A new study of the group of kurgans (burial mounds) which stands near Orenburg at the south end of the Ural mountains has revealed a sequence that began in the early Bronze Age and continued intermittently until the era of the Golden Horde in the Middle Ages. The application of modern techniques of cultural and environmental investigation has thrown new light on the different circumstances and contexts in which mound burial was practised, and confirmed the association between investment in burial and nomadism.

A sequence of five paleosol units (with seven individual paleosol profiles) buried in the Late Pleistocene (20–40 ka) deposits was studied at the Kostenki 14 (K14) key section in Voronezh oblast with...

Morphogenetic features of soils on the selected plots in the Cat Tien National Park in southern Vietnam have been studied with the use of a set of morphological, analytical, and instrumental methods. The lithological factor and topographic position play the leading role in the development of the particular genetic soil features. The soils can be subdivided into four groups according to these factors. The soils developing from volcanic deposits with a predominance of tephra can be classified as thin clayey brown tropical soils (Dystric Skeletic Rhodic Cambisols (Clayic)), and the soils developed from less weathered colluvial derivatives of basalts with some admixture of tephra can be classified as dark-humus clayey tropical soils (Skeletic Greyzemic Umbrisols (Clayic)). Very poor soils developed from the eluvium of argillites are classified as thin weakly developed clayey tropical soils (Dystric Regosols (Clayic)). The soils forming from the alluvial sediments of different textures are classified as alluvial loamy sandy soils (Dystric Fluvisols (Arenic, Drainic)) and as alluvial clay loamy soils (Eutric Fluvisols (Episiltic, Endoclayic)).

Agrochronosequences of chernozems with different periods of their use in rainfed farming with application of traditional technologies have been studied in a typical forest-steppe area in Belgorod oblast. Certain stages in the development of these soils during more than two centuries of their agricultural use have been identified. These stages are related to changes in the intensity and direction of soil forming processes, such as soil compaction, soil aggregation, dehumification of the upper horizons, calcification of the soil profiles, argillization, etc. A significant impact on the soil changes during the agrogenic evolution of chernozems is exerted by the digging activity of burrowers, which is especially pronounced in the old-arable chernozems.