Abstract: The subject of this publication is an analysis of the content and nature of the categories "historical source", "historiographical fact", "historiographical source" in relation to the problems of Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic studies of the Crimean region in the second half of the XIX - XX centuries. The research methodology is based on the complex application of key scientific principles: historicism, logical interrelation, objectivity, comparative historical approach, retrospection. The problem field and structure of the article includes: the specification of the conceptual and categorical tools for the historiographical study of the Stone Age of the Crimean region, the formulation of priority issues of the primitive archeology of the peninsula, as well as a comparative characterization of the corpus of relevant historiographical and historical sources. From the authors' point of view, a historiographical view of the phenomenon of the formation and development of regional primitive archaeology allows us to more accurately describe the process of its genesis, identify and characterize nominational directions in research, give biographical portraits of scientists and researchers of ancient history, identify social, organizational and scientific factors influencing the process of knowledge formation. In other words, the new role of historiography of archaeology, together with the cognitive capabilities of the history as a science, creates a favorable opportunity not only to study the history of Russian archaeological knowledge, but also contributes to clarifying the methodological foundations of this direction.