The archaeological study of the vast Siberian expanses began relatively recently. Even in the first quarter of the 20th century, it never occurred to anyone that something of interest for the history of Russia could be stored in the depths of the earth on the territory from the Urals to the Far East.
Ancient astronomers
The intensive development of Siberia, which began in the 18th century, resulted in the rapid growth of cities and, in turn, the emergence of cultural and natural science institutions in them. So, in Barnaul already in 1748 the first museum of local history in Siberia was opened. It was followed by museums in Tomsk, Tobolsk, Irkutsk, Biysk. However, all the materials collected in them were only accidentally found antiques or were collections that tell about the development of certain areas of industry or mining. The first event that marked the beginning of the development of archaeological science in Siberia was the expedition of Soviet scientists to the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite in 1927. The researchers failed to find material traces of the fallen celestial body, but they made a number of interesting archaeological finds. So,the famous Moscow archaeologist Semyon Batitsky discovered on the Unger plateau in the northeast of the Sayan Mountains, traces of the so-called Pankean people, 6 thousand years ago inhabiting most of the northeast of Asia. This ethnos was destroyed by the Mongol civilization, which was advancing to the West. However, the most curious thing was not the very fact of the discovery of archaeological traces of this nationality, but the material evidence left over from the pankey. In addition to the fact that it was possible to find household items from this rare nationality, already in those years actively engaged in metal smelting, making unique tools, heaps and weapons, Batitsky discovered in one of the caves, apparently serving as a place of worship of an ancient cult, very mysterious drawings. Under a thick layer of lime dust and moss lay a large marble slab (although there is no marble in those parts),in the upper part of which a map of the starry sky was carved, and in the lower part - primitive images of people, accompanied by mysterious cuneiform inscriptions. Batitsky took the find to Moscow, and then to Leningrad, where he showed it to astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory. Imagine the surprise of both Batitsky and astronomers when they discovered on the plate, in addition to the starry sky visible in the summer months in Eastern Siberia, a tailed comet flying down towards the small contours of people. Comparing the date of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite with the image of the sky drawn on the slab, the researchers put forward a bold hypothesis: several millennia before the catastrophe that happened in the Siberian taiga, ancient scientists predicted its time and place. But Batitsky did not manage to decipher the cuneiform then. A few years later, the scientist was arrested and shot,and the marble slab brought from Siberia was lost forever.
Altai giants
Traces of another ancient and mysterious civilization were accidentally discovered in 1969 during a strong earthquake in Gorny Altai. As a result of strong tremors, a multi-meter layer of snow mixed with rock came off the Beltau ridge. An expedition of Novosibirsk scientists who traveled to the site of a natural disaster discovered that the mountainous relief had undergone drastic changes. They also saw previously unknown caves and mountain tunnels. At the very first inspection, it became clear to scientists that these places were once inhabited. Upon closer examination, the researchers stumbled upon giant bones, which at first were mistaken for the remains of fossil monkeys. However, the fact that these bones lay in shallow, as if specially hollowed out for this niches, prompted scientists to think about the "rationality factor" in the approach to their burial. The remains were taken to Novosibirsk, where they lay in the storerooms of one of the research laboratories for many years. Only in 1991 was one of the young scientists working on them working on a dissertation on fossil animals of the Cretaceous period. After careful analyzes and reconstruction of the skeleton from the bones found two decades ago, he came to a sensational conclusion - the remains, which were more than half a million years old, belonged to a humanoid creature. This was evidenced by a set of chromosomes similar to a human, as well as the structure of the main bones: the pelvis, wrist, femur and skull. According to the medical examination, the found creature died at the age of … 800 years. In his dissertation, based on this discovery, the scientist tried to refute the official version of the emergence of human civilization, provingthat human history has deeper roots and over the past period the appearance of man has undergone significant changes. Unfortunately, the dissertation council recognized the research as unscientific and ruined the dissertation.
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"Construction of the century" - for scientists
A large number of amazing archaeological finds were facilitated by the construction of the BAM, when in the seventies and eighties of the last century thousands of kilometers of previously unknown spaces were developed. So, during the laying of the path through the Baikal ridge, archaeologists of the Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences walked side by side with the tunnellers and builders. For five years of shock construction in the rock of those places, they, in particular, found evidence of the existence of one of the two continents of the Earth - Laurasia more than 120 million years ago. There were found fossil remains of a fossil animal the size of a dog - Lystrosaurus, which at the turn of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods mastered almost all of the still unified land of the Earth and disappeared as suddenly as dinosaurs.
In the same area, scientists found fragments of the skeletons of a baryonyx (or fish eater) and a plesiosaur that lived in an aquatic environment embedded in rocks. Finds of these fossils that lived 60-100 million years ago have never been found beyond the Urals, and most of the remains of these animals came across a line. on the African continent, separated from Laurasia 65 million years ago. However, scientists were interested not so much in the very fact of the discovery of prehistoric creatures, but in how their fragments ended up in the rock. Through careful radiocarbon research, archaeologists have made an unexpected discovery. Namely, the stone that surrounded the skeleton was once melted. There was a hypothesis that the mountain systems, which were experiencing a period of active growth at that time, were subjected to a short but very strong thermal effect. It was likeas if in those parts many tens of millions of years ago there was an atomic explosion, similar to Hiroshima, which completely destroyed most of the animals of the Cretaceous period. This version is indirectly confirmed by the fact that on the vast territory of the Siberian region, scientists, neither before this find, nor after, could not find the remains of fossil lizards.
There was a great flood
Five years later, in the north of the Irkutsk region, in the area where the permafrost begins, during blasting operations at the quarry, workers found well-preserved remains of a mammoth. This finding was not sensational - fragments of the bodies of these animals are often found in Siberia. But the autopsy of the animal gave amazing results. First, the discovered female mammoth was pregnant and the fetus was in excellent condition in her womb. Second - and this was most unusual - in the stomach of a female mammoth, scientists stumbled upon undigested grass. All this testified to the extremely rapid rigor mortis of the animal, which happened about 8000 years ago. Ivan Pavlovich Nesterov, a scientist from the Novosibirsk Institute of Earth Problems, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, found a very original explanation for this finding.
In his opinion, the last epoch of the Ice Age, which began 12,000 years ago, was about 8000 BC. e. took on catastrophic proportions. Millions of tons of cold water poured out from the ice caps of the North and South Poles that melted in a short time, forming giant tidal waves. They swept over the Eastern Hemisphere and led to a sharp and significant drop in temperature. As a result of the last global cataclysm in the history of the planet, a significant part of living beings and primitive people who lived in the lowlands and plains died out. According to the hypothesis of some Western scientists, the legendary Atlantis also perished in the same period …
Today the eyes of scientists are increasingly attracted to the beautiful Baikal. In their opinion, in the unexplored depths of this purest and one of the oldest lakes in the world, secrets are hidden that can shed light on many "white spots" of the ancient history of the Earth.
Source: “Secrets of the XX century. Golden Series"