History of Studying Archeological Sites on Territory of Modern Kabardino-Balkaria in Last Third of 18th — Early 20th Century

The article is devoted to the pre-Soviet period of the history of the study of ancient and Medieval monuments within the current Kabardino-Balkaria. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that the history of the pre-revolutionary stage of formation and development of the Russian Caucasian studies is one of the significant, but poorly developed problems of the history of Russian science. In the course of the study, the author found that the history of identification, excavation and attribution of numerous and various archaeological monuments of the Republic, undoubtedly, complements the work of modern scientists and allows to use the considerable experience of previous generations. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that generalizing publications on this topic were written long ago, in the 1940s-1990s, and many of the monuments that existed in the pre-war years have been irretrievably lost by our time. This paper focuses on the evolution of approaches to the study of antiquities, on aims and methods of archaeological work. The periodization of field researches in the studied region during the last third of 18 th - early 20 th century is given. The author also dwells on the problem of destruction of historical and cultural landscape in the plains and foothills of Kabardino-Balkaria in the Soviet era.