Relics of the early iron age in the materials of the new-building expeditions of the 70–90-ies of the XX century in Dnipropetrovsk region

The author considers the contribution of the new-building expeditions of the Institute of archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv state Universities, which conducted archaeological researches in the 70–90-ies of the XX century in Dnipropetrovsk region, to the reconstruction of the historical situation in the region in the early iron age. The article throws light upon the relics that belong to the historical Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians. Discoveries of the archaeological new-building expedition of Dnipropetrovsk state University indicate that Cimmerian tribes, having developed the left-bank Presteppe and southern forest-steppe area in the Seversky Donets basin, in the second half of the VIII – first half of the VII c. BC moved to the forest-steppe zone and participated in the ethno-cultural processes that took place there. In Dnipropetrovsk region, there are two centers containing relics of the Scythian time. The first one is associated with the left-bank Presteppe area and carries information about the time of invasion of individual groups of Scythian steppe population, which interacted with the inhabitants of the final bronze age. The second center is the right-bank area, where burial relics that belonged to the higher Scythian nobles are located. At the same time the essential attention was paid to the study of the Sarmatian period. As a result the north-steppe Dnieper region can be put in one line with the most studied areas of residence of the Sarmatians in Ukraine.