On March 20, 2011, Professor Dmitry Glebovich Savinov, a prominent scientist, specialist in the field of archaeology of North and Central Asia, a member of the editorial board of our journal, and a wonderful teacher who brought up dozens of young researchers - archaeologists and ethnographers-at St. Petersburg State University, turned 70.

Dmitry Savinov is a native Leningrader-Petersburger, born and raised in the family of hereditary artists O. B. Bogaevskaya and G. A. Savinov, who instilled in his son a fine artistic taste, a reverent attitude to the beautiful, including the history of painting and architecture. All this is evident in the work of D. G. Savinov, an archaeologist, especially in the works devoted to primitive art.

Dmitry's childhood was spent during the war years. In his life, there was a blockade and evacuation. At the school where he studied, he was mostly surrounded by children who had lost their parents. After returning to his hometown, Dmitry graduated from high school and entered the I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the USSR Academy of Arts. However, having been on an archaeological expedition for the first time, the young man transferred to the Leningrad State University (LSU) to the Department of Archeology.

Dmitry Glebovich considers several people to be his teachers. During his studies at the Department of Archaeology, his supervisor was Professor M. I. Artamonov, who greatly contributed to the formation of a young person's interest in the problems of Scythian times, in particular, Scythian art. Savinov became interested in primitive art and monumental sculpture in Central Asia and Siberia under the influence of the works of A. P. Okladnikov. The problems of Turkology, Mongolian studies and ethnography attracted the young researcher due to the influence of Professor L. P. Potapov. However, the closest mentors with whom D. G. Savinov actually worked together for more than half of his life were A. D. Grach , an excellent specialist in the archeology of Central Asia and a talented organizer of science, as well as the Russian Federation. Its is an outstanding Soviet ethnographer, director of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. These people were not much older than D. G. Savinov, so they actually became his friends-mentors who helped him not only in science, but also in solving life's problems. As Dmitry Glebovich notes, they were "very different people with almost the same fate, extremely talented, from whom a lot came involuntarily."

After graduating from the University, D. G. Savinov worked for several years as part of the Sayano-Tuva expedition, which conducted research in the flood zone of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. He first became a member of this expedition while still a student, and in 1965 he headed one of its detachments. We can say that it was here, in Tuva, that the formation of the future archaeologist began. Today, D. G. Savinov is well known to the scientific community primarily as an excellent field scientist, who masterfully studied funerary and settlement monuments, rock carvings and monumental sculpture. He studied hundreds of archaeological complexes in Tuva and Altai, in the Kuzbass and Minusinsk basin, in the Barabinsk forest-steppe and Upper Ob region.

In 1974, Dmitry Glebovich defended his PhD thesis on the topic "Culture of the population of Southern Siberia in the pre-Mongol period (X-XII centuries)". In 1987, he became a Doctor of Science. His dissertation research "Formation and development of Early Medieval archaeological cultures of Southern Siberia" became a significant event not only for Siberian, but also for Eurasian archaeology.

For many years, D. G. Savinov took part in the study of archaeological sites in the areas of new construction works carried out by the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For several years (1984-1989), he headed one of the largest Central Yenisei expeditions in the Soviet Union, and then the entire new construction group of the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

A special place in the creative life of the scientist is occupied by his teaching activity, which began at the Department of Ethnography of Leningrad State University. Here Dmitry Glebovich became a professional ethnographer, which helped him to engage in his favorite archeology at a qualitatively different level. Dozens of young ethnographers-undergraduates, postgraduates, and interns currently working at various universities, museums, and research centers in our country-have completed the D. G. Savinov School.

Since the early 1990s, Dmitry Glebovich has been the head of the Department of Archaeology at St. Petersburg State University. This" second visit " of the scientist to the university, as his colleagues note, undoubtedly intensified the scientific activities of both individual employees and the department as a whole. Under his leadership, more than 20 PhD theses on archeology and ethnography were prepared and successfully defended, and several thematic scientific conferences were held. Among the latter, a special place is occupied by the forum "Problems of studying Okunevskaya culture". Dmitry Glebovich is the initiator of conferences devoted to the study of various types of archaeological sites - mounds, settlements, sanctuaries, treasures, etc. Currently, D. G. Savinov is a professor at the Department of Archeology of St. Petersburg State University.

D. G. Savinov as a scientist is distinguished by a broad creative outlook, a historical approach to understanding and interpreting archaeological sources. He has written works on the problems of the early and late Bronze Age - Okunev, Karasuk and Irmen cultures, Early Scythian and Scythian times, Hunnic and ancient Turkic epochs, Mongolian time and ethnographic modernity. D. G. Savinov's research covers the issues of funerary practice and housing construction, monumental art and rock paintings, problems of early forms of government, ethnogenesis and cultural genesis of ancient societies. He has written 15 monographs and more than 350 articles published in our country and abroad.

Among archaeologists and ethnographers of different generations, Dmitry Glebovich Savinov enjoys a high reputation, he is sincerely loved. A person of deep internal culture, the brightest talent, he is truly kind and sympathetic. At the same time, he is always ready to defend the purity of science, and is intolerant of any kind of profanation.

We are sure that Professor D. G. Savinov, entering a period of creative maturity, will once again delight everyone with wonderful scientific discoveries, new books and articles that are always read in one breath, and prepare talented students.

I wish you good health and happiness, dear Dmitry Glebovich!