History of research and elements of the historiography of burial sites of the Turkic period in Baraba forest-steppe

This article describes the history of research into the burial sites of the Turkic-speaking population in the Baraba forest-steppe, which was conducted from the 19th century to the present day. Three successive stages in studying the sites of this population have been identified based on intensity and methods of research. First stage was associated with scholars such as V.V. Radlov, G.O. Ossovsky, and S.M. Chugunov who worked in the mid 19 th - early 20 th century. Importantfield studies were done in this period, yielding rich material evidence which was analyzed and interpreted later in the mid 20th century by D.G. Savinov. The second stage began in the 1960s and was associated with the work of the Expedition of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute and Western Siberian Unit of the Northern Asian Expedition of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. That stage was marked by active research of the Early Medieval sites. Third stage has started in 1988 and is distinguished as a period of broad generalizations with studies analyzing the previously accumulated evidence and reconstructing ethnic, cultural, and social processes in Baraba in addition to field research. It has been established that the Turkic-speaking tribes began to migrate to this territory in the mid 8th century from Northern Altai. In recent decades there has been a slight decline of interest in Medieval sites. Targeted field studies of Medieval burials have not been carried out; all discovered and studied burial complexes are associated with their location in earlier necropolises or settlements.