Gorodtsov, Vasilii

Gorodtsov, Vasilii Alekseevich 

Born Mar. 11 (23), 1860, in the village of Dubrovichi, now in Riazan’ Oblast; died Feb. 3, 1945, in Moscow. Soviet archaeologist. Member of the CPSU from 1938.

Gorodtsov was a professor at Moscow University (1918–44) and a number of other higher educational institutions. His principal works were devoted to various branches of archaeology, including ethnology and historical geography. He was one of the first to discover and investigate Paleolithic dwellings (Timonovka site, 1928). He devised a classification of Bronze Age archaeological cultures in the steppe and forest zones of European Russia that has now been adopted by all scholars and scientists. Gorodtsov also investigated remains from the Early Iron Age (Bel’sk and Elizavetovskii fortified sites and many others) and medieval antiquities (Staraia Riazan’ and Madzhar). His general summaries on the archaeology of Russia formed the basis of modern archaeological knowledge. Gorodtsov devoted much of his time to field research methods, museum activities, teaching, and the popularization of archaeology. He was awarded the Order of Lenin.

WORKS

Pervobytnaia arkheologiia. Moscow, 1908.
Bytovaia arkheologiia. Moscow, 1910.
“Kul’tury bronzovoi epokhi v Srednei Rossii.” In the book Otchet Rossiiskogo istoricheskogo muzeia v Moskve za 1914 g. Moscow, 1915.
Arkheologiia, vol. 1: Kamennyi period Moscow-Petrograd, 1923. “Starshee Kashirskoe gorodische.” In the book Izv. Gosudarstvennoi akademii istorii material’noe kul’tury, fasc. 85.Moscow-Leningrad, 1933.
Timonovskaiapaleoliticheskaia stoianka. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935.

REFERENCE

Krainov, D. A. “K stoletiiu so dnia rozhdeniia V. A. Gorodtsova.” Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 1960, no. 1.

D. B. SHELOV