The conference honours the work of Professor V.A. Ranov (1924-2006) – Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Head of the Department of Archaeology, A. Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography.

V.A. Ranov was an outstanding researcher of the Stone Age of Tajikistan and Eurasia as a whole, and one of the world's leading experts on the Stone Age. For a long period (1949-2005) he studied the ancient history of mankind, and made a major contribution to the development of global Stone Age archaeology and related sciences (Quaternary geology, palaeopedology, palaeogeography, etc.).

Based on the results of many years of archaeological research, he developed a cultural and chronological interpretation of all periods of the Stone Age of Tajikistan and Central Asia, periodized Central Asian Palaeolithic sites, and proposed a model of the “relay” type of migration of in the Palaeolithic.

As a result of studies of hominin habitation in loess and palaeosols, in the 1970’s V.A. Ranov opened a new scientific topic in the study of the world's Stone Age - the “Loess Palaeolithic”.

 

In the difficult high-mountain conditions of the Pamirs, he discovered and excavated the Oshkhona site and opened more than 60 stone tools sites, attributing their industry to the Markansu Epipaleolithic culture (8-6 ka). There he also discovered the highest mountain rock art in the world (Shakhty grotto).

 

V.A. Ranov participated in excavations in almost 20 countries, gave lectures at the world's largest scientific centres, and had the opportunity to work with Stone Age collections in many famous scientific and museum repositories. For many years he was vice-president of the international commission “Palaeoecology of Ancient Humans” INQUA.

 

The conference will include an exhibition of scientific works and archaeological collections from Palaeolithic sites studied by V.A. Ranov.