In June 2011 Yakov Abramovich Sher turned 80 years old. His name is widely known both in our country and abroad, and not only to archaeologists, but also to representatives of exact and natural sciences. Yakov Abramovich is a leading expert in the field of the study of primitive art, one of the founders of a formalized approach to the analysis of archaeological sources, the introduction of mathematical methods and computer technology in archaeology. Today, the computer is an attribute of an archaeologist, no matter where it is located - in the office or in the expedition tent. Ya. A. Sher's significant contribution to the development of the museum business is connected with the introduction of information technologies. Finally, thanks to Ya. A. Sher, the Russian-speaking archaeological scientific community got acquainted with the theoretical archeology of J.-C. Gardin, with the works of our French colleagues in the field of primitive art.
Yakov Abramovich Sher was born on June 21, 1931 in Chimkent (Southern Kazakhstan) in a family of employees: his father was a civil engineer, his mother was a pharmacist. The hero of the day spent his childhood and youth in Kyrgyzstan. To this country and its people, as well as to the whole of Central Asia, Yakov Abramovich still retains special, warm feelings. After graduating from high school in 1949, the young man successfully passed the entrance exams for the history department of the Kyrgyz State Pedagogical Institute, which was soon transformed into a university. As a student, he became interested in archeology and participated in expeditions led by A. N. Bernshtam, A. P. Okladnikov and G. F. Debets. After graduating from the university, despite a diploma with honors and a recommendation to graduate school, Ya. A. Sher was sent to work in a rural school (the town of Sukhoi Ridge in the Tyupsky district), a year later, when he already held the position of director of the school, he was drafted into the Soviet Army.
In 1957, after serving in the army, Ya. A. Sher became the director of the seven-year Red Front school in the Ivanovo district of the Kirghiz SSR. A year later, a young man, but already hardened by life, enters the graduate school of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archeology (LO IA) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His scientific adviser was Professor M. P. Gryaznov, an outstanding Sibireved archaeologist. During his postgraduate studies, Yakov Abramovich participates in the Baikal and Krasnoyarsk expeditions, collects materials for his dissertation in Central Asia.
After completing his postgraduate studies in 1961, Ya. A. Sher was accepted into the staff of the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a junior researcher. Two years later, he brilliantly defended his PhD thesis on the topic "Stone sculptures of Semirechye". In 1966, it was published as a separate book. During his time at the academic institution, Ya. A. Sher has worked his way up from a post-graduate student to a senior researcher. He was a member of the Academic Council of the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences, head of the Laboratory of Archaeological Technology, which was headed by Professor S. I. Rudenko before him. Under Ya. A. Sher laboratory
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It was a full-fledged research team with an independent scientific program, in which the leading place was occupied by works on radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites.
During all 14 years of his work in the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Ya. A. Sher actively participated in expedition research, in particular, on the territory of Southern Siberia. In 1963-1970. he headed the Kamensky detachment of the Krasnoyarsk expedition, and in 1971 he worked as part of the Sayano-Tuva expedition. During the work of the Krasnoyarsk expedition, Yakov Abramovich studied rock art monuments that were threatened with flooding, developed new approaches to the study of petroglyphs, and worked on the theoretical justification of the basic principles of their study. In fact, during this academic period of scientific activity, the hero of the day laid the foundations of petroglyphology as an independent direction in archaeological science. At the same time, he developed and implemented the principles of formalization in archaeological source studies. The results of his work in this area were presented by J. A. Sher at international congresses (Prague, 1966, Rome, 1966, Marseille, 1969). His articles "Typological method in archeology and statistics "(Moscow, 1966), "Intuition and Logic in archaeological research" (Moscow, 1970) and today they are in demand by specialists.
In 1972, Ya. A. Sher was dismissed from the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Later, the injustice and illegality of the dismissal were recognized by the Academic Council of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the legal successor of the LO IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences). Before 1975 Yakov Abramovich was forced to work outside of his specialty. In 1975, Academician B. B. Piotrovsky invited him to the State Hermitage Museum to organize the first department of museum informatics in the USSR. In 1975-1985, the department developed and gradually introduced methods of computer documentation of museum collections, especially archaeological and numismatic ones, and organized a seminar on museum informatics, which laid the foundations for a completely new direction in museum work. The results of the department headed by Ya. A. Sher opened up a huge perspective not only in the museum business, but also in scientific research. Many of the developments were included in the monograph "Analysis of Archaeological sources "(Moscow, 1975), prepared by Ya.A. Sher in collaboration with I. S. Kamenetsky and B. I. Marshak. Working in the main museum of the country, Yakov Abramovich participated in field research. He was regularly invited to join archaeological expeditions of the Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. During the period of museum activity, J. A. Sher was elected an individual member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and a member of the Executive Bureau of the Committee for Museum Documentation (CIDOC ICOM).
Despite the heavy workload associated with a new task for him, the scientist continued active research on the leading issue in his scientific work - primitive art. An extremely significant stage of this research ended with the preparation of a doctoral dissertation and the book "Petroglyphs of Central and Central Asia". The thesis defense took place in 1981 at the Joint Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1985. Yakov Abramovich was invited to the position of professor of the Department of Archeology of Kemerovo State University. Here he still works today, giving his vast experience of scientific, organizational and teaching activities (since 1964 he taught special courses at the Department of Archeology of Leningrad University). At Kemerovo State University, Ya.A. Sher conducts courses in archeology, anthropology, natural science cycle, directs the archaeological practice of students, takes an active part in the development of museums in the region, conducts scientific research, including field research, on the territory of Tuva, Khakassia, Gorny Altai and Kazakhstan. He also works at the Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts. Professor Ya. A. Sher has repeatedly given lectures to students of Samarkand, Altai, Omsk, Tomsk Universities, RSUH (Moscow) and the Tyumen Institute of Culture. Three times (1990-1992) he was invited to conduct a seminar on the primitive art of Central Asia at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences of the Institute of Man (Paris). Ya. A. Cher has given talks and lectures in Brno, Stockholm, Budapest, Sofia, Princeton and Ripon (USA), Turin, Paris, Toutavel and Les Eyzies (France). Yakov Abramovich is the author of textbooks. In addition to his two-edition Introduction to Archaeology, which was written in collaboration with Professor A. I. Martynov, he published the book Primitive Art. It organically combines with the virtual museum "Primitive Art", created by the professor and his students on the World Wide Web. In terms of attendance, this museum has the highest rating and occupies the third position after the site of the Hermitage and the Historical Museum.
Until 1991, the hero of the day led field work on the creation of an archaeological map of Western Tuva. However, more extensive research was carried out by him in 1990-2000 under an agreement between Kemerovo State University and the National Center for Scientific Research of France. Ya. A. Cher and prof. A.- P. Frankfort were co-directors
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the multi-year project "Petroglyphs of Central Asia", which included field research in the Yenisei Valley, Sayan Mountains, Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Based on the results of these works, six volumes of the Petroglyphs of Central Asia edition were prepared.
In 1997, the Siberian Association of Researchers of Primitive Art (SAIPI), a public-scientific organization, was established at Kemerovo State University, which Yakov Abramovich headed until 2005 (currently he is its honorary president). As an authoritative scientific society, it is a collective member of the International Association of Rock Art (IFRAO). SAIPI unites more than 150 specialists from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, France, England, USA, and Estonia.
Ya. A. Sher is the author and co-author of 16 books and approx. 200 articles. He was awarded the title of "Honorary Worker of Higher Education".
We wish Yakov Abramovich good health and all the world's best. We are waiting for new interesting monographs and articles from him.
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