Yury D. Razuvaev*, Sergey A. Gorbanenko**

* Voronezh State Pedagogical University (razuvaevyd@mail.ru)

** Institute of Archaeology NAS of the Ukraine, Kyiv (gorbanenko@gmail.com)

Key words: the Gorodetskaya culture, farming, specific tools, paleoethnobotanical data.

The place of the agriculture in husbandry of the Gorodetskaya culture is still unclear. The scientists either argue it to play the peripheral role or its existence is completely neglected. At the moment the materials, which prove the wide expansion of the agriculture in the area of the Gorodetskaya culture, of the Scythian epoch of different degree of credibility have been found in the basins of the rivers Don and Tsna. These are specific metal tools (an axe, sickles) and a clay cult craft (“chlebets”). Apart for them the blackened crop has been found on one settlement and the prints of crops and weed plants have been found on molded ware and other ceramic products on five settlements. Paleoethnobotanic analysis of the prints has allowed defining the crop farming for two sites and also suggesting the use in different natural environments (forest – forest-steppe) different husbandry systems (slash-and-burn – tilled).