Viktor A. Borzunov

Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

E-mail: victor.borzunov@mail.ru

Keywords: Trans-Urals, mountain-forest zone, the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages, seasonal lakeside settlements, archaeological cultures.

The paper characterizes remains of the settlements of the 8th–3rd centuries BC founded on the ruins of the early Bronze Age sanctuary Shaitanskoye Lake II in the vicinity of Neyvo-Rudyanka, Sverdlovsk Region. This is the first most fully investigated (1149 m2) site of the Early Iron Age in the mountain-forest Trans-Urals, located on a low lakeside terrace. The pottery and tool complexes of the Gamayun culture that came from the north, the local Itkul and the heterogeneous Iset archaeological cultures characterize the inhabitants of the settlements as sedentary fishermen and hunters familiar with the basics of the producing economy (copper foundry, livestock breeding). The absence of stationary dwellings and a strong cultural layer is characteristic of summer seasonal settlements. Finds of pottery from the Gorokhovo and Baitovo cultures confirm the resettlement of population groups from the Tobol River region to the Trans-Ural taiga in the 5th–3rd centuries BC under the onslaught of the Sargat cattle-breeding tribes advancing from the forest-steppe Ishim-Irtysh region.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630012562-7