IN MEMORY OF ERBULAT A. SMAGULOV (16.07.1952 – 05.10.2019)

Abstract

On a warm sunny October day the heart of a famous archeologist Erbulat A. Smagulov stopped beating. As a student, E.A. Smagulov chose the medievalist's path and was faithful to that path until his last breath. Within the walls of the Sh.Sh. Walikhanov Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography he made his way from a laboratory technician (1974) to a chief researcher of the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology (2003). E.A. Smagulov was the first academic secretary of the Institute. Since studentship E.A. Smagulov took part in excavations of various cities of the Great Steppe: Otrar, Altyntobe, Kokmardan, Mardan-kuyuk and other monuments of the Otrar oasis. The main highlights of E.A. Smagulov’s biography are inextricably connected with the history of formation and the first years of the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology. In recent decades, the work of E.A. Smagulov has been closely linked to the archaeology of Turkestan. The findings of 2019 field season allowed the researcher to take a new look at the issues of the chronology of the city (see the article in this issue – ed. note). The name of E.A. Smagulov is widely known to archeologists of Kazakhstan, as well as near and far abroad. A wide approach and extraordinary vision of scientific problems and critical perception of the proposed solutions characterized him.