Exchange project for the promotion of education: valorisation of natural and cultural heritage in Altay. A small survey was performed in the Uymont Steppe (close to Ust-Koksa) in 1999, within an exchange project for the promotion of education in the region (International Collaboration Project 1998-1999). The data from this survey were processed in a Master's paper (Anne Malmendier, 2007). A year later, an excavation of an Iron Age settlement on the terraces of the Katun River in Maima was executed after the survey of several river terraces on the right bank of the river. The excavation revealed Mesolithic and Early Iron Age settlement traces to light.