siberia and the
Russian Far East. The result of these
efforts is now leading to a rapprochement of the two schools of thought and the
development of new theoretical and methodological perspectives. This paper explores the diachronic
development of the two disciplines of archaeology and the recent formation of
mutually shared perspectives that are building a new foundation for future
research.
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