Эта книга сосредотачивается на проблемах археологии бронзового и железного века Урала и Западной Сибири, которые характеризуются значительными переменами, происходящими на всем протяжении истории Евразии. Эта область предлагает интересную возможность исследовать культурное взаимодействие в важном перекрестке, где сталкиваются влияния Востока, Запада, Севера и Юга. Это взаимодействие привело к большому разнообразию культурных традиций, у которых было или европейское или азиатское происхождение.-The Ural area can be defined in terms of its geographic location as a natural boundary between Europe and Asia. It is characterized by great landscape and environmental diversity: steppe, forest-steppe, forests, and mountains. In late prehistory, these areas were occupied by societies on different social and economic levels (nomadic, half-nomadic, settled pastoralists, specialist metallurgists), and different ethnic attributions (supposedly proto-Iranian and proto Finno-Ugrian speakers). This area offers an interesting opportunity to examine cultural behavior at an important crossroads, where the influences of the East, the West, the North, and the South meet. This interaction resulted in a great variety of cultural traditions that had either European or Asiatic origins. Therefore, it is quite difficult to separate the prehistory of the Urals and Western Siberia area from that of the rest Eurasia.
