
International seminar “Bosporos and Northern Colchis”
On the 5th of December 2020 took place the International online seminar “Bosporus and the Northern Colchis. Greek colonies in a non‑Greek surrounding: dynamics of interaction of differently organized societies”, which was attended by participants from Russia, Georgia and Romania. The project was carried out under the direction of A.I. Ivantchik with financial support from the Russian Science Foundation.

Migrations of Ancient Societies: Les migrations en discussion
On the 23rd of October 2020, Valentina Mordvintseva and Jean‑Paul Demoule delivered lectures during the discussion «Les Migrations en discussion» («Migrations in a discussion») in the series of online‑seminars «Géographie historique et géoarchéologie» («Historical Geography and Geo‑archaeology») of the l’École normale supérieure, Paris organized by Prof. Anca Dan.

Poletayev Readings 9¾
On October 2, 2020, Poletayev Readings 9¾ took place – annual conference of the Poletayev Institute for Humanitarian Historical and Theoretical Studies. We present a report by Elizaveta Lysenko, Alexander Mikhailovsky, and Ksenia Belik, and video recordings of the round table discussions.

Eurasian Lectures in German Archaeological Institute
Dr. Valentina Mordvintseva gave a lecture ‘The Sarmatian Archaeological Culture: The Network Model vs. Speculative’ in a series of on‑line lectures of the Eurasian Department of German Archaeological Institute.
Online course on the East Caucasian languages by the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory
This fall the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory will organize a free online course on the East Caucasian (alias Nakh-Daghestanian) language family. The course will start on October 14.

Irina Samarina: Have tonal languages always been tonal?
Brazilian Linguistics Association, Abralin, in cooperation with Comité International Permanent des Linguistes, Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina, Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Lingüísticos, Associação de Linguística Aplicada do Brasil, Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, Linguistic Society of America, Linguistics Association of Great Britain, Societas Linguistica Europaea, Australian Linguistic Society, British Association for Applied Linguistics, and Sociedad Española de Lingüística is organizing a virtual event: Abralin ao Vivo — Linguists Online. Irina Samarina gives her lecture ‘Have tonal languages always been tonal? Vietic languages and the monosyllabisation process’.
The Earliest Cat on the Northern Silk Road
Associate Professor Irina Arzhantseva and Professor Heinrich Haerke from the HSE Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology (Faculty of Humanities) have been involved in the discovery of the earliest domestic cat yet found in northern Eurasia. The study has been published in Scientific Reports journal.

Middle Eastern Studies published an article by an IOCS HSE’s scholar Dr Denis Volkov
Middle Eastern Studies, a leading journal in the field, has published an article authored by Associate Professor Denis V. Volkov. ‘The evil genius of Iranian constitutionalism? “Bloody Shapshal” at the Qajar court’ presents the findings of Volkov’s research that is part of a major international project ‘Life Writing and Historiography of the Modern Middle East’ carried out under the aegis of the Centre for the Study of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (CSMECCA) with the participation of the IOCS’ researchers as well as scholars from France, Austria, United Kingdom and the USA.

Shedding Light on Mysteries of the Past
Michele Minardi, from Italy, holds a PhD in Archaeology from Sydney University and has spent a number of years in investigating Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. He has recently joined the team of Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology of the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies as a Research Fellow. We spoke with Michele about his projects, teaching methods and expedition plans.

‘The Sense of Doing Something New Appeals to Me’
Professor Heinrich Haerke, a renowned archaeology expert, has been cooperating with HSE University researchers for a long time. This year he has joined HSE as a Professor at the recently formed Centre for Classical and Oriental Archaeology. He has talked to HSE News Service about his research interests, field projects, and teaching archaeology.