The article considers the problem of the correlation between the Ancient Egyptian festivals and the lunar cycle in the New Kingdom through the analysis of the festival calendars of Thutmose III and Ramesses III, which were inscribed on the temple walls at Karnak, Elephantine and Medinet Habu. The research of the festival dates reveals that each calendar list should be considered from two points of view: a) as a written record, made in a certain year of the pharaoh’s reign, b) as a scheme of carrying out of festivals during the reign of a particular ruler with regard to the possible shift of dating of festivals in different years. In other words, in a given year a sequence of festivals was recorded and then was used as a scheme for the disposition of festivals throughout the year, without taking into account the specific festival dates in the following years of the reign of each king.

Статья посвящена реконструкции мифологических воззрений хакасов о луне. Человек традиционного общест- ва не мыслил себя вне природы, отдельно от нее. Среди многочисленных природных объектов большое значение придавалось луне. В мировоззрении народа доминировало мистическое восприятие этого светила. Полагали, что жизнь людей во многом была зависима от нее. Этот космический объект воспринимался в качестве живого суще- ства, наделенного высшей сакральной силой. Образ луны связывался и с идеей плодородия, процветания и гармо- нии, что способствовало регулярному, а нередко – экзальтированному поклонению ей. Наряду с солнцем, она воспринималась в качестве космического начала, определяющего ритм земной жизни. Верили, что, как и все в природе, она и сама обладает свойствами переменчивости – рождалась, росла, умирала и вновь возрождалась. В культуре народа каждая лунная фаза получала соответствующее мифоритуальное оформление. Луна оказала решающее влияние на формирование обрядовой практики, связанной с представлениями о жизни, смерти, судьбе, богатстве и т. д. Лунный цикл лег в основу народного календаря хакасов. В традиционном мироощущении свети- ло выступало в качестве объекта, по которому измеряли не только время, но и пространство, соотносили хозяйст- венную и иную деятельность. Луна как высший эталон красоты способствовала формированию эстетических норм у хакасов.

Clashes of the Kauravas and the Pandavas on the field of Kuru - Kurukshetra – is one of the major episodes of the Indian epic Mahabharata (MB). The question of the historicity of the battle at Kurukshetra is very fiercely debated in Indological literature. Many authors have considered the battle as a real event that happened almost in the fourth or third millennium BCE. Modern indologists cite much later date that are XI, X, IX centuries BCE. A large number of researches of scientists from different fields: historians, linguists, anthropologists and philosophers are devoted to the study of the greatest literary monument of Indian culture. The question has not been resolved finally yet, whether the events described in the MB are mythical or they are a real part of the history of Indian civilization. Dating of the Kurukshetra battle remains also controversial until recently, as evidenced by publications over the coming years. There is certain arbitrariness in setting the most probable date of the beginning of this mythical event. However, the assumption of its reality in the history of India based on the results of archaeological research and traditional holidays originating in the Vedic era of Hindustan allows to determine the most probable variant of dating of the beginning of the Kurukshetra battle between the two clans of Kauravas: 745 BCE. It is possible that more ancient data (1351 BCE) is related to another event reflected in the Rig Veda, that is more ancient literature monument than MB. Both dates point to the cyclical nature of significant events in the history of the peoples inhabiting the planet Earth, that is correlated with the frequency of events taking place in the Solar system. Certain configuration of the positions of the planets in the starry sky as well as solar and lunar eclipses is actually a global chronometer by which one recorded events in the history of human civilization.

Soils formed on lands mined for coal in the Central Appalachians are currently classified by Soil Taxonomy primarily as Typic Udorthents, which does not distinguish these unique anthropogenic soils from other weakly developed natural soils. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of currently utilized mine soil series for describing and classifying a range of mine soil pedons in southwest Virginia. Using established series concepts, we mapped and classified approximately 450 ha of mine soils in an area that had been reclaimed in accordance with the U.S. Surface Mining, Control, and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977. We also used current series concepts to reclassify mine soils in an adjacent and overlapping 250 ha that had been mined prior to SMCRA, and had been mapped using older (non Soil Taxonomy) mine soil classification criteria in 1980. Established mine soil series concepts provided adequate information on particle-size and reaction class, but did not adequately describe d...