Nikolai A. Krenke, Ivan N. Ershov
Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow (nkrenke@mail.ru; ershovin@yandex.ru)

Key words: the Fatyanovo culture, the Dyakovo culture, textile ceramics, radiocarbon dating, fortified settlement.

The study of the rampart and the fosse of the fortified settlement Vasilkovo on the River Nerl has allowed suggesting that the most ancient fosse is related to a settlement of the Fatyanovo culture. The plenty of the finds of this culture points at the permanent character of the settlement. After a significant gap the settlement was inhabited again in the early Iron Age. Fortifications (the rampart and the fosse) were being built in the end of the 1st millennium of BC – at the turn of eras. The character of the material culture of the fortified settlement in the Iron Age is closer to the Gorodetskaya culture than to the Dyakovo one.