Vitaly Yegorovich Medvedev, a well - known archaeologist in Russia and abroad, researcher of North Asia and the Far East, organizer and participant of numerous scientific expeditions and projects, including international ones, Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief researcher, head of the Neolithic Research Sector of the Institute of Neolithic Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has turned 70.

V. E. Medvedev was born on November 1, 1941 in the Novosibirsk region. His parents, the same age as the twentieth century, experienced all the tragedies and triumphs of the past century. His father, Yegor Afanasyevich, participated in the Civil War, served in the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic in Transbaikalia and Mongolia. In 1941, three months before the birth of Vitaly, he went to the front, soon found himself surrounded, captured, escaped and fought as a Red Army soldier until the end of the war. The mother, Tatyana Antonovna, had to raise five children alone for a long time, working together with adults from an early age.

Vitaly's dream of archeology was born in elementary school, but it was not immediately realized. After graduating from the Toguchinsky Forestry Technical School, he worked for three years as a taxi driver's assistant at the West Siberian Aerial Forestry Enterprise in Novosibirsk.

In 1963, V. E. Medvedev entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Tomsk State University, and in 1964 he was enrolled in the second year of the Faculty of Humanities of Novosibirsk State University. V. I. Matyushchenko and E. M. Bers, a well-known expert in the archaeology of the Urals and Siberia, were among his first mentors, and he completed field archaeological practice after his first and second years in the Ob region and Altai. In 1966, A. P. Derevyanko invited V. E. Medvedev to join the Far Eastern Archaeological Expedition of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the North Asian Expedition of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Under the guidance of A. P. Derevyanko, Medvedev prepared a thesis on the Polish culture of the Early Iron Age on the Amur River.

After completing his studies at the University in 1968, V. E. Medvedev was hired at the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now IAET SB RAS). Here he worked his way up from senior laboratory assistant to head of the sector. At the newly established Institute, V. E. Medvedev received an offer from Academician A. P. Okladnikov to study the Jurchen Middle Ages in the Amur region, which at that time was practically not studied. The first excavations showed exceptional information content of the monuments. Numerous and diverse material materials and extensive field observations allowed V. E. Medvedev to characterize aspects of the material and spiritual culture of the Tungus-speaking population of the Amur region unknown from chronicle sources on the eve of the creation of the Golden Jurchen Empire, which became the peak of the economic, political and cultural flourishing of the inhabitants of Manchuria, the Amur Region and Primorye. In 1975, he successfully defended his PhD thesis on the topic " Culture of the Amur Jurchens. The end of the X-XI century."

Subsequent years in the biography of V. E. Medvedev are associated with large-scale studies of ancient settlements, settlements, ground burial grounds, mounds and temples of the medieval population of the Far East. Based on the obtained materials, a series of fundamental monographs and a doctoral dissertation "The Middle and Lower Amur region at the end of the first and first quarter of the second millennium AD (Jurchen era)" were prepared, which Vitaly Yegorovich defended in 1984. The scientist put forward and substantiated a number of fundamentally important provisions that became the subject of close attention of members of the scientific community engaged in the history of medieval times. cultures of not only the Russian Far East, but also the territories of neighboring countries-China, North Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

V. E. Medvedev unearthed and studied a group of monuments of the Bohai culture of the early Middle Ages in Primorye. The Borisov Temple he studied is one of the earliest manifestations of Buddhism in the far south of the Russian Far East. Vitaly Yegorovich was the first to find and study the ancient settlements of the Poltsevo culture in the Priussurye region, the materials of which are important for recreating the circumstances of the settlement of the vast Amur-Primorye territory by cultural carriers.

V. E. Medvedev also studied dozens of Neolithic monuments of the Russian Far East. Over the past 25 to 30 years, the archaeological team led by him has been exploring complexes of the entire Neolithic cultural spectrum in the south of this region. As a result, the source base for the New Stone Age has significantly increased, previously unknown archaeological cultures have been identified, and the interpretation of already known cultures has been deepened and corrected.

The discovery of the oldest pottery on the planet is associated with the name of V. I. Medvedev: pottery of the initial Neolithic period was discovered at the monuments of Gasya, Gosyan, Sakachi-Alyan (Lower point) in the Far East. A multidisciplinary study of a series of the earliest Neolithic complexes in the region, conducted by V. E. Medvedev and his colleagues, allowed us to conclude that the appearance of ceramics among the inhabitants of continental Northeast Asia and the entire Northern Eurasia is 5-6 thousand years earlier than was generally believed.

In 2000-2005, Medvedev served as co-director and participant of a joint Russian-Korean archaeological expedition that excavated Neolithic and Early Metal Age settlements in the lower reaches of the Amur River and in the south of Primorye. All the research materials, comprising 16 volumes with a total volume of 308.4 pp, are published in Seoul in Russian and Korean. V. E. Medvedev is the author and editor of a significant part of these publications. He is also a responsible editor of a large number of other monographs and collections of scientific articles.

Vitaly Yegorovich took part in the Soviet-Mongolian Expedition (1968, 1969) and the UNESCO Great Silk Road Marine Expedition (1991). He presented the results of his research at numerous conferences, symposiums and congresses held in our country and abroad - in China, Korea, and Japan. Vladimir Medvedev gave lectures at universities in China (Changchun, Harbin). His finds were exhibited at many Russian exhibitions in Asia, Europe, and Australia. Vitaly Yegorovich presented the exhibition "Culture of Siberia and the Far East", held in Japan (Osaka, Sendai, 1987), was one of the organizers of the exhibition in Seoul, dedicated to the results of excavations in the Amur Region and Primorye (2006). Vitaly Yegorovich is well known in the scientific community as a talented teacher. Under his leadership, hundreds of historical students from Novosibirsk State University, Khabarovsk Humanitarian Pedagogical University and Komsomolsk-on-Amur Pedagogical University completed field archaeological practice. For many students, he was the supervisor of term papers and theses. He is also honored at his native Novosibirsk State University. It is worth noting that Medvedev was the first NSU graduate to defend his PhD and doctoral dissertations in archaeology. His scientific and pedagogical activity at the university is in demand at the present time, Vitaly Yegorovich is actively engaged in training scientific personnel, among his students there are many candidates of science.

V. E. Medvedev is a member of the Academic Council and Dissertation Council for the Defense of Doctoral Dissertations at the Institute of Electric Power Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal "Archeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia" and a member of the editorial board of the journal "Izvestiya Irkutskogo Gosuniversiteta".

Vitaly Yegorovich was repeatedly elected a member of the trade union committee, chairman of the people's control group, and secretary of the institute's party organization. He is characterized by a respectful attitude towards his teachers and senior colleagues, benevolence and commitment.

V. E. Medvedev is the author of more than 300 scientific papers, including 20 monographs; dozens of his studies have been published in Asia, Europe, and America. Together with the co-authors of the series of works on the problems of Pacific archeology, Vitaly Yegorovich was recognized as the winner of the contest of fundamental works of the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1984).-

lo state presidential fellows - outstanding scientists of Russia.

V. E. Medvedev was awarded the Veteran of Labor medal, many certificates of honor and diplomas of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and other departments. In 2002, he was awarded the honorary title of Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation. In 2005, President of the Republic of Korea V. E. Medvedev was awarded a Badge of Distinction, a diploma and a prize for his tireless and responsible performance of his duties, a great contribution to the development of society through the preservation of cultural heritage.

For many decades, Vitaly Yegorovich's wife, Oksana Sergeevna, a reliable friend and assistant, has been working alongside him. Together they shared the joys and difficulties of field expedition life.

Cordially congratulating Vitaly Yegorovich Medvedev on his glorious anniversary, we wish him good health, long life and creative pursuits, joyful communication with his family, friends and colleagues, and all his family - well-being and happiness.